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LaDolcezzaEsisteDavvero	# It Sugar Wiki - La dolcezza esiste davvero! Benvenuti nel lato Più Luminoso E Tenero di TV Tropes! Se la TV tropes principale è giusto nel mezzo della Scala Graduata Di Idealismo Contro Cinismo, noi sicuramente ci siamo lanciato verso il punto più idealistico! La positività la fa da padrone qui! Qui, il cielo rosa e glitteroso è il limite. Quindi Siate Voi Stessi, Se Credete Battete Le Mani, non dimenticate i più grandi, sacri, rockeggianti poteri di sempre. Non dimenticate di cantare il nostro inno! Davvero, sentitevi liberi! La vita è tutta basata sul ridere! Fatelo anche voi! Contrastante con Darth Wiki.. E datele un po' di ♥! Il Dolce Indice * Addolcisci Quella Morale * L Altro Troper * Arte Gloriosa * Atmosfera Di Vittoria * Candle Cove * Carburante Per Sogni D Oro * Coronante Momento Di Commozione * Coronante Momento Di Divertimento * Coronante Momento Di Gloria * Coronante Musica Di Gloria * Coronanti Effetti Visivi * La dolcezza esiste davvero! / \|\|La Dolcezza Non Esiste\|\| * Doppiaggio Superlativo * Entusiasmarsi Per Personaggi Piaciuti * Entusiasmarsi Per Scrittura Piaciuta * Entusiasmarsi Per Spettacoli Piaciuti * Esempio Eclatante * Eversion * Ha Bisogno Di Piu Amore * Incudini Che Dovevano Cadere * L'inno della Sugar Wiki * Lui Si Che Sa Recitare * Nessun Problema Con I Giochi Su Licenza * Opere Dei Troper * People Letting All Trope Titles Exist Relishably + PLATTER Pin * Postulato Dell'Identità Della Finzione * Prendi Una Bella Tazza Di Te E Siediti * Programmazione Geniale * Robot Unicorn Attack * Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei * Servizio Di Pulizia Cattivi * Il Suono Piu Favoloso * Tanto Figo Da Essere Fantastico * Tropo Preferito * TV Tropes Ha Migliorato La Mia Vita * TV Tropes Migliorerà La Tua Vita ---	ItSugarWiki	null
Webcomics	# One Winged Angel - Webcomics --- * In Acorn Grove, you only get a hint of the devil's true form in silhouette. Can't really make out anything other than lots of tentacles. * It wouldn't be a proper RPG-spoofing webcomic if Adventurers! didn't have an instance of this. (Also pictured in title) + Parodied much earlier in same with "Wing-B-Gone!" Which brings up a good point: wouldn't this be really inconvenient? * Wyler, a rich, weak mastermind from Art of Fighting 3, became one after drinking an elixir that more or less turned him into The Incredible Hulk. * Aurora: After the heroes fight his attempts to terrorize the people of Zuurith and feed on their fear, the storm god Tynan transforms into a dragon to crush their hopes. * Awful Hospital: Balphin◊. In a direct reference to this trope, it literally has one fully feathered wing despite being 50% maniacal dolphin and 50% sapient embalming machine. + The Crashslob◊. Even though the Jayslob that Crash emerged from was more of a Clipped-Wing Angel, Crash's final form is so powerful that only blocking can prevent Fern taking immediately fatal damage. * In "Axe Cop Gets Married", the final boss is the alien king Cauber Helen, who's a shapeshifter and just becomes even bigger and uglier to fight. To match him, Axe Cop and his allies, some of whom were already a bit Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot, use his sons' Ultro Power to combine into what the artist (not writer) tentatively describes as "Super Hypno Double-Monkey Batman Axe Cop Familsauras Rex Wrinkles". Cauber then starts transforming into different forms, culminating in a giant sea serpent of planetary size when his opponents send another giant sea serpent against him. * In Dragon Mango, the count does this when the knights and Flan have defeated him. * 8-Bit Theater + \|\|Super Double Evil Sarda, created from absorbing the power of the elemental orbs and Black Mage's super evil. However, this also turns out to be his undoing\|\|. + Chaos also has a massive, 3D form. This being 8-Bit Theatre, he reverts without a fight. > Black Mage: How'd you get Chaos back to his not a giant bastard size? > White Mage: (in flashback) Chaos! You're too tall! > Black Mage: Oh, that so did not work. > White Mage: So did. + Black Mage's super-evil form probably counts as well, as he gains Combat Tentacles of shadow. * Freefall has Sam Starfall, who is drawn as a rather cartoonish mechanical alien, but that's just a disguise for him to "safely" interact with other beings. His species' true form is an extremely disgusting squid-like creature, the mere sight of which triggers what he assumes is a regurgitation reflex in humans. * El Goonish Shive has a handful of them: + Due to the incident that produced Ellen (long story), Elliot wound up permanently able to change into the cat-man form he'd asked Tedd to zap him into afterwards in order to chase her down. Unlike most examples, though, he didn't know he could do it until he involuntarily did it again to fight Hedge. Which knocked him out. + Grace has a metric buttload of One-Winged Angel forms, most also of the Cute Monster Girl variety. Except for her Omega form, which turns her into a feral squirrel with horns and razor claws. And she's ferocious, as opposed to her normal bubbly self. + Vlad does this in reverse. Ellen zaps him with a Gender Bender ray, turning Vlad the part bat, part bird, part terrifying monster-man into Vladia, the relatively normal girl, the only change Vlad's likely to undergo due to a Painful Transformation problem that nearly killed him the last time he tried to be human: she's not sure she'll survive a gender shift, and doesn't want to risk it now that she's finally human. * During the Britain arc of Girl Genius, the Other \|\|possessing Agatha\|\| manages to \|\|ascend to the status of a God-Queen\|\| during the battle with Agatha's friends. > The Other: It's coming together! I can see the levers of the universe! Soon, I will be able to reach out and touch them ... and then I will kill you all! * Lampshaded in Grrlpower when Vehemence grows much larger and stronger. > Sydney: This had better be your final form! I have stuff to do later! * Happens during the final fight against Jegal in The God of High School when he absorbs the power of the Key and obtains the power of the gods, taking on a form vaguely resembling Sephiroth's (except with two wings this time). * Gunnerkrigg Court has General Ysengrin, a wolf in what is basically wooden power-armour. Normally he uses this to maintain a humanoid appearance, but when he loses his cool, the living wood turns him into something that would give Hayao Miyazaki nightmares! * Homestuck has this sequence, in which Jack Noir uses a Game-Breaker weapon to \|\|dering and dethrone\|\| and then kill \|\|his queen\|\|, then proceeds to take the Ring of Power. Which turns him into an evil, two-winged two-tentacled one-armed cat-faced sword-impaled harlequin-garbed Eldritch Abomination. + It gets worse \|\|when Becquerel gets prototyped\|\|, though his appearance gets less ridiculous as the last prototyping's power overrides some of the previous elements. He has been shown to be able to return/retract them (at least the tentacles) \|\|with his newfound Reality Warper powers\|\|. + Lord English is essentially this to \|\|Doc Scratch\|\|, although it's not so much \|\|Scratch\|\| transforming as it is \|\|Lord English emerging from his dead body.\|\| - Possibly a straighter example with \|\|Caliborn, although English is basically a much taller and more muscular version of Caliborn, but much more powerful\|\|. + Hell, the Cherubs do this as a mating action: they transform into snake-like creatures a cosmic measurement long and do battle, with the loser laying the eggs. * Inverted in archcriminal Fructose Riboflavin's first appearance in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!. He first appears disguised as a handsome, muscular human, and does all his ranty monologuing in that form. It's only after his scheme has failed that he drops the disguise as pointless, revealing his mildly creepy but not very frightening wizened old alien form. * Lampshaded in Golden, when the villain sorcerer decides it is times to turn into his combat form to end the protagonists, and promptly turns into... a binturong with white spots. (And not a badger at all, whatever anyone is saying, no Sir.). The protagonists even comment on this: > Sorcerer: "Enough games! With all the powers of HELL at my command, I now take the form of the Ultimate Destroyer, a [...] fiend so diabolical, so terrible, that all who lay eyes upon his visage fall into..." (his bad guy monologue drones on the background) > "...yeah, he's going to turn into a dragon, isn't he?" > "Seems rather cliché. Perhaps a giant octopus with multifarious appendages?" > "No. Giant snake for sure." * Kill Six Billion Demons: Jagganoth. > The Wheel-Turning King will have three characteristics: a fierce glare, hands as large as ox carts, and red skin. His body will boil like the surface of Hell. He is the annihilator of falsehood. * Gackt from the "Bishonen Virus" storyline of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things has two. During his fight with Commander Badass, he transforms into a gigantic, multi-winged Tetsuo-like abomination, that Commander swiftly decapitates. He then returns as an Energy Being, but at this point Commander is unbelivably sick of the whole issue and just chokes him to death with his bare hands. * In The Non-Adventures of Wonderella, Nixon supposedly does this. * Oosterhuis/\|\|Ari\|\| from Panthera plays this transformation near perfectly. He even seems to win the first encounter, too. * Parodied in this Sunday At Ten strip. * In Problem Sleuth, Mobster Kingpin's imaginary self becomes Demonhead Mobster Kingpin for the final battle, which takes up nearly half the story. * Sluggy Freelance features a random mook getting infected with a "Cheesy Bossmonster Virus", which is this trope in a tube. [1] + In the "Holidays Wars" story, there's one on both sides: Bun-bun becoming \|\|a quasi-god of various holidays, complete with a different colour scheme, an occasionally visible aura of power, and an updated switchblade design\|\| and fighting Santa Claus who had \|\|become an alien monster some time ago and for this fight grown even bigger.\|\| (It doesn't really make sense in context, it's just Crazy Is Cool.) * Referenced by name in this VG Cats. * White Dark Life: Most of the demon characters have either intimidating or otherwise unnerving forms they use when they get seriously pissed off. Yes, even little Priscilla. These range from \|\|Artemis, a Humanoid Abomination parodying hourglass figures, to a skull wearing thorn covered Dark Matt, and Eloria turning into a wendigo\|\|. Ironically, Altair, who is an angel, has no super powered form. * One of Prof. Broadshoulders' (from Zebra Girl) defining characteristics is a "Mr. Yuk" face branded onto his forehead. Turns out \|\|it was actually a demonic third eye, and by opening it he turned himself into a demon.\|\| ---	OneWingedAngel	null
WesternAnimation	# The Bus Came Back - Western Animation * Adventure Time + After not being seen since his first appearance in "What Is Life?", NEPTR suddenly reappears in "Hot to the Touch"; apparently his three-season absence was the result of a game of Hide and No Seek. > NEPTR: I am the ultimate hide-and-seek champion! 15 months, 4 days, and 9 hours, and you guys could not find me. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! > Jake: Oh, plops! We forgot about the game! + In "Furniture & Meat", we find the Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant from "The Limit" is shown to be living in Finn and Jake's house under one of their many piles of treasure. > Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant: I will continue to chill here until you command me! * The Amazing World of Gumball + Rob, an incredibly minor character who is seen in the background of a few Season One and Season Two episodes, seemingly disappeared after the end of Season Two. \|\|As it turns out, Rob can be seen in the background in the episode "The Void"... and then he comes back. And he's incredibly disfigured. And the results of his return aren't exactly the most favorable.\|\| * Justice League: While most of the villains from Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series not named The Joker or Lex Luthor didn't show up at all during Season 1 of the show, in Season 2, they started being used again: Volcana, Luminous and Firefly cameoed during a prison break in "Only a Dream," while in "Secret Society", Clayface, the Parasite, and Sinestro were all part of Gorilla Grodd's titular team. * In 1994, many of the Care Bears cousins were Put on the Bus, and those that weren't were converted into bears, an ill-accepted move among fans. Playalong did try to bring back the cousins between 2003 to 2005, but the attempt was stymied by poor marketing and was ultimately aborted to revamp the franchise for Welcome to Care-A-Lot. Four of the cousins were finally taken off the bus with 2015's Care Bears & Cousins. * The 2021 Disney+ series Chip 'n' Dale: Park Life brought back "Pluto's Quin-puplets" from the 1937 Pluto cartoon of the same name. Pluto's puplets hadn't been seen in any Disney related media for 84 years. + Clarice the Chipmunk from the 1952 Chip 'n Dale short "Two Chips And A Miss" is also set to appear in the series after being absent in animation for 69 years. * Doc McStuffins: After the Season 3 episode "The Scrapiest Dragon", Donny did not make an appearance until the third Season 5 episode "The Doc McStuffins Christmas Special". He was mentioned in the Season 4 episode "Hoarse Hallie". * Family Guy: + "The Splendid Source" has Peter and co. encountering their old buddy Cleveland in his new hometown during a road trip. Cleveland (along with his new family) would officially return to Quahog in Season 12's "He's Bla-ack!", which aired a year after The Cleveland Show ended. + Similarly, Kevin, son of Joe and Bonnie Swanson, was largely retired after the series' third season and un-cancellation, and a later episode off-handedly suggests he died in Iraq, but he came back in the season 10 episode "Thanksgiving" he is revealed to have actually been AWOL and returns to the recurring cast. + The vaudeville duo Vern and Johnny were shot to death by Stewie in "Saving Private Bryan", who insisted they would not be seen again. They made a reappearance in "Back to the Woods" with Vern as a ghost and Johnny in Hell (because according to Vern, "Johnny liked little boys"). They are also seen briefly in the opening to "A Lot Going On Upstairs", alongside other characters the series had Put on a Bus previously, such as salesman Jim Kaplan, police officer Obie, strongmen Phineas & Barnbaby, RJ, and Peter's co-worker Fouad. They also make a cameo in "Coma Guy". * The Inspector Gadget Spin-Off Gadget and the Gadgetinis had this with the characters of Brain and Chief Quimby. Quimby was about the same, except Gadget is now working for a different agency, while a shell-shocked Brain has retired to a riverfront house. * In the last season of Johnny Bravo, the prominent supporting characters from the first season came back and the newer additions like Carl and Pops stayed as well. * Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: + \|\|Spinosaurus, unseen since Jurassic Park III outside of a mounted skeleton in Jurassic World, returns in Season 4. The Dilophosaurus as well, which haven't been seen since the original Jurassic Park (1993).\|\| + \|\|After being absent for the entire fourth season, Bumpy makes a brief cameo at the end of the tenth episode where she is shown to be alive and well on Nublar but missing the campers.\|\| + After being absent from season three and only appearing in a nightmare in the fourth season, the teaser for season five confirms the return of Toro. * Jurassic World: Chaos Theory: The opening intro shows the return of Rexy, who has been absent in animation since the third season of the previous series. \|\|Bumpy reunites with Ben in the third episode, having been living in Sammy's ranch for some time by this point. Two last episodes of first season show the return of Big Eatie.\|\| * Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise: In the second season finale of The Legend of Korra, we learn of the ultimate fate of \|\|Zhao, from season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It turns out he's been trapped in the Fog of Lost Souls for seventy years with little else to do but ramble aimlessly about his desire to kill the moon\|\|. * Looney Tunes: + After characters like Rocky and Mugsy, Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog and the like were missing from most continuations of the franchise for decades, they came back in Looney Tunes Cartoons. + Gabby Goat was a character who only appeared in a handful of cartoons in 1937, was met with poor reception due to his Jerkass personality, and was replaced with Daffy as Porky's sidekick. In New Looney Tunes, he appeared for the first time in 80 years, albeit with his personality overhauled to make him more tolerable. - New Looney Tunes also brought back Hubie and Bertie, The Martin Brothers, Claude Cat, Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot, Sniffles the Mouse, Frisky Puppy, Clyde Bunny, Mighty Angelo, Mot the baby alien from Rocket-bye Baby and the Easter Bunny from Easter Yeggs. * Moral Orel: Shapey was put on a moving van when the Puppingtons and their brief neighbors the Posabules accidentally switched them with their own son. Realizing (about ten episodes later) that Shapey has been switched, Bloberta goes to their new residence to pick him up but doesn't take back Block. * Mickey Mouse Works brings back Mortimer Mouse, who besides a cameo in Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, wasn't featured in any media related to the Classic Disney Shorts since his debut in "Mickey's Rival", as a recurring character and rival for Mickey. He's also heavingly featured in House of Mouse - as is Donald's cousin Gus who frequently appeared in the comics, but not in animated media since his debut in "Donald's Cousin Gus". * In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: + One-shot antagonist Trixie returned after two seasons for a rematch, and again another three seasons later. Since then she became a semi-recurring character. Having a fan following rivaling that of some main characters helped. + Gilda the Griffin was a one-shot antagonist from the first season, merely showing up to teach Rainbow Dash a moral. However, after four seasons, she once again appeared in an episode where Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie travelled to her hometown. + After the major backlash regarding Derpy in the Season 2 episode "The Last Roundup" and hasty Orwellian Retcon, it was assumed she wouldn't appear again in the show. Despite that, she returns in the finale of Season 3, though given she hasn't been seen in any promotional material for either that season or for Season 4 many saw it as simply a final farewell. \|\|And then she shows up again in "Rainbow Falls" as Rainbow Dash's replacement. Her continued cameos since make it apparent that they wouldn't just eliminate such a fan favorite from the show, and she even got a speaking role in the one hundreth episode "Slice of Life".\|\| + In the Season 5 episode "Tanks for the Memories", Rainbow Dash's tortoise Tank was given a send-off by going into hibernation. He does appear a few episodes later in "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" + After the Season 6 episode "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)", Applejack's dog Winona was absent for the next two seasons. She returns in the Season 9 episode "Going for Seed". + After the Season 7 episode "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You", Rarity's cat Opalescence was absent for the entire eighth season. She returns in the Season 9 episode "She's All Yak". * In an episode of The Penguins of Madagascar, many, many of the characters that were shipped off to Hoboken came back, complete with evil clones. + Dr. Blowhole came back in a one-hour special. + Alex the Lion, from the original movie, makes a cameo in one episode as a Spirit Advisor to Skipper. * Possible Possum: The Blue Jay from the 1968 short "Black and Blue Jay" returned in 1971's "Berry Funny". * Rick and Morty: fan-favourite character Evil Morty first showed up in "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind" along with Evil Rick, who turned out to be \|\|a non-sapient cyborg under his Morty's control.\|\| Three years and two seasons later, "The Ricklantis Mixup" ends with \|\|the new President of the Citadel getting revealed as Evil Morty, who then proceeds to kill his treacherous subordinates and establish a dictatorship.\|\| * Star Wars Rebels: In "Legacy of Mandalore", \|\|Sabine chooses to stay with her family and help build the Mandalorian Resistance\|\|. In "Zero Hour", \|\|she returns when Ezra comes to her and Clan Wren in search of reinforcements to help the besieged rebels on Atollon. However, she can't return permanently, having to return to the ongoing Mandalorian civil war.\|\| * Voltron: Legendary Defender: \|\|At the beginning of season four, Keith is Put on the Bus when he leaves the team, and from that point on only pops up occasionally. Season six gave him much more focus, and he ended up permanently returning to the team with his Galra mom, an Altean girl, and a space dog in tow.\|\| * Regular Show: Mordecai's first love interest, Margaret, leaves for college at the end of season four, just as he's about to formally ask her to be his girlfriend. She returns partway through season six, which causes complications with his current girlfriend CJ, as he still holds an interest in Margaret and she's prone to jealousy. By season eight, both Margaret and CJ are effectively written out of the show once more, as Mordecai's indecision regarding his love life pushes them away. * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): After being written out of the show at the end of the eighth season, Shredder and Krang returned in the final season for a 3-part arc. * Thomas & Friends + Before "Terence Breaks the Ice", Terence briefly came back in "The Great Discovery" following the "Where, Oh Where is Thomas?" sequence and the scene where Harvey breaks the news about Thomas' reappearance. + Diesel 10 returned during The Stinger of Misty Island Rescue making a Sequel Hook for "Day of the Diesels". + Butch returned with a non-speaking role at the very end of Misty Island Rescue, but began to have a physical role after that season in the episode, "Stuck on You!" + Trevor returned more than once in CGI. He appeared in the Season 13 Sodor Island intro that was exclusive to the American, Latin American, and Brazilian Portuguese dubs of the show, but never appeared in an episode. He briefly returned as a cameo twice in both Season 15's "Emily and Dash" and "Very Important Sheep" from Season 19, but only four years apart. He also came back the next season, but this time, with a voice actor in both dubs following "Three Steam Engines Gruff". + The Skarloey engines, except for Mighty Mac, Fearless Freddie who was originally meant to return, and Duncan at the time since his real-life counterpart, Douglas, was being overhauled in 2012, returned in CGI working at a new environment on the Skarloey Railway and with accurate designs that resemble most of their real-life counterparts. Skarloey, however, is the most accurately designed of them all. + Thanks to the valiant efforts of a then-brand new writing team, several characters returned in the seventeenth season. These characters were Duck, Bill & Ben, and Harvey. The special that came before Season 17, King of the Railway, brought back Jack the Front Loader from the aborted spin-off, Jack and the Sodor Construction Company. + The following special, Tale of the Brave, saw the return of Oliver, and Season 18 brought back his brakevan Toad, as well as Duncan. + The Breakdown Train return with faces and new names, Judy and Jerome. + The special and season after that, Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, brought back Alfie, Oliver the Excavator, Max, Monty, Donald, Douglas, and Daisy. + The Great Race brought back the Flying Scotsman just in time for the real-life locomotive's return to steam on British rail the same year. And he finally speaks following his non-speaking cameo in "Tender Engines". + Journey Beyond Sodor brought back Rosie as well after a season of absence. + Season 21 would bring back Bulgy (who, coincidentally, is a bus himself) and Terence. + Season 23 brought back the foreman of the Sodor Construction Company, Miss Jenny, who hadn't been seen in the show since Season 12, and is rendered back to her correct design. * When Toonami returned, it was hosted by TOM 3.5, with no sign of TOM 4. However, sometime later, TOM 4 did come back briefly to talk to TOM 3.5/5. \|\|Sadly, he after suffered a Bus Crash in The Intruder II, when The Intruder gloats about killing TOM 4.\|\| * In The Venture Bros., Baron Underbheit disappears after being deposed from Underland, and this was meant to be his last appearance. Two and a half seasons later, and he appears as a homeless person before joining the Revenge Society. * Morph in X-Men: The Animated Series. He was effectively written out after the season 2 finale, returns in a season 4 cameo (compete with increased badassness) only to disappear again until the final episode. * Trolls: TrollsTopia: Not only DJ Suki, who was a no show in the second movie, but in the last episode, King Trollex reappears * Spyke/Evan of X-Men: Evolution was a member of the main cast until a poison made him mutate out of control, leading him to leave the X-Men and join the more seclusive mutant group known as the Morlocks. Spyke is gone for the rest of that season, and has two more appearances in the final season, one where he's the main focus and the other where he's merely part of the ensemble to help save the world from the show's final villain, Apocalypse. * ReBoot: + The Captain and crew of the Saucy Mare appeared in a single episode in Season 1. After disappearing for the entirety of Season 2, they returned as major characters in the latter half of Season 3 before disappearing again in Daemon Rising and only appearing in the background of My Two Bobs. + After being absent since the Season 2 finale, which had Bob shot into The Web, Bob returns in episode 10 of Season 3, Web Riders on the Storm, complete with a new character design and voice actor. * Season 11 of SpongeBob SquarePants has "Spot Returns", Plankton's amoeba puppy who hasn't shown up since the season 9 episode "Plankton's Pet". The thing is he never seemed to have left, just been forgotten about. + On the topic of season 9, Bubble Bass made his great comeback from that point onwards, several years after only previously showing up in a pair of season 1 episodes. * Recurring characters in South Park are often used very infrequently, sometimes with several years between major appearances on the show. + Mr. Hat, a puppet and alter-ego for Mr. Garrison, was a major character in early seasons and seemed inseparable from Garrison and was implied to be sentient. After he came out of the closet, Mr. Hat's usage declined until he was casually written out in "The Death Camp of Tolerance". + Previously phased-out or retired characters such as Mr. Hat, the Super Best Friends, Big Gay Al, Mr. Slave, Pip Pirrup, Dr. Alphonse Mephesto, his assistant Kevin, and others, were all brought back for the series' 200th and 201st episodes for Call-Back reasons, but none of them have returned to the regular cast since. Most of them also appear in the video games. + Stan's grandfather Marvin, who lived with the series' central family for the first eleven seasons, had few speaking roles and disappeared from their home by early Season 13, becoming especially noticeable when the core four family members move out in "You're Getting Old". He was re-introduced in "Cash For Gold", five years later, living in an assisted living facility, but still occasionally appears at dinner with the family. + Tweek, a longtime fan favorite who was briefly a main character, had a nearly seven-year absence from the show. He spoke on only one occasion between Season 10 to 13 (and again from that season to Season 17), and was removed as a regular from the main characters' classroom. He received multiple small speaking parts in Season 17, and the Season 19 episode "Tweek x Craig" seemed to re-establish him as a member of the series' cast, and he has remained slightly more prominent since. However, his classroom absence has not been addressed, and he still goes entire seasons without speaking. + One of the most notable examples may be Ugly Bob, introduced in the second season in a show within a show, but he reappeared fifteen years later in "Royal Pudding", on an actual bus, claiming to have moved to the United States due to his hideous disfigurement. + Although he was never Put on a Bus, the owner of Tom's Rhinoplasty, Dr. Tom, makes no speaking appearances in the twenty years between "Tom's Rhinoplasty" (in season 1) and "Members Only" (in season 20) though he made infrequent cameos. + Season 22 is shaping up to be an epic example of this, since important roles are given to infrequently-seen characters such as Towelie, Mr. Hankey (who however is booted out of town seemingly permanently), Grandpa Marsh, Satan and the Manbearpig. Even Ned Gerblansky makes an appearance! * Halfway into The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Kanga and Roo seemed to disappear from Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh works. However they made a return in the Seasons of Giving special almost a decade later, and following The Tigger Movie were promoted to even bigger roles than they had before. The Book of Pooh also coincided with this, introducing them as regulars in Season Two. * Arthur: Arthur's best friend and major cast member Buster Baxter left midway through season 2, in "Arthur's Faraway Friend" — he was leaving on a year-long trip with his divorced dad, who's an airplane pilot. Both episodes of season 3's premiere deal with his return. In "Buster's Back", Arthur is overjoyed to hear that Buster's finally coming home, but wonders if he'll have changed from his travels. "The Ballad of Buster Baxter" is the opposite, with Buster noticing everything that happened during his absence and feeling left out. However, both episodes have a happy ending, where Buster is once again welcomed into the main cast and stays for good. * Bob's Burgers: Jimmy Pesto became The Voiceless for three seasons after it was revealed that Jay Johnston had participated in the January 6th insurrection and was subsequently fired from the show. Pesto finally returned in Season 14, now voiced by Eric Bauza. * Polly Pocket: The 2018 series had its main antagonists, Griselle and Gwen Grande, disappear for unknown reasons after Season 1. They made a sudden reappearance in the final episode of Season 5. * Yin Yang Yo!: The show has a few characters who make a second appearance after disappearing. For example, the Manotaur from "The Manotaur" returns in the episode "Game Over" and Boopy Von Ha Ha Pants from "Gone-A-Fowl" returns in the episode "Clown-Fu Fighting".	TheBusCameBack	null
Film	# Good Is Not Soft - Film The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU * Marvel Universe --- * The Book of Life: + Manolo Sanchez is a Nice Guy and loves to play the guitar. Don't piss him off. + La Muerte is a sweetheart. But, has her limits. And when they are pushed, she is one not to be messed with. * Pretty much any Disney Animated Canon hero falls into this. + Sleeping Beauty (1959): - Prince Phillip is an all-around good and kind man. However, he doesn't hesitate to kill Maleficent in the climax. This leaves him as one of the very few Disney heroes who directly and deliberately kills someone. - The Good Fairies as well (though Fauna is a bit softer than the other two). It's Flora who enables Philip to kill Maleficent, enchanting the Sword of Truth to hit its target, and Merryweather buys time by turning Diablo to stone so he can't inform Maleficent of the fairies' location anymore. + The Beast of Beauty and the Beast (1991) starts off angry and bad-tempered, but becomes gentler with Belle's love and is not only a better person but undergoing Heroic BSoD when Gaston comes to kill him. He quickly shapes up and delivers him a stern Get Out!. When Gaston doesn't obey and tries to backstab Beast, that's when Beast decides to let him fall off the castle. + Simba from The Lion King (1994) is kind and playful with his friends, and after finding out that Scar killed his father and made him look like he did it (even to himself, which he had been running away from since he was a kid), he still forgives Scar's life and let him go. However, he's more than willing to fight for his kingdom, he beats Scar quite good before letting him go, and when Scar falls to the fire and the hyenas eats him, Simba makes no gesture to help him or care about him. * The Incredibles 1: + Bob and Helen Parr, better known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, respectively. They don't believe in using lethal force, do their best to protect civilians and save lives, and even exchange a sigh of "I love you" in the middle of a battle. But just because they don't kill doesn't mean that they can't—they choose not to, and there's a big difference (see: Bob taking out a massive group of Mooks in a few seconds, or Helen knocking out a robber with a single punch without even looking at him). And God have mercy on your soul if you dare to touch their children. Not to mention every time a hovercraft explodes with one of Syndrome's henchmen inside. + The three Parr children also get into their share of fights, despite appearing adorable. Violet is willing to use her force fields or other objects to hit people in self-defense, Dash leads multiple henchmen to their deaths in the first film and Jack-Jack goes berserk at anyone who upsets him, even his own family. + It seems as if the trope is going to be subverted when Bob is captured by Syndrome for the first time and (mistakenly) believes Helen and the kids are dead: he tries to grab the villain, but ends up snatching Mirage instead (and only because Mirage protected Syndrome by pushing him out of the way). Bob threatens to crush Mirage if Syndrome doesn't free him, but the villain calls his bluff, calling him "weak" when he lets her go. This leads to Mirage bringing up the trope with Syndrome later, pointing out that valuing life isn't a weakness, and not valuing it isn't a strength, and eventually leads her to a full-on Heel–Face Turn later in the film. Unfortunately, by that point, Bob's had some time to think about his family's death, and he's now more than willing to very slowly squeeze Mirage's throat so that she'll feel every second of her death. It's only by gasping out that his family survived that she's able to survive herself. Later, when Syndrome \|\|kidnaps Jack-Jack\|\|, Bob's solution is to throw a freaking CAR at the villain, which blows up his aircraft \|\|and inadvertently kills him\|\|. + Frozone follows a similar policy. He doesn't use deadly force either, and is a polite, cheerful, wisecracking guy, but he's also perfectly willing to completely encase someone in ice, leaving them completely immobile, but alive and aware of their surroundings. The movie does go out of its way to prove that this isn't lethal — the policeman who gets this treatment is clearly shown moving his eyes, and other officers discover him immediately afterward, so it will probably be a question of quickly defrosting the guy. But still, the potential side-effects (hypothermia, etc.) and deeper implications (what happens if the cops don't defrost him correctly?) mean he's plenty capable of doing real damage. + Heck, even Edna Mode falls under this trope. She's a fashion designer for superheroes, and serves as a large source of comic relief in the film. But she also gets two moments of pure harshness. When she asks if Helen really knows what Bob has been up to, all semblance of joking vanishes as she repeats the question so pointedly that it sounds like a statement: "Do you know where he is." Later, when Helen has a Heroic BSoD upon discovering Bob's secret return to heroism, Edna smacks her around a bit and tells her that she needs to pull herself together and save her husband. * Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam shows us what happens when you push a nice guy too far. When Black Adam tries to murder a hostage, the newly empowered Captain Marvel has no problem delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to the villain. Beware the Nice Ones in the extreme. * In Turning Red, Sun Yee was a Friend to All Living Things but also was not afraid to destroy the bandits who threatened her village. * Hermit the Old Wizard in Adventure In Kigan Castle is a kind old man and a force for good, but he's not to be trifled with. When Granny the Old Witch disguises herself as Queen Izato to try and break the hero, Osami, out of the dungeon so he can join forces with her, she realizes that Hermit put Osami under a sleeping spell so that she can't get to him. * Andersonville: Limber Jim is a dependable ally towards Josiah and the other, works to protect the weak, and is responsible for ultimately defeating the Raiders, but afterwards wants to kill them outright, and is also ruthless towards anyone who tries to tell the guards about the tunnel. * The Changeling (1980): John Russell is a composer of classical music and a thoroughly nice individual, but he's pretty much impossible to frighten. Probably one of the toughest protagonists in the genre of horror. * Conclave: While the late Pope is spoken well of by every sympathetic character, he was also shown to have a manipulative side, and an ability to be firm and harsh with errant subordinates when they committed extraordinary crimes. * Crimson Peak: When Lucille insists to Edith that their confrontation can only end "when you kill me, or I kill you", Edith immediately calls on Thomas' ghost to help her, then whacks her with a shovel while she's distracted. With Lucille disoriented Edith seems to pause, but when she repeats her previous statement Edith starts swinging to cave in her head before she's finished the sentence. > Edith: I heard you the first time. * Dirty Harry has no qualms about working outside the law or even torturing suspects, but he does try and lead a normal life. * Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive and its Spin-Off sequel U.S. Marshals. Sam is sweet and caring toward his team and innocents, but threaten someone dear to him and you're playing with fire. * Harry Potter: + In addition to the examples of this trope taken from the novels, the film incarnation of Harry is slightly more ruthless than his book counterpart — most clearly demonstrated from the exchange he shares with Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before the latter is dragged off to an unseen fate by a herd of centaurs. > Umbridge: Potter, do something! Tell them I mean no harm! > Harry: Sorry, Professor. I must not tell lies. + Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 also has the disturbing sequence where happy-go-lucky Ron Weasley \|\|advocates for the killing of a Death Eater\|\| and kind-hearted Hermione \|\|appears to almost agree, ultimately compromising and performing Laser-Guided Amnesia on him instead; the film leaves unclear as to whether she just turned him into a vegetable or not\|\|. * Jason's Lyric: The main character, Jason, is basically a good man and very protective toward his family. But when his troublemaker younger brother, Joshua, drunkenly harasses his girlfriend, Lyric, he doesn't hesitate to punch him. Later, Jason also dares to get into a vicious fight with Lyric's gangster brother, Alonzo "A-1", as a revenge for ever tortured Joshua. * The titular character in Madeline is this. She's quite friendly, if mostly a Deadpan Snarker, towards her classmates, and happens to smile at the good, and frown at the bad. However, she soon develops a hatred towards her new neighbor, Pepito, and even attacks him at one point. She's not afraid to confront Lord Covington over his plans to sell the "Old House in Paris", and also goes to confront the Big Bad after \|\|seeing him kidnap Pepito\|\|. Not to mention her famous line to the tiger at the zoo. * The MonsterVerse incarnation of Godzilla is one of the more benevolent versions of the character. For example, in the ending of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), \|\|he repays Dr. Serizawa's Heroic Sacrifice by improving ecological damage through the Titans' powers, helping humankind and wildlife together\|\|. However, disrupt the natural order of things and you will pay. \|\|He's variously impaled the Male MUTO on a building, killed the Female MUTO by burning her head off with his atomic breath, killed the Prime MUTO by stomping its head in, and burned King Ghidorah to a crisp before chowing down on and finally incinerating the alien dragon's surviving central head. There Is No Kill Like Overkill doesn't even describe it!\|\| + Mothra is one of the most benevolent kaiju in the series, but she is not to be messed with. Just ask the huge hole in Rodan's torso. + Kong is a pretty chill dude most of the time, but he will get brutal if you piss him off. He tends to inflict particularly painful deaths on his enemies, including but not limited to; \|\|tearing out the guts of the Skull Devil, pulverizing a Warbat to death and ripping its head off, hacking Mechagodzilla apart with his supercharged axe, ripping a Wart Dog in half in a spray of gore, and reducing Skar King to nothing but frozen pulp.\|\| * In Mirror, Mirror, the sweet Snow White convinces the Evil Queen to \|\|accept defeat by eating the poisoned apple that was meant for Snow, essentially committing suicide.\|\| * Atreyu in The NeverEnding Story (1984) is kind and friendly to his allies, but he's still a warrior and has no problem killing if that's what it takes to save Fantasia, as his nemesis Gmork learns the hard way. * The Platform: Brambang favors kindness and diplomacy over force and intimidation, but doesn't advocate giving up when force and intimidation are all that works. > Brambang: Convince them, instead of threatening them. > Goreng: But what if they won't listen? > Brambang: [without a second's pause] You smack 'em. But first of all, dialogue. * In Red One, while Callum is willing to talk things out before resorting to violence and is generally a nice person if you don't push his buttons, he also has a limit to his patience and won't hesitate to beat the crap out of people who won't see reason. His very first scene has him implicitly threaten a Bad Influencer who was cutting the line to Nick with violence if he doesn't get to the back and let the children whose turn it actually was through. * Dalton from Road House (1989), who tells his fellow bouncers to always "Be nice, until it's time to not be nice." * RoboCop follows three directives: serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the law. Nothing is said about not coldly blowing away killers, or not brutalizing a suspect before bringing them in (laws concerning how to handle arrested criminals have changed slightly in future Detroit). In RoboCop 2, he is programmed with several hundred more directives aimed at improving OCP PR, but those directives make him a terrible police officer. Instead of arresting criminals, he starts lecturing them on the immorality of their actions, while they happily go about their criminal business. * Star Trek: Most of the Enterprise crew in the reboot film series are friendly and decent people who would go out of their way to help others, but they can and will break protocol, especially if it means protecting one of their own — and you're screwed if you piss them off. + In Star Trek (2009), after his offer to help Nero and his crew (who had killed hundreds of Starfleet cadets and officers, tortured Pike and \|\|destroyed Vulcan\|\|) is rejected, Kirk wastes no time ordering to fire on the Narada to make sure they don't survive. + Not to mention Spock being quite willing to kill every crew member on that ship to save Earth. + In Star Trek Into Darkness, Spock loses it when \|\|Kirk dies\|\| and proceeds to beat the living crap out of \|\|John Harrison/Khan\|\|, including brutally breaking his arm. + Sulu convincingly threatens Harrison to stand down with the experimental torpedoes. \|\|Although Harrison knows something about those torpedoes that Sulu doesn't...\|\| > Leonard "Bones" McCoy: Mr. Sulu, remind me never to piss you off. + In Star Trek Beyond, Kirk \|\|drops (half of) a starship onto the traitor who caused them to crash\|\|. * Star Wars plays with this trope, especially Return of the Jedi and Luke Skywalker. For a film that showed the heroes as more pure-hearted, some viewers were surprised to see Luke using powers generally associated with the Sith like Force Choke. In this instance, it was used to demonstrate he was sliding towards The Dark Side. + According to the Return of the Jedi Novelization, Leia unconsciously uses the Force to help her when \|\|she sends Jabba where he belongs\|\|. + R2-D2 and C-3PO pull an I Surrender, Suckers! on the Imperials. + It plays it better with Han Solo. + Obi-Wan is subject to this at the end of Revenge of the Sith after chopping off three of Anakin's limbs, and leaving him to burn to death. * Swordfish: If not the Trope Namer, close to it, though the "Good" part is really questionable. > Gabriel: I like you, you're on my good side. But don't confuse kindness with weakness. [points pistol at Stanley's head] Now get in the car. * Tolkien's Legendarium (The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy and The Hobbit Film Trilogy): + Gandalf is an old man with a humorous streak and a frail appearance who loves children and is a warm and good-hearted person throughout. He's also a Physical God wizard who has no qualms with slaying trolls and orcs by the thousands, or contemptuously knocking out Denethor with his staff when the latter starts raving for his troops to abandon their posts and flee. + Bilbo Baggins is generally a friendly and polite fellow who prefers to use his wits to get out of a situation rather than use a sword, but when \|\|Thorin is about to be decapitated by an orc leader, Bilbo flings himself at the orc and kills him\|\|. + Frodo Baggins tames Gollum by pointing his sword at his throat, threatening to cut it if he does not release Sam. + A more subtle example: Aragorn, probably the most noble human character, sees Boromir pick up the Ring. He orders him to give it back to Frodo — with one hand on his sword, prepared to attack Boromir if the Ring's power takes control of him. \|\|Which happens near the end of the movie, when Aragorn isn't around.\|\| Elrond, on the other hand, is shown to have not been capable of friendly fire when the Ring hypnotized Isildur during the previous battle with Sauron. Elrond's inaction might be justified in that attacking a friend in order to claim ownership of the Ring, even for the purpose of destroying it, while at the very center of the Ring's power, is probably a good way to end up under the Ring's control. * Tombstone: Wyatt Earp up to the Shootout at the OK Corral was willing to arrest the Cowboys, and only resorted to lethal force as a last resort. Once the Cowboys make it personal by killing his Brother Morgan, maiming his other brother Virgil, and try to finish the job as they are leaving town, Wyatt turns into a death dealing One-Man Army that won't stop until every Cowboy is dead and buried. He even taunts Ike Clanton by flashing a US Marshall badge at him, to let him and the other Cowboys know that Wyatt can do whatever he wants to stop them, with no legal ramifications. > Wyatt: From now on, I see a red sash, I kill the man wearing it! * The Toxic Avenger: The title hero, Toxie. Formally a 98 pound wimpy mop-boy who worked at a health club. After a freak accident, he was mutated into The Toxic Avenger. He uses his newfound power to help people — from saving lives to simply opening jars for people. And he is a very devoted boyfriend to his love interest, Sara — a blind woman who loves him as a person. He met her after saving her from being raped by robbers, and walks her home because those same robbers shot her guide dog. However Toxie is nowhere near as nice to villains. He has tromatons, which make it instinct to sense and destroy evil. But he kills in a very over the top manner, and seems to get sadistic glee from it. One example includes him tearing off a man's arm, laughing and hitting him across the head with it. Then later he shoves the man into a pizza oven. * Transformers Film Series: The Autobots are some of the nicest beings you'll meet, but they don't go easy on the Decepticons, and they rip them apart limb from limb. + In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, \|\|Optimus Prime himself brutally dispatches Megatron and then mere moments later, his fallen mentor Sentinel Prime — the latter while he's trying to explain his actions and begging Optimus not to shoot\|\|. > Megatron: After all, \|\|Who would you be without me, Prime?\|\| > Optimus Prime: \|\|Time to find out.\|\| + The rebooted continuity of the film series that began with Bumblebee is no exception when it comes to this trope. Especially regarding Optimus Prime. Case in point, the second film of the aforementioned continuity, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Just because Prime is one of the kindest members of the Autobots does not mean it's okay to piss him off, in particular during the lowest point(s) of his time as Autobot commander. \|\|Scourge pushes Prime to his absolute limits during the course of the film by committing some of the most atrocious actions towards him, in particular slaying his close companion Bumblebee, and Prime, unable to handle the excess amount of stress piled upon him, becomes very cruel and violent towards the Terrorcon captain during the climax — first by hurting him and inflicting crippling damage on him with extreme amounts of pain, and then by viciously chopping him to shreds, finishing him off by decapitating him.\|\| * Carrie in Vicious Fun wears all black, enough eyeliner to make her look like The Crow, and loves killing serial killers. Everyone else is safe, and probably safer with her around. ---	GoodIsNotSoft	null
TropesMToP	# Rick And Morty - Tropes M to P * MacGuffin: Rick's Portal Gun is one of his most important and famous inventions in (and outside of) the series. Many of his enemies, including the Galactic Federation, are those who scheme to steal the gun or the formula to the fluid that powers it from him. It is crucial for Rick's multidimensional adventuring and his creation of it is what made him go from ambitious scientist to one of the smartest men in the universe(s). * Magic Feather: A variant occurs in "Look Who's Purging Now" when the normally meek Morty goes on a bloodthirsty warpath during the Purge. At the end of the episode, Morty is worried that he has several demons to work out within himself, only to be told by Rick that a candy bar he had eaten earlier contained Purgenol, which increases aggression. Cue the shot showing that the candy bar is "Now Purgenol-Free". * Magic Tool: The season 2 DVD set actually reveals (what are implied to be just a few) uses of the plumbus tool that seems to be used in nearly every other dimension except for a few Earths in the central finite curve. Just a few of the device's uses include toilet-cleaner, portable stove, food utensil, sex toy, religious icon, babysitter, and vacuum cleaner. Of course, you no doubt knew all this as everybody has one. * Maintain the Lie: + In "Meeseeks and Destroy", The Stinger has a servant finding disturbing pictures (most likely of exploited children) in King Jellybean's closet and being ordered to destroy them so the people will remember him for what he represented, not what he was. + Zeep at the end of "The Ricks Must Be Crazy" is forced to do this, rather than reveal to his people that Rick is using their entire universe to power his car battery, or else Rick would destroy the "broken" battery along with the multiverse inside it. + At the end of "A Rick in King Mortur's Mort", Rick and Morty fake their own deaths so that Morty wouldn't have to cut his own dick off for the sake of interplanetary peace, and the Knights of the Sun were so moved by this they abolished the practice. A squire of the Sun finds Rick and Morty alive right after, and Morty tells him if he reveals the lie he'll have to cut his own dick off and the squire agrees. * The Man Behind the Man: Or rather, In Front Of The Man. In "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind," Evil Morty is this to Evil Rick, who was only his cyborg puppet. * Manchild: Rick is about 60 but has the maturity of a teenager, swearing, making dirty jokes, and being involved in rather reckless antics. One example is him finding it hilarious telling an alien race that flipping the bird meant "Peace among worlds". Morty's expression says it all. * Man Hug: Jerry and Doofus Rick part ways with one. Also Rick and Morty at the end of "Get Schwifity". * Man of Wealth and Taste: Mr. Needful before he upgrades to his simpler Steve Jobs turtleneck. * Marilyn Maneuver: Jessica in "Rest and Ricklaxation", when she drops from a portal with Rick. * Married Too Young: Since Jerry impregnated Beth when they were 17, he decided to stay with and marry her. Unfortunately neither were emotionally mature enough to be married, never mind parent a child. This is just one reason why their marriage is so strained. * Marshmallow Hell: In "Lawnmower Dog", after Rick and Morty free the rest of the family, Summer pulls Morty face-first into her chest when hugging him. Thanks to recently having had a very awkward encounter with a dream version of her (see Brain Bleach above), Morty is quite uncomfortable by this. * The Masquerade: Utterly averted. Everybody seems to be aware that Rick's a super scientist, but outside of the family, nobody seems too concerned. The town and school are aware but react with indifference. Rick's unknown outside of town before "Get Schwifty." Considering Rick's on the run from The Empire, he takes no special precautions to hide his presence. * Meaningful Name: Beta 7 acts like a Dogged Nice Guy to Unity. A common slang term for men who act like that towards women is "beta male," as opposed to Rick's "alpha male" personality. * Meaningful Rename: A minor character has one in the episode "The Old Man and the Seat". Delivery Drone, originally a robot delivery boy who ran away to join a Robot War in another star system, wrote over the label on his chest so that it instead said Deliverance. * Medium Awareness: All over the place: + Rick says a universe run by intelligent dogs would be interesting to watch "at 11 minutes a pop". + In "Rixty Minutes", Rick and Morty comment that TV from other dimensions has a "looser feel" and an "improvisational tone." As they say this, the camera is positioned in such a way that although they're looking at the TV, it seems like they're looking at the audience. + The same episode runs the concept of alternate universes in two different directions, and one turns out to be significantly funnier than the other. Rick says to the characters stuck in the B-plot "you guys clearly backed the wrong conceptual horse." + When Morty and Summer express concerns about their parents in "A Rickle in Time", Rick says that "They're probably living it up in some pointless grounded story about their shitty marriage." The B-plot does indeed involve Beth and Jerry in a grounded story about their marriage. + Throughout the series, Rick (and sometimes other characters) will make references to seasons or episodes of the show. For some examples of each: - Rick celebrates the "end of Season 1", states that he'll accomplish a certain character arc even it if takes him "nine seasons", and notes that he destroyed a certain technology "a few seasons back". Beth also notes in the Season 3 finale that from now on, the show will be "like Season 1, but more streamlined". - All three of the anthology episodes (the 8th episode of each season) has Rick directly mention a previous episode, sometimes by name. And in The Teaser of "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy", he calls it a "Rick and Jerry episode". * Meta Fiction: "Never Ricking Morty" finds Rick and Morty on a very literal Story Train that represents the story-telling process. The whole episode waxes the creative story process and is aware of itself and the meta concepts. The two eventually find themselves in conflict with the Story Lord, who attempts to break the fifth wall by tapping into possible storylines that haven't happened. Morty questions if anything they're experiencing is canon, to which Rick states that it could have been. The train's story literally derails itself when it's revealed to be a toy that Morty bought from the Citadel of Rick's gift shop, which Rick is very proud to see Morty's participation in consumerism. * Metal Muncher: According to the Official Character Guide, after Hammerhead Morty's \|\|death, a Galactic Federation autopsy found\|\| nails in his digestive system. The Guide then immediately Lampshades the amount of Fridge Logic this raises. * Mind Rape: Being a gaseous creature, this seems to be Fart's only method of attack. Of course, since it can turn a perfectly adjusted person suicidal in less than a second, it's hardly anything to sneeze at. * Missing Mom: Not much is known about Rick's ex-wife, Beth's mom. Not even her name, which may or may not be Diane. There have been some hints that she's dead in the present day, but it's not confirmed. Rick states that his marriage to her failed, but there are also indications that he still has feelings for her on some level. * A Mistake Is Born: Jerry and Beth only got married because they accidentally conceived Summer when they were teenagers. * Mister Seahorse: + The Season 1 opening title sequence shows a scene where Jerry is getting ready to give birth. + "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat" features a caterpillar version of Mr. Goldenfold, who births a few caterpillar larvae. * Monster of the Week: Rick & Morty would deal with a one-shot villain or rogue alien species in each episode. * Monstrous Germs: In "Anatomy Park", the various diseases are portrayed as hideous monsters who chase the protagonists around in an homage to Jurassic Park (1993). * Mood Whiplash: + Twice in "Meeseeks and Destroy". First, a Giant accidentally smashes his head and dies from the trauma, almost leading to Rick and Morty being convicted as murderers; and secondly, when Morty is almost raped in a restroom. It even cuts to Rick singing karaoke and the ridiculous Mr. Meeseeks brawl in the middle of the latter. + The Stinger for "M. Night Shaym-Aliens" has Rick drunkenly enter Morty's room, telling him he's a good kid and a trooper for putting up with all the crap he's been through. A sweet, if slightly disturbing, gesture. He then pulls a knife and holds it to Morty's neck, screaming at him to tell him if he's a simulation or he'll cut his throat. After a minute of this, Rick passes out on the floor, leaving Morty confused and terrified. + The A plot of "Rixty Minutes" is a series of absurd sketches improvised by the voice actors, with the framing device being that Rick has upgraded the family's cable to pick up channels from other dimensions. The B plot is the family having an existential crisis after learning of a dimension where Beth aborted the unplanned pregnancy that would have been Summer, and as a result, Beth and Jerry didn't get married and ended up with their dream jobs instead. The mood switches again when the Beth and Jerry from the alternate dimension are revealed to be unhappy in their dream jobs and still in love with each other. + "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat" has this in the scene where Rick C-137 \|\|in a clone body of Wasp Rick\|\| is having dinner with the Wasp version of the Smith family. The genuinely heartwarming interactions between the family is juxtaposed with the heavy Black Comedy of them eating Caterpillar Mr. Goldenfold and his babies alive. * Moon-Landing Hoax: + Suggested in "M. Night Shaym-Aliens" that the aliens faked the Earth-Moon Landing when Rick, Morty, and Jerry run past a simulation of it. + During their fight scene in "The Rickchurian Mortydate", Rick and Mr. President run past numerous sound stages of faked historical events, including a lunar lander and the planting of the flag on the moon. The government also apparently actually carried out the murder of Tupac Shakur and staged the JFK assassination, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and George Washington crossing the Delaware. * Moral Myopia: Beth spent years putting Jerry down because she thought she was better than him, but was very offended when she found out she was holding him back as well. + The entire family is this to Jerry to the point where they come across as Holier Than Thou, since they repeatedly call him out for his mistakes despite making those same mistakes themselves. - Season 4 has an example of Morty Calling the Old Man Out in The "Old Man And The Seat" for creating a phone app with Rick's temp even though he was warned not to. Yet Morty could have avoided the conflict of "Rattlestar Ricklactica" if he had both stayed in the car like he was told, and ignored the dead snake astronaut. * Motivational Lie: In "Get Schwifty", Rick tells Morty that his portal gun only has enough charge for two trips: one to grab their family and one to get off-planet. This is to get Morty to focus on placating the Cromulons rather than worrying about his family. Rick blows his own ruse when he casually portals out to pick up some snacks for Ice-T. * MST3K Mantra: In-Universe example. For every disturbing thing Morty sees or experiences, Rick's advice is "Don't think about it!" * Multiboobage: In "The ABCs of Beth", Jerry starts dating a Green-Skinned Space Babe named Kiara, who has three breasts. * The Multiverse: + Rick exploited this in "Rick Potion No. 9" by simply slipping into one universe where he and Morty suddenly died after curing the Cronenbergs. Apparently, he hasn't managed to find very many universes where they both died in such a way that everything's okay afterward. + There's an entire group of alternate Ricks who have banded together to form a society known as the Council of Ricks. However, the Rick we know refuses to be affiliated with them. This refusal to join the Council makes "our" Rick the "Rickiest Rick there is." By default, that makes Morty the "Mortiest Morty." * Mundane Utility: + Rick builds a self-aware, sentient robot to pass the butter, which is about an inch out of his reach and which he could have easily just leaned forward and grabbed in a fraction of the time it took to build the robot. When the robot finds this out, he's devastated. + Rick created a Pocket Dimension, manipulated the intelligent life within into generating massive amounts of power, and then channelled that power into... his car battery. * Mundane Solution: When Rick is about to destroy the Galactic Federation, his grandchildren suggest two options: Summer suggests that he'll set all their nukes to target each other. Morty suggests reprogramming all their military portals to disintegrate their entire space fleet. While Rick appreciates the Hoist by His Own Petard nature of these plans and claims that he's "almost proud," he ultimately decides on this and \|\|reduces the value of their credit-based economy to zero.\|\| * My God, What Have I Done?: + This hits Rick at the end of "Auto Erotic Assimilation," when Unity's note to him makes it clear that his manipulative personality ends up bringing down all of his loved ones. It's enough to make him attempt suicide. + One of Morty's removed memories in "Morty's Mind Blowers" reveals that his mistaken belief that the new school guidance counsellor was up to no good and resultant actions against him led the man to commit suicide, causing Morty to react like this. * Mythology Gag: + The o3o expression the characters use is one of the few things from Doc and Mharti that hasn't been changed. + At one point, Rick says that a whole world populated by dogs would make an interesting TV show. This is a reference to an actual pilot Justin Roiland made in the past. + Certain parts of Cronenberg-Rick might bring back some...memories. + The Clone Degeneration invoked with the gradual mental degeneration of the Meeseeks brings to mind the defective Cosby clones from Roiland's earlier Web series House of Cosbys. The alternate-dimension TV channels are also a similar concept to the series' nonsensical final episode involving alien satellite transmissions. + There are a few instances where Rick tells someone to "lick [his] balls." It's one of his catchphrases in "Total Rickall", where he follows it up with claiming that he "says it all the time", and he plays samples of himself saying "balls" to annoy Morty in "Get Schwifty." In the original "Doc and Mharti" short, Doc repeatedly asks Mharti to lick his balls as part of his science experiments. + In "Big Trouble In Little Sanchez", Tiny Rick makes a drawing of Doc. * Naked People Are Funny: In "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!", Rick figures out that he and Morty are being monitored by a race of aliens. The aliens also happen to be really uncomfortable with nudity, so Rick and Morty strip to have some privacy. * Name and Name: Rick and Morty. * Never My Fault: + Beth blames all of her failures on Jerry. After their separation in Season 3, she starts blaming it on her kids, and later, her dad. + Rick repeatedly uses his intelligence and/or alcoholism to absolve himself of responsibility for his actions. A particular example of the latter happens in "Vindicators 3: The Return of World Ender", where he refers to Drunk Rick (himself on a blackout-drunk bender) with third-person pronouns and acts like he's someone else completely. * Never Trust a Trailer: Season 7th's promotional commercials showed a whole bunch of random adventures from different episodes. It turns out the majority of those shots were taken from just one episode alone. * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: + Rick constantly encouraging Morty to "purge" in "Look Who's Purging Now?" causes Morty to go psycho and almost kill Rick. + Rick's overthrow of both the Council of Ricks and the Galactic Federation from "The Rickshank Redemption" gives \|\|Evil Morty and Tammy, respectively,\|\| the opportunity to take over what's left of each. + Several episodes showcase how Morty's misguided attempts to do good end up backfiring horribly. The massive death and destruction Fart causes after Morty frees him in "Mortynight Run" and the hostile snake civilization Morty accidentally uplifts in "Rattlestar Ricklactica" are particular examples. * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: One of Rick's biggest Jerkass moves in season three was \|\|manipulating Beth and Jerry into getting a divorce. Even if he's right that they're bad for each other, he makes it clear the only reason he did it was to spite Jerry for wanting to turn him into the Federation. He and Beth have a heart-to-heart later on where he offers to clone her so the original can be free to explore the universe and her dreams. Come the Season Finale, he offhandedly says that if she were a clone he'd kill her for becoming self-aware, causing her to freak out and run to Jerry, disavowing Rick once and for all. Rick brings a shotgun to kill Jerry but admits he can't do it after seeing how he messed up\|\|. * Nipple and Dimed: Lampshaded by Summer when a Powder Keg Crowd who are divided by their nipples ask Morty and Summer to show them theirs: > Morty: [pulling up his shirt to show his nipples] We're neither. S-see? > Summer: [Not pulling up her shirt] Yeah, take my word for it. * No Accounting for Taste: Beth and Jerry. If they're the focus of an episode's plotline, it's probably about their struggling marriage. Deep down, they still care about each other, but there's so much resentment between them that the only reason they're still together at this point is for the sake of the kids. Well, that and Status Quo Is God. This finally becomes averted in Season 3: the two decide to separate and divorce at the beginning of the season, and while they do get back together by the end, they've both had significant Character Development in the meantime and give the impression that they won't be as miserable together anymore. * No Dead Body Poops: Ruben's death causes such a buildup of fecal matter in his sphincter that it overloads the artificial barrier Rick built there, destroying the enlargement ray at the base of his colon. * NO INDOOR VOICE: + Mr. Meeseeks! (Look at him!) + The Cromulons, though it'd be a difficult task for a moon-sized talking head to take it down a notch. * No More for Me: + Beth attempts to kiss Mr. Meeseeks just as he disappears. A waiter asks if she wants more wine, and she decides she's done. + In an alternate universe where chairs and people are reversed, a chair discards the rest of his booze after seeing Rick and Morty walking around. * Nominal Hero: Rick is just barely a hero by him caring about his family, and there being even worse people. * Non-Indicative Title: The family likes a show from an alternate reality called Ball Fondlers. It's basically just The A-Team, a peppy action show with no fondling of balls or even any innuendo. Rick does do a fondling motion with his hand when suggesting it to Morty and Summer, but that's it. * Non-Standard Character Design: The characters in the "Strawberry Smiggles" commercial have regular-looking cartoon pupils instead of the weird squiggly things all the other characters have. * Non-Human Head: One of the alternate versions of Morty seen in the Citadel has a giant hammer for a head. * Noodle Implements: + In "Auto-Erotic Assimilation", Rick tells Unity that he wants to perform a sex act involving a hang-glider, a crotchless Uncle Sam costume, and a football stadium full of redheads and men who look like his father. Becomes subverted when we get to see what these are used for shortly afterwards. + The plumbus is one of these, a result of the writers improvising an entire documentary of how it's made (involving other noodle implements as well like Schleem and a Grumbo). * Noodle Incident: + In "Rick Potion #9", Rick has to figure out how to deal with a virus that turned the entire human race minus his family into nightmarish mutants. After a commercial break we see Rick and Morty returning to a perfectly restored neighborhood and Morty congratulates Rick for "finding the crazy solution like you always do." \|\|Then the two are killed by a bomb, and the real Rick and Morty arrive via a portal and take their place.\|\| + In "Wedding Squanchers", Birdperson tells Beth that he and Rick once fought in a vicious war, and are now considered terrorists by the Galactic Federation. However, he never says exactly what he and Rick did during that period. + Half of the clips in the opening sequence are these. Says Roiland at a ComicCon... > "The idea with the opening credits is like there's three real episode clips, and then there's three completely fake made-up things every season, and we just love that you don't know what is what until the last episode, y'know?" + C-137 Rick's and Morty's adventure in "The Ricklantis Mixup." All we know is that Morty hooked up and likely had sex with a mermaid and wants to go back. + In the cold open for "Rickfending Your Mort" Morty made "receipts" for all the adventures Rick took him on in case he refuses to honor his "One Morty adventure for every ten Rick adventures" cards. * No Such Thing as Alien Pop Culture: Averted. We get to see pop culture from other planets, other dimensions, you name it. * Note to Self: In "Total Rickall", when Rick first discovers the mind-altering parasites trying to infiltrate the family, he writes the current number of family members on a piece of paper and tapes it to the wall. Whenever the parasites multiply and try to disguise themselves as new family members, Rick kills the likely suspect. The parasites beat this by implanting a new memory in which Rick wrote the number for a nonsensical reason rather than for a logical purpose, foiling that plan. * Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The ending of season 5 changes the possibilities that the series can move forward with, which is saying something considering that there's a very loose definition of what types of adventures and storylines that are prevented from happening in the first place. \|\|Evil Morty destroyed the Central Finite Curve that sealed off all the infinite universes where Rick is the smartest man in the universe from the rest of the multiverse and now opens up the possibilities for new villains and characters who can challenge Rick. The Citadel of Ricks has been destroyed, with an untold number of Ricks and Morties killed in the process. There's a subtle implication that portal technology may not be as reliable to use anymore and dimension hopping may not be possible. Finally, with Morty now fully aware of Rick's background, and the relationship the two have with each other won't be the same\|\|. This was then completely returned to Status Quo Is God in Season 6 Episode 6, where even Rick lamented that he was hoping to get a season, or at least a 3-episode story arc out of the changes. * Not Helping Your Case: In "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", when Rick is suspected of having killed several Ricks from other dimensions, he decides to act rude and unhelpful to the Council, then kills several Security Ricks in his escape. * "Not So Different" Remark: + Stated word-for-word and lampshaded: > Evil Rick: We're not so different, you and I. > Rick C-137: Uh yeah, duh! + Played straight and subverted with the Council of Ricks. Rick calls them all a bunch of sellouts but admits that, like him, they all can't resist tormenting Jerry. Similarly, Rick picks on Doofus Rick just as much as the Council Ricks do. The similarities end when the Council of Ricks marks off Mortys as their main resource and not as their respective grandsons, the moment evil Rick/Morty baffled that C-137 Rick!Prime actually loves his grandson cements this. * No, You: When Jerry and Beth are packing away Rick's stuff, he tells them that they shouldn't be messing with it because it's beyond their reasoning. Jerry retorts "YOU'RE beyond our reasoning!", and Rick counters with "Takes one to know one!" * Nuke 'Em: In "Get Schwifty", the general constantly advocates nuking the Cromulons. When he finally manages it, it's about as effective as flicking embers into someone's beard. * Obfuscating Stupidity: A strange example: Morty's irregular brainwaves literally obscure the normally distinctive brain emissions that would otherwise allow the numerous multiversal governing bodies to track the various alternate selves of the mad scientist. This is at least part of the reason that every Rick hangs out with a Morty if possible, essentially hiding someone else's intelligence by the former's stupidity. * Obnoxious In-Laws: Rick and Jerry very much act this way with each other, though to be fair, they probably wouldn't like each other anyway. The creators say that Rick hates Jerry due to circumstance as he blames Jerry for ruining Beth's life by impregnating her when she was only 17. * Obvious Beta: invoked The simulated world in "M. Night Shaym-Aliens" has quite the number of bugs in it, to say the least. * Odd Couple: Rick and Morty themselves. * Of Corpse He's Alive: The episode "Rixty Minutes" has a fake trailer of a movie where a bunch of cats manipulate the corpse of their owner to convince people she's alive. She's still very obviously dead; with green soft tissues and a maggot infestation. Strangely enough, this is a sequel. * Oh, Crap!: + In "Rick Potion #9", Rick gets this when he hears it's flu season (since the potion he gave Morty will spread like wildfire if combined with the flu virus), and Morty says this word-for-word twice. + "A Rickle in Time" had this, when 32 Ricks were attempting to fix 32 broken collars: > 16 Ricks: Now hand me that flat-head screwdriver. > Other 16 Ricks: (in unison with above line) Now hand me that Phillips screwdriver. > 16 Ricks: Actually, make it a Phillips. > Other 16 Ricks: (in unison with above line) Actually, make it a flat-head. > (Time splits in half again, creating 32 new variants) > All 64 Ricks: Ohhhhhh, shit. + Rick and everyone at the wedding reception in "The Wedding Squanchers" when Tammy reveals herself as a deep-cover agent for the Galactic Federation and has the building surrounded. + Morty has one of these in '"The Rickshank Redemption" When Rick is ranting about \|\|how he got rid of Jerry and the government because Jerry threatened to turn Rick in.\|\| > Rick: Ohhh, it gets darker, Morty! Welcome to the darkest year of our adventures! First thing that's different? \|\|No more dad, Morty! He threatened to turn me into the government so I made him and the government go away!\|\| > Morty: Ohhhh fuck...! * Once a Season: + In-universe, in Planet Music, there's always one planet per season that protests the show and gets disqualified. + For the series as a whole it appears a movie-based episode. Inception for Season 1, The Purge for Season 2, and Ensemble Cast superhero movies such as The Avengers for Season 3. + Allusions to Interdimensional Cable, if not whole episodes devoted to it. + Fan favorite characters like Gearhead, Birdperson, Tammy and Mr. Poopybutthole have appeared at least once per season as well. * Once Done, Never Forgotten: In the episode "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy", Jerry mentions in passing that he has wondered about having a vagina. Afterwards, Groupon reminds him on every occasion about his vagina fantasies, leading to Jerry proclaiming "I don't want to be known as the vagina guy." * Only a Flesh Wound: Rick tries to invoke this in "Total Rickall" when he gets tired of playing Spot the Imposter, instead intending to shoot everyone in the shoulder so only the weaker parasites will die from their wounds. It doesn't pan out because, understandably, no one likes getting shot and the parasites manage to take his gun. * O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You wouldn't expect this show to get so serious at times. + In "Auto Erotic Assimilation", Rick tries to kill himself after Unity tells him that his reckless and self-destructive nature only ends up causing the people around him to suffer. The DVD commentary to the episode reveals that the chemical he drank before doing it was meant to synchronize all his parallel selves - He wasn't only trying to kill himself, but also all other versions of himself in other dimensions. + When Morty almost gets raped by King Jellybean in "Meeseeks and Destroy", Rick figures out what happened, and proceeds to murder the king with a single gunshot. + Beth and Jerry found out about their miserable lives without each other in "Rixty Minutes", and realizing how good they have it together after all. + Rick turning himself in "The Wedding Squanchers" after overhearing the others talking about him and realizing how much of a burden he is to them. When calling the Galactic Federation to share his location, he asks for his family to be able to have a safe life on Earth. * Open-Minded Parent: + Tammy's parents are incredibly accepting of the fact that their high school daughter is marrying a middle-aged alien. It helps that they're actually robots to help her cover identity. + Beth is usually pretty okay with Morty and Summer getting involved with Rick's antics. She also defends Morty's use of a sex robot when Jerry wants to intervene, saying that would mess up his development. * Over-the-Top Roller Coaster: The episode "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" centers on a roller coaster that exists in a theme park protected by an immortality field, meaning no one in the park can die as long as the field is operational. Aside from the fact this means the coaster can be incredibly outlandishly dangerous, it has an added threat: the apex of the highest peak actually barely extends past the immortality field, a fact utilized for an assassination attempt. * Overnight Age-Up: Male Gazorpians reach adulthood in one day. Being half-human, Morty Jr. goes through typical human stages of growing up, including teen rebellion, in that time span. By The Stinger of the same episode, Morty Jr. has grey hair and has written a bestselling novel, whereas none of the other characters have aged nearly so far. * Overly Long Gag: + The "Rick and Morty forever and forever, a hundred years" moment at the end of the pilot goes on for over a minute. + "WHY DID YOU EVEN ROPE ME INTO THIS??" "CUZ HE ROPED ME INTO THIS!!" "WELL, HIM OVER THERE, HE ROPED ME INTO THIS!!" "WELL HE ROPED ME INTO THIS!!" + The cereal commercial in "Rixty Minutes". + The fake door commercial, enough that Morty has to ask Rick to not change the channel, and then gives up on it himself. + Personal space! + In the first episode of season 1, Rick goes on a rant saying Rick and Morty will go on for "a hundred years". 3 years and 120 days later, when the first episode of season 3 premiered, Rick goes on another rant and mentions they've got "97 years" left to go. * Papa Wolf: Rick may be an incredibly flawed individual with practically no regard for the lives or well-being of others, but there's one moral misstep he will not forgive you for: messing with his grandkids. + Also, when Beth and Jerry disagree or fight in front of Rick, he echoes this trope by typically taking his daughter's side, belittling Jerry in the process. + Jerry is a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass with extra Moron and a side of Butt-Monkey who will field any Idiot Ball that is hit anywhere near him, but when his family is threatened, he can step up to the plate to keep them safe. * Paranoia Fuel: In-Universe for Rick in The Stinger of "M. Night Shaym-Aliens" when he bursts into Morty's room drunk and, after an out of character moment of praise, pulls a knife on him and demands to know if he's still inside a simulation. * Parents as People: Both Jerry and Beth often show concern for their kids and the effect Rick's antics can have on them, however, they are continuously hindered by their own psychological problems and their failing marriage. * People's Republic of Tyranny: The Galactic Federation is an intergalactic Empire controlled by one alien species that turns the worlds it conquers into Police States. * Perfectly Cromulent Word: Morty protests that "schwifty" isn't an actual word. * Person as Verb: + After inflicting Body Horror on the whole world, Rick says that he "Cronenberged" the place. + When Summer is screwed out the business by her boss, she states that she's been Zuckerberged. * Pet the Dog: Rick is a foul-mouthed, abusive asshole scientist who's rude to just about everybody, but he has quite a few moments of this (especially with his daughter Beth and grandkids Morty and Summer, but even sometimes with his son-in-law Jerry and other people as well) that hint at a Hidden Heart of Gold. * Piss-Take Rap: "Flu Hatin' Rap" from "Rick Potion #9". * Planet of Hats: + In "Rixty Minutes", there's a universe where Earth is populated by corn people, and one where it's populated by hamsters living in human butts. + All Zigerians are scammers who are prudish towards nudity. + Several alternate universe versions of Rick and Morty in "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind", including a cowboy version, multiple alien versions, a robot version, and Cronenberg Rick and Morty. + In "The Wedding Squanchers," \|\|when searching for a replacement home planet,\|\| the Smiths happen upon a large Earth-like planet where everything — strawberries, flowers, birds, mountains, ants, and even atoms — is on a cob. Upon this revelation, Rick hastily makes the family leave \|\|and nixes relocating there\|\|, for reasons never explained. + In "Edge of Tomorty", Rick travels to several different dimensions: one where the whole world is fascist, another inhabited by shrimp-people (which is also fascist), a third world of teddy bear people (which, once again, is fascist), and a fourth where everyone is bug-people (which isn't fascist!), including wasp versions of the Smith family. * Pocket Dimension: In "The Ricks Must be Crazy", Rick's car is revealed to be powered by one. One of the inhabitants created his own, and one of its inhabitants, in turn, discovered his own. * Political Overcorrectness: In "Something Ricked This Way Comes", when Rick tells Morty that the microscope he got from Summer's boss will make him retarded, Morty tell him that he probably shouldn't use that word because, even though he was speaking objectively and the microscope would have literally made him mentally retarded, it would still offend "powerful groups who feel like they're doing the right thing". Rick's response? "Well, that's retarded." * Poorly Disguised Pilot: Parodied at the end of the second episode. Rick suggests that the world populated by dogs "could be developed into a very satisfying project for people of all ages", and that he would watch it "for at least eleven minutes a pop". * Poor Man's Porn: While living with the tree people, Morty was without access to internet porn and instead used an extra curvy piece of driftwood. * Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: At the end of "Meeseeks and Destroy" Rick makes an Arsenio Hall reference, making Beth and Jerry laugh, but then Beth says she doesn't get it, as she's too young. * Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: Many episode titles are puns of other works, like "The ABCs of Beth" being a pun on The ABCs of Death. * Potty Failure: Happens to Summer twice: First in "A Rickle in Time", out of the shock of Morty knocking out Rick, and again in "Total Rickall" during the elevator flashback, though both aren't explicitly seen, but mentioned by Morty the first time and Summer the second time. * The Power of Love: Played with in "Morty's Mind Blowers". One of the memories is of Morty being possessed by a demon worm, which Rick, Beth, and Summer discover can be coaxed out of Morty by telling him they love him. However, they can't help but crack jokes at Morty's expense as the spectacle becomes more disgusting and drawn out, leading to the Power wavering and creating extended discomfort for Morty. * Powered Armor: + In "Lawnmower Dog", Snuffles builds walking, humanoid exoskeletons for himself and all the neighborhood dogs, due to becoming an Uplifted Animal with genius intellect by way of a helmet Rick invented to make him smarter. Models with yellow Tron Lines are combat-capable, sporting shoulder guns; whereas blue denotes civilian. + In "Look Who's Purging Now", Rick and Morty have Summer send each of them a set of this so they can defend themselves from the Purgers trying to kill them. Unfortunately, Morty hits his Rage Breaking Point and gets a little kill-happy with his, forcing Rick to knock him out. Rick then lets Arthricia borrow Morty's armor, and the two of them use it to slaughter the rich people who orchestrate the yearly Purges. * Prison Rape: + In "Meeseeks and Destroy", Rick and Morty are about to be sent to Giant Prison. Rick bemoans that, if someone drops the soap, it will land on them and crush their spines. It would be really easy to rape them, then. + The fourth-dimensional lifeform in "A Rickle in Time" tells Rick, Morty, and Summer that they're going to Time Prison. > "You know what they do to third-dimensional lifeforms in Time Prison? Same thing they do in regular prison, only forever!" * The Problem with Licensed Games: In-universe, lampshaded in Rick and Morty's Rushed Licensed Adventure. It's right there in the title! The characters frequently complain about not being able to perform certain simple actions because the developers were too lazy to implement them (The game is actually not that bad for a free-to-play Flash game). * Product Placement: + Blatantly lampshaded in "Total Rickall". A flashback shows Rick walking into the living room with his arms full of Nintendo 3DSs, rambling on about how they can take advantage of the Walmart sale to turn a profit and sell them for more money because they were all the limited edition The Legend of Zelda versions. In the end, he turns right to the camera and yells "Nintendo! Send me free stuff!" Apparently, Justin Roiland did this once in real life. + Done again in The Rickshank Rickdemption with the Mulan Szechuan sauce. This caused such an out-of-universe demand for it from the fans that McDonald's actually brought it back in a limited capacity. * Protagonist-Centered Morality: + The collateral damage wreaked by Rick's schemes, whether implied or shown outright, is often absolutely gruesome in its sheer body count, but receives no serious repercussions for it, week after week. He's destroyed an entire reality just through incompetence, and that's probably not the first, and he stated that he once made the same mistake Beth did (in which she accidentally shot a genuine family friend whom she thought was an evil parasite) on "a planetary scale". - In general, Rick does the same things (or worse) than the people the show paints as villains without it being ever really relevant. He dislikes government for how controlling they are, yet he rules his family with an iron fist and severe gaslighting. He hates fascists, yet he considers himself a superior being with no issue to kiill those he deems "inferiors" (which, as stated above, includes several genocides). The galactic government keeping prisoners into stasis and feeding them a virtual reality was considered crossing a line, it's then discovered Rick does the same to people with no apparent reason. Rapists and slavers are considered utterly despicable when they are secondary characters, yet Rick is both things. And the list goes on. + Averted and played with in "Mortynight Run". After Rick sells a gun to Krombopulos Michael for an assassination, Morty argues that's as bad as pulling the trigger. Morty then goes and tries to save the life of Krombopulos Michael's target, causing hundreds of casualties as a result. Rick doesn't let him hear the end of it. * Punch a Wall: Jerry does so after having to say goodbye to Doofus Rick. * Punch-Clock Villain: Parodied by Scary Terry, the "legally-safe knock off" of Freddy Krueger living deep in Mr. Goldenfold's dreams: not only is terrorizing people literally just his day job, after he's done he goes home to a perfectly normal-looking suburban house, complete with an equally-scary wife and infant son.	RickAndMorty	null
Webcomics	# What Happened To The Mouse - Webcomics --- * In the final arc of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Doc's ally Martin was last seen Bound and Gagged in King Radical's lair \|\|after Doc's family was tricked into betraying him.\|\| He makes no further appearances after that and there's no indication that anyone went to rescue him. * Jessica's pregnancy in Better Days, though it's possible that the sequel, Original Life (which follows the children of Better Days' main characters) will bring this up. + In Original Life, it is shown that Jessica has many children, enough that Elizabeth feels uncomfortable asking her to take time babysitting her own kids. + Elizabeth's father all but vanishes as the series goes on. This is notable since he was written as being a reasonable parent to Elizabeth as opposed to her strict mother, and backed his daughter on things like having Fisk over. One has to wonder why he had no input when his wife all but forced their daughter to marry someone she didn't care about. * In Bob and George, on average once per Mega Man (Classic) game parody, Mega Man would beat one of the Robot Masters without killing them, and for the most part they never showed up again, though they spawned numerous Epileptic Trees. However, on rare occasions they showed up again, especially Shadow Man, who became a running joke due to his stealthy nature and the Epileptic Trees about his disappearance. + Shadow Man in particular said, after his initial appearance, that he'd disappear into the background until he was needed once again, which seemed a natural set up for him to return. It was years before he really did, and at every new plot development he was tagged as possibly being behind it. One fancomic lampshaded this by having him come and say the reason he hadn't shown up again was because, as a Ninja he would return and strike when least expected... but the readers kept expecting him. * You'd never know in Ciem that resident Depraved Bisexual Poison Dart Eddie even had a sidekick, as he is so quickly brushed aside and never mentioned again. Even Claire Rauscher has the decency to at least return in a later chapter, if only to \|\|fall to her death\|\|. * Averted in Daughter of the Lilies; in a magical university setting, a frog is used as sacrifice to summon a demonic entity that, as intended part of the experiment, possesses the frog. Readers commented that they wanted to know what happened to the frog, and the author did indeed reveal the ultimate fate of the frog. * Dominic Deegan: The climactic fight of the arc "The Battle for Barthis" involved several corrupt Knights having been hired by Serk Brakkis as insurance. Siegfried's comments about looking into the corruption of the Knights, as well as a brief teaser sketch for an arc called "Knightvision", implied there would be a story about Siegfried's attempts to deal with it. This was halted when the arc immediately after had Siegfried be retconned into being a more villainous person and killed off while the Knights were disbanded by order of the king a few arcs later. * Freaking Romance: Misty's story never is solved. Presumably she's lost in another dimension somewhere. * Fox Fires: After the Bird King gives some advice to Raate and part ways, Tuike later meets up with Raate again and reveal that the Bird King has gone missing. Aside from an ominous warning much later to never trust him, the Bird King is never mentioned or heard from again. Another character is the lynx Velko who told the original story of Repo the fire fox, who Raate tries to talk with to learn more, but ultimately doesn't as she goes on her journey. * Get Medieval (Irony-Chan)'s "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue is infamously missing Oneder, Iroth's bodyguard-turned-Muslim holy warrior. In the annotated reruns, Ironychan stated that she left out Oneder (and Sir Gerard) because she felt there was nothing really left to say about them. + Also; Asher's kitten. It disappeared shortly after Asher received it and was unmentioned for months, until it reappeared after the "Trip To The Moon" arc. Ironychan has never said whether or not this was planned all along or whether the constant cries of "WHERE'S THE KITTY" caused her to bring it back. * Homestuck: + There is Minihoof, Dirk's pet miniature pony, who has not been seen since he entered the Medium, roughly six months ago in-comic. This is kind of concerning, given that Minihoof is tiny enough to be easily crushed and it's not certain Dirk has been home to feed her... + The A2 versions of the Draconian Dignitary and the Courtyard Droll completely disappear from the narrative after Act 6 Act 5. + Aranea completely disappears from the story once \|\|John retcons the timeline\|\|, with Meenah mentioning she never saw or heard from her again after that. She's the only Beforan troll to not make an appearance in the "Vriskagram" flash. * Kevin & Kell has left a long trail of minor characters by the wayside in its 25-plus-year history. This is most literal with Lindesfarne's lab mice, which were most recently plot-relevant in 2004, and only seen twice since then. + Two of Lindesfarne's friends when she was at Caliban Academy, armadillo Colina and turtle Cara, were briefly seen when Lindesfarne decided to look for them online in 2012. Colina was also seen in a flashback in 2017. * Little Nuns: Two nuns from when Artist was in convent (and also when current adult nuns started joining) have apparently disappeared from the convent with no explanation. On boorus, one of them is nicknamed Brunette Bangs Nun, while the other is nicknamed Parted Grey Nun. The former has not appeared in any present images (as in, images that acknowledge the existence of any of the youngest nun generation) and can only be seen in flashback pictures or background photographs. The latter made some appearances in present time early on, but has not been seen (flashbacks to way deep past excluded) since these two strips, and it seems like her presence in convent from those days was retconned, as no later strip acknowledges that she used to be there alongside Clumsy and co. + Eventually they make a guest reappearance in 2022 Christmas arc, with one strip revealing that they had previously departed for a monastery in the city. * Emily from Mortifer. Last appeared on this page, and was promptly never seen again. This trope was barely averted however, when a fan drew a (spoileriffic) piece of Fan Art lampshading it, which the author saw, stating that she had completely forgotten about the character and that she would try to find a way to bring her back into the story. * In the My Little Pony arc of Murry Purry Fresh and Furry, it is ominously mentioned near the beginning that Molly is no longer a friend to pony land, possibly setting her up as the Big Bad of the arc. However near the end the author simply lost interest in continuing, abruptly ended it with Princess Celestia being arrested and called it quits without never once mentioning Molly again. * This is actually a power of henchmen in Nodwick. They have a Become Irrelevant power that allows them to vanish any time no one is directly paying attention to them. * The titular character in Oglaf barely appeared at all in the first place, and hasn't shown in the comics in years, to the point that one may forget there was a character sharing a name with the comic in the first place. * Averted in 1/0. By the end of the strip's run, every character that has ever appeared, even those you thought were one-off throwaway characters, has been accounted for. * Defied in The Order of the Stick. A mini arc featured the group of heroes tangling with a Bandit Clan, and the father & daughter team that led the bandits were spared at the end of the arc and given just enough characterization that fans frequently speculated on when/how the two would return to the story. The fan speculation and questioning irked author Rich Burlew enough that he wrote in a single comic where the two encountered a much more plot critical enemy, engaged in some Mugging the Monster, and were summarily killed for it. * On the occasion that Penny Arcade indulges in continuity (for example, Anne's new table-top game crew in 2014), the multi-part comic will suddenly end as soon as Jerry and Mike run out of jokes or come up with a joke that would only work individually, abandoning anything that was potentially brewing in the multi-part. * The Petri Dish: One story arc has Gordon, and later Thaddeus, drinking gene-altering formulae, mistaking them for soda. They're seen turning into monsters, and later go back to normal, but it's never revealed how they went back to normal. * In Questionable Content the character Sara just disappears and is never mentioned again. The Cast page lampshades this by saying she was eaten by an allosaurus. Author Jeph Jacques says he just dropped her for being boring. + In 2012, three new characters were introduced as library interns: Claire, Emily and Gabrielle. Claire became a major character and started dating Marten. Emily is a popular recurring character. Gabrielle largely vanished after the introductory story. She appears in 21 strips; Claire and/or Emily are in 19 of those, and in the other two Gabby does not speak. * Rumors of War: Who was that walking around as \|\|Couric\|\|? Where did \|\|Penelo\|\| disappear to? What about the rest of the characters on the ship in the first Story Arc? What about all those character Nenshe recruited to the Order of Orion? (Some of these turn into Brick Jokes later in the comic.) * Sam & Fuzzy has this happen often, as the story over the years has created a huge cast of characters, and many have unresolved plot points, from simple ones like "Did Mr. Ackerman get repaid?" to complete story arcs like Detective Morris's investigation. * For a long time it looked like \|\|Haban and Breya Andreyasn\|\| in Schlock Mercenary were heading this way, \|\|made more glaring and worrisome by their last appearance ending on an ominous note, though the enemy AI claimed they were not killed.\|\| But then six and a half years after disappearing, they got better. * Sluggy Freelance had a minor one where a reader actually asked, "What happened to the demonic ferret?" The answer was, "She's still there with the other demons, I just forgot to draw her." * Monette's baby, in Something\Positive. The full humor and drama of an unplanned pregnancy are played to maximum effect, but Monette's baby disappears from the plot with barely a ripple (subtle clues in the dialogue reveal it was either stillborn or died very shortly after birth). Millholland lampshaded the baby's absence much later in a filler strip in which the baby turned up in a Lost and Found box. Word of God says it was stillborn. Sonichu in spades. The author's wild-running attention span has caused him to start and drop so many plots and characters, it isn't even funny. * The Story of Anima has Jade's briefly seen caretaker, who vanishes from the story after only one page. When mercenaries attack the airship, not only is her fate left uncertain, the cast themselves seem to forget she even existed. * The eponymous slime of Unicorn Jelly simply disappeared after episode 581. Before To Save Her, the author claimed it was an intended symbolic plot point about childhood, magic or something or another. * In Weak Hero, the main group frequently visit a pool hall with a receptionist that many of them are quickly smitten with. She is then the one responsible for Ben finding out that his friend Alex was beaten up by Jimmy, which is part of what encourages him to fight back against the Union. In Season 2 they're too busy fighting the Union to visit the hall, but even when they return, at the very end of the season, the receptionist is nowhere to be seen. * In Wooden Rose, Aidan gives Nessa his horse so she can safely go home in the first chapter, and visits her to get it back in the second. The horse is never seen or mentioned again after that, \|\|which leaves it unclear as to where it went after Aidan returned to the woods in his tree spirit form and later died in the forest fire.\|\| * Narrowly averted in YU+ME: dream . The author realised she was going to do this with \|\|No Face, a minor but very scary enemy\|\| and so Dropped a Bridge on Him for completeness. \|\|Lia had just made a Face–Heel Turn and he got in her way. Cue a Neck Snap in the background of a conversation.\|\| ---	WhatHappenedToTheMouse	null
ProductionCompanyExamples	# Channel Hop - Production Company Examples * The 1980s Alvin and the Chipmunks series started out being animated by Ruby-Spears (a sister studio to Hanna-Barbera) for its first five seasons, before animation was switched over to DiC for the final three seasons, with 11 episodes in season six done by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, the same company behind the first TMNT series. * In terms of Batman media, DC Comics parent Warner Bros. produces and owns almost every adaptation out there....almost. First, there are the Columbia Batman serials The Batman and its sequel Batman and Robin from the 1940's. Unlike the Superman serials, they did not revert to DC and thus are now owned by Columbia parent Sony Pictures. Then there's the 1966 TV series and its tie-in movie, both of which were produced by 20th Century Fox. Fox's parent Disney (who owns DC rival Marvel Comics) now owns both the show and movie, though WB is currently licensed to handle home video distribution for the former. In both cases, the films and shows were produced long before WB bought out DC, and because WB doesn't own syndication rights to any of them, they are all barred from appearing on HBO Max. * Season 3 of Batwheels is animated by Icon Creative Studio instead of Super Prod Studios. * The NBC episodes of Baywatch were produced by GTG Entertainment — making for a strange-but-true link between this series and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as MTM's ex Grant Tinker was the "GT"(Gannett Newspapers supplied the second "G") — while the syndicated ones were produced by Tower 12 Productions/The Baywatch Production Company (and due to financial involvement from Britain's London Weekend Television thanks to Brits and Germans loving David Hasselhoff, the end credits (at least on its ITV run in the UK) carried the card "A Baywatch Production Company Production for LWT"). * Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction — the CBS episodes (which had Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin and Bernie Casey voicing the characters they played in the movie) were made by Hanna-Barbera in association with Orion, while when it moved to Fox (making this a channel hop AND a company hop) DiC took over production with the voices of the actors starring in a live-action adaptation of the movie. * Captain Planet and the Planeteers moved from DiC to Hanna-Barbera, starting with its fourth season, following Ted Turner's purchase of Hanna-Barbera. Turner eventually purchased the copyright to the DIC-produced seasons from them. * For Care Bears, the shows started out being produced by DiC Entertainment with Care Bears (1980s), then moved to Nelvana before the bears went on a long hiatus. When they returned, Nelvana produced two direct-to-video CGI movies before the animation production changed hands again with Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot, when production went to Sabella-Dern Entertainment, then finally to the US branch of Moonscoop with Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot, who then rebranded themselves as Splash Entertainment after a takeover and produced Care Bears & Cousins under the new name. Care Bears: Unlock the Magic is animated by Copernicus Studios in Canada. * Cartoon Network originals that Hanna-Barbera first made (Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls (1998)) would have production moved to CN's Burbank studios after H-B closed its doors in 2001 and was absorbed by Warner Bros. Animation. * The pilot for Codename: Kids Next Door was produced by Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, but the series was made at Curious Pictures in New York, where creator Tom Warburton was based. * Concentration originated in 1958 as a Jack Barry-Dan Enright production. Less than two months later, NBC took over production of the show (as well as fellow B&E shows Tic Tac Dough and Dough Re Mi) after Barry and Enright were implicated in the Quiz Show Scandals. After Concentration was canceled in 1973, NBC (who to this day still holds the rights to it) licensed Jim Victory Television to create a new syndicated series, with Goodson-Todman Productions subcontracted to produce it. Victory and G-T would also make Classic Concentration for NBC in 1987. * The vast majority of Direct-to-Video Disney sequels, while still being produced and distributed by Disney, were animated by Disney Television Animation, as opposed to Walt Disney Animation Studios. * Doug: Jumbo Pictures was there for all episodes, but their co-producers varied. Nickelodeon Season 1 was mostly produced by Jumbo with the network only handling the production duties associated with owning the show, as Nickelodeon did not have an animation studio at the time. Starting in Season 2, Ellipse Programme took on co-producer duties in exchange for the European rights to the Nickelodeon episodes. With the Disney acquisition of the franchise, Jumbo co-operated with Disney Television Animation on the ABC episodes. * The 1999-present run of Family Feud has had several different syndicators throughout its run. Pearson Television, who owned the franchise by then, handled both production and distribution duties until Fremantle Media bought the company in 2001. Although Fremantle has handled production duties since then, they transferred syndication duties to Tribune Entertainment until the company folded in 2007. Lionsgate-owned Debmar-Mercury then picked up syndication duties and has handled distribution of the series ever since. However, from that point ad sales services were handled separately by 20th Television, Fox's syndication unit. After Disney absorbed that unit in 2019, along with the rest of Fox's entertainment properties, Debmar-Mercury contracted CBS Television Distribution to handle ad sales in 20th's place. * Fancy Nancy is all over the place when it comes to animation studios. Season 1 was animated by Toiion Animation. Season 2 alternated between Stellar Creative Lab and Snowball Studios. Season 3 alternated between Snowball Studios and Toiion Animation. * Of the pre-TV variety; Felix the Cat was originally made by the Pat Sullivan studio and distributed by at least five different companies (Paramount, Winkler, Educational, First National, and Copley Pictures). By 1936, Van Beuren Studios licensed the character for their cartoon studio, and for that brief period, they were distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. * Fireman Sam: + Series 1 through 4 were originally produced by Bumper Films, and aired on BBC. When the series was bought by HiT Entertainment and revived for a fifth season in 2003, the animation production was moved to Siriol Animation due to Bumper Films' then-recent shutdown. + After Season 5, the show Shifted to CGI, with the new animation style being handled by Xing Xing Digital Corporation. Around this time was also when the series moved from BBC to Milkshake!. + In 2016, a scene from the Season 9 episode "Troubled Waters" was discovered to contain a split-second depiction of a verse from The Qur'an. Due to the disrespectful context (the page with the text was left lying on the floor and then carelessly stepped on), HiT Entertainment severed ties with Xing Xing Digital, and the animation was passed over to WildBrain. Unlike the previous hops from Bumper Films to Siriol, and then to Xing Xing, this change was not as noticeable, as the series retained the same style of animation, just with brighter colours and smoother motion. * After Fox's syndication unit 20th Television was absorbed into Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Fox Corporation formed Fox First Run to syndicate first-run programs they held onto, such as Divorce Court(Seasons 1-15, as well as previous incarnations, are retained by Disney; Disney licensed Season 14 to Fox for repeats on Tubi) and Dish Nation(Pre-2014 episodes remain with Disney). They also assumed syndication and promotional duties for MyNetworkTV, which was previously syndicated through 20th. In addition, in 2021, Fox Alternative Entertainment took over production of TMZ on TV(Pre-2021 episodes remain with Warner Bros.), with Fox First Run handling syndication duties. * When Rooster Teeth parent company WarnerMedia decided to make a season 2 of gen:LOCK, it moved onto HBO Max, with animation handled by Bardel Entertainment. * G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero was originally produced by Sunbow Entertainment, which produced two five-episode miniseries followed by two seasons and G.I. Joe: The Movie. Sunbow intended to continue the series with a third season, but Hasbro cancelled their license and instead had the show receive a continuation helmed by DiC Entertainment, which began with a Five-Episode Pilot and lasted two seasons. * The Golden Girls nearly went towards this: In 1991 Touchstone Television decided against making any more episodes for financial reasons. Warner Bros. Television said they'd step into the breach, but that plan fell apart when Beatrice Arthur announced she was quitting. Touchstone would make a pseudo-spinoff, The Golden Palace, which aired on CBS for one year (making it a pseudo-Channel Hop, as The Golden Girls aired on NBC). * The pilot for The Highwayman was made by Glen A. Larson's company at 20th Century Fox, but the series was produced on a lower budget by Larson's New West Entertainment. * Let's Make a Deal was first a Stefan Hatos-Monty Hall production, but later editions were made by Catalina, Dick Clark/Ron Greenburg Productions, and Renegade 83 (co-produced with Hall). The current show on CBS is a Fremantle production. * The animated movies based on The Loud House franchise, while still made by Nickelodeon, have come out on different networks and used different animation studios. The Loud House Movie and The Casagrandes Movie both came out on Netflix instead of Nickelodeon and were respectively animated by Top Draw Animation and Mighty Animation Studio. For No Time to Spy: A Loud House Movie , it came out on Paramount Plus and Nickelodeon while being animated by the franchise's main animation studio, Jam Filled Entertainment. * When The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s reunion movie The Return Of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair got the go-ahead in 1983, it wasn't made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (home of the original series); writer-producer Michael Sloan convinced MGM to lease the property to his company and Viacom Productions. * Maury was distributed by Paramount Domestic Television (now CBS Television Distribution) from its premiere until Paramount considered canceling it after its seventh season in 1998. Maury Povich instead pitched the series to Studios USA Television (who also produced then-competitor The Jerry Springer Show) for its eighth season, and has stuck with them ever since even after Studios USA later became Universal Television and then NBCUniversal. The change in companies coincided with the show's leap to more outrageous topics, much like Springer though more subdued. * The original four-season run of Pingu was made by The Pygos Group's Trickfilmstudio. After Pygos was sold to HiT Entertainment in 2001, they had their in-house studio, Hot Animation, make a two-season revival of the show. Over a decade later Mattel, who had bought HiT in 2011, contracted Polygon Pictures to make a new series, Pingu in the City. * The first two seasons of Postman Pat were produced by Woodland Animations. Series 3 through 5 and the first of Special Delivery Service were animated by Cosgrove Hall, and the final two seasons were produced by Mackinnon and Saunders. * The Price Is Right began as a Goodson-Todman Production (followed by Mark Goodson Productions after Bill Todman died). Goodson himself died in 1992, but the show retained his Vanity Plate in the credits as a tribute to him even after his heirs sold the company to All American Television in the mid-1990s. Over fifteen years after Mark Goodson died, Price became a Fremantle Media Production (after All American had been sold several times, first to British publishing company Pearson, then to the RTL Group). Similarly, Family Feud was a G-T production; it is now co-produced by Fremantle with Wanderlust Productions. * Punky Brewster not only switched from network to syndication, it also changed producers. It was originally produced in-house by NBC, but the network had to license the rights to Columbia Pictures Television. Under Federal Communications Commission rules at the time, a network could not be involved in a syndicated show. * Rankin/Bass started out as an independent studio until General Electric bought R-B (then known legally as Videocraft International) in 1971, giving them ownership of their library (including the iconic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman specials). When R-B was spun-off as an independent company three years later, GE retained their library. + Through a string of mergers and acquisitions, the library is now split: StudioCanal now owns the Videocraft theatrical library (except one film that carried over to DreamWorks, who also retains the copyrights to all the movies in question). Universal through DreamWorks Animation owns all R-B works prior to 1974, while R-B material made from then on (starting with The Year Without a Santa Claus) are owned by Warner Bros. through Telepictures, who bought R-B in 1978. This may explain why The Year Without A Santa Claus, Frosty's Winter Wonderland, Rudolph's Shiny New Year and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July don't feature any footage from either Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, even though all the specials are set in the same continuity as those three. * The Disney Junior show Rise Up, Sing Out was originally animated by Lion Forge Animation in season 1. Starting with season 2, Snipple Animation would work on the series instead. * Rocky and Bullwinkle was always owned by the Jay Ward estate, but the distribution rights changed several times. + Most rights were owned by Universal from the early 90s until 2002, then by Classic Media until 2012, when the studio was acquired by DreamWorks Animation. Distribution came full circle in 2016, when Universal acquired DWA. In 2022, the distribution deal with Universal expired, with the Ward estate signing a deal with WildBrain. + The series was distributed on home video by RCA, then Buena Vista, then Classic Media (under license to Sony Wonder, then Genius Products and Gaiam Vivendi). The most recent home video release was by Universal. + TV syndication was handled by The Program Exchange from 1979 until its demise in 2016. All distribution rights moved to DreamWorks until 2022, when WildBrain took over. * Rubble & Crew is animated by Jam Filled Entertainment, instead of by Guru Studio like its parent series. * Sofia the First was animated by Toiion Animation. The upcoming sequel series, Sofia The First Royal Magic, will be animated by Icon Creative Studios, the same studio that animated Sofia's spinoff series Elena of Avalor. * Stargate: the original movie was produced by Carolco Pictures and released by MGM under a short-lived distribution arrangement. The debt-ridden Carolco ended up selling the Stargate IP to MGM so that it could raise financing for Cutthroat Island, which ended up a box office bomb. While MGM turned the cult hit into a Cash-Cow Franchise with Stargate SG-1, current Carolco library holder StudioCanal has gotten nothing but checks for sales of the film and nothing else. * Season 2 of SuperKitties is animated by Mainframe Studios instead of Bardel Entertainment . * The long running CBC series This Hour Has 22 Minutes has been through quite a few producer changes, for a Canadian production that is. For the first 10 seasons the show was produced by the independent Halifax-based studio Salter Street Films.(Who also created Lexx and financed the film Bowling for Columbine, plus children's programs and other CBC shows such as Made in Canada.) In 2001, Alliance Atlantis purchased the company, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2003, Alliance closed down nearly all of it's production division, but kept the show as a direct production very briefly.(Alliance's formal demise came in 2007 when it was purchased by CanWest Global (predecessor of what is now Corus Entertainment). Which led to the massive sell off of Alliance's library piece by piece.) In 2004, Halifax Film (started by former Salter Street executives) purchased the rights from Alliance and took over production. Halifax Film would later become DHX Media (now WildBrain) in 2006. As a result of DHX's financial troubles, the show is now produced by Island of Misfits (which acquired DHX's Halifax studio), as per the CBC press release. * Osamu Tezuka's Unico started out as a joint effort with Sanrio. The 1979 short film Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather was animated in-house by Sanrio Animation which served as a pilot for a potential anime series. The film series (The Fantastic Adventures of Unico and Unico in the Island of Magic) was handled by Sanrio Animation, Tezuka Productions, and Madhouse between 1981 and 1983. After Tezuka's passing in 1989, future animated Unico projects would be handled at Tezuka Productions beginning with the 2000 short film Saving our Fragile Earth: Unico Special Chapter. + Sanrio previously had the merchandise rights to Unico between 1976 and throughout the 1980s. Following Tezuka's passing, Tezuka Productions took over the merchandise to the Unico franchise. * When Cannon Television ran into financial problems of their own after the first few episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger, CBS (with some help from Columbia Pictures Television) agreed to foot the bill thereafter. * The Wonder Years; both the original series and the reboot aired on ABC. However, the original show was produced by New World Television, while the reboot is produced in-house via sister studio 20th Century Fox Television (the current Wonder Years rights-holders, after they folded New World). ---	ChannelHop	null
EdIlFandomEsulto	# It Sugar Wiki - Ed Il Fandom Esulto Allora, finalmente stanno producendo Il film del vostro franchise (probabilmente risalente a Gli Anni Ottanta). E vi fa schifo. Stanno facendo il casting a caso, hanno assunto il regista sbagliato, stanno rovinando la vostra infanzia ecc... E poi tirano fuori quell'unica cosa che vi fa esclamare, "Oggesù! Che figata!" La ragione per tale reazione varia a seconda della produzione specifica e del fan specifico. Sembra che l'esempio più comune sia collegato a quelle volte in cui qualcuno di relativo all'opera originale torna a farsi vivo in un certo ruolo importante o sottolinea la fedeltà all'opera da parte del nuovo regista. Altri casi comprendono l'assunzione di un attore o il regista risaputamente Fanboy Promosso, una mostra sui costumi o sul set, o una petizione per richiedere un certo attore che viene veramente presa in considerazione. Si noti che questo termine descrive la reazione. In una sorprendente inversione della Legge Di Sturgeon, la maggior parte delle volte è anche un buon sintomo della qualità della produzione. Ma, nonostante tutto, ci sono sempre quegli altri casi in cui tutto va a farsi benedire. Per quello si veda Hanno Sprecato Un'Ottima Trama, Solo Per Una Scena e Adattamento Decadente. I SIII, gli Squee e le loro varianti sono tutte reazioni comuni dei fan a questi momenti. Su internet, la Mutazione Memetica "Reaction Guys / Gaijin 4Koma" qualche volta viene impiegata per far notare queste situazioni. Gli utenti di TV Tropes tendono a sottolineare questi momenti con una frase che descrive il momento propizio annessa ad un Pothole a questa pagina. Contrasta Guastato Dall Anteprima e Rovinato PERSEMPRE. Affine a Compiacere Il Fandom, anche se non sempre finisce bene. Da non confondersi con E Tutti Esultarono, a meno che non ci vada di mezzo Lo Scrappy. --- Esempi: -------	ItSugarWiki	null
SouthPark	# Insufferable Imbecile - South Park South Park Is a show where a lot of characters are either assholes or idiots, so it's no surprise that dimwitted jerks in this show are quite common: * Eric Cartman may be cunning when it comes to creating evil schemes at times, but he's otherwise dimwitted and clueless, and sometimes his mean tricks only make him look like an idiot. A good example is "Cartman Sucks", where he tries to humiliate Butters in a very stupid way (which is actually more humiliating to Cartman himself than Butters), then gets easily tricked by Kyle into believing his Blatant Lies about "gay polarity". * Randy Marsh. Despite being an educated scientist (a geologist, to be exact), he often acts like an incredibly airheaded and selfish Manchild. His tendency to impulsively engage in crazy antics to satisfy his hedonistic desires has caused endless grief for his wife and children, often acting stubbornly and willfully ignorant of their protests. * Stephen and Linda Stotch are quite abusive towards Butters, finding excuses to punish him and being outright inconsiderate to his well-being. However, they have also proven themselves to be just as clueless and idiotic as the other parents, especially in "Marjorine" and "City Sushi". And karma has bodyslammed them at least once. * Carol and Stuart McCormick are ignorant, alcoholic Lower-Class Louts who often beat each other up over trivial matters. And while they're not as bad as the Stotches, they (especially Stuart) are nonetheless quite neglectful and distant towards their children. * Mr. Garrison is an extremely incompetent teacher at South Park Elementary School who puts no effort into actually teaching his students anything. He is also extremely delusional and insane, regularly displaying severe anger issues and psychopathic tendencies, which sometimes lead to violent outbursts of rape and murder. * Mayor McDaniels is an egotistical Know-Nothing Know-It-All who looks down on everyone she views as inferior, makes idiotic decisions that result in chaos, and has no problem ordering Officer Barbrady to shoot a group of defenseless children because they were allegedly part of a terrorist group. * Sgt. Harrison Yates is a Dirty Cop who is grossly incompetent at his job, has zero qualms about using lethal force against unarmed children, and outright admits that he only joined the police force so he could beat up minorities. * The rest of the adult population (with a few exceptions) also qualifies; they are often complete idiots who couldn't care less about the world around them, screw each other over for petty reasons, and are prone to going on psychotic rampages when anything goes wrong. * Clyde Donovan has become this as an adult in the Bad Future shown in "Post Covid" and "The Return of Covid". He strongly believes in the already-disproven myths about COVID vaccines, to the point that he stubbornly refuses to get vaccinated despite knowing that he can get the federal quarantine around South Park lifted if he does so. \|\|Clyde also becomes easily manipulated by Cartman into trying to kill a child and proceeds to continue this murder attempt even after Cartman changes his mind and orders him to stand down.\|\|	InsufferableImbecile	null
SuperSentai	# Actor Allusion - Super Sentai Actor Allusions in Super Sentai: * Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger + Boi learns ninjutsu in an episode titled "Ninja Warrior Boi". This is a reference to Hashimoto's previous role as Manabu Yamaji in Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya. + Later, Geki would fight a giant monster again, now alone as Kamen Rider J. + Bandora's name is similar to Pandora, another tokusatsu villainess portrayed by Machiko Soga. * Ninja Sentai Kakuranger: The sexy red outfit worn by Amikiri in #17 is not so different from the one actress Ami Kawai previously wore as Karsha in ''Jiban'' #12. * Chouriki Sentai Ohranger: Ohranger vs. Kakuranger has a scene taking place in a Wild West-themed locale. The male rangers are cornered by cowboys with guns, and then Chief Miura shows up wearing a black leather cowboy hat, playing a certain tune on a guitar... * Kyukyu Sentai Go Go Five + As early as episode 3, Kyouko, played by Yuko Miyamura, utters "Are you that dumb?"(Anta baka?) Miyamura's character from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Asuka Langley Sohryu, also uses it as one of her catchphrases. + Go Blue is now the more-brutal-yet-still-intelligent Kamen Rider Amazon Alpha going into Amazon hunting. + In Episode 9, Matsuri mentions that her paramedic mentor, Mizuki, likes orchids. Mizuki's actress previously portrayed Flower Ninja Ran.(("Ran" is Japanese for orchid.)) + Zeek from The Movie is played by Keiichi Wada, or \|\|Ryo of DaiRanger\|\|. Three guesses what his henshin pose looks like. * Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger: Hidekatsu Shibata once more voices the male half of a villain with male and female nature. + Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai: Through the use of Stock Footage, Akira Shinmei and Councillor Naoyuki Miura are seen leading the Red Mecha into battle, and it is indicated that Banba had anticipated them. All three characters are played by Hiroshi Miyauchi. * Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: + Sandaaru (who is voiced by Shūichi Ikeda) has a tendency to say modified versions of Char Aznable's famous quotes, including this line "Let's just see the capabilities of the Earth's Karakuri Giant!"(a nod to "Let's just see the capabilities of the Federation's mobile suit!"). + Each of Shurikenger's human disguises are played by past Sentai actors, and whenever they transform into Shurikenger, they'll usually incorporate the henshin pose of the character they originally played. - Played with in regards to Kenji Ohba, who did Gavan's henshin pose instead. + In Ten Years After, Ikkou's musical group Junretsu includes Yusuke Tomoi, who doesn't appear in the special; they tell the audience he's apparently home with the measles and certainly not off fighting monsters as a green superhero — which he did ten years before as Kamen Rider Gills. - Junretsu actually exists in Real Life(The name is written differently in Ten Years After), and features multiple Toku actors including Tomoi, Yujiro Shirakawa (Ikkou), Ryohei Idou (Kamen Rider Zolda) and Kazuyoshi Sakai (Gao Black). + Also in Ten Years After, Nanami's idol career was reaching its sell-by date, so to speak, and her manager was asking her to consider doing a Hotter and Sexier production. Which Nao Nagasawa already did, in Koichi Sakamoto's DTV movie Dimension Travellers. * Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger + In 10 Years After, the mic alien is once again played by Isao Sasaki (who also performs the ED of Dekaranger), and the last thing he yells out is "goodbye to Earth." This is the first line of the OP for Uchuu Senkan Yamato, also performed by Sasaki. * Juken Sentai Gekiranger + Shafu's VA, Ichirō Nagai, also voiced Korin before, and he apparently isn't shy about having it known; the same tone, the same way of speech, and the same use of "-ja" after sentences. (Although, do note that "ja" is also an actual particle in Japanese language.) Even the "Show respect to your elders" part is there in Training 2. + A Monster of the Week voiced by Tetsu Inada at one point shouts "We'll delete you!". He used to have the badge to back up his call as the SPD boss. * Engine Sentai Go-onger: Or in this case, Voice Actor Allusion, as the voice of Carrigator also voiced the comic relief crocodilian monster Yatsudenwani from Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger. * Samurai Sentai Shinkenger + The voice actor from GaoGaiGar, as a monster with a golden lion head on his chest. + Romi Park's previous role in the equally Jidaigeki-inspired Samurai 7 has her character forming an attachment to someone called Kyuuzo. Here, it's someone called Juuzo. For added points, 'kyu' and 'juu' translate into 'nine' and 'ten'. + Ryuunosuke's worst fear is, oddly, cacti. Ironically, one of Aiba's previous roles cast him as Fuji Shuusuke in The Prince of Tennis musicals, a character who loves cacti and owns quite a number of them. * Tensou Sentai Goseiger + Gosei Ground is formed from a combination of Gosei Knight in his Groundion form as well as two additional (non-sentient) Gosei Machines, similar to the King of the Braves. + Appearing in The Movie is Sayaka Isoyama of Chou Sei Shin Gransazer fame, whose costume◊ already sports a large gold coin with a symbol on it, as all Sazers have. + An indirect example in Epic 26 when Alata tries to get Hyde to loosen up by doing one comedy act after another, including a Louis Yamada impression. + Both Gosei Knight (in his Groundion form) and Metal-Alice have had drill-like equipment. Maybe because they were ex-drillmates? + If Magis had survived, he would've become this Sentai's green warrior, just like his actor did six years before… * Super Sentai Versus Series Theater + While watching Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai, Alata believes that the old man (Hiroshi Miyauchi) is Chief Counsellor Naoyuki Miura from Ohranger before he is revealed as Sokichi Banba / Big One. + While watching the Dekaranger features, Hyde comments that Senichi "Sen-chan" Enari / Deka Green looks familiar; his actor, Yousuke Itou, also played Hyde's fallen partner, Magis / Gosei Green. * Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: + Gai's actor, Junya Ikeda, stated in his blog that when he was a child he wanted to be the Kiba Ranger. In episode 19, the first thing Gai does when he is allowed to summon Ranger Keys is to summon the Kiba Ranger key. + In episode 29, when Ahim dons a schoolgirl disguise, she says she's from Saitama and needs directions. Her actress, Yui Koike, is actually from Saitama, herself. + Momo making the Gokaigers do random errands in exchange for the Greater Power in #31 is believed to be an inside joke to Tamao Sato's attitude during the production of Chouriki Sentai Ohranger where she'd make constant unreasonable demands to Toei for being on a kids' show. + Joji Nakata, who played the Monster of the Week Zaien in the Liveman tribute episode (#30), was the same actor who played the lead antagonist in that series (Professor Bias). \|\|Both were also responsible for turning a former friend to the enemy - Kenji, Rui, and Goh for the Liveman and Sid for Joe, though they were done in different ways.\|\| * Kaizoku Sentai Ten Gokaiger + Kaoruko Ishii and Rara Shimizu, who portrayed the original child versions of Mio Natsume/ToQ 3gou and Kagura Izumi/ToQ 5gou appear as a pair of normal high school girls here, wearing yellow and pink respectively. + The commentators of the Derby Colosseum, Akiro Masukoda and Hiroya Matsumoto get a few of these as well. - Hiroya keeps calling Akiro "Bascoda". Kei Hosogai, Akiro's actor, previously portrayed Basco in Gokaiger itself. - Hiroya sheds tears of disappointment upon watching Beet Buster and Magi Yellow defeated, having previously portrayed the both of them. Their opponents? Battle Kenya and Denji Blue, who both similarly share the same actor between themselves. * Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger + In #4, an Imagine Spot shows Malshina going into past villainess outfits ( Kegalesia) that also belonged to a former porn star. And in #7, Malshina's focus ep, we see Hakase handling a diorama that features Zonette, who also falls under this group. + Yumeria's mother actually says to the Kabukicho MOTW "I'll buy 10 bottles - no, 151, getto daze!" + Partial example in #10. Kozukozu is the first to notice that Takuma Tsuzuki is identical to Retsu/Geki Blue - but the Rangers shoot her down immediately. And they're not wrong - Takuma is played by Shinpei Takagi, while Retsu is played by his twin brother Manpei Takagi (Shinpei only appeared in Gekiranger for an Evil Twin story). That's right, our heroes have outdone Gai by being able to tell twins apart! - To play further on Shinpei's Gekiranger association, Episode 11's fight is full of Gekiranger references, starting from the verbally and physically elaborate roll call, then going all out on unarmed combat, and then right down to spelling out the "heart-technique-body" triangle and using Animal Battle Aura Ki Manipulation. Interestingly, Takuma himself had something from each one of the core Gekirangers: the color of Jan/Geki Red; the element of Ran/Geki Yellow; and the animal spirit of Retsu/Geki Blue. + In Season 2, Nobuo addresses a toy shop clerk that has a \|\|Bae doll riding his arm. Said clerk may have possibly been a mad scientist with an obsession for endings that had a creepier-looking doll riding his arm.\|\| - \|\|Said creepier-looking doll is actually on top of the cash register\|\| + \|\|Katsuyuki Konishi voices a smartphone-themed MotW - which he used the last time he was in a Sentai series.\|\| + General Tsuu is singing Ginga Honey from Denshi Sentai Denziman when he's at the karaoke. He is played by Ryō Horikawa, and the one-off character who originally sung the song was played by Ryūsei Nakao. In other words, Vegeta is covering a song originally sung by Frieza. * Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters + In Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: The Movie, Buster Hercules transforms into MagiKing, prompting Jin to comment that he feels right at home inside it. He even does the Magiranger hand pose! * Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger + Tessai's gray suit looks more like a darker silver. Also, the clear domed portion on his head reflects light the same way Masayuki Deai's old Bouken Silver suit did. + Oddly enough, this isn't the first time Shigeru Chiba portrayed a mad scientist with a high respect towards his female assistant in a Toei-produced show. + A purple, dinosaur-themed character is nothing new to Chiba either. + Additionally, in episode 21, after Daigo tells him to run, Ulshade bravely responds by saying “Run?” In a similar fashion to another one of Chiba's characters. + In #40, when Yuko — played by Ayumi Kinoshita, who also portrayed Jasmine/DekaYellow — fends off some Zorima, she ends up performing the Dekaranger henshin pose (complete with the familiar sirens in the background). > Yuko: What an emergency! + While Souji's father is played by Dyna Black, Souji's mother in Brave 43 is played by Dyna Pink. + Deathryuger introduces himself by saying "I am Deathryuger". Mamoru Miyano is also a Gundam and Kira. * Ressha Sentai ToQger + Jun Fukuyama is playing a hammy, masked aristocrat associated with the color black. + The ToQgers dig up the real name of their hometown, Subarugahama. Hikari was previously Iseki Jiro from Subaruboshi High School. + Look carefully at the Wagon helmet with its heart-shaped black visor. Does it look kinda like Kyoryu Pink? That's because they have the same suit actor! + They bring in Akira Kushida to sing the new Leitmotif for Safari Gaoh, which is interesting as Kushida actually sang a jingle for a safari park once! + Mio previously guested on Goseiger where she played a high school girl that another male student had a huge crush on. + Hiroyuki Konishi, who played the idiot police chief from episode 14, is constantly referred to as "Boss" by his subordinates — a nod to his role on Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, as Captain Hiroshi Hyuuga, who was also referred as "Boss". * Shuriken Sentai Ninninger + Not surprisingly, Ariake No Kata has her own In the Name of the Moon sequence, but the kicker is the moon actually appearing in it! + Done indirectly with Tomokazu Seki as the voice of Nekomata, who's otherwise based off of Jibanyan from Yo-kai Watch (where Seki voices another character, Whisper). In episode 26, they even give him Jibanyan's usual Verbal Tic. + Yoshi Sudarso's cameo has him being rescued by Ao Ninger. Yoshi plays the Blue Dino Charge Ranger. This particular reference came full circle when it was revealed at Power Morphicon 2016 that Yoshi's brother Peter was cast as Ao Ninger's Power Rangers counterpart, the Blue Ninja Steel Ranger. * Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger + The motorcycle-based Monster of the Week in ep. 8 is Nobuyuki Hiyama, who was not only around for the last anniversary season, but was also a motorcycle monster very long ago! - The monster he voiced also fought a yellow-armored, lion-themed, Hot-Blooded Screaming Warrior — that description also fits Guy Shishioh, who is one of his most iconic roles. + Episode 23's Monster of the Week has a sailor motif and is voiced by Akio Suyama, who also voices a certain Assault Force leader that arrived fresh out of the Japanese Navy. + The V Cinema movie, Zyuohger Returns, introduces Lilian, a character that goes from enacting Pervert Revenge Mode against an Accidental Pervert (Misao) to falling in love with them. Is it any surprise that she was voiced by Tsundere Queen Rie Kugimiya? * Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Chou Super Hero Taisen: When Yakumo (AoNinger) joins Emu's team, he suggests recruiting Tsubasa Ozu (MagiYellow), who was established as his mentor by a Continuity Cameo in Ninninger #38, only to be joined by the identical Masato Jin (Beet Buster), who was also played by Hiroya Matsumoto. Furthermore, the gold-colored Beet Buster fills the slot to become the yellow Ki-Rider. * Uchu Sentai Kyuranger + Champ is covered in smooth black armor, with gaps revealing pipes that look like organic sinews from a distance. This mimics his suit actor Jiro Okamoto's first major role, Kamen Rider BLACK (coincidentally, his origin story could easily pass for a Showa Rider one.) + Champ gets another one in Space 21, where he says "Kept ya waiting, huh?" + One of Scorpio's signature attacks is a Diving Kick; ironically, while his character in Kamen Rider Gaim does officially have a Rider Kick, he never actually used it in the main series. + In Space 17, Balance hits the Monster of the Week with Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, just like Josuke and Crazy Diamond. - How can one forget that this isn't the first time Yuki Ono (Balance's voice actor) voiced a character in gold whose both The Social Expert and Agent Peacock. + In Uchu Sentai Kyuranger Final Live Tour 2018, Tsurugi Ohtori, played by Keisuke Minami, uses the four Minami (South) Kyutama, representing the constellation of Southern Cross, to cross dimensions. He even suggests that that combining the four Kyutama could form a Keisuke Minami Kyutama. + Also in the Final Live Tour, Raptor 283, voiced by Mao Ichimichi, at one point yells "Shut up, idiot!"(Urusei, baka!) in frustration, with Spada observing that she did a Gokai Change, her actress having played Luka Millfy (Gokai Yellow) in Gokaiger. * Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger + Some scenes with Cmdr. Hilltop turn into impromptu language lessons, which mirrors what his actor Ike Nwala normally does on primetime tv. More specifically, the "omimai" mutateed into "Hold me tight" is a Running Gag of his. + In episode 17, when Sakuya asks Umika to sign a photobook of her in the dream world, she exclaims that she hasn't published one, but her actress Haruka Kudo has. The title of the photobook "mi" is even a reference to Haruka's first photobook "Do" (both are the last characters of their last names). * Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger + Canalo hitting on Master Pink leads to an artsy backdrop with Roman pillars and a Gigantic Moon, pulled directly out of Sailor Moon which Miyu Sawai (Master Pink) is still well remembered for. + Episode 45 has a flashback show Master Black transforming into Ryusoul Black with pose similar to his actor's previous role as Tatsuya Asami/TimeRed. * Mashin Sentai Kiramager + Inori Minase (Mabushina) once played a good genie who is related to an evil genie (even though the latter redeemed himself). Her outfit during her concert section in Episode 23 also look like Cure Parfait's, especially the rainbow-colored skirt. + Yūichi Nakamura (Galza) previously voiced Orm/Ocean Master (an evil prince who plotted to kill his older brother out of jealousy of being denied the throne) in the Japanese dub of Aquaman (2018). + The series has multiple references to Daimaou Kosaka's (Muryo) well-known role as Piko-Taro of PPAP fame: - A sign hanging in CARAT HQ, visible in various episodes, reads "Perfect Performance And Physical". - Episode 2 has Muryo name a new gimmick by putting words together. - The ending skit of episode 16 is even more blatant, with Juru standing with Muryo while holding up a pineapple and an apple. - Episode 17 has Juru describe Gigant Driller's transformation (complete with signature hand gesture) as > Juru: Takamichi and Drijan have —Ugh!— combined into a titan! - Episode 20 shows Muryo mime the PPAP hand gestures again while describing a Sticky Situation. - In episode 26, a scene with the camera on all 5 Kiramagers one by one reveal two pineapple and apple ornaments decorating the CARAT office. - Takamichi's Imagine Spot of Muryo as Kiramai Gold in episode 30 has his Kiramager form wear a long golden scarf in a similar fashion to Piko-Taro's. - Episode 37 has Muryo come up with a solution to recombine the split-up Senas PPAP-style. > Muryo: We have a Sena 1, we have a Sena 2, UGH! Sena 1+2! - Episode 41 has Muryo and Mabushina sitting together, the latter of which is holding two sticks adorned with an apple and a pineapple. - Bee-Bop Dream throws the entire kitchen sink by having him actually sing the song and do the routine, and gave it an actual role in the story. + Numajo's mask resembles the Terror Dopant's head from Kamen Rider W; her voice actress, Naoko Kouda, previously starred in that series as Shroud/Fumine Sonozaki — who was the wife of Ryubee Sonozaki, the civilian identity of the Terror Dopant. Numajo also curses Oradin by targeting someone close to him instead, which is what happened in the backstory of Kamen Rider Skull, whom Shroud was backing at the time. + This isn't the first time Subaru Kimura voiced a MoTW with a bowling schtick. + In #43, Oradin does a certain running pose that makes you think he'd be saying "NIGERUNDAYOOOO!" + Mashin Sentai Kiramager Final Live Tour 2021: Hiroya Matsumoto, who serves as MC for the Final Live Tour in his capacity as Super Sentai Goodwill Ambassador, is recognized by the Kiramagers since he appeared as an Ice Cream Vendor in episode 35. * Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger + Episode 43 has the MOTW modeled on GaoGaiGar and Guy Shishio, voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama. + Episode 44 has the head of the MOTW shaped like DaiDenzin, and is voiced by none other than Denzi Green himself, Naoya Uchida. + In Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Final Live Tour 2022, the Zenkaigers use the Magiranger Sentai Gear to summon Tsubasa Ozu and later the Go-Busters Sentai Gear to summon Masato Jin. Both are played by Hiroya Matsumoto, who was also the MC for the Final Live Tour in his capacity as Super Sentai Goodwill Ambassador.	ActorAllusion	null
RealLife	# Spanner In The Works - Real Life * World War I: + Germany intended to go through neutral Belgium in order to attack the French. It probably would have worked if not for the Belgian resistance delaying them. + In the long run, Britain, which had no intention of entering the war until Germany invaded Belgium. With Britain intervening, this meant that Germany had to deal with the Royal Navy, which was massively more powerful than its own. The one time the German Navy tried to fight the British head on resulted in a strategic victory for the British. This resulted in Germany instead turning to unrestricted submarine warfare, and it resulted in the United States entering the war. In a nutshell, if Germany hadn't invaded Belgium, neither Britain or the U.S. would've gotten involved in the war, and thus it's quite probable Germany and Austria-Hungary would have won if their only sizable enemies were Russia (which collapsed in revolution), France, and maybe Italy. + Italy was largely a toss-up, as it effectively waited to see which side would give the best offer until 1915. The Italian designs on Austrian territory probably gives the edge to the Entente, but without the British involvement, the Central Powers might have had a chance. + On a slightly lesser note, Britain would also coax Portugal to enter the war on August 7, 1916, and this started with the capture of a decent chunk of the German merchant fleet, which happened to be stationed in Lisbon at that time. This meant that not only could Germany not properly attack Britain, they could also not protect themselves against the US. * World War II + Some historians believe that Italy's campaign in Greece was one of these. Specifically, while it was ultimately successful, Italy's initial failures in that campaign forced Germany to divert troops to help out and occupy the Balkans, which in turn delayed Germany's ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union by several months. On the other hand, other historians say the delay wouldn't have mattered, and that Operation Barbarossa was flawed before it even commenced. + Between May 10th and May 14th, 1940, the Dutch shot down 43% of German planes deployed over the Netherlands, including 51% (220 of the 430) Junkers JU-52 transport planes. This may or may not have influenced the Battle of Britain and/or a potential airborne attack on the UK. The Dutch proved to be a tougher nut to crack than the Germans imagined in general. The Germans expected the Netherlands to fall within a day, which caused Hitler to issue his 11th war directive which was "The resistance of the Dutch army is stronger than expected. It must be broken as soon as possible." + The Bismarck was sunk because a Fairey Swordfish (a biplane that was very much outdated by then) was able to score a lucky shot in the rudder under appalling weather conditions: this shot jammed the ship's port rudder into a turning action, giving the Royal Navy the time it needed to reach the ship and attack. The Germans chose to scuttle the ship to avoid its capture. + Hitler himself. If he hadn't meddled with everything, thereby wasting resources (like the V2 — which was great for propaganda, but useless in warfare), the Germans might have actually had a chance. And that's not even counting for his idea of violating the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and invading the Soviet Union. Late in the war (1944-45) this became fairly explicit. The British cancelled plans to assassinate Hitler because they believed any replacement leader would've been much more competent, extending the war. + The USN carriers were priority targets for the Japanese pilots in the Pearl Harbor attack (after sinking at least one battleship for propaganda purposes), but none happened to be in port that day. For the most part this was simply good planning on the USN's part (the USN never had all its carriers together at the same port in case of something like this happening), which is why Saratoga was in San Diego and Lexington was off delivering planes to Wake Island, but USS Enterprise does fit the trope as she was planned to be in port that day, which would've left her a sitting duck, but poor weather had delayed her just enough for her to miss the attack itself and reach port in its immediate aftermath. As her performance in the early parts of the war would prove, having Enterprise sunk or heavily damaged, even if she could be eventually salvaged, would've been the single best thing that could've happened to the IJN's war effort. + The Philippines. Even though bad luck and poor decisions had ruined any chances the Filipino-American force had of successfully turning back the Japanese, the defense of Bataan and Corregidor ultimately threw a wrench into the Japanese war plans by holding on much longer than any other Asian country aside from Nationalist China, over five months (from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the surrender of Corregidor). Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Dutch East Indies (which was 6x bigger than the Philippines) had capitulated earlier. Adding to this was the various guerrilla movements harrying the Japanese occupiers, providing the Allies vital intelligence and practically liberating all but 12 provinces from the Japanese. + During the Battle of Midway, the first three Japanese carriers were lost because several groups of dive bomber squadrons found the Japanese carrier group while it was rearming all its planes, making them extremely vulnerable. These groups weren't even traveling together, it was three separate squadrons that all stumbled across the carriers almost simultaneously, right after the Japanese fighters protecting the fleet had been drawn off by the (failed) attack run on the fleet by US Torpedo Plane Group 8 (who were evicerated trying to attack the Japanese fleet), a squadron from the USS Hornet that had become separated from their fighter escort by poor visibility. - There was also the failed attempt by the submarine USS Nautilus to torpedo a Japanese ship in the early stages of the battle. This led to the Japanese destroyer Arashi to stay behind to try to destroy the sub with depth charges for some time before heading back to rejoin the fleet (The Nautilus survived). By sheer chance, a squadron of dive bombers from USS Enterprise happened upon the destroyer in the midst of a dwindling fuel reserve and followed the ship back to the main Japanese fleet. + Taffy 3 at the Battle Off Samar. The Japanese had managed to draw off the bulk of the American forces, including all their fast battleships, off in a wild goose chase after their carriers (which, unknown to the American Fleet, had too few planes to really be a threat), while two other task forces went their separate ways to attack Leyte Island. The Southern force met the USN's older battleships in the Battle of Surigao Straight, while the Center Force (consisting of the vast majority of Japan's surface combat power, including the gigantic battleship Yamato) ran into a small escort group consisting of a few destroyers and slow escort carriers- who then proved to be the most aggressive, determined, and most audacious ships the USN had. Their desperate and spirited Last Stand directly sunk 3 Japanese Heavy Cruisers, damaged 2 Battleships, and damaged 3 additional cruisers, and it ended up convincing Admiral Kurita that he really was fighting the main US fleet, and he withdrew. + The 101st Airborne Division during the Battle of the Bulge. The German Army launched a counteroffensive through the Ardennes, which they had used to great effect four years prior during the invasion of France. However, they ran into unexpectedly-stiff resistance in the town of Bastogne, where the 101st had dug in and forced the Germans to devote more troops than they should-have to retake it. The 101st refused to surrender, with their commander, Anthony McAuliffe, famously responding to their messengers seeking their surrender with "Nuts!" This also bought time for General Patton - who himself might've be an example of this trope, as he had anticipated the German counteroffensive - to rush in with reinforcements to relieve the 101st and beat the German army back. + One possible ally to the Axis could have been Spain, but it decided to remain neutral, in part due to its close relations to neighbor Portugal, which decided to also remain neutral. Therefore, by not doing anything, Portugal kept the Axis from gaining another ally in Spain. (It's also said that Francisco Franco demanded so much in exchange for joining the Axis, after meeting with him, Hitler said that he'd choose having three or four teeth pulled out over dealing with Franco again. Of course, Spain joining the Axis would have been unlikely regardless, since Spain was still reeling from the Spanish Civil War, and was largely in no position to be involved in another major war.) + The Nazi's spy network fell apart due to a lot of spanners. The first German spies sent to Britain were poorly trained Eastern Europeans with little loyalty to the Nazi regime to begin with. These early captures told the British exactly how the Nazis contacted their agents abroad, and the British used that knowledge to capture and turn the more competent spies sent later in the war. For communication, the Germans developed the famous Enigma codes, which they thought could never be cracked as the codes were reset every day. The British developed computers at Bletchley Park that could decode the messages the same day they were sent. To speed up the decoding process, the British used messages that were consistently sent out every single day that had a known answer. For example, one German radio operator watching over the same bit of uncrossable desert would always send out the same message every single day, "Nothing to report." + The Allied forces built this concept into their instructions for what their soldiers were to do if captured by the enemy. The primary objective was for them to escape, but part of the idea was also that even if the escape attempts failed, it would cause the Germans to have to assign additional manpower to guard the prison camps, which would mean having to spread those resources thinner somewhere else to make up for it. This idea was part of the concept behind the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III, and is a large part of the reason why that operation is considered a success despite only three people ultimately evading capture. + A lot of the problems with Germany's incredibly powerful tanks (supposedly the most advanced of the time, but which somehow broke down almost constantly and were always having to be repaired) are believed to have been caused by deliberate sabotage from slave labor. + This also happened in factories as demonstrated by this story from WW2. Turns out when you run your factory war efforts entirely on the work of slaves whose families are under constant threat of death, if not already sent to death camps, then your workers won't be especially interested in doing a good job. > “This is all we can do for you now. > Using Jewish slave labor is never a good idea.” * Santa Anna's plan to finish off the Texas Revolutionaries at San Jacinto on April 22, 1836 was ruined by Sam Houston's decision to attack first a day earlier, despite the Mexicans outnumbering the Texans 1,400 to 900. Santa Anna also sealed his own fate by diverting too many of his soldiers and failing to post lookouts while his army rested — not to mention supposedly getting seduced by the "Yellow Rose of Texas" Emily Morgan. The Mexicans surrendered to Sam Houston's assault after just 18 minutes of fighting. * If it weren't for an accidental case of fatal food poisoning one fateful Fourth of July, the Civil War might have been averted. Zachary Taylor tried his entire sixteen months in office to prevent the slavery issue from splitting the country apart, with extremists from both sides of the issue in Congress, but before he could do anything about it he succumbed to acute gastroenteritis brought about by consumption of raw fruit and iced milk during a fund-raising event for the Washington Monument on the nation's birthday. Naturally, conspiracy theorists almost promptly went wild about the circumstances surrounding his death, alleging that his poisoning was a deliberate assassination attempt on the part of pro-slavery Southerners, and would continue to pass that theory around well into the 21st century; it doesn't help that, as of 2010, there still wasn't definitive proof that he was or wasn't a victim of assassination. * After the death of Kaiser Wilhelm I, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck planned to undermine the recently crowned Frederick III by using the Kaiser's own son Wilhelm II as a pawn in a move to retain his own power. The scheme fell apart when Frederick III died from laryngeal cancer little more than three months into his reign and the young Wilhelm II ascended to the throne. Thanks to Bismarck's manipulation, Wilhelm did grow up full of disdain for his parents' opinions on government except for the bit about the position of the chancellor being too strong and how it should be modified in favour of a more powerful Emperor. In fact, one of Wilhelm's top priorities was the removal of Bismarck whom he saw as the biggest obstacle in implementing this policy. An increasingly desperate Bismarck ran the gamut of options trying to cow the young Kaiser into falling into line and let him do as he pleased only to fail time and time again. At wit's end, Bismarck threatened to quit, a ploy that worked with Wilhelm I only for the Kaiser to accept his resignation. Having double-crossed pretty much every one of his allies on his way to absolute power, Bismarck was left with no support, and thus his political career was effectively done for. * John Wallace's stranglehold of influence on Meriwether County in Georgia was ended in 1948, with his plot to kill Wilson Turner in said county. Wallace had his sheriff drain the gas tank and let Turner out of jail, in an attempt to kill him in Meriwether County. It failed when Turner's truck had enough gas to cross into Coweta County, where Wallace killed Turner and the death was investigated by a cop Wallace had no influence over. * Developers of the perl programming language have stress-tested new versions by having it parse /dev/random as input. Bugs that had resulted in segmentation faults were discovered this way. Throwing shit at the fan and seeing what happens is a fairly common way of stress-testing, usually known as fuzzing. * A Canadian fraudster used a complicated scheme involving disappearing ink and forged cheques to embezzle thousands of dollars from the banks at which he held accounts. It's difficult to explain briefly, but it involved him writing a cheque to transfer funds from an account he held at one branch to the account he had at another bank. The scheme depended on his cheques being cashed at the first bank on a Friday, then the ink disappearing over the weekend, and processed at the second bank on Monday, which would give him more money in his first than was deducted at his second. Unfortunately, on one occasion the fraudster had the bad luck of dealing with a rookie teller who didn't know how the cheque was supposed to be cashed, and didn't start working on it until Monday. The boss noticed the discrepancy, accused the teller of writing the information wrong, and called the police on her. The police discovered that the check had actually been written partially in disappearing ink, and the fraudster was quickly nailed. + Another fraudster reprogrammed a bank's computers to periodically shave ten cents off every account and apply it to the account under the last name on the list alphabetically. All went well until a Mr. Zydel opened an account and got confused as to why his bank balance kept inexplicably increasing. Zydel did the honest thing and reported it to the bank, who investigated it and had the fraudster arrested. * "His Accidency", John Tyler. To explain: "He was a longtime Democratic-Republican who was elected to the Vice-Presidency on the Whig ticket" (from his description page). As this makes him a Whig In Name Only, one wonders about his drinking habits. * A couple of fraudsters decided to make large amounts of fake $20 bills, and in turns they bought food with those at McDonald's and other stores which worked so well they earned several thousands of dollars from the exchange money. Around half a year later they went to Las Vegas and gambled for a week without getting noticed... until one day a woman who had the weird habit of ripping the upper-left edge from the bills noticed the paper was white inside (they did not use enough ink). The couple wanted to leave but was quickly taken by security and in their apartment they had four more boxes filled with fake money. * The Democratic-Republican party had a long-term publicity ploy set up around Aaron Burr, which involved intentionally inducing Burr to pull a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal. Part of this set-up involved putting Burr, who had no money and almost no power, in charge of campaigning on their behalf in the election of 1800, but not giving him any help or guidance; the plan was for Burr to become frustrated with them for giving him an Impossible Task, and walk out on the party. Burr, however, didn't even realize he was being set up to fail in the first place, and instead of getting frustrated, invented a whole new form of electioneering (the methods we use today, in fact) to get around his lack of money and resources. This absolutely terrified the Democratic-Republicans, as it absolutely obliterated their plan, forcing them to forego the original plan in favor of putting everything they had into utterly destroying (and eventually trying to kill) Burr. Even with all of their effort, Burr did so much accidental damage to the party's plans that their leader, Thomas Jefferson, had to get help from Alexander Hamilton to prevent Burr from getting all the way to the presidency. * A version from The American Civil War: on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Lee devised a strategy to attack both flanks of the Union army simultaneously in hopes of overwhelming them before they could be reinforced by the center. General Sickles from the Union ignored orders and moved his corp out in front of his fortified position to engage the enemy, a move of staggering stupidity that got his corp massacred. However, this delayed the main Confederate assault on that flank by several hours, destroying any chance the Confederacy had of launching the attacks simultaneously. As a result the attacks went on separately, and were beaten back separately. This in turn led to Lee gambling desperately with Pickett's charge the next day, a disaster that effectively destroyed Confederate momentum in the war. While people often "what if" this battle, it is pretty generally agreed that Lee did not do a very good job of commanding the battle in general, and there were far, far more problems than this one. * Thomas Blood's plan to steal the British Crown Jewels failed only because the elderly caretaker's son came back on leave from the navy at precisely the right moment. Seriously. * Vanessa Williams thought she'd never be able to live down the nude photos that appeared in an issue of Penthouse and cost her her Miss America title. Then it was discovered that the centerfold was underage, and the issue was banned along with most of the centerfold's filmography up to that point (with the exception of Traci, I Love You) as well as the porn industry ostracizing the centerfold in question entirely. Williams was supposedly relieved to see all those nude photos of herself go bye-bye over an underage centerfold appearing in the same issue as said photos. * This happened to Tennessee in their 2010 college football match against LSU. UT had the game won when LSU stupidly didn't have a play ready for a third-and-goal with seconds remaining and no timeouts, resulting in a botched snap that looked to end the game. But UT trumped it with a boner of their own—specifically, a last-second personnel change that resulted in Two Many Volunteers on the field (four guys came on while three ran off, and then one of the three ran back onto the field). The illegal participation penalty forced the down to be replayed (American football games can't end on a defensive penalty), giving LSU time to settle down and organize the game-winning play. You can watch the last moments of the Dumbass Miracle here. * Related to sports, Bill Simmons' "Levels of Losing" have as the seventh "The Monkey Wrench", where a bad decision by either the coach or the umpire costs the victory. * Political parties in America are this, believe it or not. The government was set up so that all three branches (executive, legislative, and judicial) would be more or less in opposition to each other. The rise of political parties put an end to that in a hurry. Indeed most of the founding fathers were completely against political parties, but viewed them as a necessary evil that would naturally arise despite their best efforts. * In Major League Baseball, you have the Steve Bartman story. In 2003, the Chicago Cubs were a very good team whom many picked to win the World Series (and finally break the Curse of the Billy Goat). And during the National League Championship Series against the Florida Marlins, it seemed like this would be a reality. The Cubs built a 3-0 in Game 6 and ace pitcher Mark Prior was retiring batters with ease, working a three-hit shutout through the first 7 1/3 innings. Then Marlins shortstop Luis Castillo hit a deep foul ball that sailed towards the edge of the stands, a ball that Cubs outfielder Moisés Alou had a shot at catching for the second out of the inning. Instead, a Cubs fan (Bartman) interfered with the play by reaching out his hand to catch the ball. This angered the Cubs (Alou was very visibly frustrated after the play), who complained to the umpire for a fan interference call. The umpire ruled against them, stating the ball had left the playing field when Bartman touched it (if it hadn't, Castillo would have been called out). The most upset was Mark Prior, who completely lost his focus and began giving up hit after hit. He was taken out of the game and replaced, but the relief pitchers, also unfocused, gave up nothing but walks and hits. The Marlins scored 8 runs in that single inning, and ended up winning that game, Game 7, and eventually the World Series that year. + It does bear mentioning that Bartman isn't completely to blame for this. Other people to blame were shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who had a fielding error which allowed the Marlins to score their first runs, and relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth, who issued two intentional walks to Marlins players after they tied the game - a horrible decision which many overlook, as both walked players would score as well. But, unfortunately, the Cubs fans chose to blame Bartman, and he faced such scrutiny that he has become a very reclusive figure to avoid their wrath. + Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. The Cubs would finally win the World Series 13 years later, and give Bartman a World Series Ring. Bartman has also been invited back to Wrigley Field, but it's been advised that he be left alone. * The 9/11 attacks could have been much worse if not for a major spanner. Four planes were hijacked; the fourth, which never reached its target, was probably intended to crash into the White House.(Or maybe not, Pres. Bush wasn't even in Washington at the time and this wasn't a secret, so even if the target was originally the White House it might have been changed at the last minute. The Capitol building seems like the most likely alternate target, but we'll probably never know. During the early planning stages it was suggested by one member of Bin Laden's inner circle that they try and attack a nuclear power plant to get a plane crash and a dirty bomb in one go, which Bin Laden rejected because he felt things might "get out of hand". Yes, there were some things too over the top for even Osama Bin Laden, though this probably wouldn't have worked anyway as nuclear plants are designed to withstand a direct hit from a jet) However, the terrorists did not take into account the possibility of passengers attempting to retake the plane. The aircraft crashed a hundred miles or so from its target, and although lives were lost, it would have been far worse if the White House had actually been hit. + The passenger revolt would likely not have happened if not for another complication. By the original schedule, there would probably not have been time for the passengers to even learn of the other attacks, as many indicators suggest the terrorists planned to hit every single target at about the same time. But United Flight 93 was delayed in takeoff and thus was still a ways out when the other targets were hit, giving its passengers time to realize what was happening and make the decision to try and retake the plane. * Not Always Working (and sister sites) + These videogame store employees leave a PlayStation 4 box filled with junk by the door, just to see if anyone would attempt to steal it. Upon returning to work the next day, the manager sees the prank box is gone and laughs, telling the assistant manager about the joke. The assistant manager gets angry — turns out the assistant manager had told his friend to just take the box, believing it to be an actual PS4 system. This prank done out of the blue would eventually expose that that assistant manager had been stealing money from the registers and stealing games from the store's shipments. The assistant manager was promptly fired, entirely because of a prank that was in no way intended to catch his thievery. + This jewelry store customer wants to buy a necklace, but the store needs to request another location send them the necklace. The next day, the necklace in question hasn't been sent because an employee had bought it. Some investigating proves that the other store's night supervisor has been purchasing jewelry with his employee discount, and then selling it to customers just above the discounted price to make money off of it. And has been doing so for five years, and only figured out because a customer happened to want his latest target. + This pizza delivery guy does some cleaning around the store and sees some disconnected cables, thinking he knocked them loose. He connects them and realizes it was the security cameras. Shortly after, the pizza parlor is supposed to be closed because of it not making enough money, only for the delivery guy to mention that the manager of the location had been Stealing from the Till. The manager had disconnected the security cameras and been stealing for years, but the owner had no physical proof. Until the delivery guy pointed out that he had connected the cameras, so there was now a week's worth of camera footage showing the manager stealing. The manager was fired and arrested for grand theft. + This sysadmin had been embezzling millions of dollars from his employer for years and retired early. When his successor joins the team, but fails to receive the fake inventory list the sysadmin had been using to justify his budget requests, the successor makes his own list and budget request that ends up a much lower amount than previously. Management became suspicious and began to investigate the matter, realizing the embezzlement. + This company refuses to pay their manager $10,000 in overtime, so he takes them to court. He ultimately loses the case, but the resulting investigation of the company uncovers a massive amount of various categories of fraud going on in the company, having to pay more than ten times the amount they owed the manager in fines, one of the execs' wife divorcing him and cashing her share of the company, and the company finally going bankrupt. All because they refused to pay a comparatively low amount to an employee that may or may not have been owed to him. * A security guard named Frank Wills was doing his rounds one night when he noticed a piece of tape on a door to prevent it from latching shut. He removed it and continued on his merry way. Later, he returned and saw that the tape had been replaced. He called the police, who caught a group of five burglars in the building. The building was the Watergate Hotel, and the burglars were caught bugging an office leased by the Democratic Party. The resulting investigation and coverup blossomed into the Watergate scandal that eventually forced President Nixon to resign, and added a new suffix to the English language. + The burglars had a sentry named Alfred Baldwin stationed in the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge across the street, and he had been instructed to alert them if any complications arose. Unfortunately for them, Baldwin got distracted watching Attack of the Puppet People on the TV in his lookout and failed to notice the police arriving. By the time he did attempt to alert the burglars, it was all too late. * The Communist dictatorship in the Socialist Republic of Romania might have had two of these towards its end: + By 1989 the Romanians were already very, VERY fed up with Nicolae Ceaușescu's government as a whole, his cult of personality and the terrible economy, so when the Hungarian-Romanian pastor and politician László Tőkés openly started criticizing the people in power on TV and the government threatened to kick him out, his parishioners from Timișoara tried to stand up in his defense... and the already pissed-off populace sided with him, pouring their long-repressed anger in their protests. In a short period of time the civil unrest spread from Timișoara to the rest of the country and especially to Bucharest, ultimately kicking off the Romanian Revolution of 1989. + The other one? The TV show Dallas. The Communist dictatorship at the time aired the show believing the show's theme of greed, excess and corruption would make the people disgusted with capitalism. Instead, it had the opposite effect: the people loved the show thanks to the main character, the greedy yet charming J.R. Ewing, wished to have the cool and rich things the Ewings had, wondered why couldn't they have same thing as well... and this eventually led to the overthrow of the Communist regime. The show was so popular in Romania that, when J.R.'s actor Larry Hagman visited the country in the 1990s, many people thanked him for freeing their country. * Many criminals have found their elaborate attempts to hide undone by viewers of TV shows like America's Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries. In one case of the latter, a criminal hiding his identity and working at a construction said to a co-worker, "I'll probably have some problems today," after a segment on him aired the previous evening. * A small research team at West Virginia University was very lucky and got a grant to live-test diesel cars as part of a study. During road tests of Volkswagen vehicles, they noticed that the cars were producing more emissions than they were supposed to be. They published their findings and blew the lid on the Volkswagen Emission Scandal. * Some scandals can prove to be beneficial in the long term. Case in point: Wallis Simpson, an American woman who King Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry in 1936, ended up inadvertently sabotaging any Fascist influence Edward might have had on the United Kingdom just prior to a crucial point in its modern history. * In 1980's Poland, a female crane operator named Anna Walentynowicz was fired from her work at Gdańsk's Lenin Shipyard for participating in a syndicate, less than a year before her retirement. The shipyard workers from Gdańsk, already known for strongly opposing the Communist rule in Poland, took Walentynowicz's side, went on strike... and soon became the first members of a certain union group named Solidarność/Solidarity, led by the then-electrician Lech Wałęsa, which would later be instrumental in the fall of Communism in Poland and the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc. * The Branch Davidian incident in Waco, Texas started because of this trope. Reporters were tipped off that a raid by the ATF was going down at the compound and were sent to cover it. One reporter got lost in trying to find it and was approached by a station wagon, the driver wanting to help. Unwittingly, the reporter told the person that they were looking for the compound and that a raid was happening. As it turned out, the driver of the station wagon was one of David Koresh's inner circle, who warned the others of the raid. + The ATF also lost the element of surprise when a dispatcher for American Medical Transport, the ambulance provider in Waco, notified the media after she received a request from the Feds for standby ambulances. * Rafael Leónidas Trujillo was the brutal dictator of the Dominican Republic, but he really fucked up his own dictatorship when he had three very popular female opposition leaders, the Mirabal sisters (Patria, María Teresa and Minerva)((and their surviving sister Dede)), murdered. Even when he tried to Make It Look Like an Accident, the crowds immediately guessed the truth and began protesting, plus the American government wasn't exactly happy either and allegedly began actively supporting the opposition. In less than a year, Trujillo himself was murdered. * The November 5th, 2017 massacre at a church in Sutherlands Spring, Texas, could have been a lot worse had it not been for a concerned neighbor. He had heard the gunshots at the church, went to investigate, grabbed his own rifle and confronted the gunman, wounding him. He even gave chase when the shooter attempted to drive off, which led to the killer's death. Farther back up the chain, it turned out the killer was banned from gun ownership, but someone in the Air Force screwed up his dishonorable discharge paperwork, so the NICS check didn't flag him. + Another, similar shooting at the West Freeway Church of Christ, also in Texas, ended with only two victims. Because one of the armed ushers happened to be a firearms instructor and ex-reserve deputy sheriff. If Wilson didn't get him, he said five or six members of the congregation were also armed. It's possible the Sutherland Springs shooting led to the armed ushers. + The Greenwood Park Mall shooting ended 15 seconds after it started, before it "officially" became a mass shooting, because of one random man who happened to be concealed-carrying, despite the mall's ban on guns. A man who made a shot several firearms enthusiasts and one firearms instructor called "impressive". * Operation Merlin was a plan devised by the CIA under the Clinton Administration to slow down Iran's nuclear program. The idea was, through a defecting Russian scientist, give the Iranians a copy of a "fatally flawed" nuclear warhead design so that it would cripple their program. They chose the Russian TBA-480 Fire Set component to sabotage due to its highly advanced design. However, the entire thing fell apart when the scientist noticed flaws in the designs and went and corrected them, most likely accelerating Iran's nuclear program rather than crippling it. * Steve Bannon's endorsement of Roy Moore in the 2017 special election for Attorney General Jeff Sessions's Alabama Senate seat proved to be a prime example of the alt-right movement grabbing the Idiot Ball with its bare hands when his Democratic challenger, Doug Jones, became the first Democratic Senator from "reliably Republican" Alabama in nearly a quarter of a century. Even the Washington Post's resident alt-right-aligned journalist, Marc Thiessen, raked Bannon over the coals for the effort, calling what he did in Alabama, in a nutshell, nothing short of an objective Epic Fail. > Marc Thiessen: Stephen K. Bannon and his alt-right movement have helped accomplish something no one in a quarter-century has been able to do: get a Democrat elected in the state of Alabama. Alabama is one of the most reliably Republican states in the country. The last time a Democrat was elected was in 1992, and no Democrat has won more than 40 percent of the vote in a Senate race there since 1996. The closest election in recent memory was in 2002, when Jeff Sessions won reelection by a razor-thin margin of 19 points. Sen. Richard Shelby has won his last three elections by 35 points, 30 points and 28 points, respectively. So it takes a special kind of stupid to pick a candidate who can lose to a Democrat in Alabama. Not just any Democrat, but an uncompromising pro-abortion Democrat. * The New England Patriots insist that Malcolm Butler was this for them for Super Bowl LII. Put simply, Butler was benched for a rules violation, and many fans believed that the Pats lost without his talent. + To go in far more detail. Malcolm Butler was the best starting Corner that the Patriots' Defense had in 2017 (and in fact, was a Spanner himself in the infamous Patriots/Seahawks Super Bowl where his knowledge of how Seattle runs their offense led to his Game-Ending Interception in the End Zone). They were facing the Philadelphia Eagles, a team that had just come off absolutely crushing the Number 1 Ranked Defense that year in the Minnesota Vikings but people were still wary about their chances in this game as their starting Quarterback and MVP Candidate, Carson Wentz, was lost for the year before the playoffs due to tearing his ACL and Journeyman QB (and 2nd time around Eagle) Nick Foles was in control. While he had a monstrous NFC Championship Game, his play was notoriously inconsistent for his career, and the exact type of QB that Patriots' Coach Bill Belichick puts through a spin cycle on the biggest stage. Then the Super Bowl starts and...Malcom Butler isn't playing. He's on the sideline, he has his gear on, but he isn't playing and is noticeably upset. Nick Foles goes on to have one of the greatest Super Bowl performances ever, and the game of his life, absolutely carving up the depleted Patriots' Secondary, with New England only keeping pace because their QB, arguably the greatest of all time to play the position Tom Brady, was also having the BEST GAME OF HIS CAREER. At a certain point, you would expect cooler heads to prevail and Butler to enter the game so the Defense could be galvanized...but he never does. Despite Tom Brady throwing for an NFL Record 505 YARDS, Nick Foles also had a monster game and the Eagles would go on to win that Super Bowl 41-33. The most mysterious part about it is, to this day (this edit is being written in 2025) there still isn't any real given reason as to WHY Malcolm Butler was benched. Many rumors have flowed, but despite all the principle Patriots leaving the team at this point, not one concrete answer has been found beyond just, as mentioned earlier, a "rules violation". What was so heinous that it required New England to keep him off the field for the biggest game of the year, despite losing due to it? The world may never know but history was changed on that day, and many argue that this game was the start of the downfall of the New England Patriots (despite them winning the Super Bowl again the very next year) due to Brady never quite forgiving Belichick for the move. * During the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix which was the finale for the 2008 Formula One season, Ferrari driver Felipe Massa would win the World Driver's Championship if he wins the race and his rival, Englishman and McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton finished sixth or lower. During the race, Massa basically just led the field while Hamilton barely fights for the title-winning position. Light rain came at the final stages and many drivers pitted in for intermediate tyres. After that, the rain gets heavier when it was 2 laps remaining and Massa was still leading while Hamilton was in sixth. Crucially, on said lap, Hamilton lost 5th place to the Toro Rosso driven by future 4-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. After Massa finishes the race in first, everything seems lost for Hamilton until both him and Vettel caught up to the Toyota of Timo Glock. Glock, who didn't made the stop earlier (he gambled for slicks, hoping for the conditions to stay dry enough for it to work), was running so slow that Hamilton passes him at the last corner in the final lap. Hamilton finishes fifth, just enough to win the title. Ferrari was still celebrating even after Hamilton passes Glock and only for the joy turned into disappointment after Hamilton finishes the race. That's right, if the rain doesn't gets worse, then Massa would be crowned as the Driver's Champion. It also gives us one of Formula One's most memorable commentary lines: > Martin Brundle: Raikkonen's third, and... IS THAT GLOCK? IS THAT GLOCK GOING SLOWLY? > James Allen: IT IS, IT'S GLOCK! OH MY GOODNESS ME! HAMILTON'S BACK IN POSITION AGAIN! * Marcos Perez, the title character of the Frontline/Independent Lens/Voces documentary "Marcos Doesn't Live Here Anymore", was deported on a traffic violation because his wife's cell phone ran out of batteries when the police contacted her about the violation. * At least one gun shop had filed for bankruptcy due to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. A few shop owners bought into the hype created by the National Rifle Association that if Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected president, she and the Democrats would start taking guns away. Thus, they ordered a surplus of guns in the event that her election would lead to a surge of gun owners seeking to own guns before laws limiting them were enacted. Instead, Trump was elected and this left owners with too many guns to sell, leading to their dissolution. * Fox News accidentally ruined Donald Trump's attempt to declare victory in the 2020 General Election. According to reports, Trump had planned to declare victory if it looked like he had a clear lead despite the obvious problems that would occur should his opponent Joe Biden pull ahead. However, before Trump could do that, Fox News unexpectedly declared Biden the predicted winner of Arizona long before anyone else. This meant that all Biden needed was one more state to be declared the predicted winner of the Presidential race and left Trump with no way to get 270 Electoral Votes. Trump tried to strong-arm Fox News to recant that decision, but they refused. + This was especially notable since Biden's initial lead in Arizona had shrunk to almost nothing later in the night, and it was days until Biden came out as a definite winner with 0.3% advantage. + If not for Rudy Giuliani's ego, Trump might have named Sidney Powell as his Special Counsel to investigate allegations of voter fraud on the part of the Democrats. * If the first debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon had only been broadcast on the radio like previous debates had, Nixon would have most likely flown ahead in the polls and potentially become President - even Nixon's detractors could admit that he had a powerful voice, and public support for Eisenhower meant that a fellow Republican had a very good shot at retaining the White House. However, this debate was the first televised debate, which Nixon was completely unprepared for; compared to Nixon's borderline sickly and slouched appearance, JFK stood up straight and carried an air of confidence unlike any that had been seen before. This killed Nixon's public support right out of the gate, and JFK went on to win the election. + This might not actually be true though, as seen here. * In early 2021, several short sellers took interest in GameStop's and BlackBerry's stocks, meaning they had to go down for them to make money; given the downward trend in the brands' shares at the time due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, this seemed to be a surefire bet. What said investors didn't count on, however, was Reddit, of all things, spurred on by Elon Musk, buying a bunch of stocks to make GameStop's value go up, spiking it to nearly triple the norm. As a result, the investors had to keep buying stocks to cover their losses...which only meant the stocks went higher. "Stonks", indeed. * When Nesta Carter was busted for doping during the Beijing Olympics nine years after the fact, he inadvertently ruined Usain Bolt's "triple-triple" for the 2008-2016 Summer Olympic Games. * On July 26, 2022, it was revealed that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had been privately lobbying his more hardline conservative members, particularly controversial Justice Brett Kavanaugh, into sparing Roe v. Wade, suggesting that had he done so, he would have flipped and protected it 5-4. However, the reveal of the draft opinion scuttled those plans and Roberts sided with the other conservative Justices. * Sega was rescued from being shut down thanks to this trope. Ravaged by the failure of the Sega Dreamcast, it seemed that Sega was on its way to being shuttered. Instead, Isao Okowa, late president of Sega's then-Majority Shareholder CSK Holdings, loaned them $500 million of his personal fortune to pay off their debts then waived the loan entirely on his deathbed. This allowed Sega to exit the console-making business and transition into a third-party developer. * The Stopwatch Gang were a trio of Canadian bank robbers who were renowned for robbing over 140 banks in the 1970s and early 1980s. They earned their nickname for the careful planning and timing of their robberies, and were renowned for never firing a shot. The FBI eventually caught them after a robbery in San Diego when several things went wrong: + The robbers wore band-aids on their fingers to disguise their prints. Unfortunately, one of the gang member's band-aids fell off during the robbery and he left his fingerprint on the garbage bag he was using to carry the money. + One of the robbers took the Gang's disguises and other equipment to be thrown into a dumpster so it could be buried in a garbage dump. He planned to only toss the bag when the garbage truck came, but when a cop car drove by he got scared, tossed the bag in the dumpster and drove off. Later, a couple searching for cans found the garbage bag when they were poking through the dumpster. They turned it over to the police when they saw its contents. The FBI found the robber's fingerprint on a garbage bag. + The FBI didn't know who the print belonged to, but the friend of one of the Gang members gave the FBI their names in exchange for leniency when he was arrested for dealing drugs. The FBI then acquired the robber's fingerprints, and the Gang's arrest soon followed. * On November 14, 1957, the Apalachin Meeting was a Criminal Convention of the American Mafia held at the ranch of mobster Joseph "The Barber" Barbara in the New York village of Apalachin, outside Binghamton. Aiming to assert his authority as Chairman of the Mafia Commission, it was called forth by Vito Genovese, who wanted to settle mob-related disputes and discuss the growing drug trade. But things went awry when a local cop became leery of the parked expensive cars at the ranch, causing the mafiosi to flee for the nearby wooded areas. While more than 60 mobsters were nabbed, their convictions were reversed as there was no evidence of wrongdoing before the meeting was broken up. Even then, it exposed the Mafia to public scrutiny for the first time. Also, FBI head honcho J. Edgar Hoover was forced to dedicate resources against the Mafia despite previously refusing to acknowledge its existence. * When John Lennon was assassinated in 1980, Yoko Ono told the hospital staff to not inform the press so she could break the news herself to her young son Sean. What she didn't know was that Alan J. Weiss, a news producer at New York's WABC-TV (the flagship station of ABC) had been rushed into the ER right before Lennon had, after Weiss had an accident on his motorcycle earlier in the evening. Weiss got to a phone and relayed the news to the station. Word quickly spread until it reached Roone Arledge, then the head of both ABC News and ABC Sports. He in turn told the news to Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford, commentating a game between the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots on Monday Night Football; the two debated whether to do this or not. Ultimately, Cosell went ahead and famously announced the news during the game. * Korean Gatcha players unwittingly exposed financial fraud! GRAC, South Korea's Game Rating and Administration Committee, had given the game Blue Archive an 18+ rating at the end of 2022 despite players pointing out that there was nothing in the game to warrant that rating. A petition was started and gained 5000 signatures, catching the attention of lawmaker Lee Sang-Heon, who started an audit and investigation of the GRAC, revealing they were using the funds to illegally mine bitcoin. * The Philippines is this to China. China, for a variety of military and political reasons, has wanted to invade Taiwan for a while and has recently been making more aggressive moves in that direction. The Phillipines are located just south of Taiwan, so China's been butting into their waters as well, and the Phillipines protested the actions and started outright defying "requests" from China (ordering the former to remove BRP Sierra Madre for "illegally" using it as an outpost on the Spratly Islands) in response. The AFP opening a naval base in North Luzon at 2023, coupled with the US Navy having an outpost stationed in strategic areas will ensure that China's grand goal of invading Taiwan will become an unlikely reality. * In early 1983, Nintendo and Atari began negotiations to release the Famicom outside of Japan, and a deal was set to be finalized at the 1983 Summer Consumer Electronics Show. Unfortunately for the would-be contract, Coleco showed off their port of Donkey Kong (1981) playing on their Coleco ADAM computer at that very show, a violation of a previous agreement between all three companies.(Coleco had the home console rights to Donkey Kong, while Atari held the computer rights.) Long story short, Atari refused to sign the deal at the show, believing Nintendo to be at fault, which combined with The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 and the firing of Atari CEO Ray Kassar amid mounting losses and insider trading allegation, killed any deal between Atari and Nintendo. Legal shenanigans aside, Coleco effectively sabotaged a deal involving their main competitor at the time completely by accident (not that it hurt Nintendo in the long run). * On March 2024 the extremely controversial influencer Andrew Tate, investigated in Romania for sex trafficking, sent a message to his streamer friend/protégé Adin Ross, inviting him over to Romania for a stream, saying it could be the 'last chance' and implying he was going to attempt to escape the country soon. Adin read the messages out-loud, live on stream. Andrew Tate was soon after arrested by the Romanian police, completely foiling any plans he could have had. * Bashar al-Assad's rise and fall is due to this. He wasn't supposed to be the leader of Syria, and just went off to London to study eye surgery where he met his future wife. Then his brother died in a car accident and Assad became the one groomed to lead. When the worst of the civil war passed, it appeared that he would secure his grip for years to come with Russian and Iranian support. Russia soon got bogged down with its invasion of Ukraine and Iran with its proxy war against Israel, which included Hezbollah fighters pulling out from Syria, weakening Assad's support on all levels until the rebels toppled him, ending over five decades of his family control over the country. * In 1997, Israel attempted to assassinate Khaled Mashal, a Hamas leader then living in Jordan quietly so as not to anger the friendly Jordanian government. The idea was for an agent to quietly spray his neck from behind with poison while another pretended to accidentally open a shaken can of soda so Mashal would ignore the sensation as the soda spray. The poison symptom would've been ignored as general tiredness until Mashal died from a heart attack and everyone dismissed it as a natural death. Instead, that day his daughter was pooling the car and ran after him, the driver followed and suspected the agent standing right behind Mashal with his arm raised. The driver's warning to Mashal made him turn suddenly and the poison sprayed his ear instead. As the agents fled, a Hamas courier who happened to be in the area attempted to pursue them but got beaten instead, and a former PLO fighter who passed by in a taxi arrested the agents and brought them to the police. Their cover as Canadian tourists broke when the Canadian consul came, since Mashal realized he'd been poisoned and Jordan would've been forced to execute the agents if Mashal died to pacify the angry Palestinians, Israel was forced to provide the antidote and released a number of Palestinian prisoners including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas founder. ---	SpannerInTheWorks	null
ComicBooks	# Shadow Archetype - Comic Books The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU * Marvel Universe --- Other Comics ------------ * Nega-Scott of Scott Pilgrim. In the true Jungian tradition, Nega-Scott represents everything about himself that Scott doesn't want to deal with, \|\|both his flaws, his mistakes and his true potential as a better person. However, what worsens and complicates matters is that Gideon tampered with Scott's memories, thus making Nega-Scott's nature even more dubious. In fact, given its appearance when Scott began going out with Ramona and the mechanics of The Glow (the psychological weapon Gideon made that traps you in your own head and brings out your worse tendencies), it's possible that Nega-Scott didn't truly exist until Gideon messed with Scott's mind in the first place. In a potential case of Wrong Genre Savvy, Scott finally clashes with his shadow and believes if he defeats Nega-Scott, he can move on. However, the battle ends when Kim explains what it actually means and Scott absorbs Nega-Scott\|\|. * Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Anti-Sonic/Scourge, Sonic's Evil Twin/Mirror Universe counterpart, is Sonic with all of his negative qualities ramped up, and very few, if any, of his positive ones, and is living, breathing proof of what our hero would become if he went down a dark path. Scourge is fully aware of this, and gloats in issue 172 that this is why Sonic hates him so much, remarking that all it would take is "one bad day" to make Sonic just like him. Come issue 236, Sonic, after suffering through Sally's roboticization, Antoine's near-fatal Heroic Sacrifice saving Elias' family, and Silver's Inspector Javert tendencies at the worst possible time, is pushed to his Rage Breaking Point, and only by recalling Scourge's prior "one bad day" speech does he manage to pull himself back. * Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) + Surge the Tenrec and Kitsunami the Fennec, a pair of cyborgs created by Dr. Starline to serve as replacements for Sonic and Tails, respectively, in his plan to take over the world by manipulating the "hero-versus-villain" dynamic, intentionally created to replicate their abilities and personality attributes. Unfortunately, the realization that they were manufactured by Dr. Starline, combined with the effects of Starline's brainwashing wearing off, causes them to go out of control and embody some of the worst qualities of their progenitors. Surge shares Sonic's free-spirited nature and confidence, but she is also extremely violent and revels in sowing chaos and destruction, and whereas Sonic loves to playfully tease his opponents, Surge is viscous in her taunts and more than happy to Break Them by Talking. Meanwhile, Kitsunami is fiercely loyal to Surge, much like Tails is to Sonic. However, where Sonic considers Tails his friend and equal, Surge considers Kitsunami her subordinate — a belief that also extends to Kitsunami, who is an Extreme Doormat, his mind hard-wired to acquiesce to Surge's wants and desires, even at his own peril. + Dr. Starline, himself, serves as a sharp contrast to Dr. Eggman, whom he initially idolizes and aims to emulate. During their short-lived partnership, however, Dr. Starline begins to see flaws in Eggman's methodology, from his fickleness regarding past plots — regardless of how close to successful they may have been — to his single-minded desire to best Sonic. Dr. Starline eventually branches off on his own to try and conquer the world himself, showing himself to be far more subtle and cunning than the bombastic Eggman, but also more eager to delve into dark and morally objectionable methods like brainwashing, torture, and live experimentation on a more personal level. In time \|\|and by the end of his life\|\|, he becomes Hated by All, reviled by heroes and villains alike — even Dr. Eggman sees him as pathetic. * Star Wars: + Star Wars: Doctor Aphra: Aphra realizes during the Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel, Aphra eventually realizes that this is the case for her and Luke. Both grew up on backwater Outer Rim worlds, and lost loved ones to random acts of violence, but whereas Aphra became The Cynic who sees only the bad in the universe, Luke has managed to maintain his optimism and hopefulness. Aphra is shown to be quite disconcerted by this epiphany. + Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet: Yurib Nakan is essentially what the older Han Solo would have been like had he remained a loyal Imperial officer. > Nakan: I came from chaos, Solo. Just like you. I eventually became the best for one reason and one reason only: I followed orders. The Empire is order, Solo. The end of chaos. * The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: + Megatron is eventually set up to be the shadow to Optimus Prime. Before the War, both were young, idealistic, and wanted to make Cybertron a better place; indeed, there was a degree of mutual respect whenever they crossed paths. However, Megatron gradually abandoned his ideals in the fires of the war, becoming a bloody-handed tyrant no better than the corrupt Senate or the Functionist Council, while Optimus fought to retain his basic optimism. \|\|When a penitent Megatron had another chance after travelling to the Functionist universe, he basically became the Optimus Prime figure to that universe's Optimus Prime.\|\| + Getaway to Rodimus. They have a very similar list of faults, save one: while both are manipulative and ambitious, Rodimus at least tries to temper it with loyalty to his crew and finds people who will call him out on his actions, while Getaway views everyone else as a pawn and Can't Take Criticism. Best exemplified when one comic has them both make cracks about how Perceptor > physics, but Getaway then feels the need to put down Highbrow for not getting his oh-so-funny joke. + Across MTMTE and The Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Tarn of the Decepticon Justice Division ends up as this to Soundwave. Both are Decepticon partisans with themed teams of allies who remain devoted to the cause after the war ends (they even look similar; Soundwave's design was the out-of-universe inspiration for the Decepticon insignia in the early days of the franchise, and Tarn literally wears the Decepticon symbol as a face mask). However, Soundwave has lines he won't cross, a genuine faith in the Decepticon cause and a true bond with most of his allies, while Tarn turns out to be obsessed with Megatron specifically and ends up abandoning his few remaining morals and killing one of his fellow DJD members in pursuit of revenge against Megatron for doing a Heel–Face Turn. Tarn's powers are based on speaking, and he mostly uses them to kill; Soundwave's are based on listening, and it helps him recognise a kinship between humans and Cybertronians and start to value organic life as well. Even their deaths end up diametrically opposed: Soundwave makes a Heroic Sacrifice against Unicron and dies united with the living and the dead, finding some measure of absolution for his deeds, while Tarn dies alone, consumed by hatred \|\|and antimatter\|\|, being told that at the last all his atrocities were for nothing. * In Avatar: The Last Airbender – Imbalance, it's easy to see Ya Ling and Ru Ling as Katara and Sokka respectively if the two water nation siblings allowed Katara's bending to drive a rift between them. * In The Stuff of Legend, The General is one to the Colonel, as both are military-type toys that have each spent time as the Boy's favorite. But while the Colonel has Undying Loyalty to the boy, the General was corrupted by the Boogeyman. * Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Like Scrooge McDuck, Flintheart Glomgold is a cheap old miser who lives in a bin full of money, except in South Africa. However, Glomgold's whole character is essentially a Scrooge who never made his fortune square, not to mention his lack of friends in comparison to Scrooge's large group of family. Also, Glomgold will use underhanded means such as deception and murder to become wealthier than Scrooge if he thinks he can get away with it. * In Gravity Falls: Lost Legends, Anti-Mabel herself says that every selfish choice Mabel makes, that's her being Anti-Mabel. * Usagi Yojimbo has Jei to Usagi. Both are highly-skilled ronin who are dedicated towards defeating the forces of evil, but the main difference is that while Usagi earnestly wants to protect the innocent, Jei mercilessly hunts down anyone he deems a sinner. * Planet of the Nerds: \|\|It turns out that Alvin is this to Chad despite them having been on opposite ends on the social hierarchy in the 80s. Both are incredibly toxic people who like to bully anyone weaker than them while Alvin is shown to be a Trump supporter and a misogynist meaning that he still lives in the culture he grew up in. The difference is that Chad grew up with an Abusive Parent and is deep down a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who sincerely cares about his friends, while Alvin is a Psychopathic Man Child who forces his mum to work for him and has no Freudian Excuse to justify his actions. It's also heavily implied that, despite what Alvin had implied when taking advantage of Steve's insecurity with his sexuality, Chad had no problem with it when he found out.\|\| ---	ShadowArchetype	null
VideoGames	# Shadow Archetype - Video Games The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU --- * Dr. Caulder to Dr. Morris in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. While treating some of the injured civilians Morris shamefully reflects on how he never actually saw a single patient until after the world ended and how he always had the same motivation as Caulder: to satisfy his own scientific curiosity with no real regard for helping people. Will comforts him and points out though, very much unlike Caulder, that when people needed help Morris stepped up, took charge, and threw his own wants and needs aside to begin saving lives. * Asura and his mentor Augus in Asura's Wrath have a lot in common: two deities who love fighting to a somewhat unhealthy degree and rely mostly on their strength rather than their Mantra powers and are a force to be reckoned with among the Guardian Generals. Their purpose in life, however, sets them apart drastically: while Asura cares deeply about humanity and his family in particular, and despite appearances takes his duty seriously, Augus joined the Guardian Generals only to satisfy his lust for combat (and for other things such as pretty women for that matter) and seems totally consumed by it given that he rarely talks about anything else. \|\|Their final confrontation really highlights their differences.\|\| * In BioShock Infinite Booker and Comstock are nearly perfect parallels and anti-parallels. A lone anti-hero revolutionary, a monstrous leader of a religious nation. Both at the brutal massacre of Wounded Knee, and other historical parallels. \|\|There's a very good reason for that: they're Alternate Self versions of one another. Booker is the man who rejected baptism after Wounded Knee as false redemption, Comstock is the man who accepted it... and proceeded to mangle the intention of it so badly that he ultimately ignored the shot at redemption and doubled down on the behaviours that got him to take it in the first place.\|\| * BlazBlue's Jin Kisaragi has two shadows: Hakumen and Kagura Mutsuki. The former represents what Jin would be if not for the Yukianesa's influence (and vice versa), and the latter represents what Jin would be if he ever got over his deep-seated issues. * In Breath of Fire IV, Ryu and Fou Lu are the two split halves of one god; Fou Lu, an ancient Emperor, has grown tired of the mortals he once ruled, and decides to kill all of them, whereas Ryu, new to the world, wants to protect everyone, most prominently Nina. The two end up fusing together at the end of the game, but who ends up as the dominant personality depends \|\|on whether you agree with Fou-Lu's mindset or not\|\|. * In Catherine there is \|\|Shadow of Vincent, which represents all of Vincent's repressed fears of commitment to marriage and women in general\|\|. If this sounds overly similar to Persona below, that's because both games were created by Atlus. * The Coffin of Andy and Leyley: Ashley and Andrew Graves are shadow archetypes of their parents, Douglas and Renee Graves. All four of them are horrible people, and they are willing to kill to get what they want; Douglas and Renee selling their children for money, and it was revealed in the past that the two of them had planned on killing Douglas's parents before discovering that Renee was pregnant, which stopped that plan. Ashley and Andrew were willing to kill to survive, and during their childhood, they accidentally killed one of their friends and eventually killed their parents. Though Douglas and Renee are horrible people who influenced their children more than they would like to admit, they're a stable and loving couple who successfully managed to integrate themselves into society and bury all their issues away by completely cutting ties with the family members they loath. This is one of the few traits of theirs that doesn't rub off on their kids Ashley and Andrew, who never managed to fully socialize (though Andrew was good at pretending to) or get over each other, and whose issues bleed into their relationship and cause them to become just as harmful to each other as they are for the world. However, that's very much justified in that Douglas and Renee are abusive and neglectful parents who did the bare minimum in raising their children, and their children's negative traits rubbed off on them. So, of course, Ashley and Andrew would inherit all of their parent's negative traits and none of the few positive traits their parents would have had. * Deltarune: + The SOUL's choices are controlled by a higher power, while they in-turn control the choices of Kris. And just like how Kris has brief chances to break free of the SOUL's manipulation and is surmised as wanting "freedom" or "fun" by Ramb, the SOUL has the option to defy the game's intended plotpoints and seek its own vision of "freedom" by going down alternatives like the Weird Route, despite or even because of the potential consequences. + Though he only shows up at the end of Chapter 1, King serves as this towards Susie by essentially being a dark mirror of the monster she initially presents herself as and who others assume her to be, and a twisted conclusion of what she could be if she never grew out of it - a tyrannical, cynically unhappy bully who only gets their way through intimidation and aggression. Visually, he's a hulking monster with threatening Hidden Eyes and a monstrous mouth as one of his defining features, both on his face and stomach. Susie's growth is kickstarted by and arguably best shown through her budding friendship and protective streak with Lancer, the son King neglects and who comes into conflict with the party by threatening to kill. This is capped off with the phrase, "Quiet people piss me off"; this was part of Susie's Establishing Character Moment by threatening to eat Kris's face before not going through with it, and what ends up cementing her Heel–Face Turn and friendship to Kris is attacking him and standing up for her friend in response to King saying it - and at this moment, her eyes finally become fully visible to differentiate her from him. + Spamton is one to two characters: - The main reason why he disturbs Kris is because all his rambling about hopelessly trying to escape the strings that pull him echoes their fears of being controlled by and dependent on the SOUL's control. While Kris temporarily rips the SOUL from their body to accomplish whatever they need unhindered when alone, Spamton aims to get rid of his metaphorical and literal strings permanently, and at whoever's expense he's willing to risk. The fact that both of them have a knight armor in their decisive battle and rely on a heart as a weapon only makes the parallel thicker. - On the other hand, his situation as a failed salesman who was temporarily successful only because of an Anonymous Benefactor who gave him the right advice at the right time and who couldn't keep up when they disappeared mirrors what Berdly, the number one student of Kris' class, fears the day he and Noelle, the actual smartest student who helps him study and whom he always chooses as a partner for school projects, will get separated. Amusingly, both their battles take place on a roller coaster, and they also tend to mask their overheating smoke as "victory smoke". + Tenna is this to the Three Heroes: - As Susie remarks, she and Tenna are pretty similar. They both felt lonely and abandoned by the world, as Susie spent her life either shunned as "mean and scary" or with fleeting friends, while Tenna is a television that stopped being watched. Susie vented her loneliness by avoiding or bullying people, but eventually came to move on from her Friendless Background and befriend Kris, Ralsei, Lancer, Noelle and many others; compare this to Tenna, who became so obsessed with the friends he lost that he turned to kidnapping, extortion and murder just to feel loved again. Susie is hyped to go on adventures with her new friends, just like Tenna was ecstatic to play games with Kris and their friends; but while Susie understands she has world-saving duties outside her fun adventures (especially after Undyne gets kidnapped), Tenna wanted to keep playing games with the Delta Warriors for all eternity just to never be alone again. Luckily, if the player so chooses, Tenna can have a happy ending like Susie and move on from the Dreemurrs to be a new person (likely Mettaton)'s TV. - He acts as this to Kris, as both of them had been "adopted" by the Dreemurrs and were caught between the divorce as a result, attempting to re-assert control over their lives however they can. Kris —being a bit of a prankster aside— tried to avoid genuinely hurting people if they could help it before the events of the game and is struggling with the player's behavior clashing with their own (to the point of self-harming in the Weird Route). Tenna is what could happen if Kris allows their need for freedom to overrule any scruples they still had, with the TV lying to people he considered friends and family, abusing his team, endangering Toriel and being willing to attack anyone who gets in the way of his happiness. All things Kris visibly reacts to in disgust and terror on the Sword Route. However, not even Tenna at his worst would be willing to endanger the world directly, though it's unclear how much he knows about the Knight and the Roaring, while Kris at least knows the threat of the Roaring and continues to work for the Knight, although it's possibly due to something so bad being possible that they would be willing to work for it to rig a fight and give the Knight an advantage by buying time just like Tenna did when trapping the Warriors. - While Susie greatly disagrees with it, Ralsei tells Tenna that the purpose of Darkners is to be used, and when they become obsolete, to be glad to have made their owners happy. This reflects Ralsei's ongoing self-esteem problems that were brought up before Tenna showed up. Tenna in contrast reacted to the possibility of being abandoned by getting everyone trapped, as he thinks not being watched makes himself a complete failure as a Darkner. + HERO\_SWORD from MANTLE is one to the actual Kris. This "HERO" is mostly under the control of the SOUL and partially influenced by a mysterious in-game voice shrouded by darkness, made to cut down everything in its path so it can get strong enough to reach a certain point for advancement, where it'll be "used up" like a tool for whoever's playing. Kris turns their head down in contemplation after the second game's ice door is unlocked and the entire party gets "used", before unplugging the controller. They also avert their gaze when you make HERO\_SWORD kill its party to "BECOME STRONGER" in the third game, then when it walks out of the screen after the Shadow Mantle Holder fight, get the potential to gloat about temporarily having a new obedient vessel by attacking the real Kris with the avatar's sword. * The Crestfallen Warrior, a recurring character throughout the Souls series, is a reflection of the sort of player who loses their resolve and gives up in the face of the game's punishing difficulty. This is especially evident in his dialog in Demon's Souls, where he actively invites struggling players to give up and cop a seat next to him...forever. \|\|Except not really, because it turns out soul forms don't linger forever and you eventually find that there's nothing left of him but a soul item.\|\| * Dante faced enemies of this type a few times in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: + One of the late-game bosses (the last faced before the Boss Rush) is a shadow version of Dante. When it first confronts him, Dante demonstrates an oddly adroit knowledge of literature and culture (pointing out that the Shadow typically represents aspects of themselves the hero must overcome) before defaulting to his typical persona. > "I know why you're here. You want to ask me some questions. Well too bad! I've already answered them myself. I don't need you. Get lost, you poser." + Dante's more direct shadow is his Evil Twin Vergil. While they're both born from a human and a demon, Vergil is what Dante could become if he embraced his demon heritage instead of his humanity. * In Dragon Age II, Anders and Fenris. Both were essentially enslaved and have a deep, seething hatred of the group that enslaved them; the big difference is that Fenris is a warrior who was enslaved by mages, while Anders is a mage, and so a group of warriors — the Templars — is to him the symbol of subjugation. Both have abilities outside the norm for their class — Fenris has lyrium tattoos that grant him special powers, while Anders is possessed by a spirit of Vengeance that grants him special powers. They hate each other so passionately that there are times one will approve of something they would normally consider horribly unethical just because it pisses the other off. * In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Paarthurnax lampshades that just because the Dragonborn is mortal, doesn't mean they don't have the same innate urge to dominate and destroy that all Dragons have. + In fact, the Dragonborn DLC introduces another Dragonborn who gives in to these impulses. * Ensemble Stars!: The idol unit Eden is this to Trickstar, specfically what they could have been without Anzu's help and The Power of Friendship. Originally, Eden didn't appear frequently in events unless they were related to Trickstar but this has been rectified in recent years. To elaborate on the each unit member: + Nagisa Ran is this to Hokuto. Both are the leaders of their units and aloof at first glance. They're also close friends of the cheerful troublemaker member of their unit, and were so talented at everything that they became apathetic. However, while Hokuto came to divorce himself from his past and developed an identity and dreams wholly his own, Nagisa remains largely influenced by his past and is still forming his own identity. Notably, 1st year Hokuto acted very similar to Nagisa, boisterous and prideful while being quiet and awkward in reality. + Hiyori Tomoe is this to Subaru. Both are cheerful, obnoxious and the main source of trouble for their respective units. They also appear to be more perceptive than they look, and they're also close to the aloof member of their units. + Jun Sazanami is this to Makoto. They're both hardworking, socially-awkward and good with technology. They're also overly conscious about being the least talented of their units, but they train hard to become good idols despite their individual pasts binding them. However, while Makoto strives to free himself of his past, Jun struggles to do the same. + Ibara Saegusa is this to Mao. They're hardworking, intelligent and good at managing others. Both are willing to throw away their pride to get the job done, and they seem to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others. However, Mao helps others to be seen as a good person, unlike Ibara, who revels in being seen as a villain. * Dustborn: A crucial part of Pax's Character Development is that for much of the game, her base assumptions about Protolanguage are actually the same as Justice and the Puritans, seeing language as a weapon of control. Justice \|\|seeks to use this power on a large scale to control society\|\| while the Puritans fear Protolanguage and want to prevent its use through any means necessary, even if it means absolute control over society in other ways. Pax eventually realizes that \|\|language is best used as a means of understanding others than controlling them and explains this to the Puritan Overseer, but the latter doesn't understand at all and never changes her view on language\|\|. * Fear & Hunger: Termina has Moonscorching, a Hate Plague created by a Trickster God that turns people into Humanoid Abominations intended to reflect their worst qualities, insecurities, and traumas. For instance, Tanaka was a salaryman who was torn between his own kind nature and his Social Darwinist father's teachings. If moonscorched, his amiable, generous demeanor vanishes and he transforms into a dark reflection of hustle culture, shouting slogans like "the grind never stops" and having shards of the "glass ceiling" emerging from his skull. * Final Fantasy: + In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud, a highly-experienced, sulky jerk, has repeated visions of a weak but kindly little boy that resembles himself. The boy is especially likely to appear when Sephiroth is performing Mind Rape on Cloud, and you can actually control him at some points (although he's limited to running around and cannot interfere with events). After Cloud's mental breakdown, the boy helps talk Tifa through sorting out Cloud's False Memories, eventually shown symbolically 'merging' with Cloud to restore him to his real self. Cloud later admits that he was ashamed of his real self and repressed it, making and embracing delusions in order to present a cooler exterior to the outside world. - Vincent also counts as a heroic version but nonetheless, he fits. A brooding loner haunted by the loss of a woman he loved at the hands of his arch-enemy? Vincent is what Cloud might become if he doesn't learn to cope with his issues. Word of God shares this viewpoint. - From the same game, we have former-friends-turned-bitter-enemies Barret and Dyne, both of whom were miners who truly believed at first that Shinra would make life better for their hometown of Corel, up until Shinra soldiers started working on a Mako reactor and violently crushing any desent from the miners. It was in that incident that both Barret and Dyne lost one of their arms each, as well as their families, save for Dyne's infant daughter Marlene, whom Barret adopted afterwards. Both of them, thinking the other dead, went down their own dark paths in search of revenge and absolution: Barret founded AVALANCHE to strike back at Shinra in his attempt to set the world right, while Dyne became berift of hope and turned into a serial mass killer. Further driving home the contrast between the two is the arms they lost and replaced with Arm Cannons: Barret lost his right arm, while Dyne lost his left. + Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII has Lumina, who seems to be some sort of evil twin for Serah. \|\|In actuality, she's everything Claire Farron rejected as weakness as a child when she became "Lightning", now made flesh. Throughout the game, Lumina does some morally ambiguous things that ultimately end up working out for the best for Lightning's friends; some might say Lightning is doing the same by submitting to Bhunivelze's servitude. In their one-on-one talks, Lumina pokes and prods Lightning with facts that the savior herself denies or hides; that the "Serah" that appears to her is fake, that Hope in the Ark isn't quite genuine, and that Lightning needs to admit her own weakness and reach out to her friends for help. In the end, Lumina breaks down and cries at the prospect of being left alone in a dead world. When Lightning admits her weakness, she does the same.\|\| + Final Fantasy XIV has the Warriors of Darkness, introduced late in Heavensward as counterparts to the Warrior of Light and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. \|\|Like the Warrior of Light, the Warriors of Darkness were the chosen champions of Hydaelyn from their own world in The Multiverse, and they had succeeded in defeating the forces of darkness — at a terrible cost. With their world on the brink of destruction due to the power of light overwhelming it, they were manipulated by the Ascians into crossing over into the main world of the game and trying to plunge it into darkness under the misguided belief that it would save their own world. Thankfully, they are set straight and return to their own world to forestall its destruction.\|\| - Introduced in Stormblood, we have Zenos yae Galvus, crown prince of Garlemald and the expansion's Arc Villain, to the Warrior of Light, both of whom are regarded as the World's Best Warriors who are practically peerless in combat. Where the Warrior of Light fights to protect Hydaelyn from destruction, however, Zenos fights because he enjoys it, and only ever feels truly alive when his life is on the line. After the two cross blades for the first time, Zenos becomes consumed by the desire to continue fighting the Warrior of Light, the only foe he could ever call a Worthy Opponent. \|\|So strong is his desire to fight the Warrior of Light that he not only cheated death, but murdered his father, the Emperor, and took the throne, only to conspire with an Ascian to intentionally drive the Empire to ruination and destruction, just to lure out the Warrior for a fight. After that particular plan failed, he later appears in Endwalker's eleventh hour specifically to help them defeat the Endsinger, simply because letting the universe be destroyed would mean no more chances to fight the Warrior...a chance he immediately takes when the dust settles.\|\| * The individual Berman officers from the first Fuga: Melodies of Steel game have some notable contrasts and similarities with the kids on the Taranis: + Von Stollen and Von Baum are clear inverses to Chick and Hack; whereas the latter two are some of the youngest kids on the Taranis, the former two are the oldest Berman soldiers we see in the game, being well into their eighties. Personality-wise, the two generals take some of Hack's worst traits — his playfulness and mischievous nature — and exaggerate them to the point where they become outright malicious and misanthropic: whereas Hack still cares about others and is willing to own up to his mistakes, Stollen and Baum constantly berate the soldiers under their watch, and their playfulness is in how they treat war as a game and the harm they cause as points. And while Hack is emotionally sensitive but proves to be a Cowardly Lion when the chips are down, Stollen and Baum claim to follow Berman ideals but prove to be Paper Tigers upon their defeat at the hands of the Taranis crew. + Flam Kish is a twofer contrast to Jin and Britz, as emphasized through each fight against her: - Her Revenge Before Reason attitude is a dark mirror of Jin's, especially considering how she subjected Jin to the same fate she was given. Like Flam, Jin has been struggling to come to terms with the death of his father and desires revenge against those responsible for it. Unlike Flam, Jin learns to move past his desire for revenge thanks to the friendships he forms with the other children, whereas Flam allows her resentment and grief to completely destroy her mental state, resulting in her \|\|seemingly dying as a result of it\|\|. - Her My Country, Right or Wrong mindset makes her a window into what Britz could be like if he let himself be indoctrinated into the Berman Empire's self-destructive ideology — while both lost their fathers thanks to the Berman Empire's machinations (Spritz Strudel was killed for treason, Colonel Pretzel was sent off on a suicide mission by Hax), Britz is at least able to recognize that his father was killed for doing the right thing, whereas Flam's fanatical loyalty to the Berman Army would prevent her from even considering that they deliberately sent her father off to his death. While Britz is able to fall back on both his family and his newfound friends, Flam having nothing to fall back on aside from the Berman cause leads her to become a walking, talking mental breakdown with nothing left of substance but her own festering emotions. This all comes to a head when you consider how \|\|Hax manipulates both of them to serve his plans by using their family members as leverage — he remarks to Flam that Pretzel "put his life on the line" for the sake of the Berman Empire, while he lies to Britz that rejoining the Berman Army is the only way to keep his mother and sister safe. While Flam's suicide mission results in her being taken down by her own stubbornness and wrath, Britz's suicide mission results in him being Driven to Suicide through his own hopelessness and despair. Thankfully, as befitting for this trope, Britz's death can be avoided if the children get through to him\|\|. To a lesser degree, invokedconcept artist Yusuke Tokitsu has stated that having one's ears and tails be cropped is an expression of patriotism within the Berman Empire. While Britz and his family have left their ears and tails uncropped, Flam apparently cropped her ears and tails by hand. + Doktor Blutwurst is a foil to Sheena in that both are Felineko who have a deep-seated self-loathing about things beyond their control — whereas Sheena initially hates herself for her spell proficiency and feels her loved ones were targeted because of it (even blaming herself for them getting captured), Blutwurst grew up in an environment where all Felineko were treated as lesser, leading him to internalize these experiences and grow up to resent his own species (hence why he wears a Caninu mask). That's where the similarities end, however: while Sheena always kept her hatred to herself, Blutwurst projects his self-loathing onto all other Felineko. Even in gameplay, there are contrasts to be found between the two: Sheena starts out as a simple machine gun user and healer, but gradually incorporates more spells into her kit as the other children teach her to accept herself for who she is; whereas Blutwurst openly treats his own subordinates as disposable and is willing to sacrifice them to heal himself during his boss fight. + Shvein Hax himself can be viewed as a counter to both all the children collectively in that \|\|his tank is an outright Evil Knockoff of the Taranis\|\|, but he especially comes off as a shadow of de facto protagonist Malt. Both are characters that take up positions of leadership but use said leadership in opposing ways: whereas Malt is the oldest among the children and views it as his responsibility to keep them safe regardless of the stress and guilt he incurs, Hax is the Supreme Commander of the Berman invasion of Gasco and exploits both the people of Gasco and his own subordinates for his own gain, not caring if they lose their lives so long as they further his plans. Whereas Malt is level-headed, understandably mature for his age and a Humble Hero through and through, Hax's Faux Affably Evil demeanor masks \|\|a Psychopathic Manchild whose ambitions stem from making his childhood fairy tale come to fruition and becoming a god and hero to the Berman Empire\|\|. Even by the second game, this is still apparent in how \|\|AI Hax is unflinchingly resolute and pragmatic despite being a Morally Superior Copy that's ultimately on the children's side, whereas Malt spends the game shuffling between whether he should aim to be a more pragmatic leader or a more empathetic one\|\|. * Beta from Horizon Forbidden West is a physical representation of how Aloy might have turned out without Rost's influence, being as she is neurotic, pessimistic and prone to panic attacks because of her isolated, unhappy upbringing. * Dark Pit of Kid Icarus: Uprising is an example of this, actively defying the Evil Twin trope by manifesting some of Pit's positive repressed traits, such as the desire not to be a pawn of the gods (including the evil goddess who created him). * The Kingdom Hearts series loves these, using all sorts throughout the games. + Ansem, Seeker of Darkness becomes one for Riku. After the first game, Ansem loves reminding Riku of his inner darkness, his Face–Heel Turn, and the fact that Riku betrayed his friends. Thus, he comes to represent Riku's self-loathing. + Riku also gets one of these in the form of the Riku Replica, who acts like Riku if he'd fallen to darkness permanently. Riku hates being reminded of it. * Kingdom of Loathing: + The player character is forced to fight a shadow version of themselves. The only way to damage it is with \|\|healing items\|\|. + Every character has a (class-based) Nemesis, who turns out to represent a corrupted version of that class. Seal Clubbers face a seal stronger and fiercer that any before. Turtle Tamers fight a former TT turned Poacher. Pastamancers, who control Pasta Spirits, fight a malevolent pasta spirit who no one can control with a god complex. Saucerors, who allow The Sauce to flow through them, fight a blob formed from the various bits and pieces rejected by the Sauce until it became sentient. Accordion Thieves fight an angry mariachi, and Disco Bandits fight the Spirit of New Wave, the genre which killed Disco. In mid-2009 brief encounters with the Nemesis became possible, and as of early 2010 it's possible to complete the full side-quest against the Nemesis, complete with a secret Island Base (with volcano!) and the Nemesis possessing a One-Winged Angel form. * Kirby: Most of the villains are this, but some of them are textbook examples of being darker versions of the main heroes. + Meta Knight is this to Kirby. The two are excellent swordsmen and are heavily implied to be the same species. However, Meta Knight is an antisocial warrior who is willing to go to the extreme to get the job done. Their colors contrast each other: Kirby is bright pink, while Meta Knight is a dark blue. He's essentially the Shadow to Kirby's Sonic. There's also Dark Meta Knight, who also serves as this to the main Meta Knight, lacking any of the respect of honor for his rivals, opting to just attacking his rivals unprovoked instead of offering them a weapon to defend themselves. + \|\|Marx\|\| from Kirby Super Star is this to Kirby. The two are small spherical creatures who love to eat and have fun, but \|\|Marx\|\| lacks any of the friendliness or care and respect of his allies that Kirby does, and can effectively be seen as Kirby's Evil Counterpart (given that his Mirror World counterpart who wasn't introduced until eight years later was only Dark Is Not Evil). Their appearances also contrast, with Marx having bright lavender skin in contrast to Kirby's pink, being a Palette Swap of Mirror Kirby prior to its Planet Robobot redesign, and even mirroring the Mirror ability when using his black hole attack. Kirby Star Allies also suggests that he won't cause any more trouble as long as he's well-fed, something that could be said of Kirby himself, but to a worse degree. Additionally, his reason for joining Kirby is because he's pulling an Enemy Mine to stop the Jambastion Cult from starting The End of the World as We Know It and save his own skin, while Kirby is stopping them because he actually cares about his friends. + \|\|Galacta Knight\|\| is this to both Kirby and Meta Knight. For Kirby, the two are pink spherical creatures that wield great power, but Kirby is beloved by almost everyone, while \|\|Galacta Knight\|\| is a completely mute warrior who is feared by just about anyone for his great power, to the point where he was sealed away for his great strength. Kirby is also pastel pink while \|\|Galacta Knight\|\| has magenta skin, and Kirby has Innocent Blue Eyes while \|\|Galacta Knight\|\| has red eyes (prior to Art Evolution in Star Allies). For Meta Knight, he represents what the lone swordsman would become if he lacked any of all due respect for his rivals and lacked any morals aside from attacking anything in his path. + Kirby: Triple Deluxe: - \|\|Queen Sectonia\|\| is this for King Dedede. The two are royalty (well, one of them anyway), but the main difference is that despite his greediness, moments of being a plain old jerk, or being quite vain at times, Dedede has a good heart, deeply cares for his Waddle Dees (even when he says only he can be mean to them), managed to set aside his rivalry with Kirby after a while, and his people in Dream Land generally think fondly of him. \|\|Sectonia\|\| on the other hand represents what Dedede would become if he lacked any of those traits; she's a corrupt monarch obsessed with beauty, is just a massive Jerkass to her subjects, imprisons her own subjects in her dungeon without a second thought, and was ultimately driven mad by her desire to destroy Kirby, \|\|losing her own identity in the process\|\|. - There's also King Dedede's own Mirror World counterpart, \|\|Shadow Dedede\|\|, who represents everything what King Dedede would become if Kirby hadn't freed him from Dark Matter. The lack of a yukata, the bullseye symbol from Dedede's more villainous days, \|\|the massive Belly Mouth he gains in his second phase\|\|, and the strong implications that \|\|he's even fully possessed by another form of Dark Matter.\|\| + Finally, there's \|\|Void Termina\|\| from Kirby Star Allies, who's basically the dark counterpart to Kirby. Sure, the two are Planet Destroyers, but Kirby would never go as far as \|\|destroy the entire galaxy\|\|. And that's not even going into mentioning \|\|Void Termina's true form, which is a large pink sphere with three dots forming a face. A form that looks *just like Kirby.* The fact that his sound effects are just Kirby's but incredibly pitched down and distorted makes this all the more apparent.\|\| * The Last of Us has \|\|Joel\|\| and \|\|Marlene\|\|. Both are hardened survivors living in a Post-Apocolyptic world, seen the atrocities humans are capable of committing, and come to view Ellie as a surrogate daughter.. However, \|\|Marlene\|\|, despite witnessing the worst in humanity still believes it's still worth saving and will go to any lengths to ensure its survival \|\|even if it mean having to kill her surrogate daughter to extract the cure for humanity.\|\| \|\|Joel\|\| on the other hand greatly detests humanity because of how much he'd lost at their hands, and \|\|is willing to doom it, rather than loose his surrogate daughter.\|\| In short, \|\|Marlene\|\| is \|\|Joel\|\| if he chose to put humanity's survival above his own feelings and the well being of his loved ones and \|\|Joel\|\| is \|\|Marlene\|\| if she chose to put her feelings and self-interests above the greater good. * In one way or another, \|\|Oersted\|\| of Live A Live manages to shadow every protagonist in the game. + Pogo's desire for love saved him, while \|\|Oersted\|\|'s desire for love damned him. + The martial art students were treated poorly by others, but rose beyond their situations and became role models of the land, while \|\|Oersted\|\| was initially treated like \|\|a hero\|\| and later decided to become a demon just like what others thought of him. + Oboro was ordered to rescue a political prisoner, whom he ended up befriending, and continued working towards peace; while \|\|Oersted\|\| was ordered to rescue \|\|a princess\|\| but was rejected by \|\|her\|\|, and eventually abandoned his cause of \|\|protecting the kingdom\|\|. + The Sundown Kid wanted to be alone and die but was welcomed by a community and found a renewed purpose in companionship, while \|\|Oersted\|\| wanted to live to \|\|protect the kingdom\|\| but was betrayed by it and thus lost hope in others. + Masaru strengthened his body and soul, while \|\|Oersted\|\| strengthened his body at the expense of his soul. + Akira suffered horribly and was an outcast delinquent, but chose to remain mentally strong, cultivate connections with a few others, and defend his community; while \|\|Oersted\|\| suffered terribly too, but despite being a \|\|hero\|\|, he chose to cave in, break away from everyone and destroy his community instead of focusing on something else to protect. + Cube found humanity despite being a robot, while \|\|Oersted\|\| lost it despite being a paragon of humanity. + In a way, Beru, the Love Interest of the Prehistory Chapter, has one in the form of \|\|Princess Alethea, Oersted's supposed love interest\|\|. Beru reciprocates Pogo's love and their relationship continues harmoniously, willing to fight alongside Pogo and can even destroy Odo with her love; while \|\|Oersted\|\| was given \|\|Alethea's\|\| hand in marriage after winning a tournament, but \|\|she\|\| is tricked into hating \|\|him\|\|, becoming the final catalyst that turns \|\|Oersted into Odio\|\| with \|\|her\|\| spiteful suicide. * Jonathan Moon sees one in Victor Holloway in Lust from Beyond. Both men have a lover that they would go to any lengths to protect \|\|both of whom are also members of a Lovecraftian sex cult.\|\| What bothers Jonathan about Victor is that \|\|Jonathan has come to see saving Amanda as a mistake because she could never let go of her dedication to the cult, and he sees Victor making that same mistake. We don't see if Jonathan's worries are valid because he takes matters into his own hands and kills Lily before Victor can save her.\|\| * Commander Shepard racks up four of these throughout Mass Effect: + Saren Arterius, the main antagonist of the first game, is a Spectre much like Shepard, and showcases exactly what happens when a Spectre goes bad. Much like Shepard, Saren is an elite soldier who bands together an elite squad to deal with the Reapers. \|\|Saren chooses to side with the Reapers in hope of being spared while Shepard is out to defeat them.\|\| + Tela Vasir is an Asari Spectre who jumped off the slippery slope \|\|by allying herself with the Shadow Broker. If called out on her deeds, Vasir will throw back in Shepard's face how s/he's also willing to work for a morally questionable organization (Cerberus). How effective of a shadow she is depends on your chosen playstyle and which DLC you've chosen to do: a full Paragon, restrained Ideal Hero Shepard who's only working with Cerberus out of necessity is far more different from Vasir, while a ruthless, Jerkass Renegade Shepard willing to Shoot the Dog is eerily similar to her. Do the Arrival DLC, however, and her comments about sacrificing for the greater good will become dead on accurate, with Shepard being forced to wipe out 30,000 Batarians to stop the Reapers invading before the galaxy is even remotely ready for them.\|\| + Javik, the first non-villainous version of this, is the \|\|Prothean\|\| version of Shepard \|\|who failed in his mission to stop the Reapers. During the last Cycle, he watched his homeworld burn, saw his team get indoctrinated and lost the War\|\|. As a result of both this and his people's cultural norms, he's taken a rather Social Darwinist philosophy. + The Mysterious Figure from the Citadel DLC for 3, who is later revealed to be \|\|a Cerberus-created Clone of Shepard. Part of their hatred towards the real Shepard stems from having been created solely for spare parts if they were badly injured, never even supposed to have been conscious at all.\|\| Their goal is to Kill and Replace the original Shepard, hacking information from multiple government databases to try and steal their identity. They're shown throughout to be a Bad Boss, a human-supremacist and extremely arrogant, simultaneously jealous and dismissive of the real Shepard's feats and accomplishments, as well as the loyalty they instill in their allies. + In Mass Effect 2, Mordin is a scientist who struggles with the guilt of unleashing a virus that reduced the fertility rate of a species, in order to save the galaxy from them. During his loyalty mission, you meet Maleon, another scientist who represents what Mordin would be if he let his guilt overtake him and jumped off the slippery slope. * Mega Man's rival, Bass, serves as his dark counterpart. Bass was created as a clone of Mega Man by Dr. Wily, and while he isn't outright evil, he is self-centered, arrogant, and obsessed with proving himself as Mega Man's superior. As a result, he sometimes finds himself fighting his own creator — even alongside his nemesis — to prove his superiority. * Copy X from the Mega Man Zero series is essentially X without his moral compass, honed by a century of ethics testing. Unlike the real X, Copy X takes a side in the conflict between humans and reploids, creating a utopia for humans by brutally oppressing reploids, instead of trying to bring about mutual peace. At the end of the first game, after Copy X's death, the real X admits that, after a century of non-stop fighting, he began to feel himself becoming more and more like his copy. * In the RPG H-game Meltys Quest, after \|\|defeating Esmeralda in her first encounter with the help of careful preparation with New Game Plus\|\| the titular main character \|\|gets hit with this when attempting to take down the real Big Bad that is Kahan, but finds no one on the throne in the room, then suddenly she gets surprise attacked from him, binding Meltys with his power. He decides to try and take Meltys' body for his own and seemingly succeeds, ecstatically stating that the power within Meltys is far beyond what he was expecting and states that with this amount of power he can easily conquer the world... except he's then suddenly ejected from Meltys. (Dahlia manages to steal his powers as well in the normal story, though in Dahlia's case she still retained her original goals that doesn't stray very far like in this alternate instance) Not only that, but he was ejected out of her without his dark powers. And thus Dark Meltys is born, Kahan shakes off the surprise and attempts to pitifully demand that she must now serve him, only Dark Meltys merely finds his request too boring and tiresome and then easily disintegrates Kahan with her newfound powers and goes on to engulf the entire world in a pleasurable helldom of desire, earning her the moniker/legendary title as the Goddess of Lust(Changed from "God" to "Goddess" as it matches her gender-wise.), "The Succubus Devil".\|\| + \|\|In a bonus dungeon filled with fellow dark-variations of four past bosses, of which are much more dangerous than their normal counterparts, at the end Meltys has the opportunity to fight against her Dark Meltys-self and can be considered to be the True Final Boss, especially with the Awesome Music that plays during said boss.\|\| * Metroid: + Both Dark Samus and the SA-X are doppelgangers of Samus Aran created from a remnant of her own likeness (Phazon Suit for the former, and the Varia Suit infested by an X Parasite). Both represent of what Samus would be like at her worst, that is becoming the most unstoppable and dangerous threat to the galaxy. + The SA-X's presence in Fusion while Samus escapes her makes a lot of sense. In the second game, all Metroids were exterminated by Samus herself, except for one, \|\|the Metroid hatchling\|\|. Simply put, \|\|the SA-X is basically what if Samus jumped off the slippery slope by killing the baby Metroid rather than sparing it, in the process ensuring the extinction of all Metroids, and allowing the X Parasites cultivate even further.\|\| * Mortal Kombat: + Noob Saibot is one to his younger brother Sub-Zero. While both are Lin Kuei assassins, Sub-Zero tries to actively redeem the Lin Kuei from its checkered history, but Noob embraces villainy after he Came Back Wrong as a wraith. This is driven home in Mortal Kombat 9, \|\|where even after being robotized, Sub-Zero\|\| notes that they are both corrupted versions of their former selves. He's also one to Scorpion, as while both are wraiths who were killed by his arch-nemesis and are resurrected in the Netherrealm thanks to Quan Chi and Shinnok's machinations, Scorpion tries at best to redeem himself \|\|and does so in Mortal Kombat X, and goes against Quan Chi when he finds out the necromancer was behind the tragedies he suffered\|\|, Noob decides to fully embrace his corruption. + Revenant Sub-Zero is a dark mirror of Kuai Liang. Though he was an effective assassin of the Lin Kuei, his compassion and assertiveness prevented him from becoming a fully unfeeling and ruthless assassin. His assertiveness was even enough to make him be a good leader to the Lin Kuei. However, as a Revenant, Sub-Zero is none of those. He's completely subservient to Shinnok and Quan Chi, and he follows every order they give and kills their enemies with no remorse whatsoever. In other words, Kuai Liang's Revenant is what he would be if he were truly cold-blooded. + Mortal Kombat 11: The revenant versions of Nightwolf, Kabal, Sindel, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Kitana and Jade are dark reflections of their past selves, representing what could happen if they fully embraced the Netherrealm's taint to the point it corrupted their minds. - Liu Kang may be the Chosen One and the champion of two Mortal Kombat tournaments, but Revenant Liu Kang is what would happen if he lets the glory get to his head and lets it rule his decision-making. His entire hate for Raiden and desire for Kronika to rewind time is because he feels that Raiden "stole his glory" by stopping Shao Kahn and killing him accidentally, unaware of the bigger picture. - Revenant Kitana is what would happen if Kitana became the perfect daughter Shao Kahn wanted her to be. In other words, if Kitana acted like Mileena. Arrogant, uncompromising, and indifferent to the suffering of her people, Revenant Kitana cares only about using her status to take what she desires and make those she feels has wronged her suffer under her rule, upholding her adoptive father's desire for Outworld "being the conqueror and never the conquered." - Much like how Revenant Kitana is Shao Kahn's perfect daughter, Revenant Jade is his perfect assassin. Unlike the living Jade, who remains loyal to Kitana that is still willing to stand up to both her and Kotal when she feels they're acting out of line, Revenant Jade is a cold-hearted killer that obeys whoever she currently serves without question, taking pride in the fact that she has ditched her morals in favor of killing whoever she's ordered to. She even tells her past self that sticking to Kitana would lead to her death, an idea her past self is appalled by. - Revenant Kung Lao is what would happen if Kung Lao was purely Driven by Envy towards his friend and rival Liu Kang, and only cared about avenging the death of his ancestor instead of fighting for a greater good just as his ancestor did. His entire reason for joining Kronika is so he can have a do-over and defeat Shao Kahn in the tournament to one-up Liu Kang. - In 11, Sindel is depicted as a queen whose primary belief is that Edenia should embrace its divine heritage and use it to assert power and superiority over other realms. It is because of this belief that she is so compatible with Shao Kahn, as they both desire conquest and an eternal empire to rule over through superior might. Though while she may be evil, Sindel does have her own standards and pride which she upholds to the letter. Her revenant has none of those qualities, meaning she is what would happen if Sindel fought solely For the Evulz. Not for her own enjoyment or for what she perceives to be good for her people, but for the sake of a higher power controlling her, thus becoming no different than one of the lowly commoners her living self takes so much pleasure in lording over. - Revenant Kabal is this to his past self in 11. It's revealed that in the past, while Kabal was a former member of the Black Dragon, he only joined as a sort of "get-rich-quick" plan, forgoing becoming a police officer under the impression that it "wouldn't pay the bills". Eventually, his better conscience would catch up to him, and he would abandon the Black Dragon to repent for his crimes, before being unceremoniously killed in the line of duty, resurrected, and then killed again. While a Black Dragon member, Kabal was very prideful and kowtowed to no one, not even Kano, as it's shown that Kano had to trick Past Kabal in order to get him to fight Sonya. Revenant Kabal, by contrast, is fully subservient to those who command him and, whether he realizes or not, more in line with how Kano viewed him. - As with the others resurrected to serve Shinnok, Revenant Nightwolf is this to his past self. Years ago, Nightwolf had fallen from the righteous path and had been at odds with the faith of his people. Revenant Nightwolf is what would happen if he had remained a criminal and given in to evil. He has completely renounced his faith in the Great Spirit and is now purely devoted to Shinnok. + Raiden has several Shadow Archetypes: - Shao Kahn, as an Evil Overlord who ill-treats his minions and subjects just for the sake of it. By Mortal Kombat 11, everyone in Outworld is sick of his tyrannical reign, and this is frequently lampshaded in arcade endings and character interactions. - Kronika, a power-hungry Mad God who represents what Raiden could become if he started micromanaging mortals instead of guiding and respecting their free will, corrupting his mind over time. Also, when it comes to gathering followers, Kronika favors manipulation and lying, and discarding her minions when they're of no use. In his MK11 arcade ending, her minion Geras comments \|\|how her repeated attempts to create the ideal timeline have whittled away her sanity.\|\| - Shinnok, a rogue Elder God and \|\|the son of Kronika\|\|. He easily serves to remind Raiden what he can become if his mind became corrupted with a raw lust for power over the realms. In the past, Shinnok was one of the Elder Gods who sealed away the One Being, but his desire to lord over the realms caused his peers to banish him to the Netherrealm, where he became its overlord after usurping the position from Lucifer. - Dark Raiden serves as this to his original self in 11, as he is what happens when Raiden takes his status as Protector of Earthrealm to the worst possible extreme. Devoid of mercy and compassion, Dark Raiden will completely destroy any threat to Earthrealm without exception. He'll even go so far as to obliterate entire realms. + Shao Kahn is also the dark antithesis to Kotal Kahn as well, as while Kotal cares deeply for his people and understands when sacrifices and hard choices are needed in order to ensure his subjects' survival, Shao Kahn is an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight who rules as a tyrant and would kill anyone on a whim. In addition to this, Kotal had achieved and attained leadership without murdering his predecessor, while Shao Kahn overthrew his predecessor Onaga and took over at first opportunity. + As with her revenant version, Mileena is another example of what would happen if Kitana became Shao Kahn's ideal daughter. Ax-Crazy and indifferent to the suffering of her people, Mileena flaunts her status to take what she desires. Also, while both Kitana and Mileena do become the rulers of Outworld, Mileena leads it with complete incompetence and was widely despised for her abysmal rule. Mileena is also an Evil Knockoff of Kitana, having been created from Kitana's essence but also mixed with some Tarkatan genes. The end result is a monster with a child's mind. * The New Order: Last Days of Europe: The new age of Russian warlordism after the collapse of the nightmarish Holy Russian Empire is in response to the horrors of the Burgundian System being an additional layer of suffering and horror after the Soviet Union's defeat at the hands of Nazi Germany in World War II. Several states make a reappearance but many are even more radical and extreme. The Black League extends the Great Trial to their own people, Orenburg became a totalitarian communist state, the Kazakhs want to purge Russia of all Russian and Polish influence as revenge for Taboritsky's genocides against them, the formerly idealistic Tomsk was reforged by the conservative and militarist Bastillards, and Kemerovo returns as a broken kingdom ruled by a cynical and depressed King Boris I. * Word of God for NiGHTS into Dreams… is that NiGHTS is supposed to represent the Shadow Archetype. However, the character is an aversion of the "Always Negative in Fiction": NiGHTS, while somewhat mischievous, is definitely not evil... \|\|at least, not during the events of the game. It's said that NiGHTS was created by the Big Bad, Wizeman, as a helper\|\|. They instead embody positive traits that are buried in the protagonists due to their problems—freedom, courage, self-confidence, etc. And NiGHTS has their own shadow archetype: Reala, a servant to Wizeman. * Persona: + Characters meet their Shadows in both Persona 2 games. There is much misery to be had as their doppelgangers air out character flaws to all in earshot, daring them to prove they have learned from or grown past these issues. \|\|However these are all just avatars for the one single collective Shadow of all humanity\|\|. In Eternal Punishment, neither Kei/Nate Nanjo nor Eriko/Ellen Kirishima meet their 'evil twins' in this way, but find corrupted people who they share common traits with — \|\|Kandori Takahisa in Kei's case and Chizuru Ishigami in Eriko's. Eriko also gets chewed out by doppelgangers of her stalker and the Persona 1 protagonist for being obsessed with tracking down the latter herself\|\|. + Aigis and Metis in Persona 3 FES. Aigis is more reserved and introspective, while Metis is more impulsive and extroverted. \|\|It turns out that Metis is, in fact, a product of the Abyss of Time, created when Aigis locked away her human side after the Main Character's death in the original storyline\|\|. + Persona 4: - All the main characters, except the Heroic Mime lead, encounter their inner Shadow Archetype at one point, which are even referred to as "Shadows". These Shadows follow the Jungian archetype and represent whatever the characters may have repressed. They will loudly exclaim these repressed feelings to the world, and do not take kindly to being denied. Accepting and embracing the flaws the shadow archetypes represent is how the party members obtain their persona, another call-out to Jung. - A more mundane example of the trope is \|\|the real killer, Tohru Adachi\|\|, who is a counterpart to both The Hero and \|\|Yosuke Hanamura\|\|. On the latter's end, \|\|they both suffer from Small Town Boredom, Yosuke merely repressing it until his Shadow spills the beans, while Adachi deals with the boredom by using murder for entertainment\|\|. With regards to you, \|\|both you and Adachi are both relatively recent arrivals who received their powers from the same goddess (Adachi's own persona is basically a palette swap of your starting persona), but only you use it for good. It's played up more in Golden, where your Social Link with him ("The Jester") is the reversed version of your own arcana ("The Fool"); you even both have a mutual fondness for magic tricks. But while you spend your time improving yourself and getting close to people, Adachi basically drifts through life and ignores opportunities that don't offer immediate gratification; basically, he's you if you didn't bother with the non-combat parts of the game\|\|. + Persona 5 plays with this. The main bosses are the Shadows of the various corrupt individuals you're trying to defeat, and represent the purest form of their distorted ways of thinking. The real people would almost certainly deny what their Shadows say about them, not out of any repression or guilt, but to protect themselves from the repercussions of their evil actions being discovered. And then there's the fourth target, whose Shadow stands as completely unique in this series: \|\|Shadow Futaba is a golden Shadow, meaning that she represents repressed positive traits and desires. In this case, the desire to live and be loved. Consequently, she's a very helpful Shadow who wants her real self to accept her so that she can recover from her mental illness.\|\| + Persona 5 Strikers presents the Jail Monarchs as this to the Phantom Thieves as a whole. Both groups were victims of the corruption of Japanese society and were put into a powerless position that prevented them from being able to do anything until they gained access to the Metaverse and were given the power to change the hearts of those around them. However, while the Phantom Thieves only went after the corrupt in order to stop them from hurting the innocent in the name of justice, the Monarchs go after everyone due to lashing out of pain and revenge from being wronged. There are even certain parallels on an individual level due to each one representing the Reverse Arcana that of the Phantom Thieves represent. * Alex Mercer of [PROTOTYPE] has... \|\|Alex Mercer. Or rather, the real Alex Mercer and the Blacklight Virus as Alex Mercer\|\|. Both are ruthless, cruel in their methods, and quick to destroy those who get in their way or cross them... but while \|\|the real Alex Mercer\|\| truly was completely selfish and sociopathic — trying to take his deadly enhanced Blacklight virus as a bargaining chip to buy his safety from a purge of his company, then \|\|releasing it out of spite when that failed, despite his sister living in the city\|\| — \|\|the Blacklight Mercer\|\| actually has some capacity for compassion and kindness. He fights to protect Mercer's sister where \|\|the real Mercer was willing to let her die\|\|. His fight, although selfish initially, helps save Manhattan and improve things for the innocents caught in the crossfire between Blackwatch and the infection. And in the end, \|\|he risks his own life to save Manhattan from nuclear annihilation. Whereas the real Mercer sacrificed his conscience and morals out of self interest, an initial motivation of self interest causes the Blacklight Mercer to develop a conscience and morals\|\|. * Red Dead Redemption 2: In many ways, the Skinner Brothers (a gang of brutal killers) mirror Dutch's modus operandi and philosophy before his descent into madness. With all the savagery, chaos, and misanthropy that they embody and none of the Van der Lindes' standards and anti-heroism, the Skinners are living proof of how incredibly frightening a big organization of killers would be if they took Dutch's philosophy to its logical extreme. * Silent Hill: From the second game on, the hero and antagonist are more or less shadow archetypes of each other: + Silent Hill 2: James and Pyramid Head(James gave his terminally ill wife a Mercy Kill. Pyramid Head is a physical manifestation of his guilty feelings and wanders the streets throttling feminine monsters.) + Silent Hill 3: Heather and Claudia (Heather and Alessa as well)(Heather and Claudia both have supernatural powers related to summoning the spirits and malignant influence of Silent Hill, but only Claudia does it willingly. Alessa is Heather's past life, and while both girls want to just end the torment Alessa is willing to resort to euthanasia.) + Silent Hill 4: Henry and Walter(Two men with more than a hint of insanity trying to escort Eileen to complete an esoteric ritual. Henry to stop Walter and escape Room 302, Walter to kill Henry and Eileen and finally get inside Room 302) + Silent Hill: Origins: Travis and the Butcher(The Butcher is a vicious Serial Killer. If the player kills over 200 enemies during the game, it's revealed that Travis was the Butcher all along and the Butcher boss fight was the Enemy Without.) + Silent Hill: Downpour: Murphy and The Boogeyman. The Boogeyman is the embodiment of the murderous revenge that Murphy took against Patrick Napier, the guy who raped and killed his son. The Boogeyman in essence embodies the dehumanization of objects of revenge. He's also a shadow for Anne in her quest to get revenge on Murphy. * Sonic the Hedgehog: + If his name wasn't a dead enough giveaway, Shadow the Hedgehog represents this for the eponymous main character. Specifically, Shadow is what Sonic would be if he was willing to go through some extremes to get the job done. - Shadow himself got his own Shadow Archetype, Mephiles, who was created from his actual shadow (take a few seconds to process that). Both were created in human laboratories and have had horrible mistreatment from humans (G.U.N. trying to shutdown Project Shadow and killing Maria, while the Solarian scientists performed experiments to use Solaris for their own gain). They also have large egos and manipulated others (Eggman and Silver) to get what they want. While Shadow decided to leave behind his desire for revenge on the human race, Mephiles embraces it with a touch of sadism and wants to destroy every living thing. + The Babylon Rogues are this to the main trio of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. - Jet to Sonic. They both live a free life, but Jet is a self-absorbed, petty jerk, who only cares about winning and respects no one but himself. - Wave to Tails. They both tend to be the smart one of their group, but Wave completely lacks the humble attitude of Tails, and is very nasty and selfish. - Storm to Knuckles. They're both the strong ones of their group, are extremely loyal, somewhat hot-heads, and tend to be a bit shy around girls (which somewhat expose their tough image), but Storm is rather rude, insensitive, and obnoxious, and hangs with the wrong crowd. * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Most of the characters are shadow archetypes to one another (Jedi Knight vs Sith Warrior, for instance) both in story and gameplay terms. The non-Force-using classes split the roles up slightly; for instance, the Trooper (Republic) fights like a Bounty Hunter (Imperial) but their storyline and personality draw more comparisons to the Imperial Agent. + The main representatives for the factions also count. Grandmaster Satele on the Republic side is, at first appearance, an ideal Jedi. However, her being descended from Bastila Shan and Revan, who both had nasty falls to the Dark Side put her under a lot of scrutiny. She also had a forbidden affair that produced Theron Shan, was anything but a model parent, and doubled down on Jedi dogma. On the flip side, there's Darth Malgus, who looks like your typical Darth Vader Expy, but is a surprisingly reasonable and thoughtful Sith, and was once a devoted husband (granted, his Twi'lek "wife" was a Sex Slave on paper, and he killed her when another Sith pointed out she could be used as a weakness against him), who \|\|ends up rebelling against the Empire in a Xanatos Gambit to force it into making needed reforms\|\|. + A more pronounced example is the relationship between the apprentices of both the Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior (Kira and Jaesa). Both have very similar personalities, but ultimately went different ways based on their relationship with Jedi. Kira had a mentor who was kind and supportive, and had seen the evil of the Sith. Jaesa had a master who was a hypocritical bully. As a result, Kira became a Jedi Knight while Jaesa (potentially) turned to the Dark Side and became a Sith Apprentice. + The Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular crank it up even more; their entire teams are inverses of one another. Their first companion is The Big Guy; Qyzen is a Trandoshan who prefers hunting dangerous, but nonsentient wildlife. Khem is a Dashade who prefers eating Force wielders. Talos is a naive Absent-Minded Professor who loves Sith history and mysticism, despite being unable to use the Force himself. Tharan Cedrax is a streetwise citizen of Nar Shadaa who loves anything but Force-based mysticism. Andronikos is a surly pirate that isn't loyal to much but credits, Felix is a cheerful and loyal Republic grunt. Nadia is a powerful, but untrained Force wielder who needs to learn how to control her powers and emotions. Ashara is equally talented, but has been trained as a Jedi all her life and her arc is in accepting her passions. Xalak and Zenith aren't quite as matched, but they're both the bloodthirsty type; Zenith approving of destroying Imperials and collaborators (and civilian casualties are no big deal) as a Cold Sniper and Xalek being a Proud Warrior Race Guy who sees the Sith as living gods. + Each class is also its own shadow archetype, since the player is free to choose Light or Dark Side actions at various points throughout the story. For instance, a Light Side Jedi Knight is a Humble Hero and The Cape, whereas a Dark Side Knight is an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy and He Who Fights Monsters; a Dark Side Bounty Hunter is a Psycho for Hire and usually Ax-Crazy, whereas a Light Side Hunter is a Consummate Professional and a Hitman with a Heart. * Ryu's "evil" side (more like unrestrained) from Street Fighter, the result of Ryu letting go of his humanity to win at any cost. Akuma wants to permanently draw this out of him while Gouken (Ryu's master) teaches him that this is not the way of the warrior. In the actual canon of the story, this is more metaphorical than realized (Ryu never rampages around in his dark side, though he is always afraid it will get the better of him) but some games do allow the player to use this version of Ryu. + Street Fighter IV introduces Juri Han, who is this to Chun-Li. In addition to being Kick Chicks, both of them had fathers in law enforcement who were assassinated by Shadaloo. But while Chun-Li follows in her father's footsteps and fights for the sake of justice, Juri is selfish and completely absorbed by her love of violence. In Street Fighter V, Chun-Li's win quote against her even has her wondering how they ended up so different. * Tales of Symphonia: + \|\|Mithos\|\| seems to fit this trope with \|\|Lloyd\|\|, both having much the same origins, but the latter not becoming the former by willing to accept one's own mistakes. More specifically, both of them are different flavors of Determinator; one of which is willing to back off to readjust their worldview and grow as a person, the other unyielding and unwilling to stop or reflect on their actions under any circumstances. Three guesses which one is the villain. > \|\|Mithos:\|\| Farewell, my shadow, you who stand at the end of the path I chose not to follow. + \|\|Mithos\|\| shares a lot of the same insecurities as all of the party members, \|\|as shown by the illusions he uses to prey on their insecurities. He runs away from his problems like the moles and Sheena, has issues with forgiveness and valuing his own life like Presea and Regal, and suffers from Internalized Categorism over his race like Genis and Raine. This trope is especially true for Colette, who can be trapped in any of these illusions depending on whichever character is chosen in Flanoir, due to her guilt in not completing the pilgrimage and feeling ostracized for being a Human Sacrifice. Unlike Mithos, the party members ultimately choose not to accept the easy solution to their problems, which baffles him because he always chose the easier path.\|\| * In Touhou Project, there are a few examples: + Byakuren Hijiri is a devout Buddhist nun. Despite having quite the rap sheet of transgressions in her past, most notably using sorcery to make herself immortal in staunch defiance of Buddhist principles and willingly consorting — even empathizing — with youkai and demons, she strives to be one of the nicest people in the setting and one of the strongest proponents for peaceful coexistence. Contrasting her, Seiga Kaku is a heretical Taoist nun whose immortality is at least partly derived from the realization nature contains no moral guidelines, which she treats like a license to be an amoral necromancer. While there is little love lost between Byakuren and the Taoist faction, she responds particularly violently to Seiga. + The main character, Reimu, has a shadow archetype in Watatsuki no Yorihime. Both of them are naturally strong and can channel Gods, but Reimu is too carefree and blunt, even lazy, to actually train her own powers much. Yorihime on the other hand is very serious and trains a lot, which means in a fight, Reimu actually loses to Yorihime, despite the fact that Reimu can make herself invincible (for some time). * Trials of Mana: + Crimson Wizard and Angela. They were both incapable of using magic in the magic-focused country of Altena and had their share of struggles and self-esteem issues because of this. Angela required an incentive to use the practical study of magic and managed to let her natural talent finally flourish, whereas Crimson Wizard eventually ran off and chose to obtain his immense magical power as part of a Deal with the Devil and became corrupted. + Ludgar and Kevin. Their fighting styles are identical as both are beastmen of Ferolia and had similar training. The main difference between them is that Ludgar is basically what Kevin would be like had he never met the wolfcub Karl and never let go of his anger. \|\|Ludgar does end up defeated, but given another chance at life and Kevin promises to Raise Him Right This Time.\|\| * Undertale: + Flowey serves as one for the Player Character and for the player themselves, as he treats the game's universe as his personal playground and treats the various NPCs as tools for his personal gain without any remorse. Flowey himself has a Shadow Archetype in the name (sort of) of \|\|the Fallen Child, who goes to the logical conclusion of destroying the world after having killed everybody while even Flowey didn't consider the possibility (at least not without ambiguity)\|\|. + Mettaton is a narcissistic robot with an obsession for glory who's ready to give up friends and family to fulfill his goals. He shows how Papyrus would be if he didn't hold back his power, if his dream of becoming a royal guard made him betray his friends and family, and if his ambitions overshadowed his qualities. * The World Ends with You also have this with Neku Sakuraba. Picks up at least three throughout his time in the Reaper's Game. + Joshua can be considered the logical extreme of Neku's previous mindset, with both of them having trouble being able to understand others, only instead of showing outright disdain like Neku, he opts for a more smug, self-righteous temperament. However, unlike Joshua, who has made this mindset more or less his way of life, Neku finds himself caught between his old worldview and newfound beliefs throughout Week 2 and eventually develops a desire to actually understand people and not give up on them altogether, which comes as a genuine surprise to Joshua. + Kitaniji is essentially a look at what a grown up Neku would be like if he had never learned the lessons he did in the game, with both of them wearing headphones, having a passion for the arts, and having a mutual dislike of other people, seeing them as inherently flawed and worthless. However, whereas Neku learns to fully embrace Shibuya, faults and all, and appreciate other viewpoints and ideologies, Kitaniji flat out rejects them, instead trying to force his will on others in an attempt to achieve total conformity. + Sho Minamimoto is a very big one for Neku. Both are highly talented and motivated Broken Aces with huge amounts of Imagination (Neku is one of the most powerful Players in the game while Sho is regarded as a top-class Reaper with one of the highest erasure streaks in the history of the UG) that Hanekoma takes a personal interest in for their use when it comes to the Reaper's Game. They both believe that no one can ever truly understand them and share a distaste for cooperation and other people in general, and are mostly in it for themselves. However, whereas Neku learns to let go of his self-centered mindset and to use his talents for the benefits of other people besides himself, Sho never chooses to reflect upon himself and stays a total asshole to the very end. ---	ShadowArchetype	null
Numb3rs	# Actor Allusion - NUMB3RS --- * At One point, Alan appears to have been involved in an act of civil disobedience gone horribly wrong as a young man. \|\|He wasn't\|\|, but Judd Hirsch played a similar role in Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty. * At the end of "Blackout" the Eppes men settle down to watch some classic TV. Heard from the TV is Bob James' "Angela", which is better known as the theme to Taxi. Judd Hirsch, who plays the Eppes patriarch, also starred as Alex Rieger in Taxi. * When it is discovered that Larry's been living in the Steam Tunnels, Mildred mentions Dungeons and Dragons there. Peter MacNicol portrayed the male lead of the Dragonslayer movie. * An episode had a character make a veiled threat to have Don reassigned to Alaska. His reaction: "Never been there". * In the fifth season finale James Callis, fresh off from his role as Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica, plays an insane cult leader with a harem of women eager to serve his every need. He is, however, computer illiterate. * A possibly unintentional one occurs with guest star Armin Shimerman, whose character is accused of taking a bribe and indignantly replies that his integrity would never be for sale. Shimerman is best known as Quark of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a character from a species whose hat is pursuit of profit above all else. ---	ActorAllusion	null
SuperSmashBros	# Its The Same Now It Sucks - Super Smash Bros. Super Smash Bros., as a long runner, has accumulated a wealth of content throughout its existence. However, large swathes of that content have garnered complaints for remaining relatively static in contrast to the things that have changed around them both within the Smash series and in the various source materials. --- In Smash's early days,(Smash 64, Melee, and - to a lesser extent - Brawl) movesets tended to be a lot more basic, with normal moves just being standard melee attacks while more varied and "wacky" options like projectiles, reflectors, recoveries, and Summon to Hand weapons were reserved for special moves. Newer fighters,(Smash 4 and on) by contrast, tend to be designed with more of an eye towards moves from and nods to their home series, with the aforementioned "wacky" moves often being normal moves on the newer characters. This often results in the older fighters being derided for their movesets compared to newer ones for having shallower portrayals that downplay their signature elements and abilities, being perceived as vanilla, outdated, and/or unfaithful by contrast. In general, Sakurai and the various development teams usually keep older fighters' movesets almost unchanged from when they were introduced presumably to avoid alienating people who enjoy those characters; this works out fine for some fighters,(Such as Captain Falcon and the Star Fox fighters, who have become fan-favorite fighters in spite of not drawing from their home games much - and perhaps because there wasn't much to work with for a fighting game anyway) but for others it can cause the Grandfather Clause to show its ugly side, with characters having disliked movesets for decades while newer characters get to be Truer to the Text of their home franchises, with mechanics exclusive to them while the older characters lacked them, and things that made them more complete. * Mario has traditionally been a basic Jack of All Stats Shotoclone with simple melee moves like punches, kicks, and headbutts. While this does result in Mario functioning like an obligatory "beginner's character" as standard in most fighting games, it also results in him feeling less like Mario and more like a standard brawler with only a few token Mario-relevant things tacked on via his specials (a fireball based on the Fire Flower from across the series, his cape based on the Cape Feather from Super Mario World, F.L.U.D.D. from Super Mario Sunshine, and the Super Jump Punch, which resembles the jump from the first Super Mario Bros. 1) and a minority of his normal attacks. (his jab combo is based on the signature punch-punch-kick, his down smash is based on the "breakdance" kick, and his back throw is based on how he throws Bowser, all derived from Super Mario 64.) Another source of complaints is Mario's Final Smash, which ever since Brawl has been a generic fire-based Kamehame Hadoken. Given that Mario is Nintendo's flagship character and has a wealth of games to his name, it's incredibly easy to find complaints about his moves and conceptual reworks to make more nods to his franchise; his rather basic Final Smash, due to the mechanic's nature as a flashy finishing move, attracts these comments very frequently, with several people suggesting the highly-marketed Tyrannosaurus rex Capture from Odyssey due to Cappy being little more than a cameo throughout Ultimate. Tellingly, when a fanmade trailer for an 8-bit rendition of Mario as a separate fighter from his existing Smash version became popular in late 2020, many people commented that his moves, which incorporated several Mario powerups in unique ways, were more interesting than the actual Mario's moveset. * While Donkey Kong has incorporated a few moves from his home series, like the roll as his dash attack or the Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat as a Final Smash, and some moves from Smash later made it to his actual games, the majority of DK's moveset consists of generic punches, kicks, and slaps. Typically his Headbutt and Spinning Kong moves get the most flak, since they're more likely to seen as baseless and uninteresting moves which could be replaced with something that better represents Donkey Kong's franchise and traits, such as his penchant for throwing barrels, the usage of barrel cannons to travel (which are a recurring mechanic in Smash and were even an item in Melee), or his Coconut Shooter. Spinning Kong is also one of the worst recovery moves, as Donkey Kong barely even gets height from using it. The fan project Super Smash Bros. Crusade attempts to address this as of its 0.9.5 update by replacing Spinning Kong with a Barrel Cannon launch and replacing his Headbutt with a Barrel Toss. * Link, in spite of getting a few changes in Ultimate, has garnered criticism for not being changed enough, as he has not one, but two clones who use all the same equipment as him (a sword, shield, Bow, Boomerang, and Bombs) in spite of the Zelda series being known for its varied arrays of items and gear. It's regularly suggested that his Breath of the Wild-centric rework should've been taken further (such as using different unique melee weapons like clubs and spears, Sheikah Slate powers like Stasis and Cryonis and Champion abilities like Revali's Gale and Urbosa's Fury), rather than having his BotW content amount to an outfit change, Remote Bombs in place of his impact bombs, and the ability to use two arrows with the Bow. Some have even suggested that "Champion/Wild Link" should have been a separate character from the "classic" Link (such as giving Link a full rework while keeping Young Link, who would no longer be a Moveset Clone, the same as he was in Melee, or changing both Link and Young Link while reintroducing Twilight Princess Link or even Ocarina of Time Adult Link to retain the moveset as it was shown in earlier installments), so that both those who wanted a Breath of the Wild-centric revamp and people who wanted to keep the classic tools would be satisfied. * Samus in Smash has traditionally been a slow, floaty, melee-based fighter who occasionally camps behind projectiles, when her portrayal in Metroid proper, though she does jump in a somewhat floaty, graceful manner, can be more of a Lightning Bruiser who uses her high mobility in tandem with a highly-varied projectile arsenal, which starting with Samus Returns became interspersed with quick melee attacks. Her new neutral aerial was based off one move in Metroid: Other M, but after Samus Returns, one of the more popular things that many would want for her altered moveset would be giving her the Melee Counter, at least for up tilt, and giving her something more to stand out. The floatiness was an accurate portrayal of Samus's mobility back in her first games of the series, but as her home franchise has gone on, starting by Zero Mission, she's become more agile and started to fall faster- something Smash mainly represents via Zero Suit Samus. The majority of Samus's normal attacks are kicks with the rest using her Arm Cannon to fire short-ranged explosions that are functionally melee attacks, all of which look basic and unimpressive. On the other hand, Samus only uses weapons typical of her franchise in her specials (Charge Shot, Missiles and Super Missiles, Bombs, and the Screw Attack) and her grab (Grapple Beam), and even then in ways that greatly diverge from their behaviors in the Metroid series. Her moveset design was considered acceptable at worst as late as Brawl since it kept to the 64 and Melee standards of basic melee for normals and projectiles/recoveries for specials, but later games added multiple characters(Mega Man, Mii Gunner, and to a lesser extent Villager and Bayonetta) whose movesets show that projectile or pseudo-projectile normals can work, making many feel that Samus's melee-focused Smash moveset is off-base from her home franchise's abilities when compared to them. A minority argues that Samus's clunky Smash portrayal actively harms peoples' perceptions of Metroid. * Kirby has been derided not only for his moveset's lack of Kirby-relevant things and low use of the moves he has access to with his several Copy Abilities, but also for being a Low-Tier Letdown starting with Melee and sticking there for the better part of a decade before returning here from "Smash 4" and the buffs he later received not alleviating his weaknesses. The majority of his moves are typical kicks that could be done by anyone and with only some of them matching the Fighter ability, with the Copy Abilities that are a staple of his series only making it into his jab, dash attack, forward smash, specials, and throws. Even some of his oldest moves, the Slide Kick and Air Bullet, barely come up in Smash; the former is often requested as an approaching option and because it was his signature move before Copy Abilities were even a thing, the latter is also frequently suggested as a change but to give him a decent projectile without needing to copy one, due to his infamous susceptibility to projectile camping, either that or the orb from his very first Copy Ability in the series, Beam. Even the Star Bullet was restricted to inhaling enemies prior to Ultimate, and that game enabled him to spit back a minority of projectiles as Star Bullets too, while inhaling projectiles can heal him but not that much, causing Kirby to maintain his weakness against most of the others. His lack of moves from Copy Abilities also limits his options, like range in most of his attacks, with only a few disjoints on some moves, no proper projectiles and a lack of options to deal with pressure and projectiles. The worst issue for Kirby are his special moves, which are considered to be a poor set of special moves that don't mesh well with his other moves: Hammer Flip is way too slow to catch more experienced players, being considered one of the worst special moves in the series, Final Cutter has slow startup that makes it useless as an out-of-shield option, it doesn't cover Kirby from directly above and he takes about two seconds to land and use the projectile of the move, Inhale gives him his Copy Abilities but could use more speed and range and Kirby can lose the Copy Ability without a chance to regain it in its star form if he gets hit too much and Stone has noticeable lag when Kirby transforms, grabs will ignore the move and it's risky to use to fight juggles because it has a noticeable startup in the air as well as noticeable ending lag. As for how it functions as a moveset, his aerials are versatile but it's hard for him to use them to his full potential due to his infamously low-to-bottom-tier air speed without much to compensate, and most his grounded attacks, while solid moves, lack good range. While he is among the lightest characters in the series, characters that are just as light as him or lighter have a lot of things to compensate, such as very high speed and great approach, but while he does have a good advantage state and combo game and fast attacks, a powerful punish game and a long-reaching recovery, he lacks the range, the disadvantage state, a good set of special moves and the air mobility to make the most of his moveset, making it hard to get anywhere with him. * Luigi started as a clone of Mario, and even though he was decloned into a semiclone from Melee onward to become more distinct from his brother, he always kept some weird animations that are generally comedic and can't be taken seriously, and those include two of his taunts, all his victory animations, the third hit of his jab where he hits with his butt, Green Missile and his dash attack, which has a flurry of punches with a rather childish animation, originally missing the hit-box for some of the punches in Melee. Smash 4 gave him a new Final Smash with the Poltergust, which was also used in Ultimate, revamping his grab game to be based around it with Luigi's Mansion 3 about to be released, but he's still stuck with those weird animations. He also generally shares the same stats as Mario in the franchise, but in Smash, apart from being slower on the ground, the main issue with his mobility is that his air speed is terrible, the worst of the cast before Brawl and the second worst afterwards, while his air acceleration is not fast enough to compensate in a similiar way to Mario, who has a much better air speed than him, and considering that they have most of the same attributes, outside of jump height and traction, it doesn't make a lot of sense for him to be so much slower in mid-air. Sure, it might be for balance reasons to avoid making his combos too broken, as seen with his phenomenal air game and incredibly fast aerials, but it doesn't even match the games, unlike Kirby, who does move noticeably slower when he flies in his own games. His animations would make him a funny character, but when his awkward animations constantly get reused without meshing well with his personality, it gets old and becomes irritating over time for fans, and that is a problem. As he is often associated with lightning, fans would also like him to have electric effects on some of his attacks with some lightning-based moves based off the Thunderhand, similarly to how Dr. Mario has an electric effect in his forward smash instead of a fire effect. * Jigglypuff is similar to Kirby in that it's a pink puffball who, ever since after Melee, has languished as a reputedly terrible character, for reasons including lack of speed (though on the ground rather than in the air), lack of range, light weight, and shield breaks affecting it worse than the entire rest of the roster due to it flying straight to the sky KO line and dying instantly if it happens with open air above. Infamously, not only did it get several nerfs from Brawl to 4 despite already being bad in the former game, but it received no balance changes and only a single bug fix throughout the entirety of 4's lifespan. One particular point of contention is Jigglypuff's retcon to being a Fairy-type in the Pokémon's sixth generation, which has resulted in several calls for its moveset to have more Fairy-type moves like Play Rough or Dazzling Gleam to reflect the typing change. * With Ultimate, while the Pokémon Trainer returned with their transformation mechanic in tow (sweeping up Charizard with them) and a new transforming newcomer in Pyra & Mythra was later announced for DLC, Sheik and Zelda remain split apart, like in the 3DS game. The two of them have not fared well in Ultimate's competitive scene, even with the buffs they both received in patches, which some attribute to the both of them still using the same movesets from Melee which were designed to cover each other's weaknesses (lack of mobility and damage racking for Zelda, and lack of kill power and strong projectile options for Sheik); without the ability to transform, they just end up having to live with these major weaknesses and no way to fix them, resulting in suggestions to regroup Zelda and Sheik back into a transforming fighter, like in Melee and Brawl, since the limitation of the 3DS game is gone. * Young Link in Ultimate coexists alongside Link and Toon Link as a trio of Links who all use the same equipment in minor variations. Because any or all of them could be changed to diversify the lineup, it's often suggested that Young Link could add some of the transformation masks into his moveset, as there aren't many shapeshifters in Smash, and the various species of Zelda could easily enable attack options for a Hylian hero that none of the three use. Young Link also shares his Final Smash, the Triforce Slash, with Toon Link; the idea of having Young Link use the masks extends here into making Young Link use his Fierce Deity Mask for his Final Smash, similarly to his specials in Hyrule Warriors. * Ganondorf is easily the most notorious case of moveset retention throughout the Smash series. Throughout his home series, Ganondorf tends to be depicted as a Magic Knight, boasting skill with swords and tridents as well as powerful sorcery... but his portrayal throughout the Smash series is infamous for being none of that. Due to his addition to Melee being late in the game's development cycle, his moveset was cribbed almost entirely from another character with a similar body build, local Supernatural Martial Artist Captain Falcon, with Falcon's fire-element attacks swapped out for darkness effects. Since then, the only moves that Ganondorf has had outright replaced are his smash attacks (in Ultimate only), where he wields the SpaceWorld 2000 tech demo sword - something that's also divided people; some think this was enough to make Ganondorf faithful to his character, and some think Ganondorf as a whole should be overhauled entirely. Fanmade Smash projects like Project M, Super Smash Flash 2, and Super Smash Bros. Crusade tend to change a large number of moves and animations for Ganondorf in response to complaints about the official games leaving him relatively static. * Mewtwo, similarly to Samus, has perpetually been a floaty physical fighter in Smash, despite its reputation as one of the most known Psychic-type Pokémon. It somewhat rarely actually lives up to the image of a badass psychic, as most of its moveset is devoted to Tail Slaps and dark energy, while the actual psychic powers from its brain only come up in a handful of special moves, a few telekinetic throws, and its item-holding animation. * Dark Pit is frequently derogated for being a complete clone of Pit for every move except his Final Smash. His home game, Kid Icarus: Uprising, has all sorts of unique weapons that could be made into a different moveset, and he also brings the Dark Pit Staff as his Final Smash, which could be included in his other attacks to spice up Pit's moveset, similarly to how Chrom uses the Aether-like Soaring Slash instead of a move more akin to Roy's Blazer. * Among Brawl veterans with minimal changes, no name will be heard more often than Sonic. Sonic's primarily classic based moveset that continues in Ultimate, with the most contested part being the number of moves he has where he spins in his ball form. Sonic has the Spin Dash as a side special, the very similar Spin Charge as a down special, and three more Spin Dashes as a down throw, a floor attack, and a ledge attack, while he also curls into a ball for up smash, neutral special, and neutral aerial. As for the rest of Sonic's moveset, the sole changes to it since his introduction are down smash (a split kick) and dash attack (a flying kick). Masahiro Sakurai has stated that Sonic's moveset partly took inspiration from Sonic the Fighters, which, while a notable game on its own, means that Sonic represents about three games from his very long-running franchise. Fanmade Smash projects typically work off of the base the real Smash provides, but add in moves from games like Sonic Battle and the Sonic Advance games like the Sonic Eagle or the Sonic Draft to widen what Sonic shows of his series. His description of a Simple, yet Awesome inspired play style of the Classic games has generally been frowned upon by those who prefer the post-Adventure games with more dynamic moves, and when Sonic was shown to have way more attacks in Sonic Frontiers, it wasn't uncommon among Smash players to joke that that game would be the catalyst for the series to finally give him a moveset change. * Toon Link, as the third fighter in Ultimate to use the Hylian hero's moveset (and the second one to use the Triforce Slash), has attracted complaints about redundancy like the other two. Ideas to change Toon Link usually involve giving him normal Zelda items that have yet to appear in Smash, whether from The Wind Waker (like the Grappling Hook, Deku Leaf, and Skull Hammer) or from other games (like the Fire and Ice Rods, the various Canes, the Pegasus Boots, and the Roc's Feather and Cape). * A few portrayals of characters throughout the series have garnered criticism for varying wildly from what they seem like in their home canon: + Mario has infamously been portrayed as a gritty and serious Perpetual Frowner since Melee. While his more serious portrayal can at least be explained with his experience in his adventures making him the veteran of the group, this is at the expense of his true personality as a character who takes on daunting adventures with enthusiasm, and the lower-pitched and raspier voice clips he got since Brawl also highlighted this. There are hints of the classic happy-go-lucky Fun Personified Nice Guy characterization of his home games, but most of them only started to come around during Ultimate. + Donkey Kong has had a few canon voices and a set personality for ages, but in Smash he's treated like an actual gorilla as opposed to the prime primate himself, making him utterly primal, which isn't how he's usually portrayed. His "voice" in Smash consists of realistic ape-like roars, and his boisterous and silly sides are usually constrained to a handful of animations. It's not uncommon to see people mod in one of his official voices, like Grant Kirkhope or Takashi Nagasako, just to get him a little bit closer to what he's really like. + There are several voice clips that Yoshi uses in both his and the Mario series that he has yet to receive in Smash, still being largely stuck with his original voice set. + Luigi seems a completely different character in Smash, personality-wise. In his home series, while Luigi is known for being timid, clumsy, not very confident and a bit of a scaredy-cat with a dislike for danger, they don't make his entire personality, even though those traits won him the love of many fans with his several funny moments. He's also a Nice Guy like Mario, is loyal to him regardless of their fame inequality in-universe and isn't so cowardly to the point of having no spine and being unable to face his fears to protect his loved ones, nor is he so clumsy to the point that he's incompetent, making him the Lovable Coward type that many knew and loved. His expressions in Smash mainly show him either fearful or being a goofball, and he has several weird and awkward animations that make his attacks feel like desperate reflexes instead of being deliberate and focused like Mario's, as seen with two of his taunts, all his victory animations, the butt bump in third hit of his jab, Green Missile and his dash attack, which has a flurry of childish punches, often having a scared and hysterical look on his face while attacking. Sure, Luigi is known for being shy and getting easily startled, but Smash flanderized him by portraying him as an awkward coward whose attacks look desperate attempts to protect himself and don't feel deliberate, while some other sources, like his Final Smash from Brawl, the Negative Zone (which is described as the negative feelings he felt about being in Mario's shadow), his footstooling Mario in Melee and how often he's shown using his down taunt on him while he's hanging on the ledge in character trailers, or even his Congratulations screen in the original strongly hinting at some apparent desire to punch Mario in the head, and his Congratulations screens in Melee and Brawl also have him beating up Mario or make it seem like he's plotting against him, something that make him come off as resentful of his brother, which is not true. Smash 4 gave him a new Final Smash with the Poltergust, which was also used in Ultimate, revamping his grab game to be based around it with Luigi's Mansion 3 about to be released, and Ultimate also gave him angrier and more serious faces when charging Green Missile or using forward aerial, but that's it for his facial expressions, and he's still stuck with those weird animations. With such a sudden and one-dimensional personality change that is retained in the games that followed, combined with his overall powerful advantage state and things such as his gimmicky Green Missile, which has RNG with its misfire mechanic and animations generally lack his trademark charm that made him so loved by his fans, it has the side effect of making him somewhat notorious in the community. From what we know, his combos might not be the only reason why he was nerfed in Smash 4's 1.1.1 patch. + A big example of a personality change in Smash is Captain Falcon. In his home series, he is a blunt and calm bounty hunter who is also kind, only acting assertive when dealing with his enemies. In the Super Smash Bros. series, Falcon is a lot more aggressive, screaming frequently when he uses his special moves, and yells a lot in general. He may be assertively dealing with opponents in Smash after all, but some would say that personality like this would be more suitable for Samurai Goroh, Michael Chain, or Bio Rex. The fact that Captain Falcon has fire-based superpowers in Smash is also inaccurate to his character, since he was never shown to have powers in any F-Zero game before Smash. It would work better for Super Arrow, a superhero, to have powers like this. + Peach's personality in Smash Bros. is vastly different from her portrayal in her home series. She is normally a gentle and sweet person who cares for others, rarely getting angry (though pronounced such rare moments could be), but Smash makes her act more flirtatious and sassy, such as in her taunts and victory poses. She also has a few attacks (her back aerial, back throw, down throw, and Peach Bomber) that have her use her backside and/or hip, which, never seen isn't true to her character - save for, perhaps, her flippant behavior in the Strikers games, though most characters lose their cool far more in that game than in most others - and makes her seem a bit over-sexualized. There is also the cutscene in the Subspace Emissary where, despite Snake instructing her and Zelda to stay in their room, both of them (Zelda as Sheik) still recklessly go outside anyway, even though there is a dogfight with the Halberd and Fox's Arwing. Peach would not willingly endanger herself like this. + There's plenty of people who were pleased to have Daisy in, but some of her fans weren't too happy with her being represented as almost identical to Peach (the only differences she has are a few animation and effect swaps; she originally had a difference in her turnips' knockback, but that was patched to be the same as Peach's in version 3.0.0). With Daisy being this similar to a girly girl like Peach, it minimizes her tomboy characterization from the Mario spinoffs, such as the sport games she's known for, with her only significant difference being her energetic personality. + Bowser is treated like a Godzilla expy in Smash, being depicted as incredibly bestial and only emitting roars and grunts, despite usually having varying traits throughout the Super Mario franchise, such as a boisterous attitude, a Large Ham personality, and Evil Overlord elements complete with his Evil Laugh, which is absent from these fighting games. Despite his upright and more true-to-series coloring with his redesign in 4, he still comes across as "off" when compared to Jr. and the seven Koopalings, who retain much more of the color (both figuratively and literally) and cartoony design aspects of their home series. There are several fan projects (mods and fangames alike) that replace his animalistic roars with Kenny James' more in-character performance from the mainline Mario games. + While Wario did get to show his villainous chops in Brawl's Subspace Emissary, his portrayal outside of that mode tends to be derided for depicting him as a comedic Fat Slob at the expense of his other character traits; a particular example of this is the announcement of his Smash debut (which for some was their first ever exposure to Wario), which spotlighted him crashing his motorcycle and then delivering a mushroom cloud-level fart. His farts were used in one game before Brawl, but this was just a trait and never the crux of his character. This is in contrast to both Wario Land and WarioWare as well as the spin-offs in the Mario franchise giving him distinct personality traits like boisterousness, greed, and making him a mischievous troublemaker, sometimes going too far when he causes trouble, but also a Jerk with a Heart of Gold depending on the occasion. + Much like Donkey Kong, Diddy was deprived of his canon voice, instead receiving chimp-like screeches that also make him animalistic. While his animations do match his personality, his voice clips do not, and like with DK there are mods to replace Diddy's voice with Chris Sutherland's depiction from Donkey Kong 64 or Katsumi Suzuki's performance from later games. + Olimar's portrayal moreso focuses on the antics of the Pikmin rather than the character himself, and as a result, he tends to come off as an awkward buffoon and not an experienced space explorer with a job. His animations sends mixed messages on Olimar's character, as certain animations give Olimar the impression of a competent leader while others (namely his taunts and victory poses) portray him as silly. This is more egregious with Smash 4 onwards, where none of his animations changed to reflect on Olimar's developed character in Pikmin 3. It is also where Alph is introduced an alternate skin for Olimar, and due to sharing the same animations, they also are inconsistent with Alph's character as well. + Lucina is normally the same as the other Fire Emblem characters, but in her victory poses, if she wins against Marth or Ike, she comes off as more arrogant and cocky. She says to Marth "THIS is the Hero King?" and to Ike "And they call YOU the Radiant Hero?". It is quite out of character for Lucina to say this to two legendary swordsmen, and while she is a serious protagonist, this is quite jarring, especially in the Western versions. + Just like Bowser, King K. Rool acts more bestial and emits realistic roars, instead of retaining his Bad Boss and Evil Is Hammy traits. His Ax-Crazy personality in his home series was minimal, but Smash Bros. turns this up to eleven, mostly when K. Rool runs on all fours when dashing, and in his reveal trailer, although one might guess the character does so from being excited to finally make it in these games. As with Bowser, DK, and Diddy, there are mods to replace his roars with his canonical voices from Donkey Kong 64 or Donkey Kong Barrel Blast. * Fans were nonplussed to see Samus with her Metroid: Other M armor again instead of switching to the more well-received armor from Metroid: Samus Returns, especially since Mario and Link got aesthetic changes from their latest adventures, Ridley is primarily based on his Super Metroid appearance, and Dark Samus represents the Metroid Prime Trilogy as a moveset clone of Samus. As Samus' Fighter Spirit uses her Samus Returns artwork and Nintendo has used her Samus Returns design as the "definitive" Samus design ever since that game's release (prior to its release and during most of the development of Ultimate, they used her Other M design), some fans speculated that this wasn't due to laziness or Magnum Opus Dissonance, but rather the fact that Samus Returns was introduced too late in the development cycle for Ultimate for its elements to be properly incorporated beyond music and Spirits. * Dark Samus' move-set is also missing few attacks seen in Echoes and Corruption. The character's status as an Echo Fighter/clone in Ultimate being what it is (which seems fitting, given that Dark Samus is a copy of the original in the story), despite Dark Samus likewise having thrown virtually zero physical attacks (except maybe a sort of punch to start an elevator at one point), this doppelganger's move-set would more or less have to copy Samus' A button attacks to fit in Smash anyway. Dark Samus, in those Prime games, has never used the (Morph Ball) Bomb, unlike in Smash (but being made from a stolen armor suit of Samus', Dark Samus could well have them - same with the also unused Grapple Beam), but did charge up and use something like Samus' Boost Ball to rocket around, which could have been similar to existing Down B moves such as Yoshi's Egg Roll or Jigglypuff's Rollout, for instance. Also, rather than the Screw Attack for the up-special, note that Dark Samus, in boss fights, would jump up, charge energy, go careening diagonally downwards after Samus, and crash in a strong explosion, pausing in a Phazon shield, before resuming mobility. Dark Samus did use Missiles and a Charge Shot with Phazon in the second boss fight in Echoes that more or less match what Ultimate had as the neutral and forward specials, but frequent use of a scattershot in those fights could seem to fit in by tapping B frequently rather than pressing B once to charge it. While, ironically, use of these attacks might loosen her status as an echo fighter, some might find that their absence reduces the feeling of playing as a boss that fans have enjoyed battling. * While many people were elated for the Pokémon Trainer to return, some fans were disappointed that their Final Smash was mostly unchanged from Brawl, largely because it resulted in the removal of the popular Mega Charizard X from Smash 4 — one of the very few cases where a Super Mode was removed from a Final Smash. This is especially notable given that its first appearance in any Pokémon media was under Red's control in Pokémon Origins, and that keeping Charizard's Mega Evolution would have allowed for an additional Mythology Gag. However, more people give them a free pass compared to Mario's and especially Young Link's Final Smashes, since Charizard is no longer a solo character and the unchanged Triple Finish allows all three Starter Mons to be treated equally, and that it's considered a Boring, but Practical attack that is ultimately more potent than Mega Charizard X in Smash 4 and many other Final Smashes in general. * Sonic's alternate costumes tend to be derided for almost all being varying shades of blue. While Sonic did get a white alt and his black bracelet alt was changed to have black fur in For 3DS/Wii U, that still has left him with six different costumes that all have similar colors. While there is a mandate that says that Sonic has to be blue, the existence of characters who wear accessories on their alternate costumes like Pikachu and Jigglypuff has led to many a suggestion to apply the same to Sonic, given that games like Adventure 2, Riders and Rivals have very prominent differences beyond just the cuffs of his gloves. * Pac-Man's alternate costumes don't get a lot of respect for being very hard to distinguish (five of them give Pac-Man different colors of the same accessories, one gives him slightly different accessories, and one makes his gloves and shoes plaid. Unlike similar accessory-gaining characters like Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and Sonic, Pac-Man's body color doesn't change at all), and he retains the same alts in Ultimate that he had in Smash 4. Not only does Pac not receive any self-referential costumes like other characters do, but he gets to have incredibly annoying Mirror Matches due to the changes being minimal at best. * Final Fantasy: + The paltry Final Fantasy VII representation got this upon Ultimate's launch, with no new content whatsoever and the only representation being Cloud (still voiced in Japanese even with Marth and Roy receiving English voices)(Although this is not entirely Nintendo/Bandai-Namco or Square Enix's fault as there are certain difficulties with acquiring Cloud's English voice actor Steve Burton due to his contract with Square-Enix and it's unknown if Cody Christian falls under the same category. Even if Cloud's English VA was acquired, there is still the chance that Sephiroth's English VA's might be unattainable, making their voices extremely dissonant, so even if Sephiroth's VA was attainable but Cloud's wasn't, it was better and safer to just keep them both dubbed in Japanese for consistency.), his stage, his Fighter Spirits, and two music tracks. With the release of Sephiroth in late 2020, most of these complaints have been alleviated with the iconic villain bringing proper FF7 representation with him via an extra stage, more music tracks and a proper array of Spirits, though some fans are disappointed that both he and Cloud remain undubbed because no other fighters besides Min Min and Kazuya(who each only have one voice actor worldwide) speak non-English languages in the English version of the game.(This goes hand-in-hand with the They Changed It, Now It Sucks! complaints surrounding Mewtwo's and Hero's Japanese lines being outright removed in international versions of the game, since Cloud and Sephiroth make it seem even more unnecessary and arbitrary, whereas having all four characters speak Japanese would at least seem less out of place.) + Since Cloud was included as DLC for 3DS/Wii U, fans of the Final Fantasy franchise outside of FF7 have felt left out in the cold, seeing it as yet another symptom of Square Enix's favoritism towards FF7 over the other titles. Even with the Sephiroth update, Ultimate makes virtually no effort to represent Final Fantasy outside of FF7. No music tracks from any other game in the franchise are present, and even the spirits of franchise-spanning characters Chocobo and Moogle, Ifrit, and Shiva are still based on how they appeared in the remake. Fans of the series other than FF7 find this glaring seeing as other non-linear JRPG series such as Persona, Xenoblade Chronicles, and fellow Square Enix series Dragon Quest have representation of multiple games in their respective series. This is a sore point in particular to fans of FF1 to FF6, when the franchise was released exclusively for Nintendo consoles; while many of the post-FF6 games would later see release on the Switch, this means that the era of Final Fantasy with the greatest ties to Nintendo history is completely excluded. * Donkey Kong: While Donkey Kong (1981), Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2, Donkey Kong 64, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, have decent representation, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! has close to no representation to call for, only having Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong in their hovercraft (and Kiddy not even having his own Spirit), Ellie the Elephant, and Baron K. Roolsenstein as Spirits in Ultimate, and King K. Rool using his Propellerpack as his recovery move with no other sign of his mad scientist personality, to boot when his Blunderbuss/Pirate Cannon has him put on a captain's hat. There are no songs at all or any stages from Donkey Kong Country 3 either, which is disappointing. * The Legend of Zelda not getting a single newcomer since Toon Link in Brawl, and by extension, the series not getting a non-Moveset Clone fighter since Zelda and Sheik in Melee. To compare, the other big names of Nintendo each received a new fighter in each new entry; Super Mario Bros. added Rosalina, Bowser Jr., & the Koopalings in Smash 4 and Daisy & Piranha Plant in Ultimate, Pokémon added Greninja in Smash 4 and Incineroar in Ultimate, and Fire Emblem added Robin, Lucina & Corrin in Smash 4 and Chrom & Byleth in Ultimate. To make matters worse, after not getting any newcomers in Smash 4, the Donkey Kong series gained King K. Rool and the Metroid series earned 2 fighters, Ridley and Dark Samus in Ultimate! And yet the Zelda series has had a good portion of its unique characters, both heroes and villains, relegated to Assist Trophies. This makes the franchise's playable representation in Smash seem very limited since all of the playable characters are incarnations of the main trio of Link, Zelda, and Ganon, all of whom have controversies of their own.(The three Links for sharing a base moveset with minor variations, Zelda for her consistently poor moveset design, Sheik for being The Artifact while other Zelda One-Shot Characters remain Assist Trophies, and Ganondorf for remaining based on Captain Falcon with little of his magical prowess and swordsmanship.) Impa and Skull Kid are two of the most popular picks for newcomers of the series, and although Skull Kid has been an Assist Trophy since Smash 4, Impa has only been a spirit in Ultimate. Many fans speculate that the lack of characters beyond incarnations of Link, Zelda, and Ganon are due to the developers' reluctance to include any One-Shot Character from the franchise on the grounds or the idea that they are only important to their games of origin and not the franchise as a whole; Sheik's presence has divided this perception between those who feel her presence disproves this as another "fan rule" and those who feel Sheik is merely a case of Early-Installment Weirdness that the developers are reluctant to repeat. * The Kirby series often receives complaints for perceived "Sakurai Bias", or the emphasis on Kirby content from the games that Sakurai was Director and Game Designer on; Dream Land, Adventure, Super Star, and Air Ride. More than half of the music for the franchise comes from those four games, while most other games only get direct ports of their tracks, and only four remixes incorporate games he didn't lead for. (Boss Theme Medley, 02 Battle, Forest/Nature Area, and the Squeak Squad Theme.) Additionally, all of the Kirby stages are based on games he worked on; Dream Land GB is based on Dream Land, Fountain of Dreams debuted in Adventure, and Dream Land, Green Greens, Halberd, and The Great Cave Offensive all take inspiration from various subgames of Super Star. (It's worth noting that according to Sakurai, Dream Land GB was originally going to be based on Super Mario Land, while The Great Cave Offensive began as a Kirby's Epic Yarn stage, but was retooled to avoid redundancy when they decided to make a stage based on the then-recently-announced Yoshi's Woolly World.) This is the only Nintendo-owned franchise with such a limit to the timespan of stages chosen, as even later games of now-long abandoned franchises have gotten stage representation, such as New Pork City or Port Town Aero Dive, while Kirby is still using the year 1996 for its threshold. (Word of God says The Great Cave Offensive was chosen due to Super Star Ultra (2008), but the stage's graphics reflect more on the original's artstyle for most areas. Melee's Green Greens stage does however, have hints of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (2000) on its artstyle though.) The selection of items and Assist Trophies that hail from the Kirby series all debuted in Sakurai's games as well, and even with the advent of adding spirits from games released after Ultimate in updates, Kirby and the Forgotten Land goes completely unmentioned. This is also suspected to be the reason why the series has only ever had 3 playable characters, as most of the requests for new Kirby fighters are from games Sakurai didn't design. Bandana Dee, though he debuted in Super Star, only became an Ascended Extra in Kirby's Return to Dream Land; Gooey, the Animal Friends, Adeleine, and Ribbon are all part of the Dark Matter Trilogy (which designer Shinichi Shimomura directed instead, before he apparently went AWOL after directing Nightmare in Dream Land); and Sakurai left HAL after Air Ride, so anyone who debuted after that game, like Daroach and the Squeaks, Magolor, Taranza, and Susie, has no involvement from him. * Although WarioWare is a significant part of Wario's history, fans of the Wario Land series, and some fans of both series, dislike that Wario's representation has always put WarioWare first and Wario Land second, with the latter being treated as a bit part of both Wario's character and his franchise's representation despite it being a well-received series, as well as where Wario first got his start as a playable character. It's not uncommon to see people wish that Wario had been introduced in Melee, so that the Wario Land series could've gained a foothold in Smash before it fell by the wayside. Major fan works like Project M, Super Smash Flash 2, and Super Smash Bros. Crusade generally agree with this perception, as Wario on the whole usually pulls in more Wario Land content and ends up either as a Land-centric character, or a balance between Wario Land and WarioWare. All of them rework or replace several of Wario's moves and animations to add more references to the platforming games, make his default outfit his overalls instead of his biker outfit, and have stages based on content from his platforming adventures; Project M replaces the WarioWare Inc. stage with "Wario Land" (which resembles Wario's treasure-filled castle from Wario World with a layout based on WarioWare Inc.'s elevator section), Flash 2 recreates WarioWare Inc. and adds Emerald Cave, a stage based on Palm Tree Paradise from Wario Land 4, and Crusade as of its 0.9.4 update aims to compromise both Land and Ware by having both the Bike as a side-special and shoulder bash as a forward-Smash, giving Wario a DK-like Cargo Throw, and having Rice Beach and WarioWare Inc. as stages. Even outside of the scope of fangames and mods, it's not that hard to find videos describing hypothetical overhauls to Wario content as well. * The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is a frequent source of complaints due to an intersection of disappointing representation aspects; Sonic himself has a moveset only based on classic games, his franchise has an infamous dearth of music and still only has one remix as of Ultimate (20 songs total, 19 of them ported from Sonic's home games), his two stages have the same Green Hill Zone aesthetic in the face of a variety of available landscapes — including the likes of carnivals and even casino-themed areas — and Sonic is his franchise's only fighter while everyone else from his games has been relegated to consolation prizes (stage cameos, Trophies, Assist Trophies, Mii Costumes and Spirits). This has become easier to notice as Smash has gone on, since many other third-parties garnered much more content than Sonic in the span of two games, or even just one; Mega Man got 17 remixes in 31 songs as well as two new Assist Trophies, Castlevania got 13 remixes in 34 songs plus an Assist Trophy (and a cameo of Alucard in Richter's Palutena's Guidance), the entirety of SNK got 17 remixes in 50 songs as well as 20 stage cameos, and even Final Fantasy, previously the poster-child for lame third-party representation, got a second fighter, a second stage, four new remixes and five new ported songs, three new Mii Costumes, a new victory theme for Sephiroth, and a visual change to Cloud's Final Smash when wearing one of his Advent Children alternate costumes. * Pac-Man is one of the few series with a fighter in Smash to receive no new content for their home franchise between 4 and Ultimate (though there are three new songs from non-Pac-Man Namco franchises); in fact, their already-small amount of content was reduced in the latter. Ultimate only has three Pac-Man songs (and 11 songs from all of Namco, only one more than Wii U), one stage (down from two, one in 3DS and one in Wii U), and five spirits (down from 15 trophies between 3DS and Wii U), all of which were also trophies. * Kingdom Hearts, compared to other Square Enix series represented in Smash, is considered a slight improvement but still suffers from lesser versions of the same pitfalls that Final Fantasy did. While Sora is voiced in both English and Japanese, most of his voice clips are Voice Grunting and Calling Your Attacks with no longer quotes, making him come across similar to the Heroic Mime characters. There are more than 2 music tracks, but they consist of a very limited selection of songs from Kingdom Hearts I, with two exceptions;(The remix of "Fragments of Sorrow" is from Kingdom Hearts II, though the song originated from KH1, and one can obtain a swing remix of "Dearly Beloved" from an Old Save Bonus of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.) they are also the orchestrated versions from 1.5 and 2.5 ReMIX, which is a step above Dragon Quest's music representation. Sora's alternate costumes(which nonetheless use his KH1 face and hairstyle) and the Spirits added to the game at least offer a nice selection, but the limited music selection can feel awkward for some of the Spirit battles related to characters who usually have their own leitmotif. And while the big Original Generation characters are represented in Smash (something not addressed with FF until Sephiroth's addition), anything related to Disney characters and worlds is Exiled from Continuity, causing the series' representation to feel even more limited. * Wii U and Ultimate feature stages from the original Nintendo 64 title, which were conspicuously absent from Brawl. However, with the exception of Mushroom Kingdom (which more closely resembles the graphics of Super Mario Bros. 1(and, gameplay-wise, allows the pipe above the abyss to be entered)), they're deliberate straight ports meant to cause nostalgia for the original game and its blocky low-poly textures and style (similarly to the Mario 64 outfit in Super Mario Odyssey), so there's no attempt to graphically improve them (other than a higher video resolution), with the high-definition fighters and items looking out-of-place against the bare polygonal shapes and blurry textures. Unsurprisingly, this made the stages controversial among those who were okay with the released 64 stages and still found them nostalgic and those who wanted remakes and not ports of the 64 stages, believing it's especially annoying considering the gorgeous remakes of these stages featured in Project M, including Hyrule Castle and Peach's Castle. Adding fuel to the fire, even though Ultimate gives most stages from Melee, Brawl, and 3DS updated appearances a la Mario Kart 8, the Nintendo 64 stages still deliberately look like they did in 1999. * A common complaint across the series is that the majority of the Super Mario-series levels are either fairly basic and non-hostile early-game levels (Peach's Castle 64 and Melee, Mushroom Kingdom 64 and Melee, Mushroom Kingdom II, Delfino Plaza, Mushroomy Kingdom, Figure-8 Circuit, 3D Land, Golden Plains, Mario Galaxy, Mario Circuit, the initial phase of Mushroom Kingdom U, Super Mario Maker) or levels that otherwise lack standout settings. The Mario series has a whole wealth of unique locations over its decades of life, from Bowser's Castle (a highly-requested stage throughout the entire franchise, which has to date only appeared in the background of the Paper Mario stage), to Bowser's airship fleets or tank and ship armadas, to the RPG areas which haven't been touched upon like the Beanbean Kingdom or the Star-tied places like Star Hill, Star Road, Star Haven, and the Star Shrine, to spinoff locations like the other tracks of Mario Kart, boards of Mario Party, and non-standard playing fields of the sports games, to even the various unique settings of the 2D and 3D games, but Smash rarely delves into the vast majority of these areas. It's quite telling that Bowser's Castle by itself is guaranteed to appear in every well-known mod and fangame of Smash such as Project M, Flash 2, Smash Remix, and Crusade, in addition to being a very common Stage Builder subject in Ultimate, but there's still no standalone iteration of such in an official Smash game. * Similar to Mario, the Donkey Kong series suffers when it comes to the stages. Aside from Jungle Japes using the boardwalk platforms and river from Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! and the 75m stage from Donkey Kong (1981), all of the DK stages use a generic jungle appearance, despite the series having a large variety of different locations, such as ships, caves, factories, snowcap mountains, underwater levels, forests, ruins, and castles. There are no stages in Super Smash Bros. 4 or Ultimate that come from Tropical Freeze, instead Jungle Hijinx from Returns is the newest stage. * Pac-Land continuing to be the sole Pac-Man stage in Ultimate as it was in Smash Wii U has garnered complaints and backlash from fans who wished that the 3DS Pac-Maze stage was chosen as his stage instead. Although Pac-Land is the game that Pac-Man's moveset is derived from, many claim that although the game was groundbreaking for the side-scrolling platformer genre, it isn't nearly as popular as the original Pac-Man arcade game which featured the iconic maze used in the 3DS stage, a setting that is seen as better fitting for Pac-Man's home stage.(Sakurai has gone on the record saying that Pac-Land was chosen over Pac-Maze due to the technical aspect of the stage with the Power Pellets and ghosts which was supported by multiple screens across multiple consoles, which the Wii U and Switch would be unable to replicate, complicated by 8-player battles. A solution from fans is to simply mark the ghosts with player icons like the Poké Balls and Assist Trophies, or alternatively to simply do away with that mechanic altogether and keep the stage as-is. Another complaint is that the original music from the Pac-Land arcade game wasn't even used or added for its respective stage (by legal purposes from Hanna-Barbera owning the music), making the stage's inclusion feel even more pointless.) * Although the music used throughout the series wasn't particularly criticized prior to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the leadup and release of that game saw much more scrutiny of the song list, particularly in regards to what was not on it this many years into Smash's lifetime. + A large number of Mario games have managed to fly under the radar when it comes to music: - In regards to the Nintendo 64 era, Super Mario 64 has four songs (two remixes, one of Slider ported from Melee and one of the Bob-omb Battlefield theme ported from 4, as well as the original versions of those songs ported from SM64 itself), and Mario Kart 64 has one song (a remix of Luigi Raceway, recycled from Brawl). No other music from that console exists for the plumber, mainline or spinoff. - The GameCube era hasn't fared much better, consisting only of ports of the Delfino Plaza and Ricco Harbor themes from Super Mario Sunshine (with a remix of the former being the sole new track from that era), a port of the Rainbow Road theme from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, a medley/remix recycled from Brawl of the title screen themes from Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis (named for the franchises instead of after the specific instalments, no less), and the Rogueport section of the Paper Mario Medley. - The entire subseries of Mario RPGs only has ten songs to its name. Paper Mario in particular, despite having been around for 18 years by the time Ultimate released, only has the Paper Mario Medley from the previous Smash (consisting of Blue Skies, White Clouds from Sticker Star, Rogueport from The Thousand-Year Door, and Battleship from Sticker Star) and a port of the Color Splash battle theme, with Sticker Star and The Thousand-Year Door not getting a single non-medley song, Color Splash only getting a fairly basic song, and Super Paper Mario and Paper Mario 64 not getting songs at all. Mario & Luigi fares a bit better, with eight songs total(the Gritzy Desert remix from Brawl, direct ports of Tough Guy Alert! and The Grand Finale which were also ported to For Wii U, the Try, Try Again remix from 3DS/Wii U, and direct ports of Time's Running Out!, Mixed-Up Scramble, Attack and Run!, and This is Minion Turf! that are new to the series), but just like with Paper Mario, their only remixes are ports, and an entire game (Superstar Saga in this case) is shafted, resulting in an incredibly limited selection from a series that's been going on for 15 years. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle also has no music from either the main game or the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC, and Super Mario RPG has nothing either (not even with the Geno Mii costume, in spite of the reveal for it using "Beware the Forest's Mushrooms"). + Wario holds the dubious honor of being one of the few fighters whose series received no new music whatsoever; Wario Land, as in For Wii U, only has a port of the Stonecarving City theme from Wario Land: Shake It!, while WarioWare's ten songs are all ports from the last two Smash games. + There are no new songs from the original Metroid Prime Trilogy, with only one new remix ("Vs. Parasite Queen") of a song previously featured in Brawl and Wii U. Once again, there's only one song from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (a straight port of the multiplayer song "Hunters", itself a remix of Upper Brinstar from Super Metroid) and no songs from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption among the listed tracks, which is very disappointing given that both games have very impressive soundtracks. This also means that, despite being Promoted to Playable, Dark Samus's leitmotif is completely absent from Ultimate. + Pokémon still has no tracks from non-mainline games and all the sourced tracks are from one game being from X & Y. + Sonic still has only one remix, the Angel Island Zone track that accompanied him in Brawl. His remaining music mostly consists of his home games' main themes and a few level themes. While Sonic did get ports of Lights, Camera, Action! from Mania and Fist Bump and Sunset Heights from Forces, fans have bemoaned that even his victory theme is taken directly from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), leaving him the only character to not have a victory theme composed specifically for Smash. + While the Namco music in this game has gotten much love thanks to its new hits in the Galaga and Mappy Medleys plus the Dragon Spirit track, the actual Pac-Man franchise still has just the three songs it had in 3DS/Wii U, with no tunes from anything beyond the arcade titles, such as Pac-Man World or Pac-Man Championship Edition. + System software is still represented only by the Mii Channel and Wii Shop Channel themes and their remixes, as opposed to their DSi, 3DS, and Wii U successors, not helped by the fact that Ultimate was released shortly before the Wii Shop Channel shut down. * The decision to continue to classify the Melee Yoshi's Island stage as a Yoshi universe stage in Ultimate (despite being based on Super Mario World) means that because of how music selection works, most of the music taken or remixed from World can't be played on it, unlike in the previous games. * Several songs which were shortened for Smash 4 remain abridged in this game; among others, the iconic DK Rap(which removed the Lanky Kong and Chunky Kong verses, as well as the "take it to the fridge" ending portion), Pollyanna, Brinstar (Melee), and King K. Rool / Ship Deck 2 all remain shortened. This is in spite of the level of music added in DLC going heavily against the claims of the music space being too tight, like Terry's 50 songs or Sephiroth's six-minutes-long "Advent: One-Winged Angel"; even if there was genuinely no space in the base game, Ultimate has received plenty of free post-launch updates that the original songs could've been included in. * When Snake was confirmed to be a returning veteran for Ultimate, there was hope among the Metal Gear fans that the "Snake's Codec Calls" would gain new conversations for the characters that weren't in Brawl. Sadly, that wasn't the case due to several reasons, one of them being the fact that Hideo Kojima retired the character Roy Campbell from the Metal Gear series out of respect for Takeshi Aono, his original Japanese VA, who passed away in 2012. Despite David Hayter himself being active in promoting Ultimate, Snake's performance was entirely archive footage because of this. There were also a few inconsistencies within the conversations recycled from Brawl: + Alph and the female Pokémon Trainer are referred to as if they're Olimar and the male Pokémon Trainer respectively. + Sheik and Zero Suit Samus are referred to as transformations, which was the case in Brawl but not in 3DS/Wii U onward. + Diddy Kong's conversation refers to an element of his moveset which was removed after Brawl. + Brawl is still mentioned by name in Jigglypuff's and Sonic's English-language conversations. This isn't the case in Japanese, which used the series name. * There still isn't a character other than Yoshi with a non-standard shield (hence the spotted egg). Dark Samus having used a quick Phazon Shield that does minor damage, (think Powdered Toast Man's down special in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl)but was not seen providing protection from attacks from above, would be just one example of different shields' potential. ---	ItsTheSameNowItSucks	null
AnimeAndManga	# The Bus Came Back - Anime & Manga * In the Ah! My Goddess manga, a lot of characters from Nekomi Tech, such as Megumi, Sora, Tamiya, Otaki, and Aoshima, were Put on a Bus, and have so far appeared only once since Volume 20, which is around the time Keiichi and Belldandy graduated. It may have been unintentional, due to the fact that the series itself slowed down considerably after Volume 16 or so. Also, Sayoko, the series' first Harmless Villain (there are two others, who appeared in subsequent chapters) has not reappeared since Volume 15. * In Battle Angel Alita, \|\|Figure Four\|\| gets put on a bus when the original manga, Hyper Future Vision, started to gear towards the finale, and was nowhere to be seen for the most of the sequel run as well. However in the recent chapters of the Last Order he seems to return with the vengeance, and even takes the role of a protagonist (at least so far), instead of being The Lancer that he was earlier. * In Beyblade, the teams from season 1 never appeared in season 2, but they came back in season 3. However, some of the bladers from season 1 never appeared in season 3, Team WHO (the Dark Bladers) never came back, and the Majestics were kicked out by the Barthez Battailions before the beginning of the World Championship. It also didn't help that most members of all returned teams are Demoted to Extra anyway. While the teams from season 1 are back, the teams from season 2 disappeared. * A return few were expecting: Grell Sutcliffe from Black Butler was hauled away at the end of the Jack the Ripper arc. There's mention of a shinigami's suspension being lifted during the Noah's Ark Circus arc, but it isn't until \|\|the Campaniana arc\|\| that we get confirmation it's her. * Black Clover: + After Fuegoleon is kidnapped by the Eye of the Midnight Sun and ambushed by Licht, he spends the rest of the series in a coma until the reincarnated elves attack the Royal Capital, upon which the fire spirit Salamander chooses him to wield its power: he promptly gets out of bed and joins the fray to save his squad. + Patry, Rhya, Fana and Vetto depart the Clover Kingdom after the truth of their reincarnation is revealed, hoping to find redemption elsewhere. Six months later, after Vanica leads an attack on the Heart Kingdom, Noelle and her allies are rescued by Patry and his friends, who bring them to the hidden village of Elysia, populated by the half-elf descendants of Licht and Tetia. Patry then joins the Clover Kingdom when they mount an attack on the Spade Kingdom. + \|\|After vanishing from the plot since the Witches' Forest arc, the Witch Queen returns in the final arc to help the Black Bulls reunite with Asta by leading the rest of the witches in a ritual to open a portal to the Land of the Sun, where Asta is currently located.\|\| * Bleach: + After Ichigo is betrayed by \|\|Ginjo\|\| and \|\|has his Fullbring stolen\|\|, he's brought to the brink of despair, made all the worse when \|\|Isshin and Urahara seemingly stab him in the back\|\|. Then it turns out \|\|the one who stabbed Ichigo was Rukia, who in a Call-Back to the time when they first met in Chapter 1 uses the sword she stabbed him with to restore his Shinigami powers\|\|. And then they are joined shortly after by \|\|Renji, Byakuya, Kenpachi, Toshiro and Ikkaku, who reveal that practically every seated officer in the Gotei 13 (yes, even Yamamoto) infused their Reiatsu into the sword in order to make damn sure Ichigo's power would be restored\|\|. + The Thousand Year Blood War arc has several, but the one that takes the cake has to be \|\|Grimmjow\|\|, who joins forces with Soul Society just so he can have a rematch with Ichigo. Oh, and \|\|Urahara managed to restore Nel's adult form, too\|\|. + \|\|Aizen\|\| is temporarily dragged out of prison so that he can help the Shinigami as well, which is described by Kyoraku as a necessary evil. Yes, the situation is that bad. * In Cardcaptor Sakura, \|\|Meiling\|\| comes back for an episode in the Sakura Card arc, having been Put on a Bus in episode 43. * \|\|Aoi Asahina\|\| finally makes an appearance in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School for the first time since Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, unlike other survivors, all of whom have been featured in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair and Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. * Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur, a Stealth Sequel to the first Doraemon movie Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur brings back Piisuke, Nobita's previous pet dino, for the first time in 14 years in a Big Damn Heroes moment when Piisuke saves his former master from drowning in the Cretaceous Sea. The bus trip is rather short though, Piisuke simply leaves after the rescue, with Nobita oblivious on how he reached dry land after passing out and never meeting Piisuke. * Dragon Ball: + Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' sees the return of defeated villain Frieza, now more powerful than ever and hell-bent on Revenge. + Dragon Ball Super's version of the movie one-ups the movie by also bringing back Captain Ginyu, who got trapped as a frog in the middle of that arc, when he manages to bodyjack Tagoma and rejoin his master. Of course, he's inevitably killed by Vegeta (finally completing the set) a few episodes later, but he does manage to prove quite the threat to the other Z-Fighters. + The Future Trunks arc brings back the entire Bad Future timeline, now experiencing yet another apocalypse courtesy of an evil version of Goku. Along with Future Trunks (who joins the main cast for the arc), we get Future Bulma (unfortunately Back for the Dead), and Future Yajirobe (who was presumed dead, but survived). + The Universe Survival arc brings back Android 17 as one of the fighters, whose only appearance since the end of the Cell Saga was a brief cameo when Goku was gathering energy for his spirit bomb against Kid Buu. And he performs quite well, too. \|\|In fact, he's the winner of the tournament, after Goku and Frieza sacrifice themselves to take out Jiren.\|\| + Emperor Pilaf and his gang, after being absent for the entirety of Dragon Ball Z, finally re-appear in the first episode of Dragon Ball GT. Then they disappear again for the rest of the series except for one very minor cameo in the Baby Saga. Dragon Ball Super brings them back and gives them a slightly more prominent role. + Broly and his father Paragus take the non-canon bus into canon land in Dragon Ball Super: Broly after taking a several decades long absence from the main Dragon Ball media. Shorter for Broly more than Paragus of course, due the former's sequel movie and video game appearances. Gogeta also makes his return in the film after being last seen in Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn in 1995 and in Dragon Ball GT as a One-Scene Wonder, although in canon it's technically his first appearance. * Dr. Slump: + In the original manga, Senbei and Arale encounter Chivil (who appeared much earlier to try to collect souls, with no success, and ends up being another one of Arale and Gachan's playmates instead) on the way to Hell(because Arale accidentally strikes Senbei dead with a coconut shell, and she and Senbei encounter King Enma, who sentences them to Hell after Arale gives him poop.) Chivil then secretly creates a small portal that allows Arale and Senbei to return to life. + Turd leaves Penguin Village after two chapters.(The first chapter involves Arale finding and adopting him. The second chapter sees his parents coming to Penguin Village to take him back.) He comes back in a much later chapter of a three-part story arc (in the original manga, anyway) to give a brief summary of The Story So Far while holding a sign that reads "I have nothing to do with the story." * Quite common in Fairy Tail. The first major example would be Lyon, Gray's old rival who completely vanishes at the end of their arc. He and Sherry come back for the Nirvana arc about 100 chapters later, and every other character introduced in that arc takes a page out of his book and pulls another 100 chapter vanishing act. There's also one of Erza's old friends (\|\|Milliana\|\|) who shows up again in the tournament arc. * In Fullmetal Alchemist, upon the revolt in Central, the bus not only comes back, but it's loaded to the brim with weaponry and ammo for the \|\|Mustang faction\|\| (supplied by \|\|Jean Havoc\|\|), with none other than \|\|second lieutenant Maria Ross\|\| at the wheel. Talk about a Badass Bus, eh? * GTO: The Early Years: + After breaking up with Ryuji and leaving town, Ayumi returns 6 months and over a hundred chapters later, where they reunite as friends. + In Chapter 187, Fumiya gets out of juvie and meets up with the Oni-Baku again. He mentions helping Akutsu break out, and Akutsu is seen in Chapter 193. Fumiya and Akutsu also reappear in the sequel GTO: Paradise Lost. + Jun Kamata, who left for the USA after the Yokohama Cavalry arc and \|\|Natsu's death\|\|, returns to Japan in the spinoff Ino-Head Gargoyle and becomes Saejima's cop partner. * In Hayate the Combat Butler, remember those horrible parents of Hayate's that were rarely seen again besides as a plot device? \|\|Well, they're back in Chapter 561, and they target their own son.\|\| * In Volume 3 of How Do We Relationship?, early on in the series, Miwa meets up with her high school crush Shiho at a reunion. Two volumes later, \|\|Miwa goes on a trip together with Shiho, who rejects her Love Confession\|\| and Shiho seems to exit the story after that. In Volume 11, late in the series, Shiho returns, having a job interview near where Miwa lives. * JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: + Noriaki Kakyoin from Stardust Crusaders ends up in the hospital for most of the Part's second half, but returns just in time for the Part's climax. + While most of the Diamond is Unbreakable cast would continue to make appearances throughout the series spin-off manga, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, Yukako Yamagishi would remain absent from the story. That was, until "Episode 9: D.N.A.", where she plays a central role. + Romeo Jisso, Jolyne's boyfriend from the beginning of Stone Ocean, shows up for the first few chapters of the Part before leaving the story, eventually making a brief return during the Part's second half. + JoJolion has Ojiro Sasame, a Starter Villain who attacked Josuke after mistaking him for Kira, got soundly beaten, and vanished for around 70 chapters before turning up again, having taken a level in badass in the meantime. \|\|Sadly, it's not enough, and he's Back for the Dead, although he does provide a Spanner in the Works.\|\| * Jujutsu Kaisen: \|\|Nobara\|\| leaves the story halfway through the plot after \|\|Mahito uses Idle Transfiguration on her face during the Shibuya Incident and seemingly kills her\|\|, although it's made clear shortly afterwards that there's a small, but non-zero possibility for their return after Arata Nitta uses his cursed technique to stop their injuries from getting any worse. \|\|And Nobara indeed returns... at the tail end of the climactic showdown with Sukuna, where she uses Resonance on the last of his fingers to give Yuji the opening he needs to finish him off. While it took Nobara nearly two months to recover from her injuries, her only visible scar upon her return is a missing left eye. Yuji admits later that, when he realized Nobara was the one who crippled Sukuna, he cried a little.\|\| * Justified in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. Betsy's first appearance was part of an annual event where Shuchi'in Academy hosts a party for its sister school in Paris. Seeing as she inadvertently upset Kaguya during the first visit (\|\|whose family has a... less than savory reputation\|\|), she had a very good reason to avoid going back to Japan at all costs for the next 219 chapters until a full year has passed and the next party takes place. * The 89th episode of Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama has Nozomi and her Cocotama Vivit return to Kokoro's neighborhood after Nozomi's family moved to America in the 76th episode. * The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection manga had a rather extreme example when it had a cameo of Misato Mikami, who hadn't been seen since the Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever OVAs, a whopping 15 years earlier (making the bus trip in question longer than the Lyrical Nanoha franchise as a whole). * Mazinger Z: Kouji Kabuto, Sayaka Yumi and nearly all Mazinger Z characters were Put on a Bus at the end of the series. Several of them returned at the end of Great Mazinger, though: Kouji, Sayaka and Prof. Yumi. When UFO Robo Grendizer started, though, Kouji was the only character of both series was not Put on a Bus. The Bus Came Back for Boss for two episodes, and it was supposed to come back for Sayaka as well, but Executive Meddling prevented it. * In Moyashimon, Sawaki's childhood friend Kei suddenly drops out of college and disappears for several chapters. He reappears eventually... living as a girl and dressing in an Elegant Gothic Lolita fashion. * The story of One Piece follows the Straw Hat Pirates as they sail the Grand Line in search of the legendary One Piece. However, the Straw Hats are not the only ones going on adventures, and as such they run into a lot of recurring faces. + Given that a serialized manga only has so many pages per chapter, it often uses its chapter covers to elaborate on what various characters end up doing even after they've played their roles in the main story. In many cases, the characters in question later rejoin the main story, with the cover arcs serving to fill readers in on what they've been up to in the meantime. Furthermore, many cover stories serve to as an initial introduction to new characters, plotlines, or even lore which can come up again later down the road. - There have been cover stories focusing on, to date, Buggy the Clown (Featuring his crew, Gaimon, and Alvida), Koby and Helmeppo (Featuring Morgan and future major character Garp), Jango (Featuring Fullbody and Hina), Hachi (Featuring Camie and Pappagu), Wapol, Ace, Gedatsu (Featuring pretty much every character from the Alabasta arc), Miss Goldenweek (Featuring the entirety of Baroque works, Hina, Jango, and Fullbody), Enel, CP9, the Straw Hat Pirates themselves, Caribou (Featuring X Drake), Jimbei (Featuring Wadatsumi), the Grand Fleet, Bege (Featuring his crew, his immediate family, his extended family, and SWORD), and Germa 66 (Featuring way too many characters to list). - In particular, Where Are They Now? and From the Decks of the World show what every single character who played a prominent role in any arc has been up to since Monkey D. Luffy and his crew encountered them. If a major character doesn't appear in this sub-series and is not a villain, then odds are either they have already returned, or they're on a higher-class bus and will return to the main story later. + Crocodile, the main antagonist of the Alabasta arc, and Bon Clay, Daz Bones, and Galdino (Three of Crocodile's former subordinates) as well as Buggy the Clown return to the story during the Impel Down arc, where they accompany Luffy as they try to break out of prison. Crocodile and Buggy both become active pirates again, with Daz Bones and Galdino joining each pirate's crew respectively. Bon Clay \|\|sadly sacrifices himself so that everyone else can escape\|\|. - After the timeskip, Crocodile and Buggy occassionally pop up here and there, but make a proper return to the storyline after the Wano arc, where \|\|Crocodile teams up with Dracule Mihawk to form the Cross Guild, at which point they grab Buggy as their subordinate. Though by a twist of luck, Buggy is mistaken as the boss of the Cross Guild and is declared the newest Emperor of the Sea. Later Buggy uses his newfound influence to rejoin the race for One Piece, much to Crocodile's and Mihawk's anger\|\|. + One character in particular seemed to have \|\|a Sound-Only Death\|\| when he was last seen or at the very least, he was likely to never show up in the series again \|\|even if he did survive\|\|. Exactly 401 chapters later in the manga, \|\|Bellamy the Hyena returns in Chapter 704.\|\| + The Reverie, which in-universe has royalty and their bodyguards from all over the world gather at Mary Geoise for the quadrennial World Council, features a lot of returning faces. Vivi and the Alabastians, Wapol from his Black Drum Kingdom, Dalton and Kureha from the Sakura Kingdom, Rob Lucci and his teammate Kaku, King Riku and his family from Dressrosa, the Tontatta dwarves, and less savory characters like Stelly (Sabo's adoptive replacement son) and Saint Charloss show up in this arc. Even more surprising characters appear, such as \|\|Saint Mjosgard, the World Noble who was saved by Otohime, Bartholomew Kuma, and Jewelry Bonney\|\|. Also making quick re-appearances are Marines such as Koby, Helmeppo, and Garp who show up to make sure everything goes smoothly. - Of the characters that returned for the Reverie, many of them subsequently take on a proper role in the plot again during the Egghead arc. Koby \|\|is kidnapped by Blackbeard\|\|, prompting Garp and SWORD (Which includes the aforementioned Helmeppo) as well as recurring Marine Tashigi to \|\|set off for Fullalead to save him\|\|. Jewelry Bonney becomes an ally of the Straw Hats after encountering them, and her relationship to \|\|her father\|\| Bartholomew Kuma is elaborated on. Rob Lucci and Kaku come into conflict with the Straw Hats as major antagonists \|\|and later reluctant allies\|\|. Vivi \|\|goes missing after the assassination of her father, King Nefeltari Cobra, and then reappears alongside Wapol on Morgans' news blimp while hiding from the World Government (Although the events that lead up to this are later shown via flashback)\|\|. Also returning is Kuzan, formerly Admiral Kuzan, as \|\|a recent addition to Blackbeard's crew\|\|. + \|\|Dorry and Brogy\|\| return in all their glory for the Egghead arc. \|\|Oimo and Kashii\|\| also return, having reunited with their beloved captains. \|\|The Foxy Pirates and Krieg Pirates\|\| also make cameo appearances after their rather lengthy absences, with the latter \|\|having become strong enough to survive in the New World and seemingly having joined the Blackbeard Pirates in Fullalead. It's worth mentioning the Krieg Pirates are the only East Blue enemy pirates besides the Buggy Pirates, Jango and Hatchan to make any return appearance. The Foxy Pirates by comparison at least got an anime exclusive Filler Arc.\|\| + As a general rule of thumb, almost every major character comes back in at least some capacity, whether that be as a cameo on the side or by playing a role in the story proper. * Pokémon the Series, being a Long Runner with only five characters being permanent fixtures (Ash, Pikachu, Jessie, James, and Meowth), has this several times: + For the humans: Misty showed up in Hoenn for a two-parter(which served as a Fully Absorbed Finale for her Character Arc) and then later met up with Ash in Pallet Town and spent an episode revisiting Mt. Moon. May showed up in the middle of Sinnoh for a Tournament Arc, while Dawn participated in a Tournament Arc in Unova. Brock has left Ash's group five times so far: The first was during the Orange Islands where he sat out that entire Filler Arc. The next three were after Johto, Hoenn, and the Battle Frontier, each of these lasting only a few days at the most. The fifth time was when he left to become a Pokémon doctor at the end of Sinnoh. This one stuck \|\|with a side story showing that he's been making progress on this goal.\|\| + Brock and Misty return once more (probably to celebrate the anime's 20th anniversary) for a two-parter in the Sun and Moon series. They have gotten access to Mega Evolution and battle Ash for old times' sake. + Pokémon Journeys: The Series had several characters returning from previous series for at least a one-shot appearance, due to the series not being centered in one region as in previous series. There's previous gym leaders like Erika from the Kanto League, Chuck from the Johto League, Volkner from the Sinnoh League, and Korrina from the Kalos League. Then there's major characters like Gary, Iris, and Dawn. Even Butch and Cassidy have returned! We even have a previous evil team return as Team Galactic appears in a special four episode arc. + Staring from mid-Kanto, a wild Jigglypuff with a penchant of Face Doodling anyone who fell asleep from her singing was a recurring character, only to vanish after one early Hoenn episode. She has then made a return during the Sun and Moon series some 12 years after her last appearance, first reappearing during the Misty and Brock reunion, and then has shown up in Alola. + The Pokémon are more prone to show up again. Since Ash drops off most of his roster at Professor Oak's lab these days, he has access to them at any time. In theory anyway - in practice they are mostly just seen when Ash returns home. Squirtle and Charizard also come back from time to time, there was an episode in Johto where Ash met up with Lapras again, and Ash's Gliscor came back just in time for Ash's Sinnoh League battle against Paul. Charizard returned to Ash's regular team during Episode N but was dropped off at Oak's at the end of the Decolore Islands arc. The same thing happened to Goodra during the Kalos League, only instead of being left at Oak's it was left with Keanan. Finally, Poipole returned near the end of the Alola League arc, having evolved into Nagnandel offscreen, and helped Ash during the final battle with Kukui. The most shocking example of this, though, would be \|\|Ash's Butterfree appearing at the tail end of JN136, exactly 1,200 episodes since it was released. And in the Grand Finale he's reunited with Pidgeot.\|\| + There was a period where Wobbuffet was left at Team Rocket's main headquarters for the Black and White series, only for it to come back by XY. This was mainly done to make the Team Rocket trio more threatening. + Even one-shot characters can randomly show up for another episode. Or mini-series in the case of Ritchie in the Whirl Islands. \|\|A surprising example in the Decolore Islands was Clair, Blackthorn City's Gym Leader.\|\| * The Rose of Versailles: Fersen just keeps coming back. * The concept of Steel Saints returned in season 2 of Saint Seiya Omega, several years after its first three representatives vanished without a trace. * Shimeji Simulation: + Yoshika, Shijima's pencil case, makes an appearance again in Chapter 49, who has been largely absent for 39 chapters since Volume 1's Chapter 10, guiding Shijima into finding Majime after disappearing for the past six chapters. + Majime is also this, who appears again in Chapter 49. After being separated by Shijima during Chapter 43, she was relegated to the background with the exception of Chapter 46, of which becomes Shijima's main goal to find her once again. + \|\|Chito and Yuuri, six long years after their last appearance in Girls' Last Tour(GLT Volume 6, Chapter 47, where Volume 6 was released on Japan in 2018), make a cameo appearance at the penultimate chapter, thus establishing that GLT is canon to this manga.\|\| * Shirobako: In the middle of the run Erika, the Big Sister Mentor of MusAni's Production, takes a leave of absence to take care of her ailing father. She only comes back at around episode 18. * The Tamagotchi Friends character Himespetchi has to return to her home planet in episode 35 of Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream. She remains absent from the show outside of at least one flashback until the first episode of GO-GO Tamagotchi!, where she returns to Tamagotchi Planet. * In Touch (1981): Several chapters after being sent to South America, Takeshi Yoshida's back, he's ace pitcher for a different school, and loses embarrassingly against Meisei. After that, we never see him again. * Völundio ~Divergent Sword Saga~: In Chapter 63, Shrike and Saphia catch up to Cleo after staying in the kingdom of Gald. * Wesley from Weak Hero first shows up as a minor character that prompts the flashback to Gray's middle school days with Stephen. Despite going to the same cram school as Gray, he disappears for a good hundred episodes until he finally returns seeking revenge against Gray for humiliating him. * After the horrifying school shooting in which \|\|her best friend was almost killed, many students died or were hurt, and she was almost raped by the younger Kuroda (with his gun)\|\|, \|\|Noriko Kimura\|\| from Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest pretty much disappears from the story. However, we later learn that \|\|her family moved to Nara specifically for her sake. So when Inugami goes there to hide from Haguro, he ends up meeting with her again.\|\| ---	TheBusCameBack	null
WesternAnimation	# Good Is Not Soft - Western Animation The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU --- * Avatar: The Last Airbender + Most of the Gang fit this, being a team of heroic True Companions who seldom hold back when all hell breaks loose. At the climax, every single one of Aang's friends urges him to kill the Big Bad, and when \|\|Zuko pulls his long overdue Heel–Face Turn\|\|, Katara openly threatens to kill him if he ever looks like he's going to hurt Aang, and she clearly means it. + Iroh also fits this trope to a T. He's a kind old man who puts up with his nephew's Jerkass behavior, gives tea to random strangers (even those that try to mug him)... and cheerfully maims people who stand in his way. + Avatar Kyoshi. Though definitely good, she did not believe in Thou Shalt Not Kill and never hesitated to give an enemy what was coming to him. Like a soldier, if an enemy needed dealing with, he got dealt with and that was that, no regrets. In her tie-in novel, she kills a gang leader by lifting him up a hundred feet in the air and then letting him fall to his death. Someone likens the sight to a fire-breathing dragon sucking out someone's soul. + It should be noted that Thou Shalt Not Kill was Aang's own personal conviction (part of his background as an airbender), and not an aspect of the Avatar. In fact, each and every previous life he accessed while meditating on the misty island was agreed on the point of doing what's best for the planet even though it might be unpalatable to his ethics. Avatar Yangchen, the previous Air Nomad Avatar and thus sharing Aang's pacifist religious beliefs, advised him that his duty as Avatar is to protect the world at any cost, even if means sacrificing his own morality. + For that matter, Aang himself. Pacifistic, vegetarian, friendly, \|\|and take away Ozai's firebending so he can't be a threat again. Seeing how a bender considers their bending to be an essential part of their being, not unlike their very soul, this is a very unpleasant experience, very much a Fate Worse than Death from Ozai's perspective (not that Ozai didn't deserve it, though).\|\| + Monk Gyatso in Book One. The temple was subject to a surprise attack by overwhelming force of supercharged firebenders. This particular Airbender corpse was found atop a pile of at least 20 firebender soldiers. Said temple was the one where Aang learned his pacifistic ways. * Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Gaia is a gentle, soft-spoken and motherly Spirit of Earth. That didn't stop her from getting violent with her Evil Counterpart Zarm when he messed with her Planeteers too much in "Summit to Save Earth, Part 1". * In The Dreamstone, the Land of Dreams, despite being a Sugar Bowl in every other regard, is actually far more prone to violence than the Urpneys, and can be rather brutal (if not sometimes borderline sadistic) towards those that try to steal their stone, willingly or not. * Gravity Falls has some characters who fit the bill nicely: + Both of the twins, Dipper and Mabel, albeit in different ways. - Mabel Pines tries to see the best in people and treat everyone nicely regardless of how they treat her (i.e., continuously being amiable to Pacifica even when the latter was a complete snob to her), but when her buttons are sufficiently pushed, she's downright scary. For example, in "The Last Mabelcorn", she's been manipulated and tricked by a rotten unicorn who then rubs it in Mabel's face—and is shocked when Mabel responds by punching her in the snout and instigating a fight. Mabel also goes into attack mode when she sees Gideon hurting her brother. - Dipper Pines, despite being compassionate and friendly, is more cynical and has significantly less tolerance for bad behavior. He also has no reservations about treating antagonistic people accordingly. Before Pacifica Took a Level in Kindness, he had no qualms about springing the knowledge that her ancestor is a fraud on her, and gladly rubbing it in her face. In another episode, he insinuates that Robbie's Jerkass personality makes him deserving of being in complete agony. + Wendy, for sure. She's a Nice Girl, but mistreat her, or her friends and all bets are off. When a shapeshifter deceives her, Dipper, Mabel, and Soos, she states, "He took us into his home, tricked us, and tried to destroy us. I say we return the favor," right before devising a plan to do so. * Hazbin Hotel: Charlie Morningstar may be sweet, but she's no pushover. If she shares only one thing in common with her father, it's that she doesn't take shit from other demons. When Katie Killjoy takes things too far, Charlie insults her back and gets into a full on brawl with her. She also chews out Sera for allowing Adam and the Exorcists to purge Hell annually. * Kim Possible: + Kim is helpful and caring, even more so as she matures. She has tried to reason with the villains at times, but most episodes have her resorting to her fists to resolve problems. + The sweet, goofy Ron kills a villain who threatened Kim's life. * The titular character of The Legend of Korra is this. If you're her friend she's fun and joking, if a bit egotistical. To enemies she's a terrifying Blood Knight, more than willing to give a complete beat-down, and it's pretty clear that she would have been willing to kill at least one of her opponents if she hadn't been...interrupted. In Book Two \|\|she actually does kill her uncle Unalaq\|\|, and doesn't express any problem with it. When the Earth Queen gets murdered, she's more upset about the gruesome manner in which it happened and the effects it will have on the world than she is about the death itself. Book Three shows that she's not alone: in the final episodes, Mako, Suyin, and Tonraq do not hesitate to use lethal force on their opponents. * My Little Pony: + The original My Little Pony TV Specials demonstrated this trope at times as well. The series' first villain, Tirek, was straight-up killed — though "obliterated" might be a better way of putting it — by the Rainbow of Light. Their weapon of choice might be a Care-Bear Stare, but the Care Bears these ponies ain't. + Princess Celestia of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a loving, understanding ruler who nevertheless sealed her Arch-Enemy Discord in stone for more than a millennium — a period for which Discord was conscious the whole time. Celestia didn't lose any sleep over it because of his personality, and the same goes for the Mane Six after they manage to reseal him. Though they subvert this later when they set Discord free to give him a second chance. - She also banished her beloved sister to the moon for a thousand years, because the latter was trying to bring about The Night That Never Ends — which would've had omnicidal consequences. That is firm leadership, ladies and gentlemen (though Celestia, by all appearances, did lose quite a bit of sleep over that decision). + \|\|"A Canterlot Wedding"\|\| features the villain Queen Chrysalis threatening the population of Equestria with an attempted invasion. Consequently, it also features the Chrysalis having to deal with Princess Celestia shooting Projectile Spells at her face. \|\|To everyone's surprise — including her own — Chrysalis proves powerful enough to defeat Celestia, but none of the fandom seemed to care.\|\| - It's worth noting that \|\|in this case, Chrysalis, who's the queen of an Emotion Eater race, was pretty much beyond all power limits during the battle, as she'd been feasting on the love between Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. In the sixth season finale, when faced with the prospect of fighting Celestia (and all of the other Mane Cast) again, she promptly turned tail and fled\|\|. + King Sombra's case is very similar to Discord's in nearly every respect. Bonus points for the method with which he is dispatched upon his return (\|\|he is the first and only antagonist in the show to be Killed Off for Real\|\|). - Oh, and Sombra's fate when Celestia and Luna took him down in the past? His physical form was ripped apart and his soul was sealed under the arctic ice. + She deals with the dangerous and sociopathic Cozy Glow this way too, first by sending her to Tartarus (literal Hell) and later sealing her in stone (which, as established with Discord, leaves one conscious). When push comes to shove and the Godzilla Threshold is met, she doesn't care in the slightest that Cozy Glow is a child and will do what she must to protect Equestria. + The Mane Six are like this too. Twilight Sparkle might be among the most diplomatic and patient members of the cast, but threaten her friends or loved ones and you better be prepared to face weapons-grade magic. Rainbow Dash and Applejack, the former especially, being the most athletic members of the group, tend to waste little time in putting their considerable physical abilities to use despite their respective fun-loving and level-headed natures. Even Fun Ponified Pinkie Pie (who becomes abruptly terrifying when her Berserk Buttons are pressed and wields a cannon(a party cannon, mind you, but a cannon nonetheless) in combat), sweet and timid Fluttershy (whose Mama Bear instincts manifest in the form of a superpower called "the Stare"), and the sophisticated, ladylike Rarity (who was kicking angry manticores in the face by the second episode) will gladly step up to the plate if you pose a large enough threat. > Rarity: Fighting's not really my thing, I'm more into fashion, but I'll rip you to pieces if you touch one scale on his cute little head! + Rarity gets special mention because she is shown using martial arts stances. The others have abilities that can be turned to combat. Rarity, on the other hand, set out to master asskicking at some point before she knew she'd be up against monsters with some regularity, and has no fear about leaping into the fray against creatures several times her size. + The Tree of Harmony had absolutely no qualms killing the entire Mean Six in response to them attacking it, even the clone of Rainbow Dash who didn't do anything bad aside from accompany the other clones and didn't even attack the tree. While it's unknown if the tree was sentient at that point, when it later appeared as a fully sentient apparition of Twilight Sparkle it went full Sink-or-Swim Mentor and forced the Young Six to face their worst fears, on threat of being trapped forever underground if they failed, to teach them a friendship lesson. It might be a Greater-Scope Paragon, but "soft" is not in its vocabulary. * The Nutshack: While the main characters are by no means nice, they aren't exactly evil, either. In "The Wrath of Ning Ping", investigating a mob boss who forcibly employs Filipino children at his factory, and who attempted to do something horrible to Jack, they show how brutal they could be to their foes: + The first part sees them capture Douche, an employee at the factory, strip him to his underwear, aim a hammer at his crotch, and beat him until he gets a black eye and a sizeable bruise on his cheek. When he comes to, Phil writes PENIS on his forehead, and ASS CHEEK on his bruise, implying that one of the guys is going to sit on him while bottomless. Chita punches him, then threatens to release the hammer if he doesn't answer their questions—only for Phil, after slapping him, to do so anyway. + In the second part, they infiltrate the factory. Phil and Tito Dick kill two guards, Phil, by snapping one's neck, Tito, by stomping in the other's head. Chita subdues an employee by suplexing him, driving his head into the concrete floor. Horatio crushes another's testicles with a nunchuck, does his business on his face, then beheads him with a buzzsaw. After Douche double-crosses the quintet, he's stabbed in the neck by the mob boss, leading Phil to celebrate as he bleeds out. * The Owl House: Luz is a seriously sweet girl who shows her teeth when people she cares about are hurt. In "Young Blood, Old Souls", she threatens to burn Kikimora to death if she doesn't release Eda, King, and Lilith from the cage they're in. With Belos, responsible for Eda and Lilith's imprisonment, she gladly attacks him with the glyphs she's learned, managing to break a piece off his mask. \|\|When he casts the Draining Spell so that he can enact his Final Solution for the Boiling Isles, she tricks him into being branded with a Coven sigil, making him affected by the spell, to force him to break it.\|\| In the Grand Finale, \|\|she glares as a defeated Belos is melted away by the boiling rain, ignoring his pleas for help until he's Killed Off for Real by Eda, King, and Raine\|\|. * The Powerpuff Girls fit this trope to a T. Generally sociable and friendly, they even manage to get along with several members of their Rogues Gallery when the villains aren't actively doing something evil. Nonetheless, their typical approach to crime-fighting is "beat the ever-loving shit out of the bad guys and dump their broken bodies in jail". * Optimus Prime of Transformers: Prime is one of the nicest, most purely heroic characters imaginable. He's also a giant alien war-machine and willing to brutally kill an opponent who has proven irredeemable. It doesn't matter if you used to be his friend. It doesn't matter if you used to be his mentor. It doesn't matter whether you're a human he could easily crush in a fair fight, another Transformer he's on roughly equal footing with, or even a god-like being like Unicron. Once you've crossed that line, nothing else matters any more. You're going down, and going down HARD. + Also in Prime, Bumblebee is a complete and utter Nice Guy despite his inability to speak, and as per usual is the series' Kid-Appeal Character. However, this does not mean he's weak, something the show establishes in its first episode following the Pilot Movie, "Students and Masters". The episode introduces a new Decepticon badass Noble Demon named Skyquake. Bumblebee kills him by ripping his insides out mid-flight and causing him to crash. \|\|And in the Series Finale, it's him, not Optimus, who ends up killing Megatron via impaling him through the chest.\|\| + This is a trait shared by many Autobots (and Maximals) throughout the Transformers franchise, both figuratively and literally. Optimus just tends to embody it best. When your race has "war machine" as a species trait, you tend to be ready when push comes to shove. + In the G1 cartoon, during a flashback to his first meeting with Megatron and being rebuilt into Optimus, there is a scene where he just blasts holes into 'con after 'con after 'con. In The Transformers: The Movie, Optimus literally runs over one Decepticon and blasts several others before he confronts Megatron. + Alpha Trion qualifies for this as well, for rebuilding him. After all, he knew warriors would be needed, so when two of his friends were injured, he didn't just rebuild them as they were — he rebuilt them as badass Decepticon-slayers. Imagine waking up in the hospital with an Arm Cannon in preparation for the next time you ran into the guy who put you there. * While they're not like this in all incarnations, the 2003 version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles certainly fall into this territory. They have no qualms about killing but are generally pretty nice to their friends, and even when they bicker, you can still tell they love each other. + One particular instance came when Michaelangelo, the most lighthearted member of the group, pulled the pins off the grenades that a soldier of an invading alien force was carrying. He makes a quip about having done so right before the grenades detonate... with the soldier still carrying them. * Teen Titans (2003): While Raven isn't nearly as sweet and kind as Starfire, she's a good-hearted woman who usually does what's right. If that means bringing Doctor Light into the shadowy world inside her cloak to punish him for giving her friends shit, so be it. Even though she's stopped by Robin, Doctor Light is left a shivering, traumatized mess—and he remembers this when they next cross paths. * Lion-O from ThunderCats (2011) would seem to be soft compared to other Cats, since he is the only one willing to try and convince his enemies to stand down and show them kindness. However, this kindness does not extend to their bosses, such as when he defeats the king of the rats Ratar-O without hesitation. He also doesn't let his compassion get in the way when innocent lives are at stake, such as blowing several Lizard fighters out of the sky in the season finale. * Jim from Trollhunters is a genuine Nice Guy who performs all the chores for his mother, qualifies for a Knight In Shining Armour and only holds grudges against Steve and enemies trying to kill him \|\|and is even willing to forgive those who perform a Heel–Face Turn\|\|. By the the second half of Season 1 however, he has no qualms with killing his more dangerous enemies, with the villains either surviving by escaping or setting up an unusual hostage setup. In fact, his position as Trollhunter outright defies Thou Shalt Not Kill, the second of its three rules is 'Always finish the fight'.	GoodIsNotSoft	null
TabletopGames	# One Winged Angel - Tabletop Games --- * Anima: Beyond Fantasy: + Omega has two different forms: one (the first) that is an Expy of the seven headed-dragon that appears in The Bible's Book of Revelation and other that is an Ersatz of Final Fantasy VI's Kefka Palazzo. The game has also Lazarus — justified as he's an Expy of Sephiroth — as well as Fallen Angel Dinah, who has decided to seal most of her power. + Surpass Death from the Necromancy path of magic is sorta this. It's only usable when the target is just about to die, and it turns them into an undead entity while giving them a fairly sizable chunk of extra points to spend on monster powers and the like. As such, it's kind of like a One Winged Angel that necromancers can do to other people as well as themselves. Of course, there's not really any way to revert back, but it's still a step up from dying. That aside, there's a monster power that allows for having multiple forms, and yes, it can be keyed to having taken a certain amount of damage (in fact it's the cheaper way to do it!), and no, the forms do not innately share damage taken (unless they took the penalty that says otherwise for a cost break). * CthulhuTech: + Dhohanoids are Half Human Hybrids that can change between a human form and a monstrous one. + Tagers are able to do this, too... but in keeping with the fact that they're good guys, their One-Winged Angel is a bit more streamlined than that of Dhohanoids. + Nyarlathotep tends to do this in mythos RPGs. Destroying his human form often causes him to manifest as some kinds of sanity-blasting monstrosity. * Dungeons & Dragons: + Ragnorra, the obligatory Body Horror entry from Elder Evils, transforms from a bloated blob of wormlike flesh into a curiously human face made out of strands — her True Mother form. While spawning utterly abhorrent monstrosities that simply should not be. + Averted with Asmodeus: While his true form is apparently a giant primordial serpent of some sort, the rules given for fighting him — as unlikely a situation it would be to fight the super-intelligent, scheming ruler of all Hell — only describe fighting him in his humanoid devil form (Presumably because, against a being to whom the word "god" would be an insult, your party wouldn't stand a chance). + Played straight with Lolth, the evil goddess of the drow, whose infamous One-Winged Angel form — that of a half-drow-half-spider — has been well-known since the First Edition. Most recently, in the Fourth Edition's Monster Manual 3 (where she received updated stats and appeared on the cover), far greater detail was given on how she transformed. (If reduced to zero hit points in her drow form, she turns into her One-Winged Angel form automatically, where she's stronger and much, much more dangerous than before.) + Player characters can perform similar feats with certain spells and magic items — and some classes (usually prestige classes) have it as an innate feature, usually gained at very high levels. + Mythic Odysseys of Theros in the Fifth Edition introduces Mythic Monsters, which have a second phase to the fight after knocking them down to 0 HP the first time (often radically changing their mechanics). The sourcebook itself gives three: Arasta, Hythonia and Tromokratis, which are powerful boss monsters. - Fizban's Treasury of Dragons introduces Mythic versions of dragons called Greatwyrms, which are immortal 1,200+ year old Ancient Dragons that consumed/fused with parallel versions of themselves across multiple Material Planes, and Aspects, which are Mythic versions of Tiamat and Bahamut. Also included are Ancient Dragon Turtles which, unlike its Ancient Dragon cousins, are Mythic. While the Gem Greatwyrms do not have any Mythic labeling or actions, they do have a second phase like a Mythic creature. - Adding in the Dragon Spellcasting rules from Monster Manual gives Gem Greatwyrms 7 8th level spell slots, Chromatics 8 9th level slots, and Metallics 10 9th level slots. They can only cast each spell once a day, but odds are you won't survive after it casts Invulnerability, Power Word Heal, or WISH on itself. Worse still is having the dragon casting Clone before the fight, giving it over 2400 HP if it uses Clone, Power Word Heal, and Wish all in the same fight. + Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden takes this a step further with \|\|Auril, who has three different forms, each fought one after another. Unlike the Mythic Monsters described above, Auril plays the trope straight\|\|. * Exalted just loves this trope. + Lunar Deadly Beastman Transformation, or Warform, allows them to transform into a nine-feet tall monstrous merge of their animal and human forms. It comes with increase to physical parameters, host of mutations to represent the alterations and ability to instantly activate a wide array of complementary Charms to buff themselves up higher. And even if you can deal with all that and beat it down to a point when every other Exalt would lie on the ground and helplessly bleed out to death? The Lunar does not bleed. The Lunar regenerates and will get up for a round two if you turn your back on the body. + Several Lunar Knacks serve to enhance their forms further, letting them grow their animal form or warform to Kaiju comparable sizes and go a-stomping. + Infernals have Shintai charms which let them change into a monstrous form based on the Yozi the power is derived from. The most minor ones for physical changes turn you into a version of you crafted from red mist (Scarlet Rapture) or sand (Soul-Sand Devil), can split off a mortal clone of you (Splintered Gale), or allow you to copy someone else (Black Mirror). More extreme ones give you a constellation of crystalline orbs (Heuristic Logos). The most one-winged of them are Tenebrous Apotheosis (which ramps you up to become the Ebon Dragon), All-Devouring Depths (which turns you into a shoggoth), Demon Emperor (which turns you into a walking Ground Zero), Greater Shintai of the Endless Desert (which turns you into a living geographical feature) and Devil-Tyrant Avatar (which allows you to string together mutations to build your own form). Of these, only Soul-Sand Devil and Splintered Gale can't be used as a rude surprise in combat, and that's only because one is permanently in effect and the other is used to create mortals, although one odd Splintered Gale build theoretically allows you to mass-produce cloned suicide bombers. - Since Devil-Tigers each get their own Charm trees, they end up gaining at least one Shintai charm that reflects their nature, they each have their own unique one-winged angel form. - In the upcoming third edition of the game, the system gets revamped to allow you mix and match the pieces (which you get by buying other Charms) to create your own Shintai. + The Shintai Charms are augmented by the Charm Driven Beyond Death. When an Infernal hits the Incapacitated Health Level, they make like they're downed (like, say, going down on one knee). Then their anima banner erupts, and they have one turn where they're completely untouchable but can only activate a Shintai Charm. At that point, they reenter battle with their Essence pool somewhat refreshed... and at the end of the battle, they have to roll not to keel over regardless. + Even Sidereals get into this: they turn their Familiars or mortal acquaintances into massive Elemental Dragons which they can ride. Unfortunately, this destroys the personality of the pet and reduces them to a vegetative state when it's over unless the Sidereal sacrifices a dot of permanent Willpower to let them live on in their Dragon form. + The errata document for 2e includes an upgrade to the stats of the Unconquered Sun as he appears in the Glories of the Most High supplement that gives him an enhanced form called Magnanimous Unbound Sun that gives him an extra couple hundred health levels, an extra 28 arms, constant regeneration, and the inability to be killed unless this enhanced form can be dealt with. + There are Sorcery spells available to all Exalt types: Incomparable Body Arsenal turns the caster into a mechanical creature, sprouting weapons out of anywhere, while Invulnerable Skin of Bronze can complement that with increased defences. + On the high end, there is a powerful necromantic spell, Birth of Sanity's Sorrow. It activates at the moment of the necromancer's death, and transforms their dying corpse into a titanic monstrosity of grotesque design, inspired by the necromancer's delusions and nightmares of dead principles. Fortunately, BoSS is usually only accessible to very high level Abyssals and their Deathlord masters. + On the Martial Arts front, the capstone Charm of Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style turns you into a kind of gazelle/carp hybrid abomination made out of dreams (or nightmares). This transformation can last indefinitely, but is addictive and hard to turn off, while abuse may lead to you getting dissolved into the world of dreams. + On the Blossom of Perfected Lotus, the Sidereal Martial Arts (it is noted that the previous entry is touching on that level), a couple of Styles are worthy of note here. From Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style, Four Magical Materials Form turns you into a living Artifact with huge boosts all around(And it's theoretically possible to create a Charm that allows to to integrate a fifth magical material.) (and even more if you use the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form capstone to combine it with other MA forms). Meanwhile, Beauty in the Eye, from Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic Style, has you vanish for a turn and return with an explosion, transformed into a titanic figure modeled after the deity that granted your Exaltation and shaped from elemental substance most prevalent in the region. + Shards of the Exalted Dream has Burn Legend, which reimagines Exalted as a kind of Tekken kung fu brawl setting. The Overdrive for Yamajin, known as Demon Emperor Shintai but bearing no similarities with the one described above, causes you to take on a monstrous form and get +3 to all your stats until you lose a health stock. Generally speaking, if a Yamajin gets up to Demon Emperor Shintai, the rest of the fight will not go well for the other player unless they get incredibly lucky or can predict what attack the big guy is about to use. * Fabula Ultima: Each of the Atlas sourcebooks features a Final Boss-level Villain that, in grand Eastern RPG tradition, has several increasingly abstract, monstrous, and powerful forms which must be fought in a row. * GURPS allows a player to build their own version with the alternate form advantage. * In Nomine: Angels, demons, and spirits of the Marches cannot manifest in their true forms on Earth without creating a lot of very obvious spiritual noise, and instead use corporeal bodies, referred to as "vessels", to go about quietly. These usually resemble humans or animals to avoid standing out. Baal also has a number of "combat vessels" that he keeps in reserve, which are monstrous war forms that he can take when he needs to personally enter a battle. * Mutant Chronicles: Erwin Stahler starts out as a human-sized model on the battlefield, but once he's down, he goes One-Winged Angel and turns into a bigger, armored mutant with big honking claws. * Mythender: Characters grow increasingly inhuman-looking as they draw on more and more Mythic power. A Mythender who has assumed his full, surreal Godlike Form is likely to be very powerful, and also likely to be very close to losing his humanity entirely. * NeoQuest II, a Neo Pets' web-based RPG parody/thingy, has the final boss "defeated", then returning with a few additional immunities, double the HP, and a double-sized graphic. And additional limbs, wings, spikes, and menace. * Pathfinder: This happens occasionally; you usually don't fight both forms back-to-back, though: + Barzillai Thrune, the Big Bad of the Hell's Rebels adventure path, is fought and slain at the end of the fourth adventure (out of six) and appears to be defeated at that point. In the final adventure, though, the PCs discover that he had performed a ritual that threatens to bring him back as a Genius Loci inhabiting the entire region. To prevent this, they have to travel to Hell and confront Barzillai again, this time in the body of a powerful devil. + The mastermind behind much of the Carrion Crown adventure path, Adivion Adrissant, is never fought in his human form. As the PCs approach him he desperately drinks the eponymous elixir, which transforms him into a powerful undead known as a forsaken lich. + Likewise, the PCs spend much of the Strange Aeons adventure path pursuing the mad scholar Haserton Lowls. When they finally catch up with him at the end of the path, he's fused with the Great Old One Xhamen-Dor to form an Eldritch Abomination that is one of the final bosses of the campaign. * Rocket Age: The adventure "The Mind Dunes of the Moon" ends with a character revealing their true nature by turning into... something alien and other. * Warhammer: + Warhammer 40,000: In older editions, Greater Daemons aligned with Chaos Space Marines do not appear with the rest of the army, but must be summoned into combat. This involves the sacrifice of a champion. This actually allows you to initiate a One-Winged Angel transformation mid-game, as the Daemon will always be considerably more powerful than whatever hapless shlep it used to be. + Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Morathi, the High Oracle of Khaine, starts her battles in aelven form and can change into her monstrous snake-like Shadow Queen form during her turn or be forced to change if she suffers wounds. + Warhammer Fantasy: Warriors of Chaos can be blessed or cursed with "gifts" from their patron Gods, turning them steadily more inhuman. Eventually, at a certain point, the weak-willed become mindless Chaos Spawn, while those with Villainous Willpower ascend into Daemon Princes who retain their sentience and control over their vast powers. In either case the warrior now becomes a full Daemon extra vulnerable to anti-Daemon abilities and armament. * The World of Darkness: + Beast: The Primordial: The titular Beasts (or Begotten) are people whose souls are replaced with "Horrors", basically living nightmares in the shape of a mythological monsters. By default, a Beast has an entirely human body, with her Horror residing inside her Lair and granting her a portion of her abilities when needed. When in the right condition, however, a Beast can summon her Lair in her immediate environment, which has the effect of merging her with her Horror and temporarily assume the shape (and powers) of the monster. + Demon: The Descent: The Unchained can change into their true demonic forms, which tend towards bio-mechanical horror, befitting their status as former servants of the God-Machine. It's also possible for a demon in dire circumstances to "go loud", assuming their demonic form at full power with a healthy store of Aether; however, it irrevocably rips their mortal identity apart, meaning they're now a big glowing beacon for all their divine enemies. + Demon: The Fallen: The Fallen have "apocalyptic forms", echoes of their glory from when they served Heaven. Each form is based off of a primal incarnation of the Lores the angel knows; therefore, a Devil in the mold of Lucifer could have an apocalyptic form that's either a pillar of fire or a glorious, shining light, and a Devourer could have an apocalyptic form that's either a man with the head of a lion or the perfection of human flesh made manifest. But if the demon's weighed down by Torment, well... expect the apocalyptic form to look honked up. + Leviathan: The Tempest: The titular Leviathans have seven levels of monstrosity they can assume, known as Depths. Each successive Depth makes the Leviathan more physically powerful and allows them to draw more power from their Channels, but also makes them more clearly monstrous and inhuman. There's also a Merit known as "One Winged Angel" which lets a Leviathan on the verge of death instantly drop down to Apotheosis (the seventh, most powerful and inhuman Depth) and full-heal in the process. + Princess: The Hopeful: This is the signature power of the Cataphracts, incarnate spirits of Darkness which can be created when a sapient being commits suicide or otherwise gives up on life. Normally, a Cataphract wears a copy of the body of the one whose despair gave them form, but in emergencies they can shed this façade and assume a much more powerful and clearly inhuman form. However, embracing their inhuman nature in this way erodes the pretense of humanity by which they define themselves: Each use of this ability reduces their Willpower score by 1, and they can only regain these lost Willpower dots by going a full month without using their monstrous form. If this reduces their Willpower score to zero, they lose their ability to mimic a human body and mind, and become nothing more than a particularly powerful Darkspawn. + Vampire: The Masquerade: Vampires have access to some nasty disciplines that let them do this, such as Zulo Form of Vicissitude, the armor of Living Shadow of Obtenebration, the War Form of Protean and Serpentis. + The aforementioned Shintai charms first appeared in Kindred of the East, as Supernatural Martial Arts that Kuei-Jin can learn. All of them turn their user into a horrid, no-nonsense monstrosity when activated. And yes, it had a Demon Emperor Shintai, which is your Superpowered Evil Side made manifest. + Werewolf: The Apocalypse: All werecreatures have access to a huge hybrid warform, mostly a huge anthropomorphic animal creature like a three-metre tall wolf-man, which is extremely powerful but comes at the cost of causing instinctive terror in humans and being gripped by furious bloodlust. The Mokole, the lizard keepers of Gaia's memory, are a notable case. What's the warform of a race of crocodiles, gila monsters and assorted reptiles? Why, your very own dragon/dinosaur/kaiju-lookalike, individualized for every character by a list of traits including "razor claws", "poison sacs", "huge size" or "wings". They dream up their form from ages past — and some of those dreams can be pretty weird indeed. + Werewolf: The Forsaken: In addition to a human and a wolf form, werewolves have access to a huge, monstrous hybrid warform. ---	OneWingedAngel	null
TheDCU	# What Happened To The Mouse - The DCU The DCU ======= What Happened to the Mouse? in this franchise. --- * Atari Force: The first series briefly mentions The Co-Op, a collection of government-owned multinational corporations. Though they are presented as a threat to Atari and Project Multiverse, they are never referenced again. * Batman: In The Killing Joke, The Joker's three dwarf henchmen just disappear after Commissioner Gordon is put in a cage; they aren't seen with the rest of the circus freaks, not even when the appearance of the Batmobile scatters the freaks away. * The Human Target (2021): \|\|Chance beats up Rocket Red at the end of issue #8 for having wasted one of his last remaining days alive over a pointless interrogation, and the latter is never seen or mentioned again. The following issue sees Chance on the run out of fears that Batman and the Justice League at large are after him, but only for the "murder" of Guy Gardner. They don't end up following him in part because Gardner is, in fact, still alive, but it appears nobody followed up on Chance having legitimately beaten up another superhero in their ranks.\|\| * Planetary: An early issue has the team invading a secret installation where scientists are attempting to create a fictional Earth and give it substance. They succeed, but someone escapes from the fictional Earth and goes on a killing spree. The issue ends with a caption telling us that he is still at large. He is never seen or mentioned again, except for a quick mention in the final issue, where Elijah basically says they've given up on looking for him. * Superman: + In Legion of Super-Heroes (2004), the first arc's villains were a group of psychopathic, xenophobic Daxamites. (Daxamites are related to Kryptonians, each one roughly as powerful as Superman.) To underscore how powerful and awful these villains were, a dozen of them destroyed a planet in minutes by flying over it and blasting it with their heat vision. Those are the key facts: very evil, very powerful, and there are (at least) twelve of them. The next issue four of them attack Earth and it's an amazing fight, with heroic sacrifices and deaths, and at the very last moment the four Daxamites get defeated, the Legion proves its worth to the skeptical authorities and the universe rejoices. And the other eight Daxamites? Each with the power to destroy a continent? Responsible for the deaths of billions? They never get mentioned again. + At the beginning of Superman's Return to Krypton, Superman goes into space to confront a monster which is not only planet-sized but also super-fast. After said creature unintentionally causes Superman to time-travel, thus kicking off the real plot, it's never seen or mentioned again. + In the Supergirl (2005) Secret Identity story, a Kryptonian woman reproaches Supergirl for blowing her and her son's cover, flies off and is never seen or mentioned again. Did she manage to blend in among humans again? Was she found and "purged" by Sam Lane's troops at the climax of New Krypton? Nobody knows. + Superman: Birthright: Lana Lang is noted to have disappeared from Smallville at some point before the beginning of the story. That element never comes up again, and the only other appearance she makes is during a flashback to when they were in highschool. + The Return of Superman 1993 trade paperback terminates during the beginning of Adventures of Superman #505, ending with Superman reuniting with Lois Lane without bothering to address Clark Kent's reintroduction into society. + Superman's Race with the Flash!: Come race day, the whole Justice League of America plus Supergirl and Robin show up to watch the great event. During the next scenes involving the Leaguers, though, the junior heroes disappear completely with no explanation. + Adventures of Superman #431 introduced the villain Constantine Stratos, an insane Greek millionaire who fancied himself the scion of the gods of Olympus and used a Weather-Control Machine to attack Superman. Superman destroyed the machine, but was not able to save Stratos, whom he believed was killed when his machine exploded. The end of the issue revealed that Stratos was very much alive and had been altered by his exploding machinery so he now could manipulate the weather by himself, without his technology. He was last seen swearing vengeance on Superman. This was in 1987, and he was never even mentioned again... until 2005, when he appeared as a character in the novel Superman: The Never Ending Battle, by Roger Stern. + Superboy (1994): In the second annual, Superboy, Cadmus' thirteenth attempt at cloning Superman, is introduced to the prior twelve who are all in stasis pods deep inside Cadmus. While attempt one dies during the issue and another was already dead due to his pod being destroyed the rest of them are apparently stuck in these pods forever as they're never seen or directly mentioned again. + The second iteration of the Newsboy Legion, all of whom but one are Cadmus created clones, disappears even before the originals are murdered. In New Krypton, Jimmy Olsen asks Guardian, who was the legal guardian of one of the kids and Parental Substitute to all of them, where the Newsboys are following the dissolution of Cadmus, Guardian says that even he has no clue what has become of the kids. For all he knows, they have been killed and put into test tubes by the military. + All-Star Superman: We see Krypto the Superdog in the Smallville flashback but his status in the present is unknown. + Supergirl: Crucible: Two members of Roho's villainous squad, Rendll and an unnamed robt, completely disappear from the story after getting wounded and damaged, respectively, by Maxima during the second battle between both groups. + The Killers of Krypton: After Kara manages to escape from Mogo, Salaak is determined to hunt her down and arrest her, but neither nor the Green Lantern Corps are seen again. + In Superman vs. Shazam!, the Sandman Superman is dropped from the story as soon as he reveals Karmang's evil scheme to Mary Marvel. + Starfire's Revenge: Rodney Marlowe is not mentioned again after Supergirl busts Starfire's European operation, despite previously being eager to avenge his brother, who had been executed by Starfire. + The Girl with the X-Ray Mind: Dick Malverne spends one whole issue trying to prove that Lena Thorul is Supergirl; but as soon as he gets a "confession", he is dropped from the story. + Way of the World: Once he gives a blood sample for attempting to cure a sick child, Resurrection Man is completely dropped from the story with no explanation. + In the Escape from the Phantom Zone crossover, Supergirl and Batgirl break a cryokinetic guy called Caleb out of his cell in a Project Cadmus black site and make off with him. When they meet later, neither of them mentions what happened to Caleb after their flight. + In Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom, Superman says he asked Power Girl to watch over Metropolis while he took Supergirl on a training space trip, but she fails to show up when the Female Furies arrive in the city and go on a rampage. + The Super-Revenge of Lex Luthor: The two unnamed mooks who were working for Luthor in the first two issues are conspicuously absent in the final one. + Supergirl (1984): When Nigel drops by Selena's den, he runs into a crowd of partygoers eating and drinking. Selena claims they are members of her newly-created mook army. However, they are not mentioned again, and they are not present during any of the battles between Supergirl and their mistress. + In The Earthwar Saga, the situation is so dire, and the Legion is so short of manpower which they cal the Legion of Substitutes and even retired Legionnaires...except Supergirl, who could have greatly helped but is not even mentioned. + DC Retroactive Superman: After figuring prominently in the two first issues, Supergirl is completely and noticeably missing in the final one, not even meriting one mention. + In crossover "Fate is the Killer", Prince Adam is attending a royal feast together with his parents and Man-At-Arms when Zodac bursts into the place. Teela and several guards rush into the scene, and Adam takes advantage of the mayhem to go out of the castle and turn into He-Man. Before He-Man can return, though, he is intercepted by Zodac, and the story did not explain what happened to He-Man's parents, mentor and love interest after he left the feast. + "The Super-Duel in Space": In order to escape from the Bottle-City of Kandor, Superman entices a Kryptonian metal-eating mole to eat his way through the metal cap. After the mole has burrowed one tunnel through the metal, Superman flies off, leaving the mole behind, stranded on the top of the giant bottle. It is unknown what happened afterwards to the animal who helped Superman beat Brainiac and save the Kandorians. + Superman: Secret Origin: No word is given about what happened to Lena Luthor after Lex kills their father and moves to Metropolis. * Lucifer: Elaine's friend Mona falls increasingly to the background as the story progresses, and by the end she's not present for any of the important events, and no-one even mentions her. Considering that Lucifer had made her a guardian spirit (of hedgehogs!) in his Creation, you would think that she would pop up at some point, or at least warrant a comment. * Green Lantern: + Green Lantern: Rebirth doesn't provide any explanation for what Hector Hammond has to do with the plot. He appears for a page at the beginning detecting that Kyle has brought Hal's inanimate body back to Earth. Then he appears near the end picking up that he's back as a Green Lantern and laughing about it. + Blackest Night: In the tie-in Green Lantern #47, the action on Ysmault cuts away after the Black Lanterns' failed attempt to kill Atrocitus. At the end of the issue, Atrocitus suddenly appears on Okarra, with no indication of what happened to the other Red Lanterns, or the "Lost Lanterns" who had also been on Ysmault. The Lost Lanterns reappear after the event no worse for wear, but they never say what happened. + Brightest Day: Hector Hammond's fate after joining up with Krona and his subsequent bond with Ophidian. Last we see of him, he and Krona head off to parts unknown, and in subsequent issues, Krona and the Entities (including Ophidian, who has split with Hammond) arrive on Oa. Is he back in prison? Dead? Roaming free? Who knows. * Wonder Woman: + In Sensation Comics Steve Trevor's secretary Lila Brown makes a few appearances before disappearing without explanation. Later on in Wonder Woman #12 a villain named Nerva acts as his secretary for a single issue, still with no explanation for Lila's disappearance. + In the Volume 1 arc Judgment in Infinity Wonder Woman summons the League for a debriefing, Superman and Green Lantern go out to look up information in their archives about the Adjudicator... and then the Leaguers disappear from the story. Shortly after, Diana summons an army of heroines to fight a multi-dimensional war, but she does not even think of calling Mary Marvel or Batgirl. + Wonder Woman (1987): The Widow Sazia was last seen winning the brutal Mob War that tore Boston apart and having killed her last rival, after making it clear her enforcers are cybernetic, she's got a portal that allows her to pull in superpowered help from other dimensions and she's way too clever and forward thinking to be picked up by the regular police. * Lampshaded and deconstructed in the Grant Morrison run of Animal Man. One of the first big hints that something is very wrong is when Animal Man notices that a group of criminals who threatened his wife seem to have just inexplicably disappeared after their subplot ended, with no evidence of a trial or anything even though they were arrested for attempted rape and murder. Later on, he discover the existence of the "Comic-Book Limbo" for this sort of character. Not dead. Not in prison. Not retconned out of existence. Just gone, existing in a limbo of continuity and non-continuity until some writer decides to bring them back. * JLA (1997): + When a hostless version of the The Spectre went after Triumph, the League put him in their trophy room as a memorial for a fallen member — and then forgot he was there when the Injustice Gang blew up the Watchtower. + Moon Maiden was introduced in JLA 80-Page Giant #3 as a forgotten member of the team, much like Triumph, but even though that story ended with everyone's memories of her being restored, she never appeared again, only making a half-body cameo in JLA/Avengers as part of that book's "everyone is here" gimmick. Turns out you don't need your existence erased for people to forget about you. * Batman: Mask of the Phantasm + The Phantasm \|\|Andrea\|\| disappears into the smoke with \|\|her\|\| target the Joker; their fates are left unknown to Batman. Later \|\|Andrea\|\| is seen on a boat leaving Gotham for good, but no mention of the Joker's fate is made whatsoever. Joker is shown to be very much alive in the rest of the series, with no explanation of his escape given. However, Joker is well known for usage of Never Found the Body, which is why the trope Joker Immunity exists. This was eventually explained in a comic. + Some of the police, namely Harvey Bullock and the Gotham City DA Arthur Reeves, mistakenly believing that Batman was the one killing mob bosses. They send a SWAT team after him at one point. Despite this, Batman never clears his name or provides evidence that he's innocent, but the Batsignal is anyway later turned on at the end of the film. However, there were originally plans for an explanation to this plothole that got cut for pacing. When Batman faces the Phantasm for the first time after the destruction of Salvatore Valestra's penthouse, a journalist named Burton Earny was going to take a photo of them, thus exonerating Batman from being the murderer. \|\|Earny still appears in the film as the man who later talks with Andrea on the boat, having paid for the cruise with the money he received for his photo\|\|. * Despite Justice League Dark: Apokolips War being the Grand Finale to the DC Animated Movie Universe, several characters, including Steve Trevor, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, Lucius Fox, most of the Daily Planet staff, Deadman, Deadshot, the Amazons, and the Atlanteans, have their fates go unexplained before \|\|to the ending Cosmic Retcon\|\|. * Batman (1989): Seven thugs accompany Jack when he raids Axis Chemicals. One is shot by the dirty cops, Batman catches two more, and Bob escapes, but the fates of the other three are never shown. * In Batman Forever, both Two-Face and The Riddler learn Batman's Secret Identity and swing by Wayne Manor to trash the place. The former ends up dead and the latter so mentally broken he's no threat of ever revealing it, so Happy Ending right? What about the entire team of henchmen who went along to help? Even if Riddler and Two-Face never told any of their henchmen the reason they were attacking Wayne Manor (which is already a stretch), it's incredibly unlikely they didn't figure it out once they got there. * The Dark Knight Trilogy: + After his defeat in The Dark Knight, The Joker just up and vanishes; presumably taken to jail to answer for his crimes, but never once even referred to during the last scenes of The Dark Knight, or the entirety of The Dark Knight Rises. Granted, there's a real life reason behind it, but no real in-universe reason is given. + The novelization of The Dark Knight Rises implies that he's the last inmate of Arkham Asylum, after the others were moved to prisons. Selena thinks to herself that if he's not there, then he's escaped. + Also, did the Joker just leave that party after Batman dived out the window to save Rachel? Since at this point he assumed that Batman and Harvey Dent were the same person, he probably decided to get out, since his main target was supposedly gone, and unlikely to be surprised again. * The Batman: Chief Mackenzie Bock disappears from the movie after the scene where Batman escapes from GCPD. We never learn if he was as corrupt as the rest of the police force, or if he was as blindsided by the reveal as Gordon and Batman were. Semi-Justified, as one of his two scenes with dialogue has him revealed to be very against the vigilante's presence (he gets in Batman's face and calls him a son of a bitch), so when Gordon brings in as many trusted officers as he can to \|\|arrest Falcone\|\|, he's obviously excluded, and it's clear that Gordon and his officers are doing their best to keep as much distance as they can between him and Batman until the Riddler crisis is over. He returns in The Penguin, however. * Superman II + After Eve Teschmacher and Lex leave the Fortress of Solitude heading south on their snowmobile, she completely vanishes from the film and is never even mentioned again. In the original ending in the script Superman put Zod, Ursa, and Non back into the the Phantom Zone and put Luthor in with them, and we would've seen Eve observing them through a telescope and waving goodbye to Lex, but since this is changed in the final film it means she vanishes without explanation. Although there is the possibility that Luthor was still angry over her betrayal of him in the first film... + The fate of the terrorist group in Paris is never revealed. In fact, the whole incident is never mentioned again once the bomb destroys the Phantom Zone (though this is fairly easy to Hand Wave; without their bomb, the group had no chance against the police, and that's assuming Superman didn't stop by on his way back home to help gather them up). * Superman (2025): \|\|The Engineer\|\| is mentioned to still be alive after getting taken down, but otherwise vanishes from the film; leaving it unknown if \|\|she was arrested like Lex and the rest of his henchmen.\|\| * One of the problems Birds of Prey (2002) had is it didn't explain what happened to a lot of the traditional Batman trappings like Commissioner Gordon or Wayne Enterprises after Batman left Gotham City and retired. The only answers are the Joker being held in a prison far from Gotham and \|\|Bruce calling Alfred in the finale\|\|. * The Flash (2014): + In the Season 1 episode "Power Outage", Barry Allen temporarily loses his powers due to the metahuman Blackout. At the end of the episode, Harrison Wells (\|\|actually Eobard Thawne/the Reverse Flash\|\|) makes plans to find out exactly how Blackout was able to drain Barry's powers. It is set up as a potential Chekhov's Gun, but ultimately nothing ever comes from it, in this season or the seasons afterwards, and the whole thing is simply forgotten. + The Season 2 episode "The Darkness and the Light" introduces the villain Dr. Light, a metahuman from Earth 2. She is captured by the end, but escapes in the next episode, "Enter Zoom". Team Flash only makes a token effort at finding her before they start focusing on using a fake Dr. Light to draw Zoom out. She isn't seen again in any subsequent episodes either. Finally got resolved after Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019), when the Earth 2 Dr. Light was merged with her non-superpowered Earth 1 counterpart, and made a member of Black Hole. * Lois & Clark contained a literal mouse example. A villain tests a device for transferring Superman's powers to others on a mouse. The "supermouse" dashes straight out of its metal cage at superspeed into the outside world and is never seen again. An ultrafast, invincible, nigh-immortal predator is basically free to pounce on or through anything in the world. + Isn't it obvious what happens to the mouse? + Didn't this episode show a newspaper article about the mouse being the bane of cats all over the world? + At least a later episode showed the power transfer isn't permanent. * Pennyworth: Season 3 acts as if Katie Browning (Jessye Romeo) didn't even exist, despite the fact that she was in Season 2. Bet Sykes (who's, y'know, her girlfriend in Season 2) doesn't even mention her. * Smallville: + Lucas Luthor, Lionel's illegitimate son. He appeared only in "Prodigal" (though he had been mentioned before) at the end of which he was hidden away somewhere by Lex. After that he was never mentioned again, the characters even referred to Lex as Lionel's only son in later seasons. + "Prey" ends with Tess recruiting Randy Klein to her team, but he's never seen again ever when the Injustice gang makes their debut. + In Season 9, Mia Dearden (the second Speedy in the comics) appears in two episodes, over the course of which Green Arrow accepts her as his sidekick. She is then never mentioned again until the Season 11 comics. + In "Prophecy", Toyman assembles a Legion of Doom out of Metallo, Roulette, Dark Archer, Black Manta, Captain Cold, and Solomon Grundy, a team he calls Marionette Ventures. He shows them a list of the heroes and commands them to each target and kill one of them. They never appear nor are mentioned again, not even in the Season 11 comics. + Conner Kent shows up partway through Season 10. Clark invites him to live on the farm and he enrolls in Smallville High. A couple of episodes later he's 'visiting Martha in Washington' and he never shows up or is mentioned again. Not even, y'know, when the world is ending and having another person around with Clark's powers could be useful. * In Season 3 of Supergirl (2015), Corrupt Corporate Executive Morgan Edge is the primary antagonist for the first few episodes, but he disappears and neither he nor his feud with Lena Luthor are mentioned once the season's real Big Bad, Reign, shows up. Reign tried to kill him the first episode she appeared in, which ends with him being arrested after Lena arranges an Engineered Public Confession. * Wonder Woman (1975): The show had a habit of backdoor pilots and retcons that left all sorts of threads hanging: + What happened to Wonder Girl? After Season 1, she's never heard from again. Presumably she's back on Paradise Island, but... + What happened to Paradise Island? In "The Man Who Could Not Die", Diana tells Bryce Candle, the aforementioned deathless man, "In a lot of ways ways Wonder Woman is more alone than you are." Huh? Except for her immortal mother, sister, the other women who inhabit her homeland that is literally named Paradise Island. None of whom we've seen for almost two seasons. + What happened to Tina? In "The Girl From Islandia", the Islandian girl, Tina, is trapped and cut off from returning to her homeland. Wonder Woman can ignore Bryce, but an adolescent girl trapped away from her family? * Batman: Arkham Asylum: Zsasz is MIA after you save Dr. Young from him. There's the Scarecrow vision, but that's an illusion. Same thing applies to some of the named staff in Arkham after you save them, who we can only assume made a run for it considering how many guards were killed. * Batman: The Animated Series: In episode "The Terrible Trio", it's never explained if Warren's girlfriend's father recovered from his encounter with Warren (he's last shown in a coma), and it's never explained what happened to Warren's girlfriend after Batman rescues her. * A relatively unimportant example in the Batman Beyond episode "Out of the Past" is at the beginning, when Terry and Bruce are watching Batman the Musical. The Stage Batman picks up Robin from the chair, and he gestures up toward the Bat-Signal. When the camera pans back down, the six villains are all on stage, and Batman is center, but Robin is nowhere to be seen. + From episode "Ascension", Derek Powers is betrayed by his manipulative son Paxton, with the unwitting help of Batman. At the end of the episode, Batman hints that Derek is not dead, and we are also led to believe that Paxton will serve as a villain for the remainder of the series, or at least in the next season, in a similar capacity that his father did. Derek is never seen again for the rest of the series, and Paxton only appears in cameos. That at least implies that this Derek really is dead. - Blight pops up again in the tie-in comics, by now having degenerated so much he's forgotten his entire past life as Derek Powers. Batman and Stalker fight him, ending with \|\|Blight being killed by molten steel.\|\| + In the episode "Inqueling", Inque is betrayed by one of her customers and severely wounded, enlists the aid of her spendthrift daughter to steal the mutagen required for her to heal, then in turn is betrayed by her, this time fatally, so she could get at Inque's massive bank account. The episode ends with an unfriendly confrontation between Batman and the daughter which very strongly hints that Inque will someday return and seek vengeance. ("Why should I care? She's dead." "She's been dead before.") Aside from a cameo in an out-of-continuity Justice League crossover episode, Inque never showed up again. * The Batman (2004) + Artifacts: The episode reveals that Detective Ellen Yin would become police commissioner while Ethan Bennett would be reinstated to become chief. However, there is nothing explaining the fate of Chief Angel Rojas. But since no one liked him anyway, not to mention the damage he did to ruin Bennett's life was ultimately reversed, it's a mystery most won't lose any sleep over. + In episode Attack of the Terrible Trio, while the two male members of the Terrible Trio are ultimately sent to a men's prison, Amber (the female member of the Terrible Trio who was turned into a vulture) isn't seen at the end—it's probably safe to assume that she was sent to prison like her two male friends (albeit to a women's prison). * One episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold has Batman hit with a ray that gives him a copy of Plastic Man's powers. By the end, the ray is destroyed and the villain who made it is petrified. So Batman still has the stretchy powers unless he removes the power some other way. So... is this the dawn of Plastic Batman? * Beware the Batman: We never see what happened to Lady Shiva and the League of Assassins after Ra's' defeat in episode Reckoning, though one can presume that they were all captured and arrested offscreen. * Batman: Caped Crusader + It was never revealed what became of the cats Selina Kyle kept after she was arrested and Greta sold everything from her house in episode "Kiss of the Catwoman". In addition, what was done to the panther after Batman gassed it unconscious and left it in the museum before decapacitating Catwoman. + The fates of Harley's various brainwashed victims remains unknown following her fall in episode "The Stress of Her Regard", though it's entirely possible they followed her to whatever location she fled to, considering she was originally leaving with them before she went back to rescue Barbara. * DC Super Hero Girls: Dex-Starr was last seen floating away with Hal Jordan, Star Sapphire and Sinestro towards the Moon together as the best of friends at the end of "It's Complicated" and he was never seen or mentioned again after that. It's currently unknown if Jessica Cruz still owns him or if he's currently on the loose. * Justice League + Supergirl's clone Galatea didn't seem dead upon her final defeat, but no one sees her again, nor is she ever mentioned. Considering she had a burn mark through her stomach, she was twitching, and had a comatose look on her face, she might as well be dead. Although she's a Kryptonian clone with a Kryptonian Healing Factor, so any damage not done to her brain should've healed itself eventually. + Amazo, turned near-godlike from sheer information absorption and Power Copying, ends up having to teleport himself away when he realizes that episode's threat (a badly-resurrected Solomon Grundy) was only getting worse with his presence, by absorbing the chaos from his powers. He was never, ever seen again in the series, and no one ever asked where he went again; a cut scene planned to show him post-finale, floating in the middle of space multiple parsecs away, wondering if it was safe to come back. * My Adventures with Superman: While Slade later appears as Lex's bodyguard once Task Force X is dissolved in episode "My Adventures with Supergirl", Damage and Atomic Skull are nowhere to be seen in the denouement. * Static Shock had Small Role, Big Impact character Wade, who was responsible for Virgil getting his powers. He was a friendly Gang Banger who went out of his way to protect Virgil from The Bully Hotstreak, and pressured him into joining his gang for protection. After dragging Virgil to what would become the Big Bang, he's never seen again. In the comics, it was explicitly stated that more people died from the effects of the gas than were mutated so it's likely that he was one of the unlucky ones. * Teen Titans (2003): + Kitten disappears after her encounter with Starfire in "Calling All Titans", despite the fact that Killer Moth and Fang both appear in the Climactic Battle Resurrection. Kitten does just seem to be your average Spoiled Brat, having a half-moth father and a boyfriend whose head was a giant spider aside; she probably doesn't have any real combat training. She does in fact appear in the canon comics and has a big role in a few issues. + In "Titans Together," See-More isn't with the Hive Five when \|\|Jinx\|\| defeats them. (Which may have been to avoid a Downer Ending, since there was an implication that they were fairly close.) + And then there's Red X who was originally \|\|Robin in disguise\|\|, only for the costume to be stolen by an unknown thief. After his final appearance being in "Revved Up" he is never seen again (not even during the final battle in "Titans Together"). We never find out who he was behind the mask or how he got the Red X costume, although Raven comments that it ultimately doesn't matter since he's a Stranger Behind the Mask. ---	WhatHappenedToTheMouse	null
COVID19PandemicRelatedExamples	# Channel Hop - COVID-19 Pandemic Related Examples With the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic shuttering theaters across the globe, numerous films planned for theatrical release in 2020 (and 2021, if not 2022 or even later) were either sold from their original distributors to various streaming services or shifted to their in-house streaming service. Some of them did have limited domestic theatrical release and/or wide release in countries where theaters have widely reopened. Note that, unless otherwise specified, these channel hops are based on distribution in the United States; while some (particularly those sold to global platforms like Netflix) did have their worldwide rights sold to streamers, others (e.g. Run, Coming 2 America) had their international rights maintained by their original distributors, as numerous countries outside the U.S. were able to stage a more successful theatrical recovery earlier in the pandemic. --- Netflix ------- * The Lovebirds, from Paramount. * Enola Holmes, from Warner Bros.. * The Trial of the Chicago 7, from Paramount. * The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, from Paramount - international only * Mosul, from 101 Studios. * News of the World (2020), from Universal - international only * The Woman in the Window, from Disney.(Though Disney not having much confidence in the movie in the first place didn't help.) * Bad Trip, from Orion Pictures.(Was briefly released by accident on Prime Video on its originally intended release date.) * Run, from Lionsgate - international only * The Mitchells vs. the Machines, from Columbia Pictures(limited-time exclusivity; Sony retains home entertainment and linear TV rights) * Fatherhood, from Columbia Pictures(limited-time Netflix exclusivity; Sony retains home entertainment and linear TV rights) * Vivo, from Columbia Pictures(limited-time exclusivity; Sony retains home entertainment and linear TV rights and Mainland China release) * Gunpowder Milkshake, from STX Entertainment. * My Little Pony: A New Generation, from Paramount.(A double Channel Hop for the My Little Pony franchise, since My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) was released by Lionsgate.) * NIMONA (2023), from Disney.(The adaptation of the webcomic was initially greenlit by 20th Century Fox, which was taken over by Disney shortly afterwards. Disney would shutter Blue Sky Studios in 2021, allegedly as a pandemic cost-cutting measure; however, some Blue Sky staffers alleged Disney had been hostile towards the film for some time. Eventually, Netflix acquired distribution rights after producer Annapurna Pictures took over the film.) * The Man from Toronto, from Columbia Pictures(limited-time exclusivity; Sony retains home entertainment and linear TV rights) Disney+ (Unless otherwise noted, all films are produced by Walt Disney Pictures.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Artemis Fowl. * Hamilton (stage recording).(A rare case of coming out before planned, to compensate how the play was shut down as well; Disney stated it still plans theatrical and home video releases) * The One and Only Ivan. * Clouds, from Warner Bros. * Soul (2020), from Pixar. (Released theatrically in markets without Disney+, but got a limited release in New York City and Los Angeles in March 2021.) * Luca, from Pixar. (Released theatrically in markets without Disney+ and at Disney's El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles.) * The Beatles: Get Back. (Redeveloped as a miniseries during the course of the pandemic.) * Turning Red, from Pixar. (Released theatrically in markets without Disney+, and got a limited theatrical release in New York City, Los Angeles, and Oakland.) ### Disney+ (via Premier Access): * Mulan (2020) Hulu ---- * Run, from Lionsgate. * Happiest Season, from Sony Pictures. * The United States Vs Billie Holiday, from Paramount. * Deep Water, from Disney. * Fire Island, from Disney.(A double Channel Hop here. It was initially developed as a series by Quibi under the title Trip, but placed into turnaround after the failure of that streaming service. Then Disney picked it up for a theatrical release, but then decided to increase focus on streaming because of the pandemic, and cancelled the theatrical release. It will be released on Disney+ Star internationally.) HBO Max ------- * An American Pickle, from Sony Pictures. * Charm City Kings, from Sony Pictures Classics. * The Witches, from Warner Bros. Paramount+ (Unless otherwise noted, all films are produced by Paramount.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run * Infinite (2021) * Rumble Prime Video ----------- * Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; skipped a planned theatrical release, but got a limited release in the United States in March 2021. The previous film was released by Twentieth Century Fox.(Disney had bought Fox by the time of Subsequent Moviefilm's creation and was believed to be uninterested in the film. Baron Cohen and the producers wanted the movie to be released before the 2020 U.S. election to be seen by as many people as possible, and felt giving it a theatrical release during the COVID-19 Pandemic would've made the film a hard sell for most audiences. It was originally hoped the film would be distributed by Universal, but the pandemic and Universal's then-ongoing feud with theater chains scuttled those plans before distribution rights could be sold.) * Brutus Vs Caesar, from Orange Studio and France 2 Cinéma. * Without Remorse, from Paramount. * My Spy, from STX Entertainment. * Coming 2 America, from Paramount. * Run Sweetheart Run, from BH Tilt. * The Mauritanian, from STX International - United Kingdom only * The Tomorrow War, from Paramount. * Cinderella (2021), from Sony Pictures.(Limited simultaneous theatrical release) * Everybody's Talking About Jamie, from Disney.(Limited theatrical release one week before streaming debut.) * Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, from Columbia Pictures(limited-time Prime Video exclusivity; Sony retains home entertainment and linear TV rights. Later received a limited theatrical release.) * Deep Water, from Disney - international only Apple TV+ --------- * Greyhound, from Sony Pictures / Columbia Pictures. * Finch (2021), from Universal. Disney+ (via Premier Access): ----------------------------- * Raya and the Last Dragon * Cruella * Black Widow (2021) * Jungle Cruise Hulu ---- * While not an official transfer of ownership as Disney produced it themselves, Nomadland was made available on Hulu day-and-date with its wide theatrical release (following a virtual cinema premiere and an exclusive two-week IMAX run). * Palm Springs, from Neon. (This one's complicated, in that Neon and Hulu jointly purchased distribution rights to the film, with the intent that it would play in theaters under the former before becoming a streaming exclusive under the latter. The pandemic, however, led to the film becoming a day-and-date release in both drive-in theaters (under Neon) and Hulu (as a Hulu Original, with no Neon branding).) HBO Max ------- ### It was announced on December 3, 2020 that all Warner Bros. theatrical releases through the end of 2021, starting with Wonder Woman 1984, will stream on HBO Max for a one-month period on the same day they arrive in theaters. Here is a list of them: * The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It * Cry Macho * DC Extended Universe + Wonder Woman 1984 + The Suicide Squad * Dune (2021) * Godzilla vs. Kong * In the Heights * Judas and the Black Messiah * King Richard * The Little Things * Malignant * The Many Saints of Newark * The Matrix Resurrections * Mortal Kombat * Reminiscence * Space Jam: A New Legacy * Those Who Wish Me Dead * Tom & Jerry (2021) Paramount+ (Unless otherwise noted, all films are produced by Paramount.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * PAW Patrol: The Movie * Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021) Peacock ------- * The Boss Baby: Family Business, from DreamWorks Animation, was released simultaneously on the Peacock platform (for 60 days) and in theaters. This marks a double Channel Hop for the Boss Baby franchise, since the first film was originally released by Twentieth Century Fox, while the sequel will be released under the Universal brand. * Halloween Kills, on Peacock for 60 days and simultaneously released in theaters. * Marry Me, on Peacock and simultaneously released in theaters. A dual channel hop, as the film was initially developed at STX Entertainment before moving to Universal. * Firestarter, on Peacock and simultaneously released in theaters. MGM+ (formerly Epix) -------------------- * Saint Maud, joint release with original distributor A24.(A24 released the film in theaters in January 2021 before the film's Epix premiere in February; the Epix broadcast explicitly bills it as an "Epix Original".) Theatrical Studio to Theatrical Studio -------------------------------------- * Joe Bell was originally acquired by Solstice Studios following its premiere at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival. However, the nascent studio was hit hard by the pandemic, with their first release Unhinged (2020) disappointing at the box office and their other releases scuttled; eventually, the studio dropped Joe Bell, which was picked up by Roadside Attractions. Notable Aversions ----------------- * MGM allegedly pitched No Time to Die to Apple TV+ and Netflix due to the rising costs incurred by its delays. However, the streamers balked at its $600 million pricetag. * Apple TV+ and Netflix allegedly approached Paramount about purchasing Top Gun: Maverick, but the studio refused to sell. * After previously picking up Enola Holmes from the studio, Netflix made a $250 million offer to Legendary Pictures to purchase Godzilla vs. Kong. This time, however, WarnerMedia blocked the deal, which led to backlash when Warner's plan to release the film on HBO Max was revealed. Ultimately, Warner compensated Legendary for its part in the film's production as a result. The BBC ------- Owing to the sudden dearth of new programming available due to the pandemic, several series originally intended for BBC Two (generally home to more niche or highbrow programming) were moved or promoted to the more mainstream BBC One to fill the holes in the schedule. Examples of this include: * Dragons' Den * The Great British Sewing Bee * MasterChef: The Professionals * The Australian import The Secrets She Keeps was originally intended for BBC Four (a digital channel even more niche and highbrow than BBC Two, and frequently features other imported dramas), but was promoted to BBC One, a decision likely helped out by the fact that it featured Laura Carmichael in the lead role ---	ChannelHop	null
InfinityCrisis	# The Bus Came Back - Infinity Crisis Infinity Crisis is a story who doesn't shy away from using any character from any piece of media its creators want to use (including the less well-known ones), in addition of having a very lengthy number of stories taking place in its Multiverse. So, of course, it's a given to see a bunch of characters returning after long periods of absence. --- * Phil Coulson returns to officially reveal his survival to the Avengers (although they admit they've known he was alive for a while now). The last time he interacted with the heroes was, well... in The Avengers (2012), when he died. * While en route back to Earth, Stark and Nebula encountered and rescued Valkyrie (last seen in Thor: Ragnarok) and Sif (who hasn't been seen since Season 2 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). * Jane Foster, for the first time since Thor: The Dark World, returns, coming to the Avengers compound to provide scientific insight. * The Red Skull returns to Earth for the first time since his initial defeat, and Thanos also brings back \|\|Malekith and Hela, who disappeared after The Dark World & Ragnarok, respectively\|\|. * Technically Snart's cold gun, considering that we last saw it being disassembled by Ray to use its components to disable a bomb. \|\|It also applies to Mjolnir, destroyed in Ragnarok, which is restored by Thanos on Hela's request (even if it's subsequently picked up by Jane because Hela didn't know about the worthiness enchantment)\|\|. * \|\|Barry and Wally are able to bring Pietro Maximoff, who died all the way back during Avengers: Age of Ultron, back to life after finding him in the Speed Force.\|\| * \|\|Jessica is shocked to see Matt Murdock/Daredevil alive after assuming he died following the Defenders' battle with the Hand.\|\| * \|\|The moment when everyone killed by the Gauntlet returns (as well as Constantine working with Nebula to perform a ritual that restores Gamora to her body), leaving the heroes to tear through Thanos' forces\|\|. * \|\|Shuri and Cyborg are able to use the Mother Box and the Mind Stone to repair and reactivate the Vision, kaputt since Infinity War.\|\| * \|\|Back on Earth-38, Lucy Lane and Cat Grant have returned to the DEO and Cat Co respectively; after being 'dusted' by "The Snap", they each decided that National City was the best place for them to make the kind of difference they wanted to make\|\|. * In Different Strokes, \|\|Slade returns to help the team after being absent since the events of Season Two of Arrow and the Huntress, who also disappeared following Season 2, is now an operative for Argus.\|\| * Darcy Lewis, not seen since The Dark World like Jane, becomes part of the Avengers' primary support staff in Taking Flight (and Fights). * In Powers and Marvels, \|\|Jason, Trini and Zack are brought back into the fold to help the Avengers and the active Rangers after the Power Coins are stolen. The former two were last seen in Power Rangers Mega Force, while the latter disappeared after Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers\|\|. * In Counterpart Conferences, \|\|the Earth-1 Batman, who was basically The Ghost for the entire Batwoman (2019) series, returns to Gotham, although he declines to share his reasons for leaving the city with Kate, even if it's implied the Dusting was the catalyst for him to return\|\|. * In Tomorrow's Guardians, \|\|Alara Kitan rejoins the crew of the Orville during the Kaylon invasion of Xeleya after leaving it during Season 2 of the show\|\|. * Subverted with \|\|Maxwell Lord. In Distant Cousins, it seems at first that he came back to National City, showing up for the first time since the Season 1 finale of Supergirl (2015), but it's Lex Luthor in disguise. It's later played straight when Chapter 8 of Another Side of the Glimpses introduces the real Max as he's shown having been in the MCU since the Snap, thanks to a drunk Pighead, and is discussing with his DCEU counterpart.\|\| * In Infinity Crisis Aftermath: Therapy Session, Leonard Samson returns from The Incredible Hulk as the Avengers' new psychiatrist. * In Chronicles from the Hex, Spades Slick returns, years after his death at the hands of Dave Strider. Later in the same series, it's shown that the rest of the Midnight Crew is also back after being last seen as cameos in Act 5 of Homestuck. + In Chapter 8, \|\|we see the return of Lil' Cal, who hasn't been seen since the end of the original comic.\|\| * In Another Side of the Glimpses, \|\|we see the return of D.E.L.I.L.A.H. after her self-termination during the Phase 1 of the Adult Swim ARG, years ago\|\|. Zig-zagged with \|\|Reggie Long, aka Rorschach II. Despite him being last seen in his debut comic, here, only his backstory prior to Doomsday Clock is canon so it probably doesn't entirely count\|\|. + In Chapter 4, \|\|during Sonic' dream, he's facing Richard, Don Juan & Rasmus, the latter two making their return after their unexplained disappearance after the first game.\|\| * Return of the Rani & Rampage of the Rani see The Rani, well... returning for the first time since 1993 and the "Dimensions In Time" special. * National Stride sees James Olsen come back to National City in response to \|\|Kara being shot by a gold kryptonite bullet.\|\| * Infinity Crisis Aftermath: The Spirit of Halloween has the Fright Knight return to menace Amity Park on Halloween. In addition, a number of Danny's enemies who were absent in previous stories set on Earth-83 arrive with him. * An example inside Infinity Crisis itself: Visions of Magic sees the return of Lena Luthor, who was absent since Distant Cousins. Merlin' scant appearances following Of Kryptonians and Queens and Chapter 8 of Counterpart Conferences also count, since he only returned in \|\|Bewitchcraft and later Celestial Navigation\|\|. * The second chapter of Spirits and Timey-Wimey Mischief marks \|\|the return of Earth-702 and Point Place into the narrative of Infinity Crisis, having been absent for more than a year after their introduction.\|\| * DEATHFAME has some meta AND traditional examples: + Rhonda Tate hasn't been seen since the Season 4 episode Tornado Prom, in 2002. \|\|She comes back as the newly-christened Earth-702 Pighead in Chapter 3.\|\| + \|\|Missy reappears in the narrative after Chapter 1 of Counterpart Conferences and a 5-year long absence, with the end of the chapter revealing the circumstances of her return.\|\| + \|\|Chapter 4 sees the BTSO' employees and Sydney Moist making their return into the narrative for the first time since 2020 and Chapter 3 of Tales of the Beyond. We even see the base being freed from the mad scientist!\|\| * New Discoveries marks the return of \|\|the Valeyard, who hasn't been seen in Doctor Who since 1986. He even receives the visit of four of his future selves.\|\| * Chapter 11 of Counterpart Conferences has \|\|Team Arrow, who hasn't appeared in IC itself since 2020 and Salvation Run, as a meta example and Jack Harkness, whose reapparition in "Fugitive of the Judoon" is done here rather than in this episode (making it his first appearance since 2011 in this series), as a traditional example.\|\| * Backgrounds, Vol. 1 shows the return, after two years, of the Earth-4500 Julia Carpenter, last seen in Chapter 3 of Glimpses (though, she was unnamed with only Word of God confirming her identity) working undercover at the Beverly Hills High class reunion and posing from blind. * Christmas Cookies shows the Powerpuff Girls & Dexter coming back for the first time since Of Mice and Mojo. \|\|Though, Chapter 6 of DEATHFAME chronologically happens before said one-shot and builds itself up as the actual continuation of the Girls' arc.\|\| * Dead Menace sees the return of Matt Garetty for the first time since Chapter 9 of Tales of the Beyond, in 2020, as well as the Fright Knight, whose last appearance was in 2022 in The Spirit of Halloween. * The finale of Tales from Everywhere shows an appearance from Rusty the Dalek, who hasn't been seen since the end of the Twelfth Doctor's tenure in "Twice Upon A Time". Earlier, Chapter 3 introduced Susan Foreman, who made her first appearance since the Dimensions in Time special, in 1993(Or since "The Five Doctors", in 1983, if you don't count this special.) (also counts as a Long Bus Trip, since when she reunites with her grandfather, he had quite a lot of regenerations). * Like Mother, Like Daughter sees the return of the Parr Family, Rick Decker & Evelyn Deavor inside the narrative of IC for the first time since Chapter 11 of Tales of the Beyond, almost 4 years ago. * The Last Zone Cop sees Zonic the Zone Cop making his first post-Super Genesis Wave appearance (in this continuity, at least) after the Ken Penders' trials in Real Life led to him being removed from the Archie comics. It's even directly said that he was actually Exiled from Continuity, which was why he was floating inside the Void at the end of time when Jenny Everywhere went to retrieve him. * Chapter 1 of Tales of the Grimm sees Doctor Ogron making his first appearance inside IC for the first time since the Soul Stone segments in An Adventure of a Multiversal Crisis. * Avengers International-61065 reintroduces \|\|the MCU Kilgrave, returning for the first time after his death at the end of the first season of Jessica Jones (2015).\|\| * A New Blitz shows the return of the Daniel West Reverse-Flash, who didn't appear in person at all since his death in New Suicide Squad, in 2015. \|\|Same goes for the original Hunter Zolomon, returning for the first time since The Flash #800.\|\| * The Rani returns in IC in The Perfect Knight, after having been absent for a year. * The Raving Rabbids, as well as Hat Adult & Mustache Woman, return in Chapter 4 of IC Challenge two years after their appearances in Another Side of the Glimpses (with the latter two implied to join the Soldier/Zoom's makeshift team at the end). * Tales of Earth-199999 sees several characters from Agents of SHIELD reappear for the first time since the original Infinity Crisis story, 6 years ago. * The Centurions sees the DCEU version of Bane returning in an IC installment after having been last seen during the events of Sins, Sirens and Strife, published in 2019. * Band of Sisters sees a meta-example with the return of the Roger Delgado iteration of the Master, 52 years after his last appearance in "Frontier in Space" and the infamous case of Aborted Arc created by Delgado's untimely passing.	TheBusCameBack	null
WesternAnimation	# Insufferable Imbecile - Western Animation Examples of dimwitted jerks in Western Animation. --- * South Park --- * The Amazing World of Gumball: + Gumball Watterson, Depending on the Writer. He is often rather ignorant, Book Dumb, narcissistic, hedonistic, impulsive, and reckless. However, he is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold on his better days. + Jamie is an unintelligent bully who often threatens and beats up other students when they upset her. * American Dad!: + Stan Smith is an extremely stupid CIA agent who has anger issues and frequently engages in depraved and assholish behavior. However, unlike Peter Griffin, he does these things because he thinks it will help either America or his family. + Francine isn't as stupid as her husband, but she is nonetheless an airheaded Dumb Blonde who can also be apathetic and Ax-Crazy Depending on the Writer. * Daggett from The Angry Beavers isn't the brightest bulb on the chandelier, and he has a hot temper and a general disregard for social graces. He's still a decent person deep down and can be surprisingly selfless in certain circumstances. * Aqua Teen Hunger Force: + Master Shake is a dimwitted Jerkass who uses nonsensical reasoning to justify his behavior, fails to properly plan his many ridiculous schemes, bullies Meatwad For the Evulz, and antagonizes the rest of the characters for attention. + The Mooninites and Oglethorpe of the Plutonians are very close seconds, being Jerkasses in their own right while being incredibly stupid at the same time, with the latter being a rude, self-centered Psychopathic Manchild prone to fits when he doesn't get his way. However, they're pretty much harmless (or, in the former's case, most of the time). * Archer: Sterling Archer is an ignorant, boisterous, and reckless Narcissist who is callous, abrasive, and rude to most people he interacts with (especially Woodhouse and Cyril) and his dumb actions are a result of his arrogant and self-absorbed nature. * Beavis and Butt-Head infamously defined this trope for the '90s with the eponymous slacker metalhead duo, who cared for little except for music videos and chicks. Beavis is the somewhat nicer but also less smart and assertive of the duo, albeit not quite enough to avoid this trope. They are the poster boys of this trope as seen in the main page, rightfully so because they have no manners, no social awareness, and even treat those who want to help them (most notably Mr. Van Dreissen) like utter dirt. * Bratz: The Alpha Bitch Tweevil twins, Kirstee and Kaycee, are quite self-absorbed and ditzy to the point that their own boss regularly calls them "incompetent morons". * Brickleberry: + Steve Williams, the protagonist, is very stupid and very self-centered, showing no remorse for the trouble he causes others. + While he's not quite as dumb as Steve, Woody Johnson has demonstrated poor judgment on several occasions and often prioritizes short-term gain over everything else. * CatDog: + Cliff is the meanest member of the Greasers who, while smarter than Lube, isn't too bright himself. Subverted with Lube, however, as he is just playing along with them and doesn't know any better. + Depending on the Writer, Dog can be this, as he can be rather insensitive himself, all the while being a moron. He's Innocently Insensitive on his better days, though. * ChalkZone: Reggie Bullnerd is a bully who lacks intelligence and doubles as a Know-Nothing Know-It-All. * Clerks: The Animated Series: Randal Graves was flanderized into this, as he became an immature idiot who was also willing to "punch holes in Dante's boat" and throw him under the bus at the first opportunity. * Courage the Cowardly Dog: Eustace Bagge is a Grumpy Old Man who is violently cruel towards Courage and is a self-righteous dick towards just about everyone. Ironically, despite calling Courage a "stupid dog", he's also Too Dumb to Live since he frequently does something moronic to put him and the rest of the family in danger and often causes himself to suffer from certain villains' wrath due to his own stupidity. Also, in another episode, he fails at answering the simplest of questions during an impromptu game show with a deer, even calling the globe a "Bowling ball covered in throw-up". Shirley even refers to him as "the stupid one". * Drawn Together: Captain Hero is extremely dimwitted and has no problem with screwing people over to get what he wants. * Duckman: Duckman is a cantankerous, bitter asshole who rants about anything and everything, a lousy father to his kids, a bad friend to Cornfed, his loyal detective partner, and a total pervert. He is also grossly incompetent at his job as a detective, most of the time not even doing any work. He constantly forgets one of his son's names, goofs regularly, and whenever he's not causing problems with his jerkishness, it's his idiocy. He does have a heart deep down, though. * Ed, Edd n Eddy: + Downplayed with Eddy, who can be a reckless, ignorant Jerkass. While a genius compared to Ed, who is anything but insufferable (unless there is a pebble in his shoe), he is still prone to Idiot Ball moments such as falling for Rolf's "money tree seed" story(Even Ed recognizes his folly, saying, "Even I am not that dumb, Double D."). He's also very Book Dumb: > Eddy: R-E-S-P-E-E-K. Respect, Double D. + May Kanker is a Dumb Blonde. While more sympathetic than her sisters (at least, in some episodes), she's still quite violent and she forces herself on Ed. * The Fairly OddParents!: + Cosmo, Depending on the Writer. His stupidity often makes him act selfish and careless. He's also not a very good husband to Wanda, often drooling over attractive female characters (e.g. the Tooth Fairy, Mandie) even when Wanda is right next to him. + Timmy's parents are dimwitted, and instead of being loving parents, they are neglectful and irresponsible parents who care more about themselves than their son's happiness. + Francis is a Dumb Muscle bully who keeps a schedule of people to beat up. + Timmy isn't immune to this. He's a Book Dumb kid whose stupid wishes drive most of the episodes' plots, and he can be quite a Jerkass, particularly in the final season after Chloe's introduction, since Timmy's negative traits are flanderized to make him a Foil to the smart and nice Chloe. * Family Guy: + Peter Griffin is narcissistic, slovenly, lazy, and imbecilic, all of which Meg laid into him for in her rant near the end of "Seahorse Seashell Party". Peter, of course, completely misses the point and takes offense to her calling him "a waste of a man". + Usually subverted with Chris Griffin, who is a Dumb Is Good character most of the time, and, along with Meg, the least Flanderized in Jerkassery of the Griffins. However, he has his moments of cynicism and insulting people for no reason. + Carter Pewterschmidt is a rich, greedy Scatterbrained Senior who treats people like dirt, can be easily fooled (such as when he failed to recognize Peter when the latter took off his glasses), and is immature to the point of being incapable of taking care of himself. * Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: + Mac's older brother Terrence is a sociopathic bully who exists solely to ruthlessly torment his little brother. That aside, he's so dumb that the people in his dreams talk in syllable-emphasized speech. + Downplayed with Bloo. While he isn't that dumb, he is still a rather ignorant Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist and a colossal Attention Whore. * Futurama: + Zapp Brannigan is a sexist, arrogant jerk with no redeeming qualities but manages to be funny because of his idiocy. + Walt, though the smartest of Mom's three sons, is still pretty dimwitted. He's also the nastiest of the three and often slaps his brothers when Mom can't do it. + Certain instances have implied that Bender, on top of being a Lovable Rogue, isn't the brightest robot around. Apparently, he can't do simple calculations in his head, and he was the only robot dumb enough to download the Scammers' poorly-disguised virus in Bender's Big Score. * The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: + Billy started off as a Kindhearted Simpleton who meant well in spite of his gross habits in the earlier seasons right before shifting on to this in later episodes when Flanderization kicked in to turn him into an Ax-Crazy jackass who is often the cause of the chaos ensuing due to his inconsideration for others and had shown to be just as much of a Bratty Half-Pint as Mandy on his worst days. + Mindy is an airheaded and obnoxious Alpha Bitch who thinks Paris is a country and Africa is a city. * I Am Weasel features I. R. Baboon playing this as foil to the eponymous lead. Whereas Weasel is scholarly, uber-competent, and selfless, Baboon is a selfish underachiever who constantly tries upstaging Weasel, who, even knowing this, considers him a friend and even goes out of his way to save his bacon. * Invader Zim: + The titular Zim is a selfish, Lethally Stupid Jerkass whose evil plans often fail due to his own stupidity (as Gaz even points out). He's only barely smarter than his Bumbling Sidekick GIR. + Most of the human population are Too Dumb to Live jerks who often belittle Dib whenever he attempts to warn them about Zim. * The titular character of Johnny Bravo. A good deal of the show's humor relies on Johnny's tendency to get himself in trouble by being a self-centered halfwit or make problems worse because he is hopelessly unable to understand what's going on and never listens to those who know better. He is also often too obtuse to realize his method of macking on women only causes them to rebuff his attempts. Nevertheless, he is a good person deep down. * King of the Hill: + Jimmy Wichard is an idiotic man who is also mean-spirited and aggressive. His debut episode shows him being a Pointy-Haired Boss to Bobby, to the point of forcing Bobby to cross the racetrack while a race is going on just to get him a soda, which gets him an ass-kicking from Hank when the latter finds out. When Peter Sterling hires Jimmy to fake-bully him so Bobby would believe that the waste-removal job isn't cracked out to be since Bobby doesn't have the charisma and social skills to not go through ridicule, Jimmy attacks him for real by trapping him into a port-a-potty and sending him rolling down a hill for no good reason. + Bill Dauterive tends to be this on his good days, and has frequent moments of being a lousy friend to Hank. Special mention goes to "Après Hank, le Deluge", where he has Hank locked up in a cage after the town blames the latter for negligence. * Looney Tunes: + Yosemite Sam is short-tempered, haughty, and violent. And while he's somewhat smarter than Elmer, he's still pretty dumb. + In the Toon Heads episode "Tasmanian Devil", it's stated that Taz "has the temper of Yosemite Sam and is dumber than Elmer Fudd". Being a mindless animal (instead of a Civilized Animal like most Looney Tunes), Taz is quite vicious and dangerous. + The Looney Tunes Show: - Because of his Adaptational Dumbass, Daffy Duck is an idiot in this show, while also keeping his selfish Small Name, Big Ego persona. - Cecil Turtle is actually nastier than he was in the classic shorts, to the point of attempting murder. Aside from that, Bugs Bunny is able to run mental circles around him once he gets wise to the turtle's schemes, such as tricking him into thinking he's gone forward in time. This is in contrast to his original incarnation, who was the only character who could consistently outwit Bugs. * Captain K'nuckles from The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is a lazy, self-serving, cowardly cad who occasionally takes Flapjack for granted and is half the time a borderline sociopath. On top of that, he and reason aren't on the best of terms. * My Gym Partner's a Monkey: Jake Spidermonkey is an obnoxious pest who's obsessed with his butt, gives Adam horrible advice, constantly belittles him, and does nothing but goof off 90% of the time. * Paradise PD: + Robby is a Dumb Blonde criminal who believes America was founded by "Christopher Cumbus" and treats his family members like dirt, especially on his birthday. + Dusty became this following his time in prison in Season 2, becoming more abrasive and shady, to the point of being a straight-up Villainous Glutton by Season 3. It wouldn't be until the finale that he would revert to his original Kindhearted Simpleton personality. * Planet Sheen: Sheen is stupid, impulsive, and very self-centered. Just about all of the bad things that happen in the series are a result of his poor decisions. This was a complete 180 from his characterization in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, where he was still dumb and could be selfish at times but still obviously cared about his friends. * The Powerpuff Girls (1998): The Rowdyruff Boys are a Terrible Trio of evil bullies and also idiots, especially as they Took a Level in Dumbass since their reappearance. Brick is arguably the smartest, but only by comparison. * The Proud Family: Dijonay is selfish and insensitive, as well as dimwitted, impulsive, and incompetent. As such, her friend group doesn't trust her for very important stuff, and for good reasons, too. This gets toned down in The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, usually to the point where she's simply imbecilic, but she could still relapse into being insufferable. * Regular Show: + Rigby is often a lazy, selfish Manchild who makes rude/stupid comments (which Mordecai usually punches him for), and causes most of the problems in the show. He can't tell the difference between a square and a rectangle, and it's even mentioned several times that he's a high school dropout. However, he eventually Took a Level in Kindness later in the series. + Muscle Man. In addition to being an obnoxious prankster who goes on rampages when enraged (though he does have a soft side, especially with women), he also thinks there's 400 days in a year. He sometimes endangers his life in episodes like "Dead at Eight". Though much like Rigby, he also eventually Took a Level in Kindness. * The Ren & Stimpy Show: Ren Hoëk. Despite being much smarter than Stimpy, he is still rather idiotic himself, constantly screwing himself over with his incompetence and poor impulse control. He is also abusive towards Stimpy, regularly slapping and insulting him and making him his personal slave. * Rick and Morty: Jerry Smith. His ignorance coupled with his obnoxious and selfish behavior means he'll usually rub someone the wrong way, especially his family. "Something Ricked This Way Comes" exemplifies how his need to be perceived as right makes him ignore his son's reasoning and indulge himself in the praise of a misguided alien species, which turns out to be the alien leader's attempt to continue exploiting his people and resources. * Rocko's Modern Life: Heffer Wolfe could definitely shift towards this on his worst days when he becomes selfish and causes problems for others. His worst moment was when he refused to return the letter Rocko wrote for a female mail carrier since it's considered a federal offense (despite the fact that he was reading Rocko's incoming letters, which would have resulted in him losing his job as a mail carrier) and attempted to send the mail to Rocko's crush out of pure spite. He also gets into frequent quarrels with Filburt over trivial matters. * The Simpsons: + Homer Simpson, Depending on the Writer. He's lazy, stupid, prone to jokes at others' expense (especially Ned Flanders), and is also well-known for his frequent habit of strangling Bart whenever he angers him. + Though not as stupid as his father, Bart Simpson is nevertheless a Book Dumb Jerkass who takes joy in tormenting others (particularly Lisa and Principal Skinner), does not understand the concept of irony, and cannot pronounce 'cottage cheese' correctly. + Chief Wiggum is a Dirty Cop who sometimes engages in Police Brutality and is so stupid that he accidentally rats out his own undercover men; he once even almost accidentally shot himself while eating donuts wrapped around the barrel of his handgun. + The majority of Springfield has also showcased to be this — and when we're talking "insufferable", we mean "dare to point it out in any way, shape, or form, then expect an angry mob with Torches and Pitchforks to form and come gunning for you." The "imbecile" part is proven in "HOMR", when the normally dumb Homer becomes much smarter and is ostracized because of it; Homer's IQ in that episode is only barely above average (105), but still too high compared to most Springfield citizens, whose average IQ level is generally low. * Spliced: Entree is really dumb in addition to being very mean and selfish. * SpongeBob SquarePants: Many characters have displayed this kind of behavior later seasons: + Patrick Star ventures into this trope in later seasons, thanks to Flanderization. The most infamous example comes from "The Splinter"; when SpongeBob rightfully complains to Patrick about worsening the problem, he thinks SpongeBob doesn't want his help. + Patrick's sister Sam from "Big Sister Sam". She is dumber than Patrick and exhibits Hulk Speak. She is also an extremely destructive and rageful Knight Templar Big Sister. + The majority of Bikini Bottom (particularly in the post-movie era) also qualifies; they are often rather irritable, petty, self-righteous, airheaded, and, like Springfield mentioned above, prone to angry mob mentality when anything goes wrong. They are even referred to as morons on several occasions (mostly by Squidward). + SpongeBob himself has fallen into this trope at his worst. The most notorious examples are "Demolition Doofus" (where he causes Mrs. Puff to suffer a disabling injury, then makes fun of her for it without realizing the severity of the situation), "A Pal For Gary" (where he doesn't notice that Puffy Fluffy is trying to eat Gary, even scolding Gary for being afraid), and "The Great Snail Race" (where his selfishness and idiocy ends up getting Gary gravely injured at the titular event). * Squidbillies: Early Cuyler is a not-too-bright criminal whose schemes frequently blow up in his face. He also has a Hair-Trigger Temper, abuses his family, and generally treats everyone he meets with contempt. * Squirrel Boy: Rodney J. Squirrel is an obnoxious Sidekick Creature Nuisance with a fondness for bizarre leaps of logic, Misspelling Out Loud, and a tendency to act before thinking. * Steven Universe: Kevin is such a chauvinistic Jerkass that even Steven hates him, and he mistakes Lion for a dog and apparently thinks Steven's name is Clarence (2014). * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): Michelangelo, in contrast to the other versions of his character, often does dumb things and screws up, including drinking a known case of Mutagen despite the multiple warnings on it that could have killed him. He is also known for taking no responsibility for when he's at fault. * Teen Titans Go!: All the main characters are Denser and Wackier and more foolish than their original Teen Titans counterparts, and they are also much less heroic, being often jerks to each other and to other people. While Starfire is still generally nice towards her teammates and other people in general, and Raven can, at least in the first two seasons, be the Only Sane Man, both have fallen into this as much as the rest of the team. * Tom and Jerry: + Tom himself has his moments of picking on Jerry For the Evulz or taking a little too much pleasure in his duties. He's also rather gullible and doesn't know when to cut his losses, which has gotten him killed a few times. + The babysitter from "Busy Buddies" and "Tot Watchers" is grossly incompetent and never notices when the baby wanders off, instead preferring to talk on the phone. She also beats up Tom for "bothering" the baby when he and Jerry are only trying to keep it safe. * The 2023 reboot of Total Drama has Ripper, who, in addition to being a major Jerkass, is also too dense and immature to be a threat. ---	InsufferableImbecile	null
WesternRPG	# Awesome But Impractical - Western RPG --- * Ancient Domains of Mystery: + The learnable spell Wish (or, for divine casters, Divine Intervention), which grants you a wish. Unfortunately, the spell is extremely difficult to learn even for high-level wizards, attempts take so long that you will usually be forced to abort by hunger or risk starving to death, and if you have teleportitis, it will interrupt your reading. Even if you do manage to learn it, it costs 3000 PP to cast (enough to put it out of range for many characters even with casting from hit points; one of this game's Self Imposed Challenges is to craft a character who can) and takes 10 points off of one of your stats. It's much easier to simply use Potions of Exchange to polymorph a large pile of worthless rings until you get Rings of Djinni Summoning, which can give you a wish, and then use those to get more Potions of Exchange until you have infinite wishes. + The Moloch Armor has an obscenely high PV (damage reduction) value of +50. The problem is that it weighs so much that you won't be able to even pick it up unless you have Strength of Atlas active, and it comes with huge DV (dodge chance), to-hit, to-damage, Dex, and speed penalties. * The highest-damage-output spells in Avencast: Rise of the Mage have very impressive animations. Unfortunately, spells are cast by button combinations that also move your character slightly, and enemies can continue to move during the attack animation, so they're quite unlikely to actually hit. * Baldur's Gate: + Wild Mages have a special spell, the Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, that allows them to cast literally any spell they know, instantaneously, without having to have it memorized or even being at the level required to cast it; this allows them to be some of the most versatile spellcasters in the game, and potentially the most powerful. The downside is, the spell required to do so is pretty volatile and has only a one-in-a-hundred chance of being cast correctly, much much less than regular spells, with a variety of effects if you don't; some are harmless, some are beneficial, but if you get particularly unlucky with the die roll, you can end turning yourself to stone. More so if you use a mod to play wild mages in the first Baldur's Gate, before the Enhanced Edition; higher-level Wild Mages have methods to improve their chances of successfully casting an unmemorized spell or making it more powerful. Low-level ones don't. So while you could try to cast Cloudkill at level one, it will most likely backfire and kill you. + Baldur's Gate II: - The Imprisonment spell, which traps the victim in suspended animation in a hollow sphere deep underground permanently — without a saving throw! Downside: A level 9 spell won't be used on everyday foes, and the player will want the big foes' loot, which they take with them to their new plane of existence if imprisoned. It was made useful in Throne Of Bhaal, as by this point, any enemy that drops worthwhile loot is immune to the spell anyway, and a spell that reverses the effect has become more readily available. - There's also Lightning Bolt, which is really cool in theory but actively suicidal in practice due to its unpredictable rebounds when within any enclosed space — i.e. virtually anywhere. - Wild Mages in general. The increased versatility of wild mages is generally offset by the fact that their spells have a small chance of going wrong to various degrees. You might accidentally end up changing your character's colors while casting Magic Missile. Or you might summon a bunch of squirrels instead of dropping a fireball. That Lightning Bolt spell might be cast with an effective level that's three levels higher than your wild mage, doing more damage, or three levels lower, doing less damage. Or, if you're really, really unlucky, you can try to cast the Mage Armor spell, critically fail, and cast a Gate spell, which summons a high-level demon that will then kill your level 4 party that doesn't have protection from evil. - The Club of Detonation. Anytime it hits, it has a random chance of triggering a Fireball spell centered on the wielder. On the one hand, it's relatively easy to make the wielder immune to fire (you just have to kill a red dragon. No big deal, right?). On the other hand, it's much more difficult to make your entire party immune to fire. - Backstabbing. Sure, it's impressive to hit for triple-digit damage and gib enemies doing it, but it takes a lot of faffing around with limited-use invisibility items/spells or running completely out of enemy sightlines to Hide in Shadows, plus that thieves' mediocre THAC0 ensures that you'll often miss anyway. Not to mention that basically everything you'd want to backstab — you know, powerful critters like dragons, demons, most mages, and basically every boss — are immune to backstabs and/or see right through invisibility anyway, even with Non-Detection active. Unless you want to run multiple highly-specialized Thieves, it's more effective to focus on the essential thieving skills (Find Traps, Open Locks, and maybe Detect Illusion) in a multi/dual class setup and support in combat with much more reliable weapons (Fighter/Thief) or spells (Mage/Thief). Ironically, the best option for a backstabbing class isn't a Thief at all, but rather the Stalker Ranger kit. Better THAC0 and weapon proficiencies overall, plus that they don't have to worry about managing their Thief skill points for other things, since they only have Hide in Shadows/Move Silently. They can also dual to a Cleric to get the benefits of that class, though that limits them to Quarterstaves and Clubs for backstabbing (and the best backstabby weapon is a staff, so that works out well). The Shadowdancer kit in Enhanced Edition can also Hide without having to be out of sight at the cost of a lower damage multiplier and a small hit to spendable skill points (20 points per level vs 25); plus, they can still Dual to bolster their THAC0 and weapon proficiencies. - Triple-multiclassing. Having all the abilities of a Fighter/Mage/Thief or Fighter/Cleric/Mage sounds tempting, but you'll lag behind in levels almost immediately since you're splitting your 1/6 party experience share three ways. Pair that with an experience cap of 2.95 million, and at best, all of your classes will be in the low double digits — so you'll be stuck with a low THAC0 (10 tops), lackluster thieving skills, and never get to memory-cast any spells above Level 6. Even with Throne of Bhaal installed and an experience cap of 8 million, you'll never break the 20s in any class except Thief, while the rest of your party will likely be well into the 30s. Unless you're doing some kind of solo run challenge, it's much better to have a good single, dual or two-multi class to fill a specific niche well rather than being consistently mediocre at everything. Or, if you really want a versatile character who doesn't excel at any one thing, choose a Bard instead — they get some lovely support items and songs, plus a solid selection of weapons, spells, and high-level abilities, and they level up fast (same experience table as Thieves). + Baldur's Gate III: - Most feats tend to have this issue when compared to the Ability Score Improvement option. While they often give abilities that can be beneficial or unique, the level cap of 12 means that there isn't as much flexibility to take one and still focus on important stats, since the majority of classes only have three chances to chose an ASI or Feat. Some of them run into the issue of also not really being helpful, despite sounding neat, because of the gameplay side of things. Dungeon Delver, for instance, can make traps less of a problem, but a player can simply boost a character's Wisdom and Dexterity to ensure that the player spots traps and disarms them easier, or even just reload a save to retry. Actor is another example, as there are few instances where things like Performance checks are an option. While some with ASI boost at least can make for good early-level pick; or something like Alert or Resilient which, can assist class features; it's more practical to take the ASI feature and get your class's primary stats maxed, and then maybe take one of the other feats when getting to level 12. - The Dark Urge's Slayer transformation, unlockable by killing Isobel in Act 2. It transforms the Dark Urge into a giant monster — with its own set of stats so that, say, a Wizard won't be screwed over by its all-physical attacks. But for all that, its attacks aren't really all that powerful and tend to be inaccurate, and lots of buffs and class abilities won't carry over when you transform. If your team is well balanced, you might just be better off without it. Also, Isobel's death locks the player out of several merchants and even a potential party member or two. * Betrayal at Krondor has the Mad God's Rage spell. The name, the very concept, and the way it looks are all awesome. However, since your mage won't stop casting it until all his visible enemies are dead, or he falls over dead or near-dead from exhaustion, it's not very practical. For groups of enemies, Firestorm provides better damage-to-cost ratio. For single, powerful enemies, Fetters of Rime are a cheap way to freeze them and finish them off at your leisure. It's not even good as a desperation move, because you can only cast as much of it as you have stamina/health, so if you're near dead to begin with, it won't do much good. Still... Damn, that's a cool spell. * Diablo II: + The druid's Armageddon spell can be used while in werewolf form and causes a rain of meteors to follow you, but the meteors hit randomly and do very little damage compared to the Sorceress ones. Not to mention acquiring it requires putting points in pretty much all of the elemental skills, regardless of whether you're going to use them or not (and, if you're a werewolf, you won't use any of them). + The Barbarian can pull the badass trick of dual-wielding throwing weapons. This has only been successfully utilized by a select few individuals for Player vs. Monster or PvP due to how limited one's choices for dealing consistent damage with them are. + The Sorceress has an awesome-looking Thunder Storm spell, but even maximum-twinked damage from it is relatively pitiful compared to more boring utility lightning skills. The multi-headed Hydra spell is a fireball-shooting stationary turret that does little damage at maximum, and many monsters are immune to fire anyway. She can also activate a skill that leaves fire in her wake wherever she walks that, when used, even if you again take max-twinked damage into account, is effectively cosmetic. + The Amazon's Impale skill is this. It's the most powerful physical attack in her arsenal. At maximum rank, it delivers a whooping +770% physical damage, and spears are already very high-damaging weapons. However, it's painfully slow and can only affect one monster at a time. Adding to this, there's a good chance that the weapon will reach zero durability, breaking it entirely unless it's indestructible. And last but not least, it doesn't receive any synergies from other skills. Fortunately, Diablo II: Resurrected made it a little more usable by adding a slow effect on hit and making the attack uninterrupted. * The Leadership skill in Divinity: Original Sin II. A flat bonus to dodge and elemental resistance sounds good, but it confers no benefit whatsoever to the person with the skill, only their allies. Its range is also pathetically short (8 meters), which is not a good thing in a game where you want to keep your party spread out so you don't quickly get wiped by AOE attacks, which basically every enemy has. There are much better ways to spend your points for sure. * In the PLATO computers dnd game, the Fireball and Lightning Bolt spells do more damage than any other, but due to the close confines of the dungeon, they also damage the player. * Dragon Age: Origins: + The Shapeshifter specialization available to Mages, which allows a Mage to transform into a spider, bear, or insect swarm, sounds pretty awesome. It's not, for a couple reasons. For one, the Mage can't cast other spells while shapeshifted. Worse, the damage done by the shapeshifted form is dependent on the Mage's Strength, which will naturally be abysmally low if you focus on Willpower and Magic instead, thanks to a glitch. + Any spell with an area of effect and friendly fire will be this on higher difficulties, since there are no situations where you can depend on your companions' AI to neither wander into the blast radius nor hit you with it if you're standing too close to an enemy (or both). Even on lower difficulties (on which friendly fire is deactivated), you still can't trust an AI-controlled character to use Fireball or Cone of Cold. They won't kill you themselves, sure, but the game doesn't consider being frozen in place or knocked prone by an explosion to be "friendly fire", so those things can still easily happen to you. (This is one of the things the sequel fixed about combat.) These spells are made even less practical because the non-friendly-fire AoE spells are more powerful anyways, making the more impressive-looking elemental AoEs extremely wasteful in terms of the time and mana used to actually use them. + Storm of the Century, the king of Awesome, But Impractical. It does tremendous damage over a large area; any non-boss caught in it will die very quickly, and even bosses will get pretty beaten up. The impractical part? It's a combination spell, meaning that you have to cast two high-level elemental spells on top of one another, each of which has a long enough casting time on its own to qualify as Awesome, But Impractical. Oh yeah, and the caster(s) have to be under the effects of a certain long-term self-buff, which is pretty useful in itself, but requires an additional skill point investment and makes the storm even more expensive overall. And that bit above about friendly fire? Yeah, better hope you know how to wrangle your ally AI well enough to keep them out of the area, or they'll die just as quickly as your enemies. + The fourth-rank Rogue talent that grants a one-in-five chance to evade any physical attack sounds great and can save your bacon when neck deep in darkspawn, but its unpredictable activation can be a pain in the backside — not only does it interrupt your autoattack chain, meaning that you lose an attack and need to manually order your Rogue Warden to start attacking again, it also interrupts Rogue talents — and the Stamina cost of, say, Arrow of Slaying or Scattershot is not so low that having it interrupted by your own automatic, inescapable dodging isn't going to be a complete nuisance. * Drakkhen has the Dragon Sword, which has far and away the highest attack power in the game (80, as opposed to 56 for the Saber). However, it also costs ten times as much as a Saber, totaling one million Jade to purchase. When you also consider that weapons and armor have a tendency to randomly break after battle, it's very unlikely that you'll purchase one even if you manage to grind out the money for it. * Dungeons & Dragons Online has an impossibly cool two-handed sword named Terror. Every strike has the "Nightmares" effect (target must make a Will save or take additional Psychic damage), every enemy striking the wielder must make save against Fear, and it can cast the Phantasmal Killer spell (target must make a Will save or die) three times a day. And it's made of crystal. Unfortunately, you have to be level 18 to use Terror, and by that time, all your enemies save about 95% of the time — if they're not immune to Fear outright. Being crystal rather than metal, it is good for killing Mooks Ate My Equipment rust monsters. * The Elder Scrolls: + In an in-universe example from the series's backstory, Wulfharth Ash-King, the ancient King of the Nords who has died and come back to life at least three times, was a Dragonborn with a monstrously powerful Thu'um. It was so powerful that he couldn't be sworn into office as High King of Skyrim verbally. Scribes had to draw up his oaths as a result. + Morrowind: - The Hammer of Stendarr in the Tribunal expansion is a massive war hammer that does insanely high damage, but breaks on the first swing and weighs half a ton, rendering it nigh unusable. - Vampirism. It gives you some extra powers and some massive stat boosts that can break the stat caps... but sunlight will kill you, you can no longer use any shops or services in Vvardenfell, and you can only complete quests for House Telvanni, the Mages' Guild, and one of three well-hidden vampire clans. - Lycanthropy. You turn into a werewolf and get massive boosts to your killing power, and can murder anyone without acquiring a bounty. Unfortunately, you can't use any equipment, cast any spells, or pick up any items while you're a beast. And if an NPC sees you transform, then you're marked as "kill on sight" by everyone. + Skyrim: - Two-handed weapons tend to suffer from this, battleaxes and warhammers more so than greatswords. Since they're so heavy, they're remarkably slow and pull you forward with every swing, leaving you susceptible to attack (this is also when the AI uses them), and since they occupy both of your hands, you're better off using a faster one-handed weapon in one hand and a spell or shield in the other. - High-level shouts often fall in this category. Storm call summons a lighting storm for massive damage, but doesn't differentiate between friends and foes and takes ten minutes to recharge, preventing you from using other shouts for the duration. Also, using it inside a city or a town will incur a bounty that will pile up as more citizens are accidentally killed. - Master-level Destruction spells are powerful and flashy if you can get them off, but they have an absurdly long charge time during which you're vulnerable to attack and being interrupted. Even if you do get one off, lower-level spells do more damage for the magicka and do so more quickly and reliably. - The Werewolf and Vampire Lord transformations from the Dawnguard DLC. While both are cool, neither one gains much in the way of synergies with the perks you'll gain as you level up (Vampire Lords can gain some benefit from a few Conjuration perks, but not much). Vampire Lords gain perks by killing enemies using a life-drain spell that unfortunately doesn't improve as you gain level, so it becomes less and less effective as you face more durable enemies. Kill an enemy with any other power, and you've lost that XP. Werewolves at least level by eating the hearts of dead opponents, and it doesn't matter how they died, so gaining perks is relatively easy for them. You'll still run into the issue of Werewolves being limited to just running around and meleeing enemies and the fact that as you progress and get the stronger Shouts, Armor, Weapons, and spells, your combat ability actually diminishes if you decide to transform. Quite a few players choose to go with being a Werewolf or Vampire just for the disease immunity and don't bother with the other powers. - The Bend Will shout is your ultimate reward for beating Dragonborn. Rank 3 will let you charm nearly anything in the game without Contractual Boss Immunity, even dragons. However, unless you rushed to do Dragonborn as soon as getting the prerequisites, you'll likely be powerful enough that mind controlling enemies is a distraction for you at best, and the two shout-specific dragons you can get are much stronger and don't have the availability issue of random dragons. Plus, the dragon riding you can do amounts to little more than glorified auto-pathing, as you can't control the dragon directly, just tell it where to fly to and take in the scenery while it does. * Fable I features the Divine Fury/Infernal Wrath spells, which cause amazing amounts of damage. The only problem is that they cost incredibly high amounts of EXP to level up and require your character to stand in place charging the spell for ten seconds to do anything, and even then, only things in the immediate vicinity will get hit. Made even worse by the fact that if you're hit during the charge-up period (unless you have physical shield), the spells fizzle out. * Fallout: + Fallout 2: - The "Fallout 2 Hint Book" provides a massive amount of XP (which can be done repeatedly, letting you level up forever) and raises your skills to maximum, essentially giving you a perfect character... but you can only obtain it in the postgame. By that point, you've already done the entire main story and are strong enough to take down the game's strongest enemy, so chances are nothing in the game could threaten you anyway. Lampshaded by the ingame description. > Well, THIS would have been good to have at the beginning of the goddamn game. - A more conventional example is the Pulse Rifle. Has the greatest damage of any single weapon in the game and is billed as end-game equipment. The problem? All the enemies (or at least all the human enemies) you fight have silly levels of resistance to its electrical-type damage, and due to the way the game's burst fire mechanisms work, the most basic SMG you could use would do more damage. Another, even bigger problem with it and other pulse weapons is that they have a tendency to do critical hits very often, and critting someone with an electrical attack pulverizes them — so you don't have a handy corpse to loot. You have to pixel-hunt for the loot at the base of the small ash puddle that remains of the enemy, then laboriously pick up every single drop. This gets old very fast. - The Solar Scorcher you can pick up from an Easter Egg. It's basically a powerful, solar-powered laser pistol that uses no ammunition. But it's prevented from reaching Game-Breaker status by being only reloadable in bright light — if you happen to empty the six-shot capacitor during the night or in a cave, it becomes entirely useless. - The FN FAL is a decent rifle that can be upgraded with a laser sight. However, 7.62 mm ammo is shockingly rare. Same thing goes for other 7.62 weapons like the M60. + Fallout 3: - Big weapons in general in Fallout 3 are difficult to put to practical use for a variety of reasons(relative rarity of Big Guns within in-game stores and loot drops, the sheer costs of replacements to repair them and ammunition, etc.), which is likely the reason later games simply removed Big Guns as a skill entirely (redistributing the usual suspects as top-level gear in the Explosives, Energy Weapons, or Guns categories). The Fat Man launcher fires miniature nuclear warheads. Its unique variant, the Experimental MIRV, is a weapon that can fire eight mini-nukes at once. Problems: There's a limited number of mini-nukes and no more spawn in weapon shops (seventy-two in the entire game), and the largest bosses in the game take maybe two hits to kill with a regular Fat Man. At most, you can fire a Fat Man 72 times and the Experimental MIRV nine times per playthrough. Firing this weapon will also very likely blow up the wielder along with the target, especially in the close-quarters fights that frequently happen in-game. Overkill much? Fire it once for the "cool value", then sell it or stick it in a locker and never use it again. The Minigun is useless in VATS, goes through ammo like a broken sieve, is too bulky to carry as a backup, and worst of all, doesn't do the damage you'd think it should (it cannot score critical hits, ever!). It also has a long windup sequence to get the barrel spinning while your target is blasting you to hell. Since it is only really useful at close range, it is outclassed by the flamer, which has equally high damage potential and fires instantly when you pull the trigger. The Missile Launcher has a clip size of one, takes too long to reload between shots to use as a primary weapon, and doesn't do enough damage per shot against high-hitpoint targets to warrant carrying as a backup. It is also useless in VATS at long range, as it will often miss. It also has the issue of likely blowing the player up while using it, with the tendency to violently scatter all items/loot within the blast radius. There's also the Rock-It Launcher, an improvised device that uses the Shop Fodder you pick up as ammo. Generally useless junk like bent tin cans and coffee mugs become lethal weapons with it. It's quite a bit of fun to watch a super mutant killed by a ballistic teddy bear, but in terms of utility, it's not all that strong, as the ammo still has weight and weighs you down, and thus it can't even be as useful as a simple assault or hunting rifle with weightless ammo. Fun to play with just for the novelty, but not much more than that. Barring specific mods, the Rock-It also makes a very loud vacuum cleaner sound all the while you have it out. If the math's correct, it will drive you stark raving bonkers in 16.14 seconds. The only Big Gun that seems practical enough for regular use is the Vengeance Gatling Laser, the unique variant of the standard Gatling Laser. However, spare Gatling Lasers are hard to find and are accordingly expensive, it deteriorates extremely quickly, rarely ever scores critical hits, and can still go through ammo quickly if you aren't careful. Also, the only place where it's obtainable is a sanctuary filled to the brim with Deathclaws. - Many small guns and energy weapons also have this problem. The Scoped .44 Magnum breaks down too quickly and its ammo is relatively rare, and the gun itself is difficult to find and is almost always in poor condition when found or purchased. This means that you need to find several so you can repair them into a single pristine gun which starts deteriorating rapidly with every shot anyway. Its unique variants (Blackhawk and Callahan's Magnum) pack even more of a punch but degrade even faster. A better use for that .44 ammo is Lincoln's Repeater, a unique Hunting Rifle that can be repaired with its common variants. The Sniper Rifle is an even more extreme version of the Scoped .44 Magnum, sporting fantastic range, power, accuracy, and a high crit multiplier at the cost of having a rare ammo type and degrading extremely fast. It's second to none for picking off distant enemies, but a very costly investment if you want to snipe with any degree of regularity. (Its two unique variants — Victory Rifle and Reservist's Rifle — aren't much better than the base model either.) Most players save their sniper rifles for special circumstances and opt to use a Hunting Rifle for general use instead, which has much more common ammo, is far easier to repair, and degrades much more slowly (and has two quite good unique variants in Ol' Painless and the aforementioned Lincoln's Repeater. On the energy weapons side of things, the Alien Blaster will vaporize any standard enemy with one shot, due to its 100% critical hit chance and high base damage. However, it breaks down very quickly (and can only be repaired by certain NPCs for cash) and has such a limited ammo supply that it's almost not worth using. Its best value is for headshots at Elite Mooks in VATS where more conventional weaponry won't take them down fast enough. - Melee weapons in general are almost always suboptimal for anything but sneak attacks. Why? Because most enemies will be shooting at you from a distance (and have friends around them doing the same all around the player), and the ones that don't (like Deathclaws) will have melee attacks that will kill you in one or two hits and therefore should be dealt with at range anyway. While Min-Maxing your stats and perks to do insane damage with the Shishkebab while investing in the best-quality armor, defensive perks, and combat drugs to help you survive until you reach your target is a viable (and fun) option, it's never going to work as well as plain old Boring, but Practical small guns. Jack, a variant of the Ripper, takes the cake. He's a handheld chainsaw with strong base damage that hits (read: gives Critical Hits a chance to proc) over 30 times a second and has a great crit rate, chewing through high-level enemies like nobody's business. He also degrades in quality incredibly quickly and can only be repaired by cannibalizing the already-rare standard Ripper for parts or spending lots of caps with merchants. Expect to switch back to the equally-awesome but far more practical Shishkebab after old Jack craps out in the middle of a long quest one too many times. - The expansion DLC also adds a perk possible only at level 30 which results in a nuclear explosion around you when you hit 20 HP. While this sounds very awesome, it's not at all useful, because while you aren't harmed by it, any nearby allies may be, and the nuclear explosions are actually rather small and likely won't affect any enemy shooting at you. Therefore, it can only really have an effect against enemies like Deathclaws, which cut through your HP so fast you likely won't hit the threshold of 20HP without going to zero HP, let alone survive the aftermath. - Liberty Prime is an in-universe example. He was originally built to help the defense of Alaska, only for the US government to find out that he took too much time to build and too much energy to function, so they just used ordinary troops in power armor instead, and Prime was mothballed. Additionally, he's completely unique and can only be in one place at a time. \|\|As the Enclave and later the Institute find out, though\|\|, when he gets going, nothing can hold him back for long. + Fallout: New Vegas: - Consider the ARCHIMEDES II Kill Sat: when you fire it, it brings down a rain of laser-based punishment. Problems? Finding the tracking device you fire it with is a Guide Dang It!, you only get to fire it once every 24 hours, it takes almost ten seconds to reach full charge, the tracking device inexplicably weighs 15 pounds, and you can hit yourself with it if you're not careful. It's even lampshaded in Veronica's personal quest, where she learns that the Brotherhood of Steel sacrificed half of their numbers for what she calls "glorified artillery." - It's hard not to get caught in the blast from the "Big Kid" ammo for the GRA Fat Man. For context, it deals far more damage than the standard Mini Nukes and leaves more radiation at the impact area, but the rounds are significantly heavier than the default version... so they can't be fired as far. In other words, Big Kid nukes are an even higher degree of "unnecessary overkill" compared to Mini Nukes and make it far, far easier for the player to get killed by their own round than normal. - The Fat Man in the base game is even worse, where its high weight is coupled with an extreme lack of ammo, a pitiful 14 (or 12, with the "Wild Wasteland" trait) compared to 70 free ones in Fallout 3; along with the DLC having their own mini nukes. It also does 1000 less points of damage than its Fallout 3 counterpart, and if you try and strengthen it with the Demolition Expert and Splash Damage perks, it will only make you more likely to have it blow up in your face. On the plus side, it's a fair bit more useful than its counterpart in 3, since the Sequel Difficulty Spike means that there are actually regularly-appearing enemies that would warrant a shot from the Fat Man to take down. - The Meltdown perk causes a plasma explosion whenever you kill an enemy with an energy weapon, which inflicts damage proportional to the killing weapon's damage. Since the players and their companions aren't immune to Meltdown's explosion, the perk turns using energy weapons at close range into suicide(Meltdown also inexplicably affects the Thermic Lance; a high-damage, DT-ignoring melee weapon; turning one of the best melee options in the game into certain self-inflicted death) and will quickly kill your melee companions. Meltdown is actually fairly useful to a player who uses energy weapons only for long range, but a player who isn't focused on energy weapons will have a hard time meeting the skill requirement of 90. - The king of this trope has to be the Holy Hand Grenade. Available only in Wild Wasteland playthroughs, it's basically a hand-thrown grenade with similar properties to a Mini-Nuke. Too bad there's only three of them, and because they're hand-thrown and have such a large and deadly blast radius, it's extremely likely that you will be caught in the blast as well... - Remnants Power Armor has the highest Damage Threshold of all armors, but degrades the fastest, is very expensive to repair, has lower Rad Resistance than the T-51b, gives a Charisma penalty due to its Rage Helm being infamously scary in universe, and there are only two of its kind in the game (three if you include the lighter Gannon Tesla Armor), one of which is earned from Arcade Gannon's companion quest, the other of which is found in a hard-to-reach, Deathclaw-infested location. - The Stealth Suit Mark II from Old World Blues. Sure, it gives you +25 Sneak, +1 Perception, +1 Agility, and +20% to Stealth movement speed when fully upgraded and automatically injects Stimpaks and Med-X when you're injured, but tends to waste the former drug and get you addicted to the latter, and is for some reason classified as a Medium armor, therefore carrying a 10% running speed penalty, despite having a lower DT than the higher-level Light armors. Also, it talks all the time. - Mercy, the unique Grenade Machinegun, uses 40mm grenades instead of the usual 25mm, which means that it packs more punch, but its ammo is significantly heavier in Hardcore mode, as well as being rarer and more expensive. Better traded for the 25mm Grenade APW from Gun Runner's Arsenal. The truly worst part of this is that it can only be found in Dead Wind Cavern and is guarded by the Legendary Deathclaw. Mercy becomes more of a Bragging Rights Reward with this in mind. - The ordinary Grenade Machinegun is already a prime candidate for the trope. It is incredibly heavy, difficult to repair, eats expensive 25mm grenades like they're candy, can easily hurt or even kill the user if not aimed carefully, and will generally be total overkill for the vast majority of foes. Consider then that Mercy uses an even heavier and more expensive ammo type in exchange for even grosser overkill. - Just like in Fallout 3, the Alien Blaster is the most powerful weapon in the game, and if you have the Jury Rigging perk, it can be repaired with Energy pistols. The big downside is that it only has 222 of its ammo in the entire game, and once it runs out, it becomes completely worthless. Worse, it replaces the YCS/186, which is a unique Gauss Rifle, and the YCS uses microfusion cells as ammo (something that is somewhat easy to get). In order to get the Blaster, you need to turn on Wild Wasteland, but in the long run, you're better off with the more practical YCS/186 instead of the awesome Alien Blaster. - Terrifying Presence. You gain the opportunity for unique dialogue options that intimidate some of the most powerful and ruthless individuals in the Mojave into cowering before you, at the cost of the opportunity to choose a potentially more useful Perk. - The Meat of Champions Perk requires you to eat the corpses of President Kimball, Caesar, Mr. House, and The King, but enables you to get +1 to Strength, Charisma, Intelligence, and Luck for 60 seconds after eating a corpse. One problem is that since Kimball only appears in one of the last story missions, you can only get this benefit towards the end of the main storyline. Another is that the people you'll need to eat will lock you out of every story path besides Wild Card (which partly exists for players who have burned their bridges with every other faction) and maybe the Legion (the least popular faction) if you let Caesar die and somehow manage to get away with eating his body. The third is the fact that the stat boost lasts for too short of a period of time to be worthwhile. - In universe, Cosmic Knives. Said to be super sharp and made of a "space age Saturnite alloy" that never chips or dulls, this actually ends up being a huge detriment — at least one chef at the Sierra Madre nearly lost a finger dicing vegetables, and they'd even slice right through cutting boards, requiring the staff to replace them on a daily basis. They also retain heat terrifyingly well — after being left on a burner, the blade remains red-hot for hours, potentially causing even further damage, as one could easily melt right through a table. Fortunately, there is no risk of accidental harm when the player wields one; in fact, heating one creates one of the deadliest melee weapons in the game. + Fallout 4: - For the most part downplayed, at least as far as weapons go. Many weapons are simply too heavy to carry around and use all the time or use uncommon ammo, but that hardly means that you'll never use them. However, unlike in previous titles, the lack of item health or skills mean that you don't have to build a character around the idea of using awesome guns. With this in mind, there are plenty of points in the game when you'll know a tough fight is ahead and head back to base to dust off the Minigun and Fatman. - The Gatling Laser uses the very rare fusion cores for ammo, the same as power armor. Without the right perks or weapon upgrades, it will eat fusion cores at unacceptably high rates for its damage. Even if you fix the ammo consumption, you'll still have to contend with more ammo management issues. Because the weapon always uses the highest-charged core in the inventory when reloaded or equipped, you can't just insert a partially-charged core, fire it for a while, insert a new core, sell the nearly-depleted core when you're done, and be done with it, clean and simple. No, instead, you'll have to micromanage the charge level and shot output of all the boatloads of partially-charged cores it'll produce, or else settle for an lower shot output when you run out of fully-charged cores. - The Broadsider is a naval cannon scavenged from the USS Constitution, rigged to a metal frame. It does a lot of damage, and shooting it is just as fun as it sounds. However, it's also very heavy, short ranged, and difficult to aim; only holds one shot (three if you upgrade it, but that's still not great); and uses extremely rare cannonballs. - The Junk Jet, the Commonwealth's answer to the fan-favorite Rock-It Launcher from 3. The most obvious thing is that with the introduction of the settlement system, every single junk item now has value in being used in the workshop as material to build things and craft weapon and armor mods (compared to most junk items only having use as ammo for the Launcher in 3), so why would you want to throw any of it away? Not to mention, unlike conventional ammunition, junk often has a weight, so you can't carry much (unless you entirely rely on the weightless Pre-War Money junk item). - Once again, the Minigun. It's still heavy, has a long spin-up time before it actually starts firing, and it has the lowest damage per bullet of any gun, so against heavily armored opponents, it can only inflict Scratch Damage. And that's assuming that you actually hit your target — it's a fantastically inaccurate weapon, so most of the bullets fired will miss. Furthermore, at times the reload animation can be annoyingly slow. - Rather than simply throwing out eight Mini-Nukes in one go like previously, the Experimental MIRV Launcher is now much more ammo efficient and sends out one nuke that splits up and rains multiple huge explosions directly down on enemies. The problem? It stops traveling horizontally in mid-arc, so the payload will drop down dangerously close to the wielder. This makes it far less useful for taking out enemies at a distance and increases the chance of you getting caught in the blast if you didn't lob it at just the right angle. You'll know you got it wrong if it instantly kills you. - The Far Harbor add-on puts the Harpoon Gun on this list. A very awesome heavy weapon that can be modded to fire either standard large harpoons or a Flechette Storm of smaller projectiles, either of which will inflict heavy damage, it suffers from having the longest reload time of any weapon in the game, which is especially bad given that it's a single-shot weapon. It's also got fairly limited range, further worsening things. It can be good at picking off single targets from stealth, but against groups or single targets tough enough to survive the first hit (like Deathclaws and Fog Crawlers), you'll be cut to pieces before you can reload it for a second shot. - Someone made a mod that adds a Mini Nuke Minigun — a gun that fires mini-nukes as quickly as the minigun fires bullets. It destroys anything in its path, but consumes ammo at a horrifying rate when only one mini-nuke is enough for most targets, to say nothing of what happens when you fire so many at once. * Gacha World: By using Phoenix Ami as team leader, which multiplies attack by 3x when you are at full HP, and placing Shishi, Penelope Coconut, Senpai Slayer Kuku, and Dice as the team members, it is possible to summon Dice after acquiring seven gacha stars to deal damage so high that the number overflows outside the damage indicator's textures (205,876,599 damage). However, by the time that you level these five units to such inhuman levels, there are simply more reliable methods to achieve victory, and also, Dice has a 25% chance to deal no damage when summoned, a trait not shared with any other unit in the game. You also have to stay at full health to keep the 3x damage multiplier from Phoenix Ami's leader skill, which is not the easiest thing in the world with this team build, as it has units that are suited for different purposes banded together solely for statfeeding. * Icewind Dale has the Chain Lightning spell, which can hit many opponents with lightning damage. It also has a very strong chance of bouncing back at you or your party members. Keeping everyone many screens away from the caster will not protect them. Unless the room is jam packed with enemies, casting it is a mistake. * Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: + You can learn Battle Meditation, the skill that made Bastila so important in Knights of the Old Republic — and it does give useful bonuses, especially at higher tiers. Unfortunately, its brief duration and inability to be part of the Force Enlightenment omni-buff mean that ultimately, you will not be using it that often. + Later in the game, you can class-change certain party members into Jedi. While this does grant them Force powers and the ability to use lightsabers, it causes them to lose out on the feats they'd normally gain from their base class, typically winding up as Masters of None compared to specializing them in their initial roles or using your party members who are already Jedi. Bao-Dur is the most extreme example, as it not only ruins his unarmed offense (potentially including his unique damage boost/stun passive) and high skill growth, but his stats are absolutely terrible for becoming a Jedi, and he can't equip any armor that doesn't restrict Force usage. Furthermore, each character gets a bonus to unarmed combat every few levels that's tied to class level. Once they become Jedi, they start all over again and get feats they already have every few levels. This really only effects Bao-Dur and the Handmaiden, as they are most useful unarmed. Although they gain force powers, they're stuck dealing the same amount of damage as enemies get tougher. You can mitigate this by never leveling them up before making them into Jedi. + If you start a Dark Side run early on, then on Nar Shaddaa, instead of Mira, you get the insane Wookiee Bounty Hunter Hanharr. While having your own Dark Side Chewbacca sounds cool, from both a gameplay and story standpoint, it makes your party that much weaker. The Exile is a Power Parasite who gains their power from Force-sensitives; Hanharr is a Badass Normal while Mira is an Empowered Badass Normal.(The original plan was for Hanharr to be Force-sensitive as well, but George Lucas said no more Wookiee Jedi.) It's much more efficient to stay neutral early on, then go all in and turn Mira. + The games also have personal energy shields, which temporarily nullify any energy attacks up to and including lightsabers. Why doesn't everyone have these in the present day, you ask? Because they're canonically inconvenient, expensive, get unbearably hot when used for longer than a minute (hot enough to burn the crap out of whoever touches them and bake the user to death), and as a result were not used often. After the Old Republic era, blaster technology eventually caught up to the point where the ones used by the player became worthless. By the time of the films the majority of similar applications of the tech were too dangerous to be used by organics, limiting them to droids, and the handful that weren't, like the ones used by Kyle Katarn in the Dark Forces Saga, were far less effective by comparison. * The Legend of Dragoon: + At Dragoon Level 5, each character gets a spell that summons a dragon to attack the enemy. It sounds like an incredible attack until you realize that you could do the same amount of damage with only a couple of weaker spells for a much lower cost. The only ones really worth using are the White Silver Dragon, since it does a lot of damage and heals the party, and the Sea Wave Dragon. This is also due to the high magical attack of Shana/Miranda and Meru. + Dragoon form itself becomes this in the late game, since the majority of the endgame bosses can cripple it with the Dragon Block Staff. This includes the final battle. Additionally, a character in Dragoon form has their actions restricted, preventing them from guarding, using items, or fleeing the battle. + The Ultimate Wargod accessory causes a character's Addition to always succeed. But it costs 10,000 gold in a game where only Metal Slimes drop more than one or two hundred. In the time it'd take to farm the gold necessary to buy two or three Ultimate Wargods, most players will have perfected their Addition timing anyway. Lastly, equipping an Ultimate Wargod prevents usage of other accessories such as Rainbow Earring(Prevents all status effects) or Mage Ring(Recovers magic points every turn). * Marauder: + The Heavy Weapons skill for Akhmet, as you won't get a machine gun or an explosive weapon until midway into the game, and you can usually substitute with assault rifles and hand grenades. If you do need a heavy weapon to be used, you can simply have Serb handle one. + Melee weapons. They hit very hard and can easily kill enemies in a few seconds, yes, but they take up valuable space in your inventory, take precious seconds to equip (in a game where milliseconds matter), and are very niche (as guns are nearly always better). You can usually do just fine with using your fists and Pistol-Whipping, since they also stunlock enemies. * Mass Effect: + Due to the weapon customization system in Mass Effect 1, you can make guns like this. The default shotgun (no modifications) can fire a reasonable number of bullets before overheating, but you can turn it into a one-shot-killing machine. It can only fire one shot before overheating, yet it kills most enemy grunts in one shot and it sounds like a cannon. For those about to rock indeed. + The M-920 Cain aka "Nuke Gun" from Mass Effect 2. The final heavy weapon to research, it is for all intents and purposes a nuke cannon, and it works as advertised — anything within a very wide area of the target dies in a very pretty mushroom cloud. However, it eats most of your heavy weapon ammo with one shot, requires four seconds of charging before it fires (not a good idea when under fire in one of the situations you would want to use something this powerful), and has such a large blast radius that there are very few opportunities in the game where you can fire the Cain and not hit your own party. Most of the time, the Avalanche cannon or Collector Particle Beam are much more practical. On top of that, it can be used for, at most, a half-dozen fights throughout a twenty-five-hour game. Using it on anything weaker than a Praetorian is pointless overkill, and if you miss, you won't get another shot. The one exception is the final boss. In the Final Battle, the Cain suddenly becomes simply awesome, as Harbinger drops heavy weapons ammo when killed, presumably so as to compensate for the Cain's impracticality in this case. You'll have to waste him a couple of times to get enough ammo to fire the damn thing again, but in case you brought the Cain instead of one of the less insane weapons, you'll still be able to complete the fight. + Also, the Blackstorm Energy Projector, which is a heavy weapon that one gets by pre-ordering the game(although it's since been released as free DLC), is a gun that fires black holes, but it's not as useful as you might think seeing as it needs to charge up just like the Cain, meaning the enemies may have moved or strafed away by the time the black hole detonates, and unlike the Cain, when it hits, it doesn't necessarily kill everything in the immediate radius. However, it still has a few uses, and is one of the easiest ways to deal with the rapidly arriving Collector platforms in the Collector Ship mission. + And the Geth Plasma Shotgun makes every heavy weapon Awesome But Impractical. Its charged attack does more damage than every heavy weapon except the Cain — and it uses conventional thermal clips. You'll never use heavy weapon ammo again! + Mass Effect 3 adds an Awesome, But Impractical tactic: Hijacking Atlas units. Sure, the idea of stealing a mech from the enemy is amazing, but the crystal canopy protecting the pilot is so tough, by the time you shatter it, the thing will be about five shots away from being destroyed — and that's assuming your squadmates don't destroy it before you can draw a bead on it. Even if you can jack it, chances are there's only going to be about two or three mooks left to use it on, at best. To add insult to injury, the best way to set up an Atlas for hijacking in order to get the achievement for doing so is to use a free Atlas you're given in one of two missions. + The Claymore shotgun dishes out a ton of damage...but there are other shotguns, like the Wraith, that dish out nearly as much and weigh considerably less. + The Scorpion heavy pistol's sticky bombs are neat, but the delay means that in some cases, most notably if you take one to Mars with a New Game Plus, it can make an otherwise fairly simple boss fight Unwinnable because it reaches and dismembers you before enough go off to kill it. Its low ammo capacity doesn't help. + In ME2, you learn that a species that was wiped out by the Reapers 37 million years ago had some kind of weapon that one-shotted a Reaper Capital ship and ripped a deep trench in another planet in a different system at some point in their future. Unfortunately, that species only got off that one shot and there were more lots more Reapers, which is why it's speculated to have been a weapon made out of defiance rather than a practical military application. + The Javelin is devastatingly powerful, and its ability to kill people through virtually any cover with the right build is certainly amusing, but its ammo capacity is tiny and you need to be really good at predicting what targets are going to do, because the Javelin isn't Hitscan in the way that other sniper rifles are. + In ME3 EDI points out that while the Krogan clans are formidable having fought each other on their homeworld for centuries, they don't have enough ships to actually transport their forces en masse, or the resources to actually fight a prolonged war, requiring their allies to provide both for them in order to avert this. * Might and Magic: + Some spells are woefully impractical when it comes to their usability. The top contenders would be Armageddon and Divine Intervention. Armageddon deals damage to everything on map, including your party, therefore a) you need to have healer ready to undo the damage and b) if you don't want to kill civilians, you'll be restricted to use it on maps without them, and those have usually monsters so strong you'll need to cast it dozen of times or so (while maximum is 3 or 4 casts per day). Divine intervention heals all party, including removing all status effects and replenishing mana, but it ages caster by 10 years. Here the age affects your party's stats, and aging is incredibly hard to remove. The spell itself is also usually hard to get as it requires a sidequest to complete. + ''VII'" has the relic poleaxe named Splitter. Its gimmick is explosions. Every blow from the axe makes a thundering Michael Bay-class fireball centered where the blade strikes something, with perfectly obvious effects on the party. Sure, the axe grants + 50 fire resistance to the wielder, but having to tape the pieces of the party sorcerer back together every time you hit something it battle isn't worth the fireworks. Besides, by the time you start tripping over relics you should be swimming in great gear anyway, so it's not worth it even if you can muster up the resistances. * NetHack has the "huge chunk of meat," obtained by \|\|casting stone to flesh on a boulder\|\|. It's food. It will never spoil(Spoilage is a common problem with the corpses of your enemies, your main source of food. It can cause, among other things, delayed instadeath). It has a nutritional value of 2,000, the highest in the game; eating one will definitely cure hunger, weak, or fainting status. However, unless you're in the latter condition, eating a huge chunk of meat is guaranteed to put you in "oversatiated" status, in which your movements will be stifled and eating anything will cause you to choke to death. And you can't really carry it around either; it's extremely heavy. Good for feeding to your pet dragon, though. * Neverwinter Nights 2 had you spend a major chunk of the mid game collecting a series of powers designed to kill the Big Bad; it turns out they weren't necessary at launch. Additionally, late in the game you get your hands on an Infinity +1 Sword, that's also often superseded by gear a player already has access to.(The sword is actually very impressive - It bears a host of unique abilities, including an attack that launches a hail of shards at a distant enemy on command, a unique look, and a massive number of passive bonuses that would allow it to be good on any character. However, it is unlikely to truly benefit a specialized or optimized character - It's passive bonuses don't stack with other equipment and are relatively modest compared to more focused equipment, it's unlikely to match up with the weapons a melee combatant has specialized in, and a non-melee character or spellcaster probably has a lot of abilities that make it's admittedly-cool abilities redundant. Select characters, especially longsword-focused fighters, may find it's unique abilities well worth it, however.) * In New Horizons, 1st rate-ships are floating fortress that's impervious to anything but forts and other 1st rates. They can obliterate anything smaller: nothing short but awesome. However, they need close to or over 1.000 crewmen to be controled without a performance suffering. It stuffs your entire hold with nothing but ammunition, gun powder and supplies to keep the men and cannons fed. Must already be rich just to pay the crew. Furthermore, repairs and ressources lost after every battle will be a huge drain on any fortune. They are a must-have for the biggest forts which may require a full fleet of them note, but other than that, a humble 3rd rate will do most jobs just as well with only a fraction of the costs. * Planescape: Torment has level 9 ultimate spells with intensely cool cutscenes, which is rare in a Western RPG. Unfortunately, barring some serious Level Grinding, by the time you're able to use these you only have one enemy left worth using them on, and that's a Skippable Boss. + Very little grinding, in fact. Cloudkill + underSigil = lots of fast exp. However, those high level spells are fairly useless because enemies potentially worth using them on tend to have high magic resistance. Which means the spell typically takes a minute going through its complex, "awesome" animation, and at the end... does nothing. Better just spam some easy to use level 1-5 spells. + Gaining immunity to poison. Unfortunately, poisons attacks aren't that common in the game. And the way to gain the immunity is to eat 100 rat tails. This can only be done through a conversation with a merchant which will allow you to buy one single rat tail at a time. To buy a hundred will require hundreds of mouse clicks and enough money to pull it off. * In the same vein as the above, Sierra's Quest for Glory series has the Thermonuclear Blast spell, which, when cast, essentially causes a nuclear explosion that destroys everything in a mile's radius — centered on, and including, the caster. The spell first turned up as a fake spell listed in the manual of one of the early games, as if the spell existed in the game (it didn't). The final game in the series revisits the joke by actually making the spell available to the player, though casting it is highly unwise. + There's also the vast majority of combat spells for the mage: to wit, the mage gets Flame Dart, Force Bolt, Lightning Ball and Frostbite throughout the course of the series, each spell having a different elemental affiliation (Fire, Force, Lightning and Ice, respectively). The problem is that the mage gets Flame Dart in the first game, which means it has a lower casting cost (5 magic points) than any of the later spells (8/10/15 magic points, respectively), making it far more efficient to use, and subsequently to level grind for higher damage. There's almost no reason to use any other offensive spell, as even things that should be strong against fire still take a lot of damage from it (and very few things are resistant to fire, with most enemies taking more damage from it!), and two high level Flame Darts do more damage than two high level Frostbites, for a third of the cost to boot. Coupled with the fact that you only need minimal grinding to make the Force Bolt spell strong enough to overcome puzzles, and that the Frostbite and Lightning Ball spells work for puzzles regardless of your skill level with them (and are only used in two puzzles (Frostbite) or one puzzle (Lightning Ball)), and you'll be a flame-slingin' mage for the entire series because it just makes more sense(There is one exception to this, which is the fairy fight in the fourth game. They have reflect spells, which means you can use direct damage spells on them, forcing you to use Frostbite (which is stated to be an AOE spell, even though it has no other use in the game). But you also just got a magic staff, which means that you have enough magic to use Frostbite without having to use your limited mana pool). * In Ravensword: Shadowlands, the game features blunderbuss guns. It sounds awesome on paper, but in practice, even the highest-level ones prove unreliable (not always making a hit even if you're aiming straight at the target), and don't deal nearly as much damage as the highest-level crossbows. * Secret of Evermore allows you to level each of your weapons up twice, gaining a new and more powerful Charge Attack with each level and with the level 3 charge attack being absurdly effective and leaving nothing but blood and experience points in the wake of your enemies. However, as you get handed new weapons like candy in this game (for example you get handed the Horn Spear about 30 seconds after you defeat Thraxx and got the Spider's Claw for it) and it takes outright kills with that weapon rather than mere experience points to level it up (around 99 kills for level 2, and about 200 more kills for level 3, and both alchemy and dog kills don't count), it basically necessitates setting the dog to search-only so he doesn't Kill Steal and spending a few hours grinding each one to get the thing leveled up if you want to be able to enjoy it for any amount of time whatsoever. Pretty much the only weapons worth leveling up are spears as they give you a projectile (which are not only neccessary to pass parts of the game, but a level 3 Horn Spear is basically your only realistic option to defeat Salabog), and whichever of the three Infinity +1 Weapons you ultimately choose to use against the final boss (if you don't decide to just cheese him with a fully-leveled Crush formula or any of several infinite Call Bead glitches instead). + All of the weapons and most of the alchemy formulas are rendered moot when you reach Omnitopia and have access to a store that sells bazooka rounds. The Bazooka is the most powerful weapon available when loaded with Cryo rounds, frequently hitting for 600+ damage when it doesn't get a critical hit, and doesn't require any charge up, doing full damage on a 100% charge. It also blows you back a significant amount of space, which is annoying but manageable, and is a ranged weapon to boot. While it does require ammunition, and when you get the Bazooka in Ebon Tower, ammo is scarce and expensive, in Omnitopia, you can buy more ammunition than you'll ever need for a pittance, so the primary drawback is completely negated to the point that you might never actually use the Laser Sword, Laser Axe or Laser Spear. + Most of the alchemy formulas are flashy, impressive and worthless. Direct damage formulas generally just do damage, and while they are more powerful than your first direct damage formulas, Flash and Hard Ball, they either require much more expensive ingredients or suffer from not being leveled up as much as Flash and Hard Ball, which you've been using since essentially the beginning of the game. Utility spells that provide healing, resistances, or buffs are either not as good as your basic Heal formula, very situational, or require rare or expensive ingredients. Generally speaking, you'll likely play through the game using 4 alchemy formulas regularly: Flash and Hard Ball for direct damage, Heal to restore your HP, and Revealer for showing hidden platforms in Antiquaria. Every other formula can be safely ignored, or used a couple of times. * In the SNES version of Shadowrun, spells have limited utility with one exception. Summon Spirit isn't available for Jake until you get to Bremerton, which then requires you to leave Bremerton to get it, and even at max level, doesn't do nearly enough damage to justify the mana cost. Powerball at max level does area of effect damage on par with a grenade, which you can buy for a measly 150 nuyen and that's too much for what you get; Powerball isn't any better. Armor protects you from any damage, but you can still be stunlocked, and with the exception of the final boss fight, you can get the same level of protection permanently with the Partial Bodysuit and Dermal Armor (and you get it after Invisibility). Freeze is situational, trapping an enemy and preventing them from attacking, but it's useless in rooms with more than three enemies, as they'll stunlock you before you can freeze them all. The exception to the rule is Invisibility, which prevents enemies (up to and including the final boss!) from attacking you at all, while you can attack with impunity. At maximum level, Invisibility lasts for 35 seconds, which is long enough to clear an entire room of enemies, and costs a measly 10 mana points. The only other worthwhile spell is Heal, which you get for free and will allow you to survive until you get Invisibility. * In the Genesis version of Shadowrun, you have a number of awesome things that you can do, but they're mostly impractical. + If you're a decker, you can get the iconic Infinity +1 Sword Fairlight Excalibur deck and level it all the way up, getting advanced programs and training your computer skill to be able to hack into any system at any time without trouble. This will cost you an extreme amount of money, to the order of about one million nuyen in a game where you get money in maximal amounts of 15,000 at a time. It's also almost completely worthless: the story-required hacking jobs can be completed with the beginning cyberdeck and some minimal upgrades or by hiring a decker to do it for you, and the optional Bonus Dungeon hacking jobs can be easily completed with a much less expensive amount of upgrading. The other advantage of hacking, which is stealing data to sell, only gets you money, not Karma (for leveling up), and once you've upgraded your weapons, armor and other gear, the only thing to spend that money on is more upgrades for your decking rig, resulting in a perpetual loop that leads nowhere. + Cyberware has essence costs that limits the maximum amount of implants you can get. However, while Finger Razors and Cyber Claws are cool, melee combat is always dangerous, and you're much better served with a gun. Cybereyes let you see invisible creatures, but not much else, and you can get goggles that do the same. For the combat-heavy parts of the game, you're much better served with either Dermal Plating, which makes you harder to hurt for a reasonable essence cost (and can be stacked), Smartlink, which massively increases your accuracy, and Wired Reflexes, which are obscenely expensive in terms of both cash and essence, but can turn a pistol into a machine gun. Other cyberware is a novelty. + When it comes to weapons, there's very little reason to ever use submachine guns or assault rifles: they chew through ammunition (they have the largest ammunition capacity but always shoot three bullets at a time), they're relatively inaccurate even with a Smartlink and good Firearms skill, and they try to substitute More Dakka for actual power, which, given the game mechanics, doesn't actually work(Enemies that require a certain amount of damage to injury will determine that damage per bullet, not per burst, so if they can't be hurt by a single shot from the gun, they won't be hurt at all). On top of all of that, they're illegal to carry, requiring either evading Lone Star patrols in random events (requiring high skills that you don't normally need) or spending money on an expensive weapon permit. It's far better to rely on the Predator pistol(Which hits harder but for less damage than SMGs and assault rifles) and upgrade to a shotgun(which hits very hard and for a lot of damage, but suffers from very low ammo capacity) for the end game. * Shadowrun Returns Hong Kong: One of the deckers you can meet at DeckCon brags about having his deck built directly into his head, meaning that he doesn't have to carry a deck on jobs. Is0bel comments that it sounds cool, but any hardware upgrades he wants to do in the future will involve major brain surgery. * In S.T.A.L.K.E.R., pretty much any explosive weapon besides hand grenades. In the first two games, rifle-launched grenades are hard to come by and typically limited in use without farming them from a specific faction, often have a pretty pathetic blast radius, and the launchers themselves are also often hard to find unless you know specifically where to find them. The RG-6 Bulldog revolver grenade launcher is definitely this — it's damn heavy, you can't sprint with it out, it takes forever to reload, but you can launch six grenades at something within a matter of seconds, so if you decide to raid the Freedom base on your way north you can get one and a load of grenades for it, and it's hilariously effective inside the CNPP where the grenades are incredibly dangerous to Monolith troops, and once you run out you can just drop it. The RPG is even more into this trope, as one rocket from it can kill virtually anything you come across, but in the first game you're only guaranteed to find one or two rockets in the entire game, and it's even heavier than the RG-6. In the third game, they edge more towards Difficult, but Awesome, as some traders will stock the weapons and grenades after a certain point, and you can upgrade your carrying capacity more easily. + Strangely enough, pistols become this later after midway through the game. After a certain point the common pistol caliber switches from 9x18 to .45 caliber, which is heavy and just doesn't do that much damage. By the time it does, you'll probably be carrying an assault rifle for day-to-day work, a sniper rifle if you're lucky, and a shotgun for varmint cleanup, and a pistol is just extra weight that you probably won't use, despite all the cool .45 caliber pistols around. On the other hand, you can find a Hand Cannon chambered for 9x39 mm sniper rounds. Both the pistol and the ammo are absurdly heavy. Not that it stops most people. * Certain games from Ultima have the Armageddon spell ("Imbalance" in Ultima VII Part II — Serpent Isle). The spell kills all enemies on screen as well as all enemies not on screen. It also kills your entire party, all bystanders — and everyone and everything in the world except for you and Lord British (and Batlin in Ultima VII)! Naturally, the game becomes Unwinnable at this point, so there is absolutely no reason to use this other than to see Lord British's reaction \|\|(and to find out why Batlin sided with the Guardian)\|\|. + Ultima IV had the Skull of Mondain, an item that would kill all non-party members in the immediate area at the price of wrecking the players Karma Meter. + Ultima IV also had the Mystic Swords, which do more damage than anything in the game... but are short-ranged weapons. It's actually more practical to just sell them and buy spell reagants, Magic Wands and Bows for your party instead; they do less damage per hit, but their range ensures you'll take far less damage from enemies than you would spending several turns running up and engaging them in close quarters. * Ultima VII and its sequel Serpent Isle have the Firedoom Staff, which sends out homing explosive orbs of doom at whatever you target. They have a significant amount of splash range, though, so giving one to your party will usually result in them being reduced to cinders in a matter of seconds once a fight starts. Your allies also tend to shoot each other (and you) in the back with bows and crossbows unless you enchant all their arrows/bolts to always hit their intended target. * In Ultima IX: Ascension, the fourth level two-handed sword technique is an elaborate figure-8 slash that your trainer Duncan describes as this amazing technique that he could never master. To learn it, you have to sail (or make a bridge of objects) to a deep ocean dock off the coast of Yew, then risk drowning as you dive to an underwater crypt containing the book with the technique. Unfortunately the move does a piddling amount of damage, is very hard to aim, hits only at the very end of the swing, and takes so much time to use that you could have done a lot more damage just by using regular attacks. * Many of the Gnomish Engineering devices in World of Warcraft fall under this trope, especially the cloaking device and the mind-control cap, which seem really cool in theory but have such a short duration that they are essentially worthless. + In later expansions Engineering in general became more useful, though as far as usefulness goes compared to the mostly passive benefits from other professions, their devices still qualify. Even if played safe only with devices that don't backfire, its more things to keep track of on top of your regular combat abilities. + Any mechanical item in the tabletop RPG, as well. All of them come with such high difficulty to use and such a long list of drawbacks that you're better off pretending they aren't there. + In the classic game, warlocks could summon two very powerful demons: the Infernal and the Doomguard. The Infernal was difficult to use (for one thing, it would turn against you if you let the Enslave Demon effect run out) but powerful in the right situation. The Doomguard was even stronger, but required a 5 player summoning ritual, one of whom would die from the ritual, and if the warlock was not fast enough with Enslave Demon or was the one who died, then you had just unleashed a powerful demon to attack the party. Later expansions made this spell into a normal but short-term summon, although the Doomguard itself was made weaker; less awesome, but a lot more useful. - Enslave Demon and similar skills. Enemies powerful enough to be worth enslaving without being immune to it are hard to find, even now that it has become fairly reliable. And even then you won't be able to take your new pet very far, as such targets are mostly found in Dungeons. Though it can be a blast when you get that chance, and the Warlock questline to unlock green fire makes it outright mandatory. + The cloud serpent mounts look gorgeous, but are so huge that they can't pass through lot of openings, and the only camera positions that let you see where you're going are either full zoom in (in which case you can't even see it) or full zoom out (in which case you can't see the details that make it so gorgeous). Many players do the long series of quests to get them, but often stop using them shortly afterwards. + The wandering ancient mount, which is included with Shadowlands, is similar to the cloud serpent but more so: visually spectacular, but also huge, unwieldy, and impossible to take into any place more crowded than open grasslands. + Certain Hunter pets take a lot of effort to tame, but statistically they are the same as any other pet from the same family, just with an unique color. As far as families go, Direhorns currently take the cake, requiring a level-capped Hunter to grind elite mobs on a fairly secluded isle to learn how to tame them, and then tame one on that same isle. And their unique ability certainly counts as well, deflecting all spells cast in front of the Direhorn for 6 seconds... if they are single-target and only target the pet itself, that is. + Several Legendary items introduced in Legion have useful effects but are Overshadowed by Awesome because there's more useful legendaries, and players are only allowed to equip two. So a necklace that grants an absorb effect every thirty seconds is nice, but a dps will ignore it in favor of something that boosts their damage. Made even worse in Battle for Azeroth with any legendary that uses the head, neck, shoulder, or chest slot since those are reserved for Azerite armor which is considerably more powerful from the very start. ---	AwesomeButImpractical	null
LiveActionFilms	# Shadow Archetype - Live-Action Films The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU * Marvel Universe --- * Adaptation.: Charlie Kaufman's (fictional) twin brother Donald functions as his shadow, embodying everything Charlie dislikes about his profession and doesn't want to become. In true Jungian fashion, however, there are positive aspects to his character as well, which Charlie's neuroticism and self-awareness lead him to suppress, and which he ultimately grows as a person by accepting. * Fight Club: Tyler Durden is the Shadow Archetype to The Narrator, \|\|considering that he is nothing more than The Narrator's alternate personality, comprising what The Narrator wants to be, but can't, because of the pressures of society. For Hollywood, this makes him an unusually Jungian version — he's what is repressed, not what is evil\|\|. > "I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck. I am smart, capable and, most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not." * Varies through continuities but Godzilla fellow monsters reflect an aspect of the Big G character. + One of Godzilla's defining traits is that he's the product of an unholy union of Nature and Technology, being a surviving Cretaceous-era dinosaur who was mutated by exposure to nuclear radiation. That's why Mechagodzilla plays such an important role as Godzilla's Foil: as his evil robotic doppelganger, he's entirely a product of technology, and represents Godzilla's "unnatural" side. + Mothra plays an equally important role as the classically heroic Foil to the antiheroic or Villain Protagonist Godzilla, being entirely a product of nature. They also both represent Gaia's Vengeance but while Godzilla has extreme hatred or apathy towards humanity Mothra still sees worth in them. She also represents what Godzilla could become if he become a pure force for good. - Speaking of Mothra, there's Battra, who's what Mothra could be if she ever lost faith in humanity. + While it depends on the continuity, King Ghidorah acts as a dark reflection of Godzilla. While Big G is a Tragic Monster whose evil stems from being angry at humanity or straight up ignorance at what he's doing anything can be wrong, King Ghidorah is a truly evil being who knows exactly what he's doing and relishes in it. King Ghidorah shows just how truly destructive Godzilla can be if he took pleasure in his rampages. + In the film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Destoroyah has the most similarities with the Big G. Both are organisms that existed longer than man, they were both unfortunate and unforeseen victims created by humanity's own destructive weapons (the atomic bomb and the oxygen destroyer respectively.) and both bring terrible destruction to humanity. However, Godzilla by this time had gone through Character Development, and a Morality Pet in the form of Junior. While Destoroyah fully embraces the weapon humanity made it into. + In Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, SpaceGodzilla is this to Godzilla in a nutshell, purely of extraterrestrial origin, and is the byproduct of an alien merged with Godzilla's G-Cells. In contrast to Godzilla's close combat prowess, radioactive abilities and anti-heroism, SpaceGodzilla is entirely malevolent, and his powers prioritize mental, gravitational and long range abilities, while also being able to fly. He represents what an alien Godzilla would look like as well as what Godzilla would become if he was tyrannical, and had the powers of a literal god. - In a way, SpaceGodzilla can also be considered a result of Godzilla being gamma powered instead of nuclear. - This goes for Biollante as well from Godzilla vs. Biollante, who is a plant-based life form and is also created from Godzilla's G-Cells. It is also female. - An amalgamation of the three of them takes on its true form in the anime film, Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters. + Orga from Godzilla 2000 resembles a hideously deformed, bizarro-version of Godzilla that, unlike Biollante and SpaceGodzilla, botched the absorption process of his DNA. His skin is grey instead of green, he has a shoulder cannon instead of a mouth beam like most other kaijus, his back is hunched, and he has extremely large hands with three fingers. He lacks much of Godzilla's intelligence and speed, but makes up for it with pure strength and power. + Gigan can be seen as a sick joke of Godzilla's existence. Both being monsters that are an unholy combination of technology and nature. The only difference is Gigan fully embraces the weapon it was made into. * Indiana Jones: Rene Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark openly describes himself as this towards Indiana Jones, as both are passionate Adventure Archaeologists, but Belloq doesn't have Indy's code of honor, lending his services to Nazi Germany. > Belloq: I am but a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me. To push you out of the light. * James Bond: Many, if not all, Bond villains represent the worst aspects of 007. + Skyfall: Big Bad Raoul Silva is a former MI6 agent (and a brilliant one, according to M), who is what Bond could easily become if he didn't forgive or trust M for the things she puts him through. Silva even points this out multiple times over the course of the film, and the other characters aren't arguing with him, especially given that M leaving Silva for dead in China has echoes of her risking Bond's life at the beginning of the movie. Silva going rogue also harkens back to Alec Trevelyan, another ex-MI6 agent who had a similar grudge against his former employer. > Silva: We are the last two rats. + Other examples from the films include Die Another Day's Gustav Graves/\|\|Colonel Moon\|\|, From Russia with Love's Red Grant, Casino Royale's Le Chiffre (suave, handsome men of action), and A View to a Kill's Max Zorin. The titular villains of Dr. No and The Man with the Golden Gun also attempt, less convincingly, to play Shadow Archetypes to Bond. They all easily serve to remind Bond of what he could be if he decided to cross the line and become immoral. Some of them even freely admit being Card Carrying Villains, pull a "Not So Different" Remark on 007, and harbor no loyalty to others but to themselves. + GoldenEye: 006/Alec Trevelyan, Bond's former partner, who reappears from the dead and continually taunts 007 about his loyalty to England and Failure Hero tendencies to lose allies and women during missions. Despite sharing many of Bond's qualities, Alec's personality shows the dangers of clinging on to old grudges, as he despises England for their (perceived) past transgressions. + Ernst Stavro Blofeld, James Bond's Arch-Enemy and head of the Nebulous Evil Organization SPECTRE, is a stark contrast to both M, Bond's boss, and 007 himself. - While both lead a secret organization and give orders directly to their subordinates, M commands the respect of his peers and subordinates, but Blofeld would often kill minions just for minor reasons. - Blofeld also serves as a warped mirror image of Bond, especially in terms of lethality, wit, and shrewdness. The way they rose is also a stark difference: whereas Bond is of Blue Blood (albeit a minor one) yet puts his life on the line to stop power-hungry nutjobs, Blofeld is of modest origins but rose to power by questionable means and is willing to hold the entire world at gunpoint if he doesn't get what he wants. \|\|To drive this even further, the Mirrored Confrontation Shot between the two during Spectre's climax even shows the visual similarities they share, with Blofeld being a Bond corrupted by a lust for revenge and domination\|\|. + Spectre: M gets another Shadow Archetype in the form of C/Max Denbigh, the new head of the Joint Intelligence Service. Whereas M is an ex-spy like Bond, is capable of handling firearms, and has shown genuine concern for his subordinates, C is an Obstructive Bureaucrat who mocks M's insistence on stopping the 00-agent program from being scrapped in favor of his new surveillance operation, and hurls childish insults whenever he's grilled about the surveillance program he favors. \|\|It's later revealed that C is in bed with Blofeld, and is willing to sell out England for more political power unlike M, who remains loyal to queen and country. When C tries to have Bond and M killed for interfering in his Evil Plan, he didn't realize M's field experience enabled him to sweep the room and empty Denbigh's gun before he got there. In short, C represents an M whose lust for power has corrupted him to the point he's even willing to sell out others and use his position to enrich himself for political gain\|\|. + Octopussy: A crooked and treacherous Glory Hound, Soviet general Orlov is essentially what General Gogol could have been had he chose to become bloodthirsty and lustful for power. Unlike Gogol, who remains an important Bond ally to stop Orlov's scheme, Orlov even sells out his own country by plotting with Kamal Khan to kill millions of innocents in his power-hungry plans to invade Western Europe, which would cause NATO to retaliate accordingly. + No Time to Die: Safin shows what could happen if Bond wallowed in the past instead of the other way around. Like Bond, Safin lost his family, \|\|but they were killed by Mr. White on Blofeld's orders, something which also scarred him physically and mentally\|\|. As a result, Safin blamed his tragedy on society as a whole, finding innocence to be a laughable concept. Safin also gives a "Not So Different" Remark to Bond in that both are professional killers wanting to cleanse the world, but while Bond agrees that Safin's backstory may be enough to justify killing Blofeld in revenge, his Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse for his crimes. Also, no matter how much he loses, 007 has accepted the losses in his life and fights for the greater good, believing innocence is something worth fighting for. * King Louie to Mowgli in the 2016 remake of The Jungle Book. Louie is a Gigantopithecus who's Intrigued by Humanity and doing his best to emulate them by living in an abandoned human temple, ruling over his fellow primates as a king, hoarding (worthless) material possessions and trying to learn the secret of fire to gain more power. Mowgli is the opposite, being a human raised in the jungle who's doing his best to emulate its animals, rejects civilized society, yet takes advantage of his human ingenuity to survive in the wild. In short, Louie represents humankind's greed and ego without its intellect or creativity, while Mowgli represents that intellect and creativity without the corruption. * The Lord of the Rings: Lord Denethor, Steward of Gondor, is one to King Théoden of Rohan, particularly during The Return of the King. They're both the current rulers of Mannish kingdoms that stand opposed to Sauron, both feel a little hung up on the fact they're considered lesser heirs than their ancient predecessors, and both of them end up outliving a son. But Théoden ultimately refuses to let despair, whether over his son's death or over overwhelming odds when the Enemy's armies are at his doorstep with overwhelming force, define him and he fights to the bitter end; whereas Denethor fails at both those hurdles, and is completely consumed by despair and madness. Théoden acknowledges and dwells on his perceived inferiority to his forebears, whereas Denethor denies his with a vast superiority complex and ego, best seen when Gandalf calls him out for denying the return of Isildur's heir. Furthermore, Théoden leads his armies in battle in person, whereas Denethor isolates himself in the royal keep and issues what few commands he gives from there. Denethor is also a whole lot more devious than the noble Théoden and doesn't treat his children with equal love and respect. \|\|Lastly, Théoden dies an honorable death, satisfied that he led his people to a great victory in battle and has earned a place of honor beside his forefathers in death; whereas Denethor meets an undignified death after writing off his kingdom as utterly lost, spending his final moments of clarity filled with regret towards his younger son, before pain overwhelms him and reduces him to wailing\|\|. * Mean Girls: Regina and Janis for each other. Regina is manipulative, two-faced, and cunning, but maintains an outwardly friendly and affable demeanor. Janis, on the other hand, is apparently less attractive than Regina and claims not to care about any of that and poses as being above all Regina's petty high school business. However, Regina's high school manipulations and plotting is also reflected in Janis's plot for revenge. Regina, like Janis, has a lot of anger that she refuses to acknowledge, while Janis is relatively comfortable with her own anger and bitterness. * Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends has Ultraman Belial as the shadow to Ultraman Zero. Like the latter, the former was once a young and powerful Ultra Warriors but attempted to touch the Plasma Spark after getting Drunk with Power. Unlike Zero as we found out later on, Belial has no one to stop him at the last minute, which leads to his eventual banishment and Face–Heel Turn into the evil Ultra that fans have known to this day. * The Bollywood film Pardes explores this dynamic between Arjun and his distant cousin Rajiv. While Arjun retains his good-hearted nature and cultural roots with India despite living in the United States as an immigrant, Rajiv comes off as an alcoholic philanderer and spoiled man who rejects his Indian heritage. This becomes even more apparent when Rajiv \|\|tries to rape his fiancé Ganga when she refuses to have a sexual relationship outside of marriage and scolds him for making disparaging remarks about India's culture\|\|. Rajiv represents the corrupted, materialistic side of the West that Arjun could have adopted if he ditched his heritage for good. * Ironically, Shiwan Khan in 1994's The Shadow is this to the titular protagonist, The Shadow himself. He got the same training as The Shadow, has same powers and is a big fan of Shadow's former self, ruthless crime lord Ying Ko. * Star Wars + Darth Vader is this to Luke, especially in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi; both of them dressing in black, losing a hand in battle etc, and the family connection only adds to their similarities. The prequel trilogy emphasizes them further by giving Anakin's backstory parallels to Luke's. Luke is even offered a chance to turn to The Dark Side; the difference between Vader and Luke is that Luke opts to remain in the light. + In A New Hope, the nearest thing Luke has to a shadow is Han Solo. Luke is young and naive, empathic, believes in the Force, and is a great pilot; Solo is Older and Wiser, self-centered, a Flat-Earth Atheist, and is also a great pilot. + The villains in the prequel trilogy (with the exception of Palpatine, perhaps the shadow to Yoda) are reflections of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader: - Darth Maul, a young, extremely skilled and powerful Sith apprentice. \|\|Their similarities are further shown in The Clone Wars animated series, where he returns from a near-death situation with prosthetics\|\|. - Count Dooku, a former Jedi who left the Order due to disagreements in philosophies. - General Grievous, a twisted mixture of machine and man which causes problems in breathing and combat. + The battle droids, mass-produced and programmed machines, to the clones, mass-produced organics who are also programmed to some degree. + Kylo Ren from The Force Awakens is essentially a Luke Skywalker turned to the Dark Side of the Force. They both struggle with temptation from the opposite side of the Force (Luke tries to resist the Dark Side, while Kylo wants to become immune to the Light), both come into conflict with \|\|their fathers, with Luke ultimately redeeming Anakin and Kylo ultimately murdering Han\|\|, and they both idolize Anakin Skywalker, with Luke proudly declaring himself a Jedi "like my father before me" and Kylo doing everything he can to emulate Darth Vader. The Last Jedi sees both of them deal with their failures and disillusionments. Luke is able to overcome this and redeem himself, while Kylo descends further to villainy because he's unwilling to let it go. * Tyrannosaur: Hannah's abusive husband James for Joe. Both are extremely violent men but, while Joe kills his beloved dog, he is shown to try and avoid taking it out on people, preferring to hammer his shed down. He also mocked his wife for her weight, but still loved her, feels a great deal of remorse, and misses her desperately. James is a Domestic Abuser and violent rapist who shows zero remorse for his crimes against Hannah, who, despite showing verbal cruelty towards her, Joe actually tries to help. ---	ShadowArchetype	null
VideoGames	# Its The Same Now It Sucks - Video Games Note: This article lists examples which take place within fandoms; not TV Tropes's opinion as to whether a change is for the worse. TV Tropes doesn't have opinions about fans or works. The focus is on fans turning against a work or series as a result of changes, not on whether those changes were for the better or worse. --- Subpages: --------- * Super Smash Bros. Examples: --------- * Even art gets this. They seem to especially be cracking down on Tetsuya Nomura, who can't make any of his characters resemble another of his characters in the least bit or else he's supposedly re-using designs of Sephiroth and Cloud. He also is not allowed to have any characters wear black or have white hair, because then they're a ripoff of Sephiroth, even if the only black are shoes or a black T-shirt. + Let's also not forget the people who dislike Yoshitaka Amano also point out that he too has his own trends. - Amano's characters rarely make it verbatim to the actual game, while all characters Nomura has designed actually appear in game. Yes, Amano's concept art is similar, but the characters themselves don't look that much alike. * Almost any FPS out there can suffer from this because, besides a small range of gameplay variation (corridor shooters vs. fighting humongous hordes of Mooks being the main two), they all boil down to the same few things and use the same skills. While Call of Duty's Metagame is worlds away from Serious Sam and Doom, the similarities you can draw between the two are still vast. + As far as the WW2 complaints go, most of them are due to the sheer number of WWII shooters there are, while WWI, Vietnam, Korea, etc. get ignored.(Ironically, CoD and the series it spun off from, Medal of Honor, were largely responsible for popularizing the genre.) * JRPGs in general get this for consisting of the same basic gameplay. Not surprisingly, any game that does attempt to break from this trope is usually badged with They Changed It, Now It Sucks!, even if it's a company like, say, Square Enix, that attempts to break the mold with something really gutsy like...their flagship franchise. * Almost any MMO out there that follows the traditional style of World of Warcraft complete with the tank/healer/dps MMO holy trinity, the level cap, the epic gear grinding, will be dismissed as just another unimaginative WoW clone. * The most common complaint against Nintendo is the company "always producing the same games with the same plot elements". People tend to ignore the fact that Nintendo always refines their flagship franchises so that it's still familiar with older fans while also bringing something new for them and new fans alike. There's also the point where Nintendo tries to do something different, only for people to complain They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. * It is quite common for game reviewers to deduct points from a game for not doing anything original. If a game does experiment, a reviewer may still say that it isn't different enough from whatever game it's being compared to. An otherwise excellent game may get a lower score simply because it didn't revolutionize its entire genre. * Any Rhythm Game series has been around long enough will get this. The sameness is somewhat justified with games that use peripherals, since there's only so much you can change before making a sequel require new controllers to be playable. * 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel: In competitive play, this game is surprisingly similar to regular chess, and timeline branching is used quite sparingly. Some have been disheartened to learn this, finding the insanity common in casual play to be the game's primary draw. They might even wonder why you wouldn't just play regular chess instead of this. The truth is, in competitive play, games are neither an incomprehensible mess nor identical to regular chess. This game is simply a chess variant that can be played as a genuine strategy game, but still has fundamentally different considerations. * The second and third Ace Attorney games on the DS got some flak for having the same gameplay but no DS-exclusive features or levels, unlike the first game's remake, which had a bonus case. * Animal Crossing: City Folk received plenty of criticism for being too much like its predecessors. (Specifically, it's an almost to the letter Wii port of Animal Crossing: Wild World, except Kapp'n drives a bus instead of a taxi and can take you to a city where a few shops/characters have been moved to.) * Armored Core gets this fairly frequently, as well, the biggest complaint being the antiquated control scheme (using the shoulder buttons to look up and down instead of the second analog stick which has that feature in almost every other game ever but wasn't used for anything in Armored Core for far too long). * Assassin's Creed Rogue has been criticized for being substantially similar in terms of gameplay to its immediate predecessor, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, with the most noteworthy changes being more in the nature of tweaks (an air gun instead of a blowpipe, a faster and more maneuverable ship for naval combat, etc.) than innovations. Critical and fan opinion is divided as to whether the result falls under this trope or has distilled the elements that were good about Black Flag while removing those (like the eavesdropping missions) that fans hated. * Plot has always been a strength of the Avernum series, so when Avernum 4 turned out to have the exact same plot as Avernum 3, many fans of the earlier games were not at all happy. * Before it became a long-loved classic of 64-bit gaming, Banjo-Kazooie was accused of being a Super Mario 64 clone simply because it was a 3D platforming game. * Batman: Arkham Series: + The biggest complaint about Batman: Arkham Origins is that it felt too similar to Batman: Arkham City, being set in the northern and southern sections of Gotham City with the northern section being the area that eventually becomes Arkham City, but also including many previous gadgets and offering minimal changes to gameplay. While Origins was a good/decent/catastrophic game (depending on who you ask,) in it's own right, its scores were lower than its predecessors' near perfect scores. It doesn't help that the game wasn't made by Rocksteady, who made the first two, but WB Montreal, and replaced veterans Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy with Troy Baker and Roger Craig to voice The Joker and Batman, leading many fans to expect the worst from the start. This is also the reason so many people were angry that \|\|The Joker ended up being the main villain, and Black Mask just a red herring. Even those who thought the game's take on the Joker was interesting sometimes can't help but express disappointment that he ended up being the main villain again, instead of letting one of Batman's other foes take the spotlight.\|\| + Batman: Arkham Knight is also accused of this, as some feel that the gameplay is too similar to the previous games. On the other hand, people have complained about more or less every change by this point (Batmobile, Fear takedowns, throw counters etc.) so it crosses over with They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. * This is the primary complaint leveled at BioShock 2, which uses the same setting and same gameplay elements as the previous game. The only noticeable changes are the hacking minigame and the use of a Big Daddy as the protagonist (which does give a different feel to the mechanics, as well as add some intriguing narrative elements as the game progresses). * Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! has been attacked for having gameplay nearly identical to that of Borderlands 2. The narrative and humor has also received similar criticism for relying on the formula of pop-culture references and internet memes. It didn't help that Pre-Sequel did improve the existing gameplay or fixed more contentious mechanics despite being the 3rd installment in the series. * People complained about all the WW2 games in the Call of Duty series until Modern Warfare came along. Then they complained when the next game was a WW2 game. Then they complained when MW2 was largely a refinement of the original. * The Castlevania series has been a victim of this trope since the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, with purists missing the days when Castlevania titles weren't all Metroidvanias. * Both applied to and averted by Command & Conquer Command & Conquer 3- it was released around the same time as Supreme Commander, leading to something of a rivalry between the two fandoms. The SupCom fans bashed C&C for being nothing more than a shiny graphical overhaul of the early days of the RTS genre, with none of the innovations that have appeared since (like, say, in Supreme Commander). The C&C fans responded by pointing out that there are plenty of innovative RTS games around, and that all they really wanted from Command & Conquer 3 was... well, another Command & Conquer game, only prettier. * Part of the reason Conker: Live & Reloaded failed to reach the same hype and praise won as its former N64 self was due to this. The other part was Microsoft's, replacement of mini-games featured in Bad Fur Day with copies or expansions of the war-based games and despite the title (which was originally going to be named "Live and Uncut") swear words were beeped out (which butchered the famous Great Mighty Poo scene), with only the one scene where Conker witnesses the execution of three squirrels where 2 died and one hid, that was censored in the N64 version by removing the 2 squirrels that died from the game entirely, getting a full restoration to show its original intent. * Crackdown 2 takes place in an identical environment to the original—they literally copy and pasted most of the city, and in many ways it lacks the charm of the original, even with the nightly Zombie Apocalypse that occurs. Many were not pleased at how little was new. * Crash Bandicoot falls here prior to Crash Twinsanity. After Naughty Dog sold their ownership do a different company, the Crash series started to look a lot like the same game over and over again. Then those owners sold their owership, and it started all over again. Crash of the Titans and Crash: Mind Over Mutant fall under They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. * Cröixleur Sigma - Deluxe Edition on PC received some derision from owners of the previous non-Deluxe Edition as they had to buy essentially the same game they already own for double the price and quickly labeled it as a "glorified DLC" replacement. Not helping matters was how the publishers of the newer release only offered a very short-lived discount and coupon for the game when some owners couldn't afford it at the time, and despite having new content and some improvements over the previous versions, it also introduced some new bugs and completely removed the local co-op modes for no good reason while the console versions still has them. * The longevity of DanceDanceRevolution makes it a prime target for complaints of staleness. When Dance Dance Revolution X introduced a new difficulty rating system and announcer, this trope once again rubbed shoulders with They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. (It is an annoying announcer, but his disastrousness can get blown all out of proportion.) * Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony received criticism for three things: the controversial ending, \|\|pulling a Decoy Protagonist with the fan favorite Player Character Kaede and replacing her with a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for previous player characters\|\|, but the only one related to the gameplay was its inability to shake up the stagnating and predictable Strictly Formula followed by the previous installments. Several murder cases became predictable based on the fact that they didn't try anything new on the game besides \|\|killing a protagonist\|\|. While this was not a problem in the previous game, since the parallels between the first and the second killing game were actually a plot point, the re-utilization of the formula was received as poorly-written and unoriginal. Besides that, Franchise Original Sin was very strong on this installment, with several recurring elements, such as \|\|the relatively normal male protagonist in comparison to the rest of the cast and the unsympathetic murderer\|\| becoming annoying to fans. * A common criticism of Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours DLC is that while they provide new and interesting ways to play the game, they don't add any new stages or bosses, making the DLC feel overpriced ($5 for each ship/character). * Fans of Daytona USA got hyped up when Daytona 3 Championship USA was announced...only for the game to turn out to be a remake of the first game, with not even any references to Daytona USA 2. Fan backlash led the game to lose the '3' part of the title to make it clear that it's just a remake. To add insult to injury, there's already been a previous HD remake for arcades of the first game, SEGA Racing Classic, making this version even more redundant. * Hanging around the GameFAQs message board for it, people complain that Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. Abaddon-Ou is too similar to Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army. Considering how many people complained that the first game was a great idea that needed more improvements, you'd be surprised anyone would make this complaint considering how Atlus did exactly what they asked for (i.e. same engine, better battles, more demons, deeper story, etc.). It didn't matter. + The issue was that the 3D-over-2D-backgrounds engine of the first game (which was badly-dated even when it was first published) was the main thing that needed improvement. Most of the complaints were that they reused it rather than coming up with something else, not that the gameplay was the same. * The arcade Double Dragon II is criticized for being DD1 with new graphics and tweaked levels/backgrounds. * Dragon Quest has received this complaint at least in the US, which isn't surprising given the conservative nature of the series compared to Final Fantasy. Dragon Quest VII, the first post-Super Nintendo installment, was especially bashed for not really pushing forward with the gameplay or the graphics. Since Enix and Square merged, it seems they've been trying to expand the series with more online multiplayer options and with more immersing gameplay, but given the series' huge popularity in Japan it's unlikely they'll experiment with the fundamentals of the series that much. * The reason why the Dynasty Warriors series is hated by reviewers. Even if they make what most people would consider major changes to the combat scheme, it will still get panned as more of the same. Dynasty Warriors is also unique in that this trope is subverted among its fanbase, or rather, that the fanbase has always held the opposite opinion to the reviewers on this issue. This was shown with the backlash when 6 tried to change things up, mostly because what they tried (Renbu) was not well implemented. * Some fans of the Etrian Odyssey series are disappointed that Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth is too back-to-its-roots, having ditched the overworld exploration of the previous two non-spinoff games and the Story Modes of the Etrian Odyssey Untold games. * Fallout: + The Fallout 3 hatedom is interestingly split between this trope and They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The former party accuses the game of being essentially "Oblivion with guns", while the latter considers it too great a deviation from Black Isle's original Fallout games. + Fallout: New Vegas seems to be running into this criticism, as well. It has been accused of being little more than a game mod to number three, due largely to sharing the same engine and many art-assets. New Vegas was still largely praised for its open-ended approach to its many unique quests, diverse roleplaying experiences and opportunities, and complex storytelling. (The release of Fallout 4 reinforced this warm reception.) * In the same vein, FIFA Soccer suffers from the same problem. The reviewers joined in calling FIFA 20 Legacy Edition out on this, with IGN blasting it for being just a reskin of FIFA 19 Legacy Edition with the added features of mainline FIFA 20 nowhere in sight. * Similar to the Zelda example above, Final Fantasy fans wanted a classic (1-6) style game with the technology of the PS1 era game. What they got was Final Fantasy IX, which they complained about being too much like the classic games. Then they got Final Fantasy X, which they complained was too much like the modern (7-8) games. * Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is often considered to be a "step backward" for the Fire Emblem series because the latest entries were in 3D, had a rescuing system, skills, and many, many more aspects that made the game more complex. Intelligent Systems said this was a remake and it looks more like a port. To note, this example isn't quite as jarring because not as many people play the original 3 Fire Emblem games anymore (which play very similar to this), and the truly popular FE games were beginning from the fourth one... which was extremely different in terms of mechanics than Shadow Dragon. * Five Nights at Freddy's dealt with this to an extent. Each game was essentially "You are in a room for 6 hours. There are at least two entrances. There are monsters coming to kill you. You have a method of holding them off, but you can't use it forever." Subtle changes happened, but overall each game was quite similar to the last. * Gears of War 2 had a list of detractors who would frequently say things like "Everything looks the same. The chainsaw bayonet, the roadie-run, the torque bow... they're just remaking the first game." Apparently it was a big enough concern that X-Play's review deliberately said something to the effect of, "This is not Gears 1.5, it is a real sequel." Upon launch, no one has complained that it is just a rehash of the first game, it was much bigger and better. Instead, everyone cried They Changed It, Now It Sucks! regarding the shotgun nerf. Or, if you're a lancer guy, then you got the problem of a shotgun which seemed to be more overpowered than ever. * God of War: Ascension and God of War III, though still very well-received, received some criticism for having unchanged, identical gameplay from the previous games. * Golden Sun: Dark Dawn got some of this, with many people complaining that it felt like Camelot stapled the first two games together, without any of their original charm. * One of the reasons Gradius IV is panned by series fans is because while many Gradius games rehash a stage or two, Gradius IV has a lot of rehashes. Stage 1 already gives off this feeling by being what is effectively Stage 1 of Gradius II but with liquid metal instead of mini-suns. * Half Life: Source. Valve essentially imported the original meshes and graphics from the first game into their new engine, resulting in the only appreciable changes being the introduction of physics and improved water effects. It's gotten some pretty heavy flak from the fanbase. * Halo forums surrounding topics such as the inclusion of Sprint, Armor/Spartan Abilities, and Loadouts, usually see this trope as a counter-argument to discount the criticisms towards the newer Halo titles. * One of the in-game problems of Heavy Weapon. After going through the first nine levels and defeating the first nine bosses, you are treated to a Your Princess Is in Another Castle! scene. After that, you have to go through the first nine levels with harder enemies and defeat the first nine bosses again, except that most of them are just rehashes with more health and faster speed. * Hitman 2 had complaints by fans and critics that the game is too similar to Hitman (2016), with very few changes to the stealth gameplay formula, and this complaint would also return when Hitman 3 released. However, what goes unmentioned is that there were good reasons behind these sequels, and the original plan was to perpetually update 2016, but the developers, IO Interactive, were dropped by publisher Square Enix due to poor sales, and so 2 was made with the help of Warner Bros instead. After that deal ended, the company decided to go independent to avoid publisher interference (outside of physical copies of the games). * The game versions of Inazuma Eleven had this so much, that the sales for each subsequent release went down, especially when the series changed from the NDS to the 3DS. The major complaint for each title from most critics was that it was the gameplay and structure was exactly the same in each game, and that the gimmicks thrown in such as "fighting spirits" just felt like a cheap way to make it feel fresh without updating anything. This was actually admitted by LEVEL-5 as being the main reason for why the latest game's sales were ridiculously low, and it's been announced on Twitter that they're currently working on a project to completely change how Inazuma Eleven plays in the future. * Left 4 Dead 2 was bashed for this AND They Changed It, Now It Sucks! before the game was even out. People complained that the sequel was just the exact same game as the first with just different maps, weapons, and characters, but they also complain that including daytime and using totally different characters ruined the feel of the game. * The Legend of Zelda: + The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was They Changed It, Now It Sucks! for many... and later, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was accused of this trope by some. Actually, every single entry of the series ever since Ocarina of Time (if not even earlier than that) has received both of these at the same time. One second you find a comment trashing the game for not changing the Zelda formula at all, demeaning its new features as "gimmicks", and the next second you find another one that trashes it because those "gimmicks" are new features that totally change (and ruin) the Zelda formula. + Of course, TP was purposefully designed that way, since Nintendo vowed that it would be "the last Zelda game as you know it" before the gameplay of Ocarina of Time was retired. Similar to Ocarina changing Zelda to fit 3D and analog control or Phantom Hourglass changing Zelda to properly fit the DS' stylus control, the series received a major overhaul for Skyward Sword to become a proper Wii game. Twilight Princess shipping for the Wii at all was something of a fluke, caused by excessive delays during its initially GCN-only development. + Some people accused Spirit Tracks of being this to Phantom Hourglass. The trailer and plot summary dispelled this, however, to the point of one article writer at Zelda Informer issuing a public apology to Nintendo for ever doubting them. + The two lowest reviews for Skyward Sword use both this trope and the polar opposite. + Ironically, the fanbase by and large loves A Link Between Worlds because it is almost literally A Link to the Past using Ocarina-era tropes and gimmicks. * The Madden NFL franchise has accused of only making incremental improvements, but there's not much to be done with adapting a real-life sport. * Mega Man: + Mega Man Battle Network saw its review scores drop off across the later games of the series, largely because reviewers didn't feel that the gameplay changed enough to justify a new game every year. This was an opinion not shared by the fans, with 6 being the most well-regarded installment next to 3 despite it being hit the hardest by this trope among critics. This kicked into overdrive with the Sequel Series to Battle Network, Mega Man Star Force: despite Capcom sacrificing much of Battle Network's strategy for pure action and splitting the fandom in half in the process, critics dismissed Star Force as a flimsy rebrand (some going so far as to call them the seventh, eighth, and ninth Battle Network games) and gave them even worse reviews as a result. + The Mega Man (Classic) games grew increasingly less popular with each release, as they all had similar gameplay mechanics and structure. Though 9 was acclaimed as a nostalgic throwback to the NES days, 10 was criticized because it was too similar to 9. + Mega Man 6 is criticized because it recycles the Hijacked by Ganon concept of the two immediate previous games. * Mighty No. 9 initially had massive support for the project, but there was a vocal minority that complained about the game's main selling point, being a spiritual successor to the classic Mega Man sub-series, made it too gimmicky and unoriginal. Ever since the game's controversial development, alienating marketing campaign, and disastrous launch, this opinion only became more popular with the game's critics and detractors. * Monster Hunter 4 and its Updated Re-release Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate have Dah'ren Mohran, a monster criticized for being almost the same as fellow colossal sand whale Jhen Mohran. 4 Ultimate additionally receives some criticism for taking the Old Desert map from earlier games and simply rehashing it to take advantage of 4's vertical movement mechanics. * Naruto X Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections got a lot a heat when one of the main selling points announced was that it would contain the stories of all four previous Storm games in one complete package, a baffling decision to many as the Legacy collection already achieved that by bundling all four mainline games with their DLC in one convenient purchase. Though Connections does contain an original campaign meant to tie into the anime's 20th Anniversary, many felt it wasn't worth the full asking launch price even if it was considered the best part of the game, especially since the four compiled stories are cut down from their original games and lacks many of the CyberConnect2 spectacle they're usually known for. * Overwatch: + A longstanding concern that's become increasingly prevalent with the game's fixed Role Queue is the unstable ratio between damage heroes to tanks and healers, with widespread groans whenever a new damage hero is announced. This reached a peak with the announcement of Echo, a much-anticipated character who many believed was going to be a support hero, with noticeable disappointment when she was revealed to be yet another DPS (not helped by the fact that she was confirmed to be the final new hero before the release of Overwatch 2). + The fourth PvE and third Archives event, Storm Rising, received this reaction upon release. Junkenstein's Revenge, Uprising, and Retribution before it all received massive acclaim upon their release because each was wildly fresh and unique, felt very polished and balanced, and showcased lore and/or character interactions that hadn't been seen before. Storm Rising, on the other hand, has largely the same gameplay style as Retribution, with all of the same enemies and three returning heroes from previous events (Tracer, Mercy and Genji). Lore-wise, it adds or explains nothing that fans weren't already aware of, and in fact, the ending raises more questions than it answers, feeling like a teaser trailer for a character that could become then-unknown Hero 31. Ironically, balance-wise, it falls victim to They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. + Overwatch 2 got a lot of flack for this, with the common joke revolving around it being "just Overwatch 1, but with one less tank and much the same gameplay as before". The ambiguity of whether or not 2 is actually a true "sequel" (suggested by its marketing) or merely a large Expansion Pack that's essentially a game patch (suggested by the actual content) remains a frequent subject of complaint. Fans have complained that 2 ultimately doesn't do much to warrant its sequel status, simply adding content like new heroes, maps, and game modes that should've already been expected as normal business for the perpetually-updating Overwatch, and remark that Overwatch 2 is an unnecessary rebrand especially because one of the most advertised parts of the 2 (the PvE co-op missions) got canned in favor of the multiplayer, despite being the key selling point of the sequel. * Persona: + When Persona 4 was announced to be on the PS2, and using the exact same engine and practically the same system as Persona 3, it met with skepticism from fans that they were just cashing in on P3 (especially with P3:FES, a remake of P3, also being announced), instead of pushing the game forward into the next generation with a PS3 or Xbox 360 title. Of course, then the game came out. While the gameplay was a welcome change from Persona 3, the story and characters of Persona 4 were accused of being too similar to its predecessor. + Persona 5 Royal is an enhanced rerelease of the original which while it added a lot of new additions, including a third semester, the entire vanilla storyline is exactly the same(Something which has been noted by Word of God as a deliberate design choice). There was cut content including the original idea for the Will Seeds which was scrapped and the new party member Kasumi Yoshizawa despite getting much more screentime than any other character in the vanilla storyline and even having her awakening take place in it, is forced to not join the Phantom Thieves until the third semester of the game simply because she didn't exist in the original storyline. While a majority of the fandom is fine with this, others were upset at this as it felt like a downgrade to Persona 4 Golden in terms of new content. + A rather unique series-wide case where the Made of Evil trope was used to the point of this. If there is a Big Bad, there is 98% of the time where it's a God "born from the desires of humanity" in addition to similar-sounding banter. It reaches the point where any twist arch-villain that isn't Made of Evil (e.g. Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Strikers where the arch-villains are outright human) are considered welcome and refreshing. * The PETA video game parodies that have sequels have been criticized of having little difference from the previous games. + The Super Chick Sisters sequel New Super Chick Sisters is once again a parody of Super Mario Bros. that has Nugget and Chickette rescue Pamela Anderson from a slanderous portrayal of a popular fast food franchise while Mario and Luigi are made total fools and attacked for actions that PETA sees as animal cruelty. The only significant difference is that this time, the fast food franchise being attacked is McDonald's rather than Kentucky Fried Chicken. + Pokémon Black and Blue had a sequel titled Pokémon: Red, White & Blue. Like the original, the sequel was nothing more than a parody of Pokémon that attacks the game series by accusing it of teaching children that animal abuse is okay. The only significant change to the story is that the game also serves as an attack on McDonald's and accuses the fast food franchise of reinforcing the Pokémon franchise's alleged stance on animal abuse. * This was one of the complaints IGN had with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies in terms of gameplay, despite the game being the BIGGEST jump in terms of new gameplay that the series has gone through (excluding the spin-off) since it's début. Considering one of their other complaints was that this visual novel game was "too linear" and "had too much text, that's really not surprising though. Oh, and this caused the fandom to go berserk. Let's just say that the response to their review was not a positive one. * The Nintendo DS was home to a popular in-console app known as PictoChat, which allowed users to gather in a chatroom and type to each other while scribbling silly little pictures. Then, a month later, THQ and WayForward Technologies released Ping Pals on store shelves, a... chatroom which allowed users to type to each other while scribbling little pictures. While it had a few features not available in PictoChat, such as digital avatars you could customize, it also lacked some features, plus having to fire up the game and hunt for other users was much less convenient given that everyone had access to PictoChat since, again, it was built into the console. It earned several incredibly low scores from review outlets for being such a pointlessly redundant product. * A Super Smash Bros. with Playstation characters has been in demand for a very long time now. Yet from the very second it was officially announced, people were already whining about PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale being a "ripoff" of Super Smash Bros.. * Pokémon: + The series in whole tends to get a lot of this, especially in regards to the core gameplay remaining as the monster count climbs. In general, The Pokémon Company's strategy seems to be to keep the main titles to the formula while releasing periodic spinoffs - if you want a Pokémon action game, there's Ranger or Rumble. If you want an RPG with a deeper plot, there are the Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games. Some people just seem to think they don't count because they aren't part of the main series. + One complaint of FireRed/LeafGreen is how slavishly it adheres to using only the original 151 Pokémon until the National Dex is acquired by disallowing trading with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and tampering with the evolution system - evolutions introduced after Red/Blue like Crobat and Blissey are automatically cancelled when their conditions are met, the Day Care Center only allows one Pokémon at a time, preventing breeding (and access to pre-evolutions like Pichu and Magby) until access to the Sevii Islands' Day Care, and the day/night cycle is gone completely, meaning no Espeon or Umbreon for you. That being said, the remakes of Pokémon Gold and Silver and Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire avert this and allow you to get (pre)evolutions introduced after the original games without needing the National Dex. + The Fire/Fighting-type is very unpopular among fans since it's shared among the final forms of three starter families (Blaziken, Infernape and Emboar), all introduced one after the other (and despite being a Fire/Dark Pokémon, the final form of Litten's line (Incineroar) is a "cat wrestler"). + Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are divisive games among fans for being mostly unchanged iterations of Pokémon Sun and Moon, which came out only one year prior. Beyond a few new additions, the story and progression through the world remain unchanged from before(or in the former's case, made worse due to new elements and certain controversial character rewrites not meshing well with it), and some hold the opinion that what the games did add could/should have been Downloadable Content for the original pair. + Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, similar to FireRed and LeafGreen, got a lot of this as fans derided it for being "too similar" to the original DP. The lack of Platinum content, including the Platinum Dex, only made things worse. It certainly doesn't help that some believe "faithfulness" was used as a pretense for laziness. From a graphical standpoint, the only real change made to the DS games that came out in 2007 for hardware a fraction as powerful is that the sprites for characters and Pokemon are replaced with 3D models. But the models are even more chibi-ified than they were in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire outside of battle as a further callback to the 2D sprites, and the characters aren't subject to redesigns as was the case with past remakes. Somewhat unsurprisingly, this was a B-Team Sequel done by ILCA, who had little credit to their name outside of contract work and the also-controversial Pokémon Home. * Despite considerable acclaim, Punch-Out!! for Wii was accused of being just a $50 NES remake that has nothing new or different from the original game. * Puyo Puyo Tetris 2: + One of the more recurring complaints about the game is that, aside from incorporating the Skill Battle mode from Puyo Puyo Chronicle, it is a textbook example of a Mission-Pack Sequel. While issues such as Puyo Puyo and Tetris having shared online rankings were addressed, other things some Puyo Puyo fans wanted such as the standalone Fever ruleset were not. Not helping matters is the fact that there were alternatives for both Puyo Puyo and Tetris fans on all of Puyo Puyo Tetris 2's platforms when taking backwards compatibility into account, especially on the Nintendo Switch which had five other Puyo Puyo games plus Tetris 99 available upon the game's release. + Even for players that were more receptive of Puyo Puyo Tetris's character spells in the English dub, the fact that Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 recycles a significant amount of these spells (and in some cases, such as Schezo and Dark Prince's alternate voices, are exactly the same as in the first game) left a bitter impression, moreso considering that all Japanese character spells were remade for PPT2. + Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S. Outside of two added co-op gameplay modes, there is very little of note that separates this Updated Re-release from the original 2020 game. This sentiment wasn't helped by the price tag, as like other Sega releases for the Nintendo Switch 2, there is no upgrade path; it's a completely separate $40 USD purchase with no save data being carried over. Given that the Switch 2 has backward compatibility, fans were left wondering why Sega didn't port over the previous year's Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop to the console or make an original game instead. * One of The Angry Video Game Nerd's criticisms of Rambo on NES was that the developers followed the plot of the film too closely story-wise, and that the game suffered from this. * Resident Evil: + The series was infamous for sticking to its formula of pre-rendered, fixed camera zombie hunting, even after it moved from the PlayStation to the GameCube (only the made-for-Dreamcast Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, eschewed the pre-rendered backgrounds in favor of real-time ones). Resident Evil 4 underwent a massive genre shift to more action-oriented gameplay and was widely acclaimed. Then Resident Evil 5 came along and was called a rehashed RE4. + Proof that Tropes Are Not Bad, Resident Evil 2 was nearly finished when Capcom executives thought the game was too similar to the first one and didn't expand on the playable areas enough (it would have been confined to a mansion again, basically). The game was redone and the end result was what is generally considered the best game of the "pre-rendered" era of RE. * This is what some have been saying about Saints Row IV and not just in terms of the re-used city of Steelport, but, bizarrely, about gameplay as well. The last game was a wacky, over the top GTA style game, whereas IV is a wacky, over the top superhero game who's gameplay is only similar in that you can still drive a car and shoot guns, ignoring that you really don't have to anymore. There was a Superpower DLC for the 4th game. * The Sims 3 suffered from this complaint. Granted, they did reuse a lot of object meshes and animations from the previous game. It also got hit with They Changed It, Now It Sucks! because of WHAT was changed. + The Sims 4 received much stronger accusation of this, since the most notable differences from 3 were the omissions. * Sonic the Hedgehog: + Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has the special distinction of being this trope and They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. The game received complaints about the gameplay and the artstyle for the characters being too different, meanwhile the game's level themes, special stages, gimmicks, bosses, and enemies were criticized as shallow copies from mostly Sonic 1 and/or Sonic 2. + Following Sonic Adventure 2's highly-praised original release on the Dreamcast, the game received the Battle port to the GameCube port that while having some added perks (namely the expanded multiplayer mode) and having some assets changed around, was otherwise largely watertight to the Dreamcast version. Despite coming out only six months after the Dreamcast release, Battle received a more tepid response from reviewers, the main reason (ironically enough) being that reviewers felt the re-release should had done more to improve from the DC version. + Sonic Generations: While it was known from the start that the remaster would be more or less the same gameplay-wise, it was still a disappointment that the lacking final boss was not improved or amended in any noticeable way, especially after Sonic Frontiers had an improved version of its own final boss for its last update and the 3DS version provided a compelling template for such. * Splatoon 2 came under fire at its initial release for not really differentiating itself from Splatoon 1 too much, while also not really fixing the flaws imported from the first game, causing several people to label it as an enhanced port of the first game. It didn't help that the game initially had very few stages and only a fraction of the weapons from the first game, making people feel that content was taken away instead of being added. Most of this was a result of fans and critics being unfamiliar with the series' system of regular free content updates: new weapons (including all those from the first game as well as several completely new ones) were added weekly for the first year and a half after the game's release, and the game eventually received four times as many stages as it had at launch. * StarCraft II is getting hit hard by this trope and They Changed It, Now It Sucks! at the same time. It's not uncommon to see a forum thread complaining that the game is more like "Starcraft 1.5" rather than a true sequel, and then see a thread right below it complaining that the game changed too much and doesn't capture the essence of the original. + It is basically the same game strategy-wise (the majority of the units structures are the same ones) but on a new engine and all the perks of modern RTS features, shortcuts, hotkeys, options, etc. So that does explain how it could be both "changed" and the "the same" - it depends on if you are looking at the tactics and units, or at the system used to enact them. + Incidentally, the original Starcraft was sometimes referred to as Orcs IN SPACE. + Particularly ironic, given that "Warcraft IN SPACE" has always been the 'basic' premise of Starcraft. * A problem with many of the recent ship releases in Star Trek Online is that the ship's layout are not distinct enough from their previous tier level. The problem ships are the Resolute-class (a T6 Excelsior-class ship), the Yamato-class (a T6 Galaxy-X-class ship) and the Valiant-class (a T6 Defiant-class ship). The Resolute and Valiant are too close to the Excelsior and Defiant that buying the T5 variant is much cheaper in the long run. The Yamato's problem is that it boasts the same layout as the Andromeda-class ships (the T6 Galaxy-class ship). Many fans think that Cryptic is trying to sell these ships under the power of their legacy than anything unique. * Super Mario Bros.: + New Super Mario Bros. was the first Super Mario Bros. game in a while that played similar to the original SMB, even though it brought gameplay elements introduced in 3D Mario games back to 2D Mario games (namely Triple Jumps and Wall Jumps). Guess what its biggest complaint was. + New Super Mario Bros. Wii was described as just New Super Mario Bros. for DS put on Wii, despite the better graphical rendering, new platforming obstacles not possible on DS or previous consoles, or the fact that the game had four player multiplayer in all its levels in addition to a fairly large VS mode. + New Super Mario Bros. 2 and New Super Mario Bros. U got a lot of flak for being too similar to Wii, especially music-wise. Both games had a small number of new tracks and most of the soundtrack being re-arrangements and recycled songs. Especially 2, which only has 4 total brand new songs. New Super Luigi U doesn't get this as much, most likely because it's Downloadable Content (despite its commercial release), alters the physics to a notable degree, and replaces Mario with Nabbit. + Miyamoto himself accused the beta of Paper Mario: Sticker Star of being "too similar to The Thousand Year Door" and convinced the developers to do away with the plot, which was met with considerable fan criticism. And even then, it still suffered from this in a different way, in that one of the complaints was how it intentionally lacked new characters (design-wise at least) save for Kersti, while the characters in the series's previous installments became very well-known. This also leads to Paper Mario: Color Splash and Paper Mario: The Origami King receiving criticism for carrying over many of the mechanics from Sticker Star with few novelties or improvements. + The Switch remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door gets some of this for having too little new contents besides two new superbosses, a localization that is more faithful to the original Japanese version, some new songs and character animations, and some quality-of-life features. Many players have hoped for some new contents, like a Boss Rush, partner limit breaks, or some more Dummied Out contents like the Riverside Station Three Shadows battle, partners from the original game, and the unused enemies. + Ironically, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2) was treated as being too samey in the eyes of Nintendo's American branch. Nintendo of America felt that the game was just Super Mario Bros. 1, but more difficult, so they decided to localize and rebrand Doki Doki Panic as Super Mario Bros. 2 for North America. + Super Mario Galaxy 2, while a solid game overall, was pretty much a Mission-Pack Sequel with similar level designs, concepts, and power-ups, which was a bit unusual for the Mario series. + The Mario vs. Donkey Kong subseries received significantly less backlash compared to most examples of this trope mostly because this series was vastly ignored at best after the fourth game but for those who did care about it, it didn't escape from their eyes that the games after March of the Minis (other than Minis on the Move, which tried to be innovative) were mostly the same with only minor changes to the gameplay or slapping a new mini character, even reusing the Video Game Settings and plenty of musical tracks/leitmotifs outright. Of course, given that the series was mostly ignored and unpopular after the fourth game, it never got much flak about it, unlike its much more popular mainline brothers. * The Syphon Filter Trilogy for the original Playstation got complaints of having the same graphics and gameplay. The former was probably because when better graphics meant better games. * Tales Series + This is a recurring complaint lobbed against the Tales Series as a whole (mainly because so many games are released in such a small amount of time). Whether it's a genuine complaint or not is up to debate, but fans of the series don't tend to mind the similarly-styled games. + Tales of Vesperia is one of the most acclaimed games for the 360 and easily one of the best reviewed JRPGs of this generation. And yet, the biggest complaint? It plays exactly like the other Tales games. + Tales of Xillia got complaints over its share of things, but the most noticeable is the complaint that the story basically took plots from previous games of the Tales Of series and rehashed them. The fact that its sequel again took a story aspect of a the same previous game and used it for two characters in that game \|\|for Alternate Milla and Elle, both who are originally from fractured dimensions, and hence suffer their share of feelings of inadequacy over not being real and not having a place in this world, very similar to Luke's issues over being a replica\|\| did not appease fans for that game, either. * Some people bashed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up, because it has the Super Smash Bros. engine, panning it because they think it will be Super Smash Bros. with Turtles, but the gameplay showed that there are some differences, namely that there are health meters rather then stock damage, the environments change consistently, tag battles, and guard breaks are different. The people who developed the game in question? Had experience with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as well as Ninja Gaiden, so they're really bashing themselves. * While on the subject of Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Reshelled is a rather fascinating case study. We have a game that started as an arcade game, Then got ported to the SNES with some added content to make up for the lack of 4-player, and then was remade for the Xbox. The primary complaint that critics site is that they removed the added content from the SNES port, making it the same as the original arcade game. Thus we have 'it's the same as the original, but that sucks because we wanted it to be the same as the SNES port'. Some critics don't even seem to be aware that there was an original arcade version. * Thief (2014) has gotten complaints the gameplay has barely changed over the years. * Tomb Raider: + Applies at some point to the first five games. The point at which this happens for someone tends to be entirely based around the point they consider the game quality to drop. + Tomb Raider: Underworld. Pretty much the same as Tomb Raider: Legend, only Darker and Edgier, but still with the same problems (and a few new ones to boot). Considering that Tomb Raider: Anniversary fixed some of these flaws (in particular the length), Underworld felt to many like a step backward. * One of the biggest complaints about Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5's English-language versions is that unlike the Japanese version, the game feels less like a sequel and more like an Updated Re-release of 4: it only adds one new map (Mt. Taikan) rather than three (Sub-center Shibuya/Shinjuku and Sub-center Ikebukuro as well), it doesn't have the Maxi G currency system, and it uses the same "Entry" background music as Maximum Tune 4. Non-Japan Maximum Tune 5 even runs on the same Namco ESA1 hardware as 4, unlike the Japanese version which uses Namco's newer ESA3. These problems would eventually be addressed in Maximum Tune 5 DX, which features roughly the same content in both the Japanese and international versions (thus adding the various features and maps that were excluded from non-Japan MT5). * Wario Land: Shake It! was criticized for being too similar to the previous game, Wario Land 4 despite its core mechanic not even being possible before the Wii. * The WWE Video Games series has received some criticism in recent years for having too little variation between each release, although considering that it has had annual releases for eighteen years and counting, this is hardly surprising. * X-COM: Terror from the Deep received some not-unjustified flak for this trope, being literally the same game engine and mechanics with a few new assets, in addition to many of the changes it did implement being either annoying, buggy or adding Fake Difficulty. X-COM: Apocalypse, which was supposed to be the second game in the series but got held up, was a lot more ambitious in its changes to the established formula. * Yooka-Laylee is the Spiritual Successor to Banjo-Kazooie, made by former Rare staffers. However it hedges very close to its forerunner in terms of things like music design and aesthetic elements (such as the way characters talk to the protagonists, through small boxes that slide in from the left along the bottom of the screen and in a Comic Sans-like typeface that bounces). Even the logo is very similar to Banjo-Kazooie's. As a result of this, despite this game delivering exactly what people were looking for in a throwback to Rare's golden age and collect-a-thon platforming games, there is a sense that they aren't pushing themselves forward so much as aping as much of Banjo-Kazooie as they can get away with. There is a desire to see a game that takes the charm and wit of classic Rare titles but breaks the mold as well with its own unique voice and flavor. ---	ItsTheSameNowItSucks	null
FanWorks	# One Winged Angel - Fan Works --- Crossover * The Bridge (MLP): + The kaiju transported to Equestria's realms have their true form become this. Usually they are transformed into native lifeforms (i.e ponies/changelings/gryphons/etc. in Equestria, humans in the Equestria Girls realm). But after absorbing a large amount of benign magic they can return to their true form which is magnitudes more powerful and hundreds of times larger. Two cases happen one right after another with Enjin transforming followed by Monster X changing to fight it off. + Aria Blaze gains one \|\|after copying a large amount of energy from Kaizer Ghidorah via song magic, giving her an altered Pony-Up state that makes her larger, stronger, more durable, and with Ghidorah-like powers.\|\| + \|\|The combination of Zephyrus' poisonous manipulation and her anger over Aria's merciless beating causes Sci-Twi to become Frostbite Sparkle, a demented fusion of Midnight Sparkle and Wendigo powers and wrath.\|\| * Charles Manson Vs The Teletubbies: + The titular Teletubbies are humanoid beings that have felled worlds and brought suffering to those that displeased them. While initially harmless-looking, once they're angered, their powers cause explosions to occur as they vow to destroy Charles Manson. + Charles injects himself with a Psycho Serum of unknown origin that turns him into Shin Charles Manson, a lizard-dragon-Godzilla like creature. * Child of the Storm has Gravemoss do this by desperately giving in to the temptations of the Elder God Chthon when attacked. While creepy even before this, the reality warping tendrils that make reality scream took him into this. + The sequel has Selene resort to being Scaled Up after Wanda inflicts a nasty combination of Impaled with Extreme Prejudice and Transflormation on her. And by 'scaled up', we mean 'transforming into a giant wingless black dragon capable of overpowering and devouring a superpowered necromantically resurrected T-Rex called Sue before fighting Magneto' (somehow, It Makes Sense in Context). She's eventually killed - or at least, put down, since Selene is notoriously difficult to kill - by being pinned down, having an improvised lance shoved through the base of her skull, then said lance being turned into an impromptu lightning conductor. + The Red Son's techno-organic virus is meant to be this, but mercifully (considering that \|\|the Red Son is really a Brainwashed and Crazy Harry - or at least, his Blank Slate body\|\|), Magneto stops this before it really gets going. + The Dark Phoenix, which veers straight into the Humanoid Abomination category, with Physical God power levels while it's still getting warmed up, is this. + \|\|Reynolds\|\| a.k.a. the Void, Arc Villain for Mirror Image, transforms into this after overdosing on the power he stole from Clark and stored, in large part thanks to the fact that he was hosting a demon to handle the power to begin with. The result is a fully fledged Humanoid Abomination that can successfully fight - or perhaps more accurately, survive - Harry (now a Person of Mass Destruction with few scruples in a fight) and a teenage Superman for an extended period. However, thanks to poor tactics, Crippling Over Specialization, and the fact that his powers Cast from Stamina, it's always a question of when he goes down, not if. * Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship: During the Final Battle, \|\|the Dazzlings absorb all of Cosmo and Wanda's magic and merge into a giant kaiju\|\|. * The Equestrian Wind Mage: + The boss battle against Grey Hoof is fought after Ganondorf has given him a power boost, turning him into an alicorn called Nightmare Grave. + During the second season's Final Battle, \|\|Demise\|\| transforms into a massive demonic beast. + And of course, there's Vaati and Ganon's own monster forms, as seen in the games. + When Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer reappear as part of the Church of Majora during Season 3, they've been transformed into Nightmares called Solar Flare and Starfall, respectfully. + During the invasion of the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor gives Onox such an intense fight that the latter has to take his true draconic form to have a chance of winning. * The alternate ending of a crossover involving Godzilla battling the God of the Bible features God turning into a two-headed dragon that manages to kill Anguirus, sparking a primal fury inside of the monster king that ultimately becomes God's undoing when Godzilla becomes "Ultra Godzilla". * Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters: + Tarakudo can temporarily shift from an Oracular Head back to a full body, during which he's basically a Physical God. + Downplayed with Daolon Wong, who can enter a transformed state by making his Dark Chi Warriors reenter his staff after some time, which makes his skin turn the same color as theirs, makes one of his eyes go pitch black and the other completely white, and gives him more magic power, which allows him to use very devastating spells originally created by the Demon Sorcerers. However, this form only increases his magical might, not the physical, and its main purpose is to allow him to use the demonic spells without tiring himself to death. Also, it has a downside, since he can only last in this state for as long as his Dark Chi Warriors had been materialized. * Heroes of the New World: At the climax of the North Blue Arc, \|\|Yamato hits her Rage Breaking Point when she thinks the Vinsmoke brothers killed Izuku, Awakening her Devil Fruit and transforming into a gigantic wolf-oni hybrid. She then slaughters the Vinsmokes in a complete No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, and would have killed Reiju too had Izuku not thrown himself into Yamato's jaws to snap her out of it\|\|. Both survive, but are deeply scarred. * The Last Daughter: When gang boss Lung fought Taylor, he transformed into a dragon. As the battle went on, he kept evolving, becoming bigger, stronger, more powerful, growing more sets of wings... but since he was fighting a Kryptonian, his strategy didn't work. > Lung roared, his flames intensifying as he rose to his feet with alarming speed. I could see even more scales appearing under his skin and bursting through to provide ample protection as he ramped up to better match my strength. In a matter of seconds he had grown to eighteen feet in height, and a pair of wings were slowly beginning to protrude from his back. * The Night Unfurls: \|\|Shamuhaza is not the Big Bad, but he still\|\| transforms into a \|\|great scuttling insect-like Eldritch Abomination offstage, awaiting Kyril on a lake for one climactic battle.\|\| To the Good Hunter, however, his opponent is nothing more than a giant beast, one amongst the many that he had slain in Yharnam. With a wry smile, the Hunter comments that he doesn't know what he is anymore, before telling Sanakan and Hugh to kill it. * Anti-Hero example in Thousand Shinji. When she fought \|\|the MP-Evas,\|\| Asuka and her Unit-02, went berserker and she forced her mecha to turn into a Bloodthirster demon: > Some outside force seized Unit 02, lifting it high into the air, its limbs held out taut. The air began to swim with unholy sounds, almost as if the wind had a forked tongue and was chanting in some blasphemous language. Something unpleasant was going on beneath the armour of Unit 02, waterfalls of blood leaking forth from its wounds, turning the ground bellow and the nearby lake vermillion. > With a scream brought forth from the very universe itself, the back of Unit 02's armour exploded outward in a shower of broken metal and ceramics and a flood of brilliant crimson blood. A pair of colossal bat wings unfurled, flicking blood off their surface as they extended, before making a powerful downward stroke that launched Unit 02 into flight, seemingly ignoring the winds generated by the storm still raging above. > Reaching a hand out into nothingness, Asuka grabbed onto something with each hand and began to pull out. Twin ragged streaks appeared in the sky, blood raining from holes in reality as Unit 02 extracted its new weapons. In the right hand it held a titanic bronze battle axe dripping with blood on its adamantine blade, while in the left it bore a long, snaking whip covered in barbs. * In Toonatopia: The Animation Initiation, SpongeBob turns into the monstrous XtremeBob after eating the pie dunked in X-Acid. Cross Ange * Cross Ange: The Knight of Hilda: In the final battle, Embryo's vassal Dark decides to swallow the entire bottle of Dracunium pills he'd taken from Lizardia, causing him to mutate into a black, Brig-class-sized DRAGON. Digimon * Digimon Adventure 02: The Story We Never Told: + Dagomon decides to merge with the final Control Spire during his showdown with the Digidestined in order to gain the power to claim his ultimate prize. + \|\|Oikawa fuses both Blackwargreymon and Myotismon's data with a copy of himself to change it into some kind of kaiju Digimon that appears to be based on Malomyotismon.\|\| Godzilla * In the Godzilla Fan Film Godzilla vs the Kaiju Killer, Stalkkus transforms into a dragonlike monster in order to fight Godzilla, who's been freed in order to kill him. Hazbin Hotel * Emily Fallen Angel AU (Doraiwa\_san): Emily transforms into her true fallen angel form when she's about to fight Sera. Invader Zim * The New Adventures of Invader Zim: During the climax of Season 1, after having a Villainous Breakdown, Norlock transforms into a demonic humanoid bat monster, which is clearly vastly more powerful than his usual form. Jackie Chan Adventures * Shadows Awakening: During the Final Battle, the Queen absorbs most of her Shadowkhan army, transforming into an adult demon form she calls the Empress of the Shadowkhan. * Queen of All Oni: Jade at one point tries to make one of these for her astral projection, being a more armored and combat capable form of her usual naga appearance. \|\|Becomes a Clipped-Wing Angel instead, as its one appearance sees her easily defeated by Lung's dragon familiar.\|\| The Lion King * The Final Battle of The Lion King Adventures sees the Greater-Scope Villain, \|\|the Writer\|\|, taking on a chimeric form containing traits from every other villain in the series in order to kill Simba for good. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic * The Pony POV Series: + Loneliness, the first Arc Villain and a shapeshifter, finally gets fed up with Twilight attempts to rescue Trixie from her and transforms into a Draconequus to try and kill her. + The second Arc Villain, Princess \|\|Gaia\|\| does this when Applejack shatters her illusion and reveals her true form: \|\|the monstrous Nightmare Whisper.\|\| + Chrysalis' Origin Story sees \|\|Queen Cocoon\|\| do this during their battle \|\|thanks to genetic alterations done by Professor Kabuto.\|\| + Both \|\|Professor Kabuto and General Hercules\|\| do this during battles with them \|\|with Kabuto turning into a living bioweapon while Hercules assumes a larger, Nigh-Invulnerable armored form.\|\| + \|\|General-Admiral Makarov\|\| does this during his Final Battle with Shining Armor, \|\|assuming his true form (an Eldritch Abomination composed of the shadows of those whose existences he's consumed) to attempt to devour Shining whole. Right before he death, he attempts to turn into Father Deer, but the Blank Wolf makes quick work of him before he can finish.\|\| + The Dark World Arc sees \|\|Fluttercruel\|\| do this after \|\|her father Discord gives her a portion of his own essence and the power Discord stole from Havoc, causing her to transform into a full Draconequus.\|\| + Lord Tirek's current form is actually this for him, as he was a normal centaur before \|\|devouring the entirety of the Pandora's Box of dark magic Morning Star cast to Earth\|\|, mutating him into the much more monstrous, near god-like form he's known as. * In 'How Trixie (Somehow) Saved Hearth's Warming, \|\|Leidr, a sapient Windigo,\|\| does this by \|\|fusing with his two nonsapient herdmates to become a gigantic version of himself.\|\| * During the Final Battle of Getting Back on Your Hooves, \|\|Checker Monarch\|\| does this twice \|\|due to them being in the dream world and her being capable of Lucid Dreaming.\|\| The first one is \|\|transforming into an Ursa Major to go after Trixie, exploiting the fact Trixie is terrified of Ursas to prevent her own lucid dreaming abilities from working due to her fear.\|\| The second one is \|\|when the rest of her mind fighting the Mane Six becomes an Alicorn. However, that one doesn't work very well, as the Mane Six simply blast her with the Elements due to having lucid dreaming from Trixie and having overcome her more psychological assaults.\|\| * Each of the titular gods in The God Squad can do this. Luna has Nightmare Moon, Celestia becomes Corona Hellstar, Tydal becomes Darkwater Abyss, and Cadance turns into Mi Lujuria. They must be HIGHLY focused or these forms become their One Winged Angel forms. + During the Equstria Boys 2 arc Tydal does lose control and his form becomes a One Winged Angel, with his become a Outer Gods-like form with lightning wings, writhing tentacles, and demonic horns * A Diplomatic Visit: In chapter 11 of the third story, Diplomacy Through Schooling, \|\|Tirek goes One-Winged Angel via his Mana Drain abilities as he did in canon, going from a weak, frail form to a muscular kaiju-sized monster with a beard and long horns. He meets his match in the form of Twilight Sparkle, who also goes One-Winged Angel when overcome with rage and with her power fully unrestrained, assuming the form of the Lady of Magic, who has six wings, eight legs, a dozen eyes… and access to every type of magic possible, allowing her to effortlessly curb-stomp him. It's later explained that Twilight's altered form more closely resembled Chaos, the Creator from whom the Power of Magic was born.\|\| * Discord's New Business: Both Rarity and Ember. Rarity grows to a large size because of Greedgrowth Insanity. Ember is temporarily aged up into an adult dragon to fight her. Neon Genesis Evangelion * Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: Played straight and discussed in chapter 10 when the nineteenth Angel — a weird, floating blob — transforms into a black sphere, and Ritsuko suggests that isn't its final form. One Piece * In The Butcher Bird: Kaneki possesses one in the form of a kakuja form. \|\|Initially, it's incomplete, and therefore a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, but a bit of Die or Fly from Vinci spurs him to complete it by accepting his Enemy Within, resulting in the complete form: NIDHOGGR.\|\| * In This Bites!, Moria transforms into one like in canon, \|\|this time with the help of his Awakened Devil fruit\|\|. \|\|He has his Living Shadow devour the shadows of several inanimate objects, increasing his size and attempting to turn himself into a dragon called Nidhogg, though the result left the Strawhats nauseous looking at him. The fight between him and Nightmare Luffy nearly breaks Thriller Bark into two\|\|. Persona * Persona: The Sougawa Files: The true main antagonist does this twice. \|\|When battling against Rina in her mind, Yuudai transforms into a grotesque, half-human half-insect hybrid. He uses this form again in the final battle with him, but one-ups himself by transforming into a massive, tentacled hive covered with the masks of his victims - and eight masks meant for the Freedom Fighters. This form is known as the Father Shadow\|\|. Pokémon * Pokémon Master: When Lance fought Ash, he grew wings. > "I don't think so." Lance stepped backward, his eyes now gleaming. "I'll admit you are better than me on the ground ..." His cloak began rustling behind him when all at once, two large, leathery dragon wings were expelled out from his back simultaneously. They flapped once, powerfully, sending wind and rain flying into Ash's face. "But can you defeat me where I am strongest, Assassin? In the air?" With that, his wings flapped again, and continued flapping until he was airborne, eight feet into the air and still rising. Tangled * Swear Not By The Moon: When Zahn Tiri is exposed for her crimes she gets so angry that she transforms into her demon form and plans to burn everything to the ground out of vengeance. Warhammer 40,000 * During Isha's battle with the Chaos Androids in Everqueen, Slaanesh takes enough attention in the battle to empower the last one personally. Still not enough to defeat her, of course - him calling Isha mother does, however, prove to be a Berserk Button. Warrior Cats * Better Bones AU: Ashfur absorbs several StarClan cats in the final battle against him to turn into a larger, stronger form that can't be killed by normal means. Wish Kid * Wish Kid: Game Boys: During the second phase of the final battle, Frankie eats a giant papaya that turns him into a giant, and Nick and Darryl have to defeat him in this form in order to rescue Princess Sonny and win the game. ---	OneWingedAngel	null
LiveActionTV	# Good Is Not Soft - Live-Action TV The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU * Marvel Universe Other examples: --------------- * Clarke from The 100 is an All-Loving Hero who would really prefer it if no one got hurt, not even people who have been her enemies. However, she's also a Pragmatic Hero, and if it looks like there's no way out of a situation without someone getting hurt, she won't hesitate to do the hurting. * Babylon 5: + Captain John Sheridan's father taught him to never start a fight, but to always finish it. He sticks to this for the entire series. He almost always waits for his opponents to shoot first, but will not hesitate to use any tactic in the book and overwhelming force afterwards. + While being a gentle, reasonable person Delenn is also not soft if the situation calls for it. Such as defending B5 against Clark's forces or taking down a Drakh strike force. > Delenn: Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else. + Susan Ivanova is also not all that soft, as the Streib and later Clark loyalists find out the hard way. > Ivanova: Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova. Commander. Daughter of Andrei and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance, and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart! I am Death Incarnate, and the last living thing that you are ever going to see. God sent me. + Even Vir Cotto has his moments - especially in the later seasons - where he is anything but soft. Such moments include his killing the mad Centauri Emperor Cartagia or teaching a Drazi food stand operator that putting a listening bug in Vir's shopping bag is a really bad idea. After seeing Vir demolish the Drazi's food stand Ambassador Londo Mollari proudly declares that now Vir is ready to be the next Ambassador to Babylon 5 after he becomes Emperor. - In the B5 novelverse, Vir also leads the Centauri resistance against the Drakh, doing things that the seasons one and two Vir never would have thought of doing. When they are finally able to liberate the Centauri from the Drakh, Vir stops Garibaldi from delivering the Coup de Grâce to Shiv'Kala so that he can have the honor of doing so himself. * President Laura Roslin from Battlestar Galactica (2003). On a show full of Grey-and-Gray Morality she was one of the most unambiguously good characters in the cast, but God help you if you got between her and what she thought was best for the fleet, because she wouldn't hesitate to throw you out the airlock. * Jane Doe of Blindspot exemplifies this trope, so caring and devoted to those caught up in the incidents she's part of as well as her teammates. She will also stop you, shoot you, punish you, to stop the threat whether it be terrorism or domestic abuse, and when told to back off she does so. * Buffyverse: + Faith of both shows has matured into this. A seriously nice girl, caring, and points out Even Evil Has Loved Ones. She's also up for maiming and killing human and demon alike, even her deadbeat father. In season nine, after slicing off the arm of a gun-toting gangster, then burning drug dealers alive, she brings up the proper arrangements for their bereaved families. Even when she was introduced, she proved to have what it takes: aside from being genuinely nice, she would say a dumped Buffy is a good Buffy (because of how aggressive a fighter she was after Scott dumped her) before sabotaging Scott's future conquests on Buffy's behalf, then lending a kind ear to a pissed Xander before going behind Buffy's back to kill Angel, since for all Faith knew he was still capable of being the grand master villain of the series. + Buffy herself. If you're human and not cutting up dead bodies or killing children, she's quite nice. If you are, then she's all for prison, death, Prison Rape then death, basically having a soul makes such actions inexcusable. - When Angel is poisoned and Buffy learns that Slayer blood is the cure in Season 3 of Buffy, her rather scary initial plan is to force the psychotic Faith to him to feed on, dead or alive. When that doesn't work, Buffy offers herself to feed on, which Angel absolutely refuses. So Buffy punches him in the face until the blows anger him enough to vamp out, then she makes him feed on her. + The Scooby Gang as a whole. They're all nice kids and Giles is a British Gentleman, but they've killed a lot of monsters. + Giles, very much so. Most extreme example? Smothering a wounded Ben to death rather than risk Glory coming back. Before doing the deed, Giles cryptically remarks, "[Buffy's] a hero, you see. She's not like us." He wanted to spare Buffy from doing it. + Wesley, from very early on in Angel and perhaps as early as his appearances on Buffy, shows he is willing to torture the bad guys to protect his friends. He's also the one who sends a whole bunch of optimistic villagers on a suicide mission because it's the most effective plan, keeps a girl in a closet for months while he's \|\|trawling the ocean for Angel, who tried to kill him\|\|, and shoots \|\|his father\|\| without hesitation to protect Fred. It turns out \|\|to be a robot\|\|, but he didn't know that, and he still did it. + Angel. He actually is a nice guy most of the time, but he can switch to ruthless at the drop of a hat and he has a hundred years of doing extremely horrible things to people for giggles to draw on. It is also not a good idea to go after people he cares about. + Team Angel as a whole. Doyle is probably the softest member and he doesn't last very long. * Most of the main cast of Criminal Minds are friendly and personable people, but since their job is hunting extremely dangerous serial killers they're all prepared to kill if they have to. Hotch is a particularly notable example, as he's a stern but fair boss who's almost invariably kind and polite both at home and on the job, but he will not hesitate to put a bullet in a bad guy's skull in order to save innocent lives. * April from Class is shown to be a kind person who genuinely cares about people, but also becomes the king of a brutal alien race and nearly kills her own father. > April: People just think that nice means fragile, that somehow if I'm allowed to see what the world's like then I'll break but... I'm tougher than they think. > Jackie: I know how tough you are. And you're not nice, you're kind. There's a difference. * CSI: Miami: Horatio Caine genuinely cares about crime victims. He's not so pleasant with those who committed the crimes. > "You murdered thirteen people. You're a killer. You enjoy death. I hope you enjoy yours." * The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: While she's generally kind and polite, when pushed into a corner, Brea can be quite clever in those situations as she turns them in her favor. Examples are when she switches her drugged drink with Cadea and impresses Rek'yr enough that he grants them a ride through the desert. > Cadea: Did, um... did you drink your tea yet? > Brea: No. You did. > Cadea: You switched our drinks?! > Brea: I guess soothsayers can't see everything. * In the Disney adaptation of Doctor Syn ("The Scarecrow"), Syn is a generous vicar who abhors killing... and spends his nights dressing as a Scary Scarecrow with an Evil Laugh who terrorizes the king's taxmen, leading a band of smugglers who are themselves frightened of him. When Syn learns of The Mole in his band, his first instinct is to put on a display so horrifying that nobody else will even consider double-crossing him and does so by lynching the traitor following a Kangaroo Court. Only afterwards do we see that it was faked. * Doctor Who: + From at least Seven onward, the Doctor himself is this. He's sent some bad guys to rather harsh endings to protect the innocent, has put good people in the line of fire or done otherwise unkind things as part of various gambits, and has often had to make choices between bad and worse. These things heavily weigh on him, but if it's between destroying Pompeii and letting the Pyroviles take the whole world, it often falls to him to throw the switch. + While it has been a large part of the other Doctors in the series before and since, this trait has been deeply explored during the run of the Tenth Doctor. > The Doctor: If I don't like your plan, it will end. > Mr. Finch: Fascinating. Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new. Would you declare war on us, Doctor? > The Doctor: I'm so old now. I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it. - One of the Doctors is explicitly described as this. The Ninth Doctor is a Good Is Not Nice Jerk with a Heart of Gold who thinks he is better than everyone else but, given the choice, chooses to be a coward, not a killer. The Tenth Doctor is the complete opposite, fascinated by humanity and its foibles, genuinely caring and nice (though still rather arrogant at times) — and anyone who threatens them dies, no mercy, no second chances. In his very first episode, he even turns it into a mixture of Establishing Character Moment and Bond One-Liner, after defeating the leader of the Sycorax in a duel over London and the leader, having sworn to leave, attempts to go for his back. Ten, still in a dressing gown and rambling about satsumas and Christmas, without turning round or changing expression, throws the satsuma at a control mechanism that opens up what amounts to a trapdoor beneath the Sycorax leader, dropping him thousands of feet to his death. > The Doctor: No second chances. I'm that sort of a man. - The Tenth Doctor episode The Family of Blood has a good example as well. > Baines: He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing, the fury of the Time Lord. And then, we discovered why. Why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he'd run away from us and hidden: he was being kind. + And then, we have the Eleventh Doctor, who demonstrates a great deal of compassion and caring for his friends. That doesn't stop him from trying to wipe out the Daleks, erasing The Weeping Angels from time, and tricking the Silents into ordering their own execution at the hands of mankind. The Eleventh Doctor practically lampshaded this in the episode "A Good Man Goes to War". > Madame Kovarian: The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules. > [The Doctor turns to her, coldly smirking, his Face Framed in Shadow.] > The Doctor: Good men don't need rules. [strides up to Kovarian, pointing at her and subtly snarling] Today is not the day to find out why I have so many. > + The same episode implies that the "Good Man" in the title may not be the Doctor, but rather one of his companions, a mild-mannered nurse named Rory who is very interested in finding out who has abducted his wife and child. The episode's prologue is just Rory tearing straight through a ship full of Cybermen, evidently armed only with a Roman gladius and at one point achieving Offscreen Teleportation, much to the audible distress of the otherwise emotionless cyborgs. + The Twelfth Doctor is also one not to be messed with. When he finally emerges from the locked TARDIS to confront the Boneless (beings from a 2D universe who like to "flatten" people), he tells that he tried to reason with them. Since they have rejected his attempts, he dubs them monsters and sends them back to their own universe, pointing out that most of them will probably not make it. Later, he is willing to \|\|kill Missy, but Cyberman!Brigadier does the job for him (she gets better)\|\|. He's capable of being so coldly ruthless that he spends a good chunk of his first series questioning whether or not he is a good man - in the end, he comes to the conclusion that he is not a good man, or a bad man... but an idiot! + The Thirteenth Doctor is a perky, adorable Genki Girl, albeit one concealing a lot of trauma and complicated feelings under the sunny exterior, but the bouncy cheer vanishes in an instant the moment someone threatens her companions or anyone innocent, and a rather dangerous smile appears when she's, say, orchestrating the obliteration of the Daleks again. + Aside from the Doctor, there's also Captain Jack Harkness, who's a charming, friendly, flirty guy, who is both The Leader and The Hero in Torchwood, and an able supporting act to the Doctor. He also used to be a conman, a soldier, a Time Agent, and a Torchwood Agent back before the organisation got morals. He will also kill in cold blood without batting an eye, and during his stint at the Time Agency, he spent 10 years as its top interrogator, a skill-set he is entirely willing to exploit. + Fifteen, Fifteen, Fifteen! In one breath, he's running around the universe without a care in the world, helping where he can and calling everyone he meets "honey" or "babes". \|\|In another, he drags the Goblin King's ship atop a church spire, stabbing him to death, coldly condemns Sutekh to death by Time Vortex, and tells Conrad Clarke, a UNIT-hating Conspiracy Theorist Ruby thought was her boyfriend, where, when, and how he's going to die.\|\| + "Lucky Day" is an exemplar of this for Kate Stewart. \|\|In the span of one episode, she goes from offering to send UNIT soldiers to Ruby's location, telling an apologetic Ruby she always has time for her, to siccing the Monster of the Week on Conrad after he's not only raided UNIT HQ with a gun, but insulted the Brigadier, to listening to Ruby when things are calmer, suggesting they have a call about her future with UNIT. Though her nastiness towards Conrad earns her no praise from her boyfriend, Colonel Ibrahim, she does become known as Hot Taser Lady online.\|\| * Farscape: The crew of Moya can stretch the definition of "good" at times, but even the nicest characters get moments where they remind viewers how, when the chips are down, they can be utterly ruthless. + John Crichton is a NASA astronaut and a scientist who just wants to find a way home, and at the beginning of the series he would prefer to avoid a fight rather than start one, but when he's pushed too far or backed into a corner he's just as capable of dishing out violence as Aeryn and D'Argo. While he never really stops being "good" he also becomes more willing to resort to violence and ruthlessness as time passes, with the crapsack nature of the galaxy steadily wearing away at his pacifism, morals, and sanity. The various traumas he endures cause him to develop a "done with this shit" attitude and culminates in him activating a wormhole weapon that could destroy the entire universe - with only a narrow window of opportunity to snuff out the reaction before it grows too big to stop - in front of the Peacekeepers' and Scarrans' respective leadership just to make both sides leave him the fuck alone. + Zhaan would actually take issue with the name of this article because she's very soft and happy to be that way. In the show's fourth episode an unruly prisoner thinks this means attacking her while yelling about her being soft is a good idea, only for Zhaan to demonstrate how mistaken he was by effortlessly slamming him against a wall and retorting: "Soft, yes. Weak, no." In that very same episode, she asks if she's the only species in the galaxy that doesn't thrive on conflict. A later episode informs us that she's not above committing very intimate murder if the person in question is bad enough, which she treats as a personal Godzilla Threshold for both moral and practical reasons. + Pilot is from a species of aliens that volunteer to be permanently bonded with Leviathans so they can see the universe, and one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He doesn't like fighting, and can't even move from his control room so it's not like he gets many opportunities to hurt people anyway. That said, when a crazy mass-murdering terrorist/religious zealot magnetically bonds herself to one of Moya's cargo bay doors so space-storm will destroy the ship (long story) he doesn't hesitate to detach it from Moya while laughing maniacally. + Moya herself is as pacifism-inclined as most Leviathans, in part because they lack any weapons to fight with but primarily because that's just how they are, but when they get pregnant it's a whole 'nother story. Moya won't hesitate to sic her DRDs on anything she perceives as a threat to her baby, including her own crew! When they encounter a group of Space Pirates later on their leader - a man known for his ruthlessness and cruelty - explicitly says he won't try anything with Moya because the one time he attacked a pregnant Leviathan it killed eighty of his men, and he's not stupid enough to try that again. * Firefly Mal is not the strictest definition of good but his interaction with Crow in 'The Train Job' is one of the best examples of this trope on television. Crow gloats and threatens, Mal barely says a word...until Crow finishes his rant. Mal just says "Darn", kicks Crow in front of Serenity's engine, and makes only a slight grimace as the assassin is sucked in and liquefied. + Simon's two goals in life are healing people and protecting River. Both of these are very altruistic goals, but Simon proves time and time again that there is literally nothing he won't do to keep River safe. In the pilot, he shows no hesitation about threatening to leave Kaylee to die from a gutshot if Mal doesn't try to run from an Alliance cruiser, and... it goes downhill from there. * Every member in Team One in Flashpoint are very likeable and friendly people off the field. Their first course of action is usually to talk with the hostage-taker without any violence but they will not hesitate to pull the trigger on anyone threatening a hostage. And if someone threatens a team member... * Dr. Henry Morgan of Forever is an Actual Pacifist who takes his oath as a physician seriously, and had been immortal for two hundred years without ever deliberately killing someone(He does kill Clark Walker, but at the time he was protecting his son and thought he was a fellow immortal who would come back to life after dying). However, once it's clear that The Older Immortal Adam is a cold-blooded killer who will continue to torment Henry and those he loves indefinitely, Henry finds a way to neutralize him, but it's not pretty. \|\|He meets Adam knowing he's going to try to kill him permanently, allows himself to be shot, then gestures Adam to come closer to hear his dying words — getting him close enough for Henry to inject an air embolism into his brainstem, inducing Locked-in Syndrome, which leaves Adam alive and fully conscious but completely unable to move or communicate.\|\| * An episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, "Those Were the Days," deals with Marge, an old friend of Philip and Vivian who uses extreme measures in her fight for Black liberation and equality. The three were activists together in the 1960's, but while Marge has kept up her extremist views, Philip and Vivian have mellowed somewhat with age. Marge accuses them of forgetting their roots and going soft; Phil retaliates with an epic speech, pointing out that he fought alongside Marge in the streets and faced horrific racist abuse, but now chooses to use both his power as a lawyer and his financial success to champion Black causes—"and that doesn't make me any less committed than you, so don't you DARE look down your damn nose at me, Adebola!" * Game of Thrones: + Like A Song of Ice and Fire mentioned on the Literature page, this trope works with Daenerys Targaryen, who is forced into an arranged marriage with a barbarian king. She quickly takes to the customs of her new husband's society and pushes him to treat her as an equal, which earns his respect. She begins standing up to her abusive brother, as well as to the practice of Rape, Pillage, and Burn. After her baby is threatened, Daenerys approves of death by immolation, an act she would later do herself. She frees the slaves of her tribe and promises those who would harm them will die screaming, sets about bringing justice to the cities she comes across and shows that she is a master at Disproportionate Retribution. \|\|The trope is then deconstructed in the final season, as she's so used to brutality and cruelty towards the deserving that it's easier for her to inflect it on morally grey characters and then on innocents who get in her way.\|\| + The Starks are beloved in their own lands for being heroic, kind, and for their ability to keep the peace and rule wisely, but they don't do that by being pushovers. Those who bring them harm should expect from them the same mercy that they dish to House Stark. In fact, they have killed most perpetrators of the infamous Red Wedding, such as Arya killing Walder Frey, and also, by the end of Season 6, the Starks have completely wiped out House Bolton, who was mostly responsible for their suffering. - Ned Stark is one of the most honorable and noble characters in the series, particularly amongst the nobility but also happens to be hard, stoic, and difficult to connect with for outsiders, who subsequently view him as cold and (at times) terrifying and his first scene shows him personally beheading a man for desertion. However, he clearly does love his wife, children, and bannermen, and refuses to be involved in plots that would endanger the lives of children (up to and including Daenerys Targaryen, who's in her mid-teens) while all the while being one of the fiercest warriors in Westeros. - Being one of the most compassionate men in all of Westeros has not hampered Jon Snow's skill with the sword or his ability to kill a white walker general and his willingness to personally execute traitors in the manner his father Ned taught him and Robb. - Though Sansa never really loses her compassionate heart, six seasons of virtually nonstop trauma see her become hard, unforgiving, and iron-fisted when it comes to her enemies and those of her House. Ramsay discovers this most righteously. * Nick in Grimm. Despite his more brutal and merciless ancestors, Nick himself is a fairly reasonable Grimm who follows within the law of what a good police officer would do, including having Wesen friends/allies. However, he begins to use his reputation as a Grimm to terrify several Wesen into giving him the information he needs and will shoot to kill to protect himself or someone else. * In Hogan's Heroes, Colonel Hogan and his subordinates are definitely the good guys, but they're not afraid to get their hands dirty with sabotage and assassinations. * On Justified this is a defining characteristic of US Marshal Raylan Givens and the other Kentucky Marshals. In the opening scene of the series, vicious killer Tommy Bucks found out that when Raylan tells you to leave town in 24 hours, you do so or Raylan is more than willing to shoot it out with you in broad daylight. Two seasons later mobster Wynn Duffy found out that Raylan is more than willing to play Russian Roulette with him because Duffy would not answer questions about a cop's murder. + In the same vein Chief Deputy Marshall Art Mullen might seem like an old man with bad knees but if you really piss him off he will go "old school" on you with a phone book. + Deputy Marshal Tim Gutterson is a nice fellow who likes to joke around but in an instant, he can turn into a Cold Sniper and put a hole in a hostage taker's head. + Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks might be justifiably bitter about the challenges of being an African-American female marshal in an area where plenty of the people are still openly and not so openly racist but when she is disrespected she will not hesitate to respond. * All the Kamen Rider series have protagonists who will not hesitate to pummel and Rider Kick the monsters of the week and their mooks to death. + Kamen Rider Amazon defeated his enemies not with fancy moves and cool weapons and kaboom endings to the fight, but by ripping the Monster of the Week apart with his bare claws and teeth and the serrated edges of his gloves. However, if you don't happen to be an evil monster, he's the nicest guy you'll ever meet. He's a Friend to All Children, Friend to All Living Things, and so forth. He once even saved a monster from being executed by his bosses for failing to defeat him! That monster became an ally for most of the rest of the series. + Kamen Rider Kuuga is basically the nicest Kamen Rider of the entire franchise, but he is just as dedicated to protecting innocents as the rest of the Riders. And for Heaven's Sake, don't make him genuinely angry. The merciless monster that managed that was left whimpering in terror by the time Kuuga finally finished him off. + Kamen Rider Ex-Aid is a baby faced pediatric intern, whose dislike for callousness, manipulation and violence may cause him to appear as an example of Good Is Impotent. To the surprise and horror of many, being a sweet, gentle soul doesn't stop him from utilizing his vast capabilities of a ruthless Social Expert and Chessmaster to make sure that everyone is alive and healthy at the end of the day. Preferably also happy, as the mental state of his patients and coworkers is also important to him, but he is aware of how much harder that is to achieve. * The Leverage team is all this, especially Nate and Eliot. If you've been royally screwed over by a Corrupt Corporate Executive, they will move heaven and earth for you. If, however, you are a Corrupt Corporate Executive ... Put best in the "Cross My Heart Job", where Nate calmly informs a man who kidnapped a woman's daughter to blackmail her into stealing a heart transplant from a dying 15-year-old how he will utterly destroy him if he ever tries anything like that again. * In the series four finale of Merlin, the sweet, gentle, friendly Merlin carefully and deliberately murders Arthur's Evil Uncle Agravaine in cold blood. Okay, Agravaine had just drawn a knife on him, but a) Merlin could have easily dealt with the knife without harming the man holding it, and b) Agravaine had just discovered Merlin's secret, and Colin Morgan's performance makes it very clear that Agravaine wasn't leaving that cave alive. In fact, by that point in general, Merlin's body count is well into three figures, and if there is a threat to Arthur, he will eliminate that threat with prejudice and without even batting an eye. + In the finale, \|\|Merlin single-handedly ends the Battle of Camlann by raining torrents of lightning down upon Morgana's army, forcing them into a full retreat despite outnumbering Camelot forces three-to-one\|\|. + In the first episode of series five, sweet, gentle, friendly Gwen \|\|swiftly sentences her servant to death for treason, though she later reveals she had no plans on actually killing the girl. It was merely a trap to lure her father to Camelot to obtain information about Morgana.\|\| - It happens again in the season finale. \|\|Only this time, she outgambits the accomplice and actually executes her.\|\| * Leroy Jethro Gibbs from NCIS. Thinking of threatening his family or his team? Bad idea. Gibbs was a Marine sniper. There is no mercy in a head shot from a mile away. + Actually applies to most of the other field agents in the series: Tony, Kate, Ziva, McGee and others on the team are depicted as friendly, fun-loving folks but will not hesitate to take a life. In fact, one early episode has Gibbs strongly criticize McGee for hesitating before taking a shot (to be fair, McGee is the only one whose previous job didn't involve carrying a weapon). * Similarly, the lead characters of NCIS: Los Angeles are often depicted clicking back into "normal life" (personal interests and hobbies, romance, making jokes) even though many of their missions end with a high body count. * NCIS: New Orleans: Dwayne Pride is a kind, compassionate father and a Father to His Men who sees his team as a second family, and in general genuinely cares about everybody. That's why he will not hesitate to fuck your shit up if you even think about hurting his team, his family, or his city, and and in dire enough situations is willing to go outside the law to do it. * Ruby/Red in Once Upon a Time (2011) is the free-spirited yet kindhearted version of Little Red Riding Hood. She is also the wolf and treated as a vicious, Little Red Fighting Hood. + A better example might be Emma Swan, who while good is decidedly more pragmatic than her parents. In "Good Form", she, Regina, and Snow White are trying to convince a Lost Boy to help them. After playing nice fails, Regina mentions she could simply tear his heart and force him to help. Snow is horrified (it's wrong), but Emma doesn't just agree she holds Snow back so Regina can do it. She later makes it clear to Snow she will do whatever it takes to save Henry. + Snow herself has shades of this, a proper...Proper Lady, she's also a hunter who back in the day would execute those who deserved it and in present day conspired to murder Regina's mother, and after a bout of My God, What Have I Done? jams to Joan Jett while rocking a bow and arrow to get over it. * In The Originals, Elijah may be the kindest, fairest, and most honorable of his siblings, but mess with his family, and you might just end up with your heart literally ripped out of your chest. * The Power Rangers. Yes, them. While the majority of their enemies are non-human Card Carrying Villains and a Monster of the Week created on the spot, not all are. However, the few times a major enemy was a human who'd turned into some monstrous form to Take Over the World, well... if you do monstrous things, you get what monsters get. There was even a time or two when someone transformed against his will could not be saved and had to be taken down when it was between him and innocents or a teammate. It's even glossed over less than you'd expect a Y7 show that's the poster child for Never Say "Die" to do. For example, just before Tommy - yes, that Tommy - has to \|\|slay the villain once known as Terrence Smith,\|\| we see a flashback to a photo of his original human self just before \|\|Tommy applies the Finishing Move\|\|. Don't endanger his students, just... don't. + Carter Grayson, the Red Ranger from Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. He's a by the book fireman, determined to save people's lives, but he has shown to be one of the most aggressive rangers in the franchise. In the first episode, he tried to run over the monster of the week with a jeep and displayed a willingness to kill the Titanium Ranger during his debut episode, before Ryan's Heel–Face Turn. * The Rifleman has Lucas McCain, an expert gunslinger with his signature Winchester 92. He's a loving father, a good and noble man, one who will do just about anything to help a man or woman or animal in need, and one who is absolutely willing to use guile to settle a conflict non-lethally. However he'll make it very clear he is perfectly willing and able to shoot you dead where you stand if you get out of line, he absolutely will not hesitate to pump about 5 bullets into you in very quick succession if you even try to raise your gun at him, and he won't so much as even give you a second thought let alone feel bad about it. Across 5 seasons he kills 120 villains, and he's just a regular citizen of the town! * John from Sherlock is one of the nicest people you could hope to meet and it's quite easy for people to take a liking to him, even if they've just met him. But he is willing to shoot you if you happen to piss him off or threaten someone he cares about. That sweet, gentle guy can-AND will kill you and walk away without a qualm of conscience. And look very adorable while doing it. + He did see active service in Afghanistan, so that lowers your survivability if you really piss him off by messing with his friend, as well as the Improbable Aiming Skills John has. + Mary too. She is shown to genuinely like Sherlock, and most certainly seems to get along with Mrs. Hudson, as well, despite the fact she's an old lady. But she was an assassin from the CIA. Plus, her husband is an adrenaline junkie who, like her, is not one you'd want to mess with. It doesn't help she's an adrenaline junkie herself. You don't want to mess with her and don't get any ideas about messing with John- or Sherlock. Pissing off those two by attacking the other? Lame idea. It doesn't help that John and Mary are darn good shots. + Sherlock himself. Threaten Mrs. Hudson and he'll give you a serious beating, then throw you out a window. If he's convinced you're stalking his best friend's fiancee, then he will watch you closely. And most of all, he makes it very clear that while he's on the side of good, he doesn't see himself as being one of the angels. > Sherlock: Oh I may be on the side of the angels, but don't think for one second that I am one of them. * Shōgun (2024): Lord Yoshii Toranaga is this mixed with a huge helping of Magnificent Bastard. He's the Designated Hero of the Regency Council, a charming family man, an incredibly charismatic leader, and all around projects an air of nobility and virtue. However, Toranaga is also hard as a rock, will tolerate absolutely no insubordination, and his vision of a peaceful future is one where he, alone, calls the shots. Given his competition and their schemes, Toranaga has to be resolute and put his vision above all else, even the survival of his own family members, if he and his lineage are to survive. * Stargate SG-1: The entire crew. Even the sweet and compassionate archaeologist Daniel Jackson is perfectly willing to kill Goa'uld. + Similarly in Stargate Atlantis: while less of the crew is military, the military types are definitely this (and the civilians too, sometimes). Normally, John Shepherd likes reading Fantastic Four, playing games with Rodney, flirting with random alien women, and listening to Johny Cash. Threaten his friends and he will end you. * Star Trek + The Federation as a whole, while fairly idealistic, is very capable of doing hard, even cruel, things when needed. Especially in Star Trek: The Original Series. For example, there were some examples where Kirk was willing to destroy all life on a planet in order to protect if not the Federation, then at least the Enterprise (and given that he can do so through a standardised Starfleet order, General Order 24, it's clear that it is a possible need Starfleet foresaw). Later, in DS9, Quark lampshaded this, describing the Federation in general and humans in particular at various points as being both insidiously sweet and capable of terrifying violence if the situation calls for it. + All the Trek crews can fall under this trope, being friendly, peaceful explorers, but Captain Picard may be the best example. Any adversary that underestimates the polite, diplomatic, Earl Grey-sipping, Shakespeare-quoting, Father to his Men does so at their extreme, if not terminal, peril. There's a reason why the Klingons ask him to settle disputes for them. + Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: - Compared to other Starfleet captains, Benjamin Sisko was quite willing to do things like poison a planet or participate in a murder conspiracy for the greater good, although he might not be too happy about it. > "I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all... I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again, I would." - Kurn nearly name-checks this trope when Worf asks why he opposed Gowron's decision to break the treaty with the Federation. > Kurn: Because Gowron underestimates the Federation. He thinks they're soft, weak, but he is wrong. Sooner or later, there will be war. > Worf: A war the Empire may lose. > Kurn: Yes. - In the Dominion War's endgame, after the Breen energy-draining weapon had been neutralized, the Dominion pulled back to Cardassian space to regroup, believing that the Federation was too timid to go on the offensive and would hold the Romulans and Klingons back. Unhappily for the Dominion, it was Sisko who convinced the Romulan representative that time to build more ships and grow more Jem'Hadar clones was exactly what the enemy was hoping for and the alliance couldn't afford to allow that even if the cost of an all-out assault was high. + Star Trek: Discovery most of the Big Bad Ensemble are of the agreement that the Federation is strong, with the Klingons believing the claim the Federation "comes in peace" must be a lie since they are clearly so ready to fight, while half of the Enemy Civil War in the Mirror Universe lectures the other on the Federation being strong in spite of their moral weaknesses. The lectured side comes to agree and pulls a Heel–Face Turn...for awhile. + Star Trek: Picard: - Elnor has a benevolent heart and is self-sacrificing when he's pledged to a hopeless cause, but he's utterly merciless towards his foes. He'll offer them only one chance to back down, and if they don't, then he'll butcher them with his sword. - Hugh, the former Borg drone who is now the Executive Director of the Borg Reclamation Project, is kind, empathetic and dedicates his life to helping ex-drones heal, but he's also brave and loyal, risking everything to help Picard and Soji. On top of that, he asks Picard to stand up for all the ex-Borg, who suffer incredible prejudice. * In the Supernatural episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part Two", Jake does not believe Sam is willing to kill, as he was unwilling to finish Jake when he had the upper hand in Cold Oak, but Sam is determined not to make that mistake twice. * In Tenko Marion is perfectly ready to let the other women rip \|\|Verna\|\| apart for her betrayal if she refuses to talk. * Samar Navabi from The Blacklist, full stop. She's a part of the task force and doesn't hesitate to help people who need it, but she doesn't take kindly to terrorists or the people on Red's Blacklist (except for a few). And as such, she will take them out if it helps keep people safe. (see: Walid Abu Sitta). * Torchwood as a whole. All of them are on the side of the angels and aim to protect the people of Cardiff, but they're all willing to kill people and do horrible things, such as giving up children to potentially awful fates, dumping the villain into the sun, and threatening civilians, if it's felt that it is necessary for the greater good. * Ultraman and his many successors and comrades from the Ultra Series may be benevolent and compassionate beings of light, one of the defining examples of The Cape in Japanese media (though some are rougher around the edges than others), but they are also 50-meter-tall beings of light with incredible powers, who have made it their purpose to defend peace and justice throughout the galaxy. Since Ultraman first graced Japanese television screens way back in 1966, destructive kaiju and malevolent aliens have all learned the same painful lesson: If you threaten humanity or the Earth, you will pay the price. * The Walking Dead (2010): While Rick and his group may have started off naively optimistic for such a Crapsack World, by a few seasons in, they're fully adjusted to that harsh reality and willing to do whatever it takes to survive. Anyone who chooses to antagonize them expecting they'll just roll over and take it or show them mercy is in for a very nasty surprise. * General Gaines in You, Me and the Apocalypse. A caring and surprisingly gentle man, polite even to people who make his life difficult, but he will kill anyone who endangers humanity or his loved ones without so much as blinking. ---	GoodIsNotSoft	null
AnimeAndManga	# Spanner In The Works - Anime & Manga Following manga has its own page: --------------------------------- * One Piece --- * Ashita no Nadja: + The main protagonist Nadja is this. \|\|When their Smug Snake boss Hermann betrays them, Rosso and Bianco ruin his plans as they let a kidnapped Nadja escape and tell her where to find their reports. Nadja not only gets away and finds the reports, but is the one who manages to give them to the authorities and soon Hermann is thrown in jail for attempted murder and his own massive debts.\|\| + Also, \|\|Hermann\|\| thought that hiring \|\|Rosemary\|\| as \|\|Nadja's Body Double\|\| would give him an advantage. WRONG! \|\|Rosemary, despite being just 13-years-old, proved to be much smarter and more independent than Herman believed, flat-out telling him that if he tried to discard her, she'd reveal their plans and he'd go down with her.\|\| Suck on that, Smug Snake. * Eren \|\|being a Titan Shifter\|\| in Attack on Titan derailed \|\|the other Titan Shifters\|\|'s plans by causing them to shift their focus towards Eren. + Earlier in the story, Ymir \|\|became one to the Marleyans' plan to destroy the Eldians in Paradis from the inside, as she ate the Warrior group's leader, Marcell Galliard, and took the Jaws Titan for herself, leaving Bertolt, Reiner and Annie without their leader.\|\| * In Baccano!'s Flying Pussyfoot arc, it seems like everyone is this for everyone else, in a plot that was already capable of being summed up in one word: "clusterfuck." \|\|Long story short: the Lemures plan to hold the train passengers hostage in return for Huey Laforet's release from prison. Ladd Russo and his buddies plan to kill a bunch of people For the Evulz. Czeslaw Meyer plans to smuggle explosives into New York and sell them. Jacuzzi Splot and his gang of delinquents plan to steal Czeslaw's explosives and sell them. Isaac and Miria have already pulled off a robbery and plan to use the train to make their getaway into New York City. Daily Days agent Rachel just wants to hitch a ride. And Rail Tracer does not approve of all these shenanigans going down on his train.\|\| All of these plans disrupt one another in spectacular fashion and end in varying levels of success based — with one or two notable exceptions — on how sympathetic the characters involved are. * In Basilisk, Princess Oboro may not be able to fight, but she derails \|\|Big Bad Tenzen\|\|'s plans thrice. First, \|\|she tries to interrupt a fight between Koushirou and Gennosuke but accidentally causes Koushirou to blind himself with his own powers, limiting Tenzen's physical actions since Koushirou is his Number Two\|\|. Second, \|\|she seals her own Piercing Eyes to avert using her incredibly lethal powers against her clansmen again, but also preventing Tenzen from using said powers for his sole benefit.\|\| And third, \|\|her eyes are unsealed when Tenzen is reviving himself after Gennosuke kills him, which allows her to undo Tenzen's Immortality and kills him for good\|\|. And in the end she also \|\|derails Ofuku's plans via commiting a Heroic Suicide instead of killing a completely defenseless Gennosuke, sending her into a huge Villainous Breakdown.\|\| * Black Lagoon has a downplayed example. Balalaika has an elaborate plan to deal with Hansel and Gretel that involves funneling them towards a park so she and her men can kill them themselves. However, Revy and Eda, wanting to claim the bounty on them themselves, try to intercept them before they arrive, causing the twins to split up and only Hansel making it to where Balalaika wanted them. \|\|She does get Gretel bumped off later, but she resorts to more underhanded means to deal with her.\|\| * In Boarding School Juliet, durring the prefect elections \|\|Leon starts an all-out brawl between the Black Dogs and White Cats as the perfect stage to expose the main couple's Secret Relationship to the entire school. As Romio and Juliet are seemingly doomed to be condemned by the entire school, they gain an unexpected ally in Maru, who openly announces his support of the couple due to his friendship with Juliet's "Julio" persona. Seeing the one person who hates Romio and Juliet the most give his support encourages all of the couple's friends to declare their own support, which starts a ripple effect that ends with the entire school (save Leon and her goons) accepting the couple and voting them in near-unanimously as head prefects.\|\| * A downplayed example happens in the World Youth arc of Captain Tsubasa during the quarterfinals against Sweden. Their members had all been sent to different European teams in order to both study the competition and learn from them, thus preparing accordingly to defeat them (even eliminating Germany, the favorites, from the tournament). What ends up derailing their strategy against Japan is Tomeya Akai, a defender who replaces Hikaru Matsuyama (due to his girlfriend having an accident), and as they knew nothing about him, he spends a large part of the match marking Stefan Levin and stopping his chances to shoot to the goal. * Although the events of Cardcaptor Sakura, Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, and ×××HOLiC are among the most complex and densely gambited known to man, none of the respective chessmasters of the former two expected Yukito to fall in love with Touya instead of Sakura. The gambit ruling the latter one did anticipate the gay couple — but apparently failed to anticipate a heterosexual crush from one of them. * Case Closed: + Heroic Gambit Example: Between them, Heiji Hattori and Ai Haibara screw up a plan Conan had worked out to get information on the Men in Black. Haibara, despite being an otherwise intelligent and calculating person, felt enough of an obligation to Conan that it made her insistent on going to him. She showed up just as the plan was going his way, and her presence opened the door for everything to get shot to hell. Heiji's role in the Spannering was in deliberately leaving Haibara the means to locate Conan in the first place in case she chose to do exactly what she did. + Another, more indirect, example has an assassination attempt by the Men in Black foiled because of a little boy who kept "Ding-Dong-Ditching" one of the operatives' homes. This act ultimately put Conan in a position to foil the plot. + The fifteenth movie has Touma Tachihara, a boy who wakes up from his years-long Convenient Coma at the worst moment possible for the Big Bad because he's the only person able to identify him... since he witnessed the murder he committed in the past. Pretty much the whole movie's plot relies on whether Touma's Trauma-Induced Amnesia will be undone or not. + The Mystery Train arc has \|\|the Kaito Kid\|\| forcibly drafted into this role by Conan in a plot to convince the Organization that \|\|they killed Haibara\|\|. When everything's over, the only one in the Organization to realize they were duped is also the only one who was guaranteed to keep quiet about it. + In the Whole Episode Flashback of manga Chapters 921-924, Shinichi himself was one of these at the age of four. In his attempts to befriend a just as young Ran in his new daycare, he briefly caught a weird expression in the face of the daycare worker in charge. He mentioned that as well as other details in front of his parents in what seemed to be just a display of childish jealousy... this but allowed his Guile Hero dad Yusaku to realize that \|\|the teacher and his Delicate and Sickly wife were planning to kidnap Ran and raise her as the Replacement Goldfish of their runaway daughter\|\|. Yusaku alerted the police (including Ran's Action Dad Kogoro), had \|\|the wife and her brother/accomplice arrested\|\|, convinced \|\|the teacher to turn himself in willingly in exchange for being reunited with the missing daughter, and Ran was ultimately saved\|\| — all because Shinichi made his first deductions right in the perfect moment. * In A Certain Magical Index, Touma often derails the complex plans of any character by simply showing up and kicking the crap out of every bad guy in sight. Subverted in that Laura Stewart and Aleister Crowley are Magnificent Bastards and can factor him into their schemes. Later, Aleister has a Villainous Breakdown when \|\|Shiage defeats Meltdowner\|\|, raging that it's impossible and ordering his death in an effort to stop him from derailing his calculations any further. * In Chrono Crusade Aion admits \|\|that his plan failed because he didn't take Rosette Christopher into account.\|\| "No one could predict the actions of such a foolhardy young woman!" Of course, in the anime adaptation the main characters are closer to being Unwitting Pawns... * Code Geass: + The cat nearly succeeds at exposing Lelouch and wrecking all his plans simply by accidentally getting its head stuck in his Zero mask and wandering off with it. Before long, the entire boarding school has caught wind that Lelouch is chasing a cat across campus and the situation balloons into a race against time as Milly Ashford, the mischievous president of the student council, offers a bounty to anyone who can catch the cat and obtain the "embarrassing secret" she assumes it's carrying. + Ironically, Lelouch Lamperouge could count as his own Spanner: on multiple occasions, his attachment to his friends (mostly Suzaku or Shirley, but *especially* his sister Nunnally) have caused him to make moves that jeopardize his plans or even the entire rebellion he leads. The first occurrence in R1 is where he \|\|lets Villetta live, because he thought she was no danger to him\|\|. When was that? Second episode. The big ones are where he \|\|ignores his own unstable Geass, leading to the death of Euphemia as he geasses her into becoming a Genocidal Maniac and then has to shoot her dead to stop her\|\|, and where he abandoned his followers for his kidnapped sister shortly afterward which greatly weakened their position, his trait continued on in R2. This came to the logical conclusion \|\|when his Roaring Rampage of Revenge for the murder of Shirley, carried out against a cult whose members included scientists and children, which ended up being a large part of Prince Schneizel's efforts to turn the Black Knights against him — the centerpiece being the fact that their beloved leader possesses a Mind Control eye and quite possibly forced them all into obedience (he didn't, probably because he's smart enough not to misuse a power that only works once). Even when Shirley is Spared by the Adaptation and/or the Black Knights aren't as willing to go through with it, something else could get in the way instead\|\| + Suzaku is both this and an Unwitting Pawn. When \|\|Marianne brought him to the Sword of Akasha (possibly thinking he'd side with her out of love for her stepdaughter Euphemia, or because of his friendship with her "vessel" Anya Alstreim)... he sided with Lelouch instead.\|\| Not only that, but he messes up Schneizel's plans, as well: \|\|Schneizel was planning to eventually kill off his father and become Emperor, but Suzaku realised this and volunteered to help... right in front of several subordinates who were very worried about doing something like that, including Cornelia (who had never considered such a thing, but went along with the idea anyway)... and Gino Weinberg aka Knight of Three, who's highly loyal to the Emperor. Who escaped with his mecha and told Bismarck Waldstein, the Emperor's personal sword.\|\| This made Schneizel's attempt to blame it on Lelouch or the Black Knights completely impossible. + Villetta: - Villetta is really one of the biggest ones for Lelouch, as she figures out his identity as Zero early on (not to mention her part in Shirley's emotional descent, becomes part of the Britannian security detail spying over Lelouch due to her knowledge of and arguably immunity to Geass, and is later a key part of the betrayal in R2 19, as she is the convincing factor for Ohgi, and subsequently the rest of the Black Knights, even with a cursory amount of evidence of Geass (with respect to the truth). The latter of which ends up pushing Lelouch towards the Zero Requiem. And why does she become such a problem? \|\|Because Lelouch couldn't bring himself to kill a woman who is unarmed and, at that moment, no threat to him.\|\| Bad decision, there. - The Compilation Movie series essentially tones down her role as this. While she still tries finding evidence about Lelouch, her inolvement with Shirley is changed to having Deithard be the one to shoot her and cause her amnesia in order to retrieve her evidence. Even when Schneizel in this version reveals C.C is the source of Lelouch's Geass, the Black Knights show more reluctance towards betraying him by wanting him to answer their questions first before passing judgement. It's not so much her or Ohgi this time as it is Schneizel and Kanon by having their men be the ones that try to gun down Lelouch before the Black Knights could get their answers. + One of the biggest would have to be Princess Euphemia. When Brittanian occupiers were murdering Japanese civilians by the dozens and pretty much enslaving those who survived, it was easy for Lelouch's violent revolution to gain followers. But then good natured Euphemia is put in a position of power; she starts treating the Japanese people with respect, tries to find a compromise solution that both Brittania and Japan can live with, and just like that all of Lelouch's popular support goes bye-bye. Lelouch actually admits defeat to Euphemia, calling her his most formidable opponent. * Three of the 12 Sisters in Coyote Ragtime Show, Oct, Nove, and Diesse, accidentally sent an enemy ship flying into a bomb capable of an Earth-Shattering Kaboom... \|\|and nothing happens, revealing the bomb above the planet Graceland to be a fake. Spannered further by the militants who act on this information, who are unaware that the fake bomb was a distraction to keep people from finding the real bomb, which is already on the planet and was moments away from being disarmed before they killed the people negotiating for it.\|\| * Daimos: Olban's plan for world domination started to unravel when one of the anti-Olban peace movement members, Himley (the brother of Balbas, who was away with the Earth invasion force serving Richter), was about to report the brutality of Olban's right hand man Georiya on the peace movement, found out that Olban \|\|was responsible for the previous Emperor's assassination\|\|. And Himley wouldn't be there in the first place if Olban didn't let Georiya use brutal methods. * Death Note: + Teru Mikami screwed up by going for his notebook when Kiyomi Takada was kidnapped by Mello, which lead Near to the notebook... If it hadn't been for this one mistake, which allowed Near to successfully replace the notebook with a fake, Light would have won. Unusually for a Spanner, this wasn't a result of stupidity but of Mikami thinking too much like Light: he did exactly what Light would've done in his situation, with the limited information available. In the manga, Light even acknowledges this. The missing information, of course, was that LIGHT HAD HIS OWN NOTEBOOK HE ALREADY USED! + Misa Amane: - She gummed up the works all the time, but without Misa, there'd be no Rem, and then who knows how long Light would be desperately scrambling for a way to push L out of the way to his New World. - Misa is also a spanner for L, since up until the point that Rem and her were introduced, there was no way for Light to kill L, since he couldn't find out L's real name without the shinigami eyes. + Shidou, a fairly stupid shinigami, performs this twice: - He is partly responsible for Mello's escape from the police raid, because he sat still and did exactly what he'd been told to do, rather than taking his Death Note back the minute its current owner died, which would have meant that Mello couldn't have his "give me the notebook" scene. - That wasn't the worst thing he did. The worst thing he did was wrecking Light and Misa's alibi by revealing the fake Death Note rules. Had that not happened, even if Near suspected Light he would have no basis for his suspicion, and Light would not have handed over Misa's Death Note to Mikami. In true Didn't See That Coming fashion, Light didn't even learn about Shidou's existence until the damage was already done. Any other instance on this page either would not have happened or could not have damaged Light's plans if Shidou hadn't done that. It wasn't as though that would have saved Light. After all L was already going to test and see if the fake rules were legit and Near would've done the same. The only thing that occurred because of him is that they didn't have to perform the test. + While we're at it, we can't forget the damage to Light's plans done by his own dad Soichirou, whose attempt to bring Mello in the old fashioned way rather than kill him right then and there led to Mello's survival of the police raid, which eventually led to the incident with Mikami described above. + Mello: - Mello in the anime certainly counts as a non-stupid example. The purpose of adding him to the show was to add someone straightforward and somewhat reckless to wreck the other main characters' quiet, roundabout and complicated plans. There is a simple, unexpected genius in just driving up in a motorcycle, tossing smoke grenades into the crowd and grabbing your target instead of laying an elaborate trap, now isn't there? - Mello was sort of a reverse Spanner, or perhaps a spanner used properly instead of being thrown into the works, in that his actions did not screw up Light's plans directly but rather led Near to perfect his plans. Without Mello being the spanner in someone's works, Near and Light would have continued planning and counter-planning with no end in sight. That's why Near said that him and Mello together were better than L; Near could make the plans and Mello could prevent any countering of those plans. This is especially important, when you realize that L was all but certain Light was guilty 99.9% of the time. He just couldn't get past that .01%... + In the last arc of the manga, Light is just this close to a Near-Villain Victory if he can keep everybody else in the cast distracted with a Hannibal Lecture \|\|long enough to write their names in a tiny sliver of Death Note he has concealed in his watch… but then Matsuda reaches his Rage Breaking Point as Light disparages his own father and his beliefs in Justice as part of said lecture and empties his gun on Light (and only the other cops wrestling the gun away prevents him from putting the last bullet between Light's eyes). Thus Light goes from wanna-be god to dying an Undignified Death.\|\| * Den-noh Coil protagonist Yasako is revealed to be this in the final episode. \|\|When Yasako was about seven years old, she stumbled into a hidden Space being used to help a girl her age, later known as Isako, cope with the death of her older brother. Yasako encounters a simulation of this brother and her affection towards him sparks Isako's insecurities and fears of losing him, resulting in the creation of Miss Michiko, which is the cause for many problems throughout the series\|\|. * Dragon Ball: + Dragon Ball: - The Red Ribbon Army is a worldwide military organisation planning to use the Dragon Balls to Take Over the World. Too bad they didn't expect to be dealing with a 12-year-old boy with a stick after the Four Star Dragon Ball left to him by his deceased grandfather. In fact, Goku may not have been inclined to attack the Red Ribbon Army's headquarters... until they sent the hitman Tao Pai Pai to kill the guy who happened to have the ball Goku wanted. This meant Goku had to make amends to the guy's son, and that meant he now had to get all the balls to revive the dude... including the ones the Red Ribbons had already collected. Their base is now a target. - An earlier example would be at the end of the first Dragon Ball hunt. Pilaf has summoned the Dragon and is about to wish for world domination, but he never expects one of the good guys to escape from their prison and change the wish... like Oolong did. > Pilaf: I wish to rule- > Oolong: The panties off a hot babe! - And afterwards, while preparing to kill the heroes for their interference, Pilaf's palace is destroyed by Goku, having turned into a giant monkey monster. + Dragon Ball Z: - On Namek, the elder Muri destroying the Frieza Force's scouters completely SCREWED Frieza's Dragon Ball hunt. Without scouters, neither Frieza or his minions know how to track Ki, which means they are unable to locate the other Namekien villages or even the Earthlings and Vegeta. Frieza is effectively forced to sit on his butt and wait for the Ginyu Force to arrive with new scouters, even after Vegeta steals Frieza's stash of Dragon Balls. - Gohan and Krillin become this to both Vegeta and Frieza on Namek. First, Gohan steals the Dragon Ball that Vegeta took and hid. Second, Gohan and Krillin teaming up with Vegeta against the Ginyu Force kept them alive long enough for Goku to arrive and save them, taking out the last major force on Frieza's side. Then, their friendship with the Namekians gave them access to the Dragon Balls, allowing them to wish Piccolo back to life, bring him to Namek, and deny Frieza and Vegeta their chance at immortality. - Vegeta ends up being a spanner at the climax of the Cell Saga. While Gohan is in a beam struggle with Cell, all of the other fighters seem helpless to even budge Cell, and it seems that Cell is set to kill Gohan. But Vegeta hits Cell with a blast from behind that's just strong enough to make Cell briefly lose his footing, distracting him. This allows Gohan to unleash all of his remaining power, destroying Cell down to the atomic level and finally getting rid of him(The Z-Fighter's unsuccessful beam attack on Cell is anime-only as Vegeta is the only one to hit Cell in the manga). - King Yenma and Fortuneteller Baba are this in the Buu Saga. Had they not brought back Vegeta to fight Super Buu, Goku wouldn't have anyone to fuse with, and would have remained completely outclassed by Super Buu. + In Dragon Ball Minus, Frieza recalls all the Saiyans to their home planet so he can kill them all at once in a month's time. He does this because he fears the Saiyans rebelling and becoming Super Saiyans. This alerted Bardock and and his wife, Gine, so they sent their youngest child away. That child grew up to become the Super Saiyan who kicks Frieza's butt. + Dragon Ball Super: - Jaco the Galactic Patrolman ends up being this towards Champa's team in the Champa arc. Vegeta had suspected something wrong when, during Goku's match with Frost, the Saiyan is taken down so easily. However, during Frost's match with Piccolo, Jaco spots Frost slipping his right arm inside Piccolo's stretched and wrapped arm. When Frost defeats a now-poisoned Piccolo and declared winner, Jaco objects and tells the announcer to check his right arm. \|\|Frost had a needle implanted inside his right forearm coated with poison. Frost is disqualified and disgraced while Piccolo becomes the real winner.\|\| Even more, Jaco risked being obliterated on the spot for a possible lie to expose this. - Later on in Super, Cell does this posthumously. In the beginning of the Future Trunks arc, Goku Black destroys Trunks' time machine, rendering the heroes unable to return to the Future Trunks timeline... but what Black didn't know was that Cell had also time-travelled to the present (since his Future Trunks had already destroyed the Androids and prevented him from achieving his perfect form) and left his version of the time machine behind. The heroes found it, and Bulma kept it, providing them with a backup to follow him with. * In Durarara!!, one of the main reasons why Izaya hates Shizuo so much is because his emotional volatility, Too Dumb to Fool nature, and firmly sustained belief that Izaya is responsible for 99.9% of everything that goes wrong in Ikebukuro makes him liable to become one at any moment — because all of it makes him immune to Izaya's manipulations. \|\|Shizuo ends up doing exactly this in Volume 6, when Izaya's attempt to frame Shizuo and get him out of the way for the moment doesn't go quite as planned and instead brings even worse people down on Izaya's head.\|\| * The first cour of Endride revolved around a) Prince Emilio wanting to kill King Delzaine, b) his friends trying to dissuade him because they need answers from Delzaine, c) the Ignauts trying to get Delzaine to peacefully step down while fighting off his enforcers, the Truculent, and d) Shun trying to get to Babylon so he can use the Babel device to return to his world. Come the mid-season climax, \|\|instead one of the Truculent, Ibelda, slaughters all his teammates, kills Delzaine himself, and jumps into the Babel device, meaning absolutely no one got what they wanted, and a whole new set of problems were created besides.\|\| * In the second part of the Explorer Woman Ray OVAs, Ray \|\|uses a crystal pendant on the Ord temple — which uses controlled light beams as a means of somehow controlling the weather — in order to stop bad guy Rieg Vader from controlling it.\|\| * In the Battle of Fairy Tail arc of Fairy Tail, Erza's false eye is this. Its existence halves the effect of any ocular magic used on her. When Erza is petrified by Evergreen using an ocular attack, the eye allows her to break free and defeat Evergreen. * Fullmetal Alchemist: + It turns out \|\|Scar's older brother\|\| was the first to figure out Father's Ancient Conspiracy (more exactly: \|\|he was the first person to notice the transmutation circle around the country and began piecing together what's going on; the raid on his country confirmed his suspicions, and he quickly devised countermeasures for it).\|\| And he did this before the series even starts! \|\|He may have died to save his younger brother before he could execute the plan, but he played a major role in defeating Father by allowing the heroes to fight back.\|\| And even more: \|\|by transmuting his own arm to a mutilated Scar plus imbibing it with the right kind of alchemy, he not only saved his younger brother's life (at the high price of further damaging his mind and soul), but helped him become the one who ultimately took down Fuhrer Bradley a.k..a Wrath, one of the most dangerous Homunculus.\|\| + One can't help but pity Father. Despite being an Eldritch Abomination who spent centuries erecting a massive plan to gain godhood, fate sent an entire legion of fools to ruin his day. In addition to \|\|Scar's brother\|\|, there's Ling Yao and his entourage, who can sense Homunculi and just want the secret of immortality; May Chang, who uses alkahestry instead of alchemy (therefore she lacks its weaknesses) and is on the same quest as her half-brother Ling; and even Scar himself, whose thirst for revenge almost derails the plan several times. + \|\|The second Greed\|\| also ends up as this to Father, who certainly wasn't expecting him to \|\|regain his old memories and betray him a second time\|\|. Not only does \|\|Greed betray Father\|\| but he also \|\|joins the heroes to fight against him\|\|. \|\|Greed\|\| managed to weaken Wrath (greatly helping Scar) and helped the Briggs soldiers hold the Central fort. He was also crucial in the final battle as he managed to \|\|absorb some of Father's souls and distracted him long enough for the heroes to make him use up his Philosopher's Stone shield\|\|. Most importantly, after \|\|being absorbed by Father (who at this point, still couldn't die due to his regeneration abilities), Greed greatly damages him by using his carbonization powers to turn Father's vessel into charcoal, thereby rendering Father unable to regenerate. All that was needed to destroy Father for good afterwards was a single punch from Edward\|\|. * Full Metal Panic!: Though not a ditz or stupid like some of the other examples, kidnapping Ordinary High-School Student Kaname means that you've instantly lost, because she tends to figure out ways to screw up your best laid plans. Not to mention the whole "bodyguard with Humongous Mecha" thing she has going, and how said bodyguard is the most hardcore Badass Normal the world has ever seen and such. * Future GPX Cyber Formula: Smith and Bootsvorz's plans to steal Asurada GSX get folded multiple times of time due to unexpected mishaps: + Smith sending a helicopter to shoot down the truck delivering GSX to Team Sugo gets sabotaged by a 14-year-old boy on a motorcycle who gets unhurt and capable or driving the car to safety. + A sabotage on Hayato before the Niseko GP gets ruined when Ohtomo Johji, a veteran friendly driver, happens to be out to practice that night as well. + On the Niseko GP, Bootsvorz's first attempt to crash out the car gets ruined by Hayato's sudden pit entry for a set of rain tire. An unexpected rainfall that follows causes him — running on slick — to spin out. + His second attempt also gets ruined because a random car gets out of a mud trap and blocks the gap between to two machines. The heavy rain causes him and the said car to crash each other out. + In the Brazilian GP, Bootsvorz gets into a perfect spot to take down GSX, but he doesn't expect a rival driver Knight Shoemach to deliberately crash him out at the last second to protect it. + Smith's personal attempt at taking out both Shoemach and Bootsvorz gets spoiled when Hayato, driving GSX into a shortcut, jumps out of nowhere and scares him, indirectly leading him to his death. * In Beast King Golion, Honerva's plan to take down Altea by \|\|killing Shirogane\|\| falls victim to two spanners — one was Kurogane in Red Lion coming up with the idea \|\|to push the Deathblack Beastman Galcia into some magma\|\|, and when Galra attacks again before Altea could train a replacement, \|\|Fala takes Blue Lion\|\|. * Gundam: Nine times out of ten, bad guys in tend to get their plans uprooted because of this. + The entirety of the Principality of Zeon is just one big spanner against themselves in Mobile Suit Gundam's One Year War. Among them being: - M'Quve refusing to give Ramba Ral the new Doms, leading to his death and later that of the Black Tri-Stars, depriving Zeon of experienced and talented soldiers. - Sayla and Amuro spotting a Federation traitor just before Operation Odessa, managing to foil his plans. - Ghinias Saharin snapping and attacking, leading to the death of his own men that his sister Aina had brokered for a cease-fire to get them out for medical attention. - Zeon soldiers mistakenly thought that the Gundam had been destroyed early on in the Battle of Solomon, leading a talented and seasoned pilot like Anaval Gato to break away and miss fighting Amuro. - Zeon blowing a lot of their funding on expensive Mobile Armors or experimental, extremely limited-focus Mobile Suits; - Ghiren firing a superweapon too early just to kill his own father, also wiping out LOTS of Zeon's troops. Then a pissed off Kycillia executes Ghiren for Patricide, leading to the powerful Delaz Fleet (that Gato is a part of) to bail. And to think, they had spent 9 months at that point in a stalemate and were really close to winning... - And, of course, the ultimate one: three Zeon soldiers go to Side 7 to investigate goings on in there and discover the Federation building Mobile Suits there. Had they not attacked the factory, the Colony wouldn't have been destroyed, and Amuro would have NOT been in the right place and time to hop into the Gundam that his father built... + Mobile Fighter G Gundam - Domon Kasshu. Suffice it to say, he's a thorn in the side of anyone who ever has a plan in this series (including, sometimes, people on his side). Examples include showing up in Shinjuku just as Master Asia is putting his Evil Plan into motion and \|\|being in love with the person Ulube selects as the core unit for the Devil Gundam: via an Anguished Declaration of Love, he managed to break through Rain's brainwashing and release her, with The Power of Love fueling the God Gundam's ultimate attack that let them destroy the Devil Gundam forever and ever\|\|. - If it wasn't for Rain "borrowing" the Rising Gundam during the Finals, \|\|Wong's plan to kill Domon and install Allenby as the Apocalypse Maiden in charge of the Devil Gundam might well have succeeded. Instead, Rain took Allenby down WITHOUT killing her and then her father removed the DG cells from her body, which later let Allenby help Domon free Rain from the Devil Gundam.\|\| - Even more: \|\|Rain's father Dr. Mikamura used to be in league with the bad guys. When his beloved Rain found out and called him out, Mikamura realised how terrible all of this was and decided to turn tails on the villains, which led to Rain taking Allenby out of Wong's plans.\|\| And then, \|\|when Rain was seized as the Apocalypse Maiden instead, a fatally wounded Mikamura managed to alert Domon and his friends of the upcoming danger and, in his dying throes, released the capsule containing Domon's cryogenized father, which deprived Ulube from his other hostage and gave Dr. Kasshu the chance to help as well.\|\| + In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Durandal ends up throwing a spanner towards himself and his Destiny Plan by repeteadly trying to assassinate his political rival and the local Guile Heroine, Lacus Clyne. Had he not decided that Lacus had to die, then Lacus's boyfriend Kira and Kira's friends in the Archangel crew wouldn't have gotten back together to fight back and stop the new war that just started, and may had even accepted the Destiny Plan. + In Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Haman Karn and her Neo Zeon group had successfully obtained Side 3 through her massive Xanatos Gambit. It seemed that the Earth would be next... had Glemy Toto not decide to reveal himself as a clone of Ghiren Zabi and initiate a civil war with her. + In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Romefeller's War for Fun and Profit scheme fell apart because of Princess Relena Peacecraft. Romefeller's leader, Duke Dermail, invaded Relena's homeland because she was espousing Total Pacifism, which started to undercut Romefeller's authority. Dermail offered to call off the invasion if Relena dissolved the nation and agreed to become the figurehead Queen of the nations unified under Romefeller's banner, and she accepted to protect the remaining citizens. He didn't expect Relena to reject that whole "figurehead" thing and continue advocating peace, leading to others within Romefeller to admit they're very tired of war. \|\|And when they did finally manage to checkmate her, the one who took over was... Treize Khushrenada, the other spanner in Romefeller's works because he was not a warmonger; he didn't espouse total peace like Relena but throughout held to the idea that war is not a goal but a means: something that simply has its place as and when needed.\|\| + Gundam Build Fighters: - Chairman Mashita of PPSE creates arcade game-like machines that animate Gundam model kits, which have become a worldwide phenomenon and made him a nice chunk of change. And then along comes Reiji, the prince of the otherworldly kingdom from which Mashita stole the unusual particles which make Gunpla Battle machines work. Afraid that Reiji's victory would give him the spotlight and the opportunity to expose Mashita's theft, the Chairman begins rigging the World Tournament in the hopes of eliminating Reiji...but due to his piloting skills, the model-building talents of his partner Sei Iori, and the True Companions bonds they share with each other and most of the tournament's other participants, every attempt thusfar has failed. Ultimately, he threw in his Trump Card, a Brainwashed and Crazy Meijin Kawaguchi III and his Exia Dark Matter, causing the duo to defeat him and also expose the truth of those particles. - Mashita's twin brother, the leader of the Gunpla Mafia, also has his plans wrecked by Reiji. He had planned to take over the Yajima Stadium and defeat the Battlers of the 7th World Gunpla Battle Tournament (the ones who ruined Mashita) to take control of Gunpla Battles all over by demoralizing people. He ends up taking down Sei, the Meijin and Mao by manipulating their Plavsky Particle amount and holds back China, Nils and Ricardo and prepares to finish off Sei when Reiji suddenly teleports in, take control and uses the Arista Aila had to repower Sei's suit and defeat the leader. + Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: Iok Kujan, through sheer, unadulterated incompetence and stupidity, completely derails Tekkadan and McGillis's plan to deal with the \|\|Mobile Armor Hashmal\|\|. Twice. First he activates the\|\|Mobile Armor\|\| by showing up in a Mobile Suit, despite precautions taken by the other side not to bring Ahab Wave-powered machines to the dig site precisely to prevent that from happening. Later, after Tekkadan has taken careful measures to draw the \|\|Mobile Armor\|\| into an ambush site near a city they evacuated, Iok shows up to (futilely) attack it, drawing its path away from the evacuated city and towards a still-populated agricultural plant, \|\|which is subsequently destroyed\|\|. * Honoo no Alpen Rose: + \|\|Jeudi\|\| and, in the anime, \|\|her mother Helene\|\| were this. The first, via \|\|appearing in the Durant mansion and thus throwing a wrench in the local Smug Snake Toulonchamp's plans, which involved him having his own daughter Mathilda as his spy as well as Jeudi's Body Double to twist the Durants's arms into helping him\|\|; it goes double when \|\|she reveals her knowledge of the Alpine Rose song when she's being taken away (by singing it in the anime and or leaving a handwritten version of the lyrics in the anime), letting Helene know the truth and identify her as her daughter instead of Mathilda.\|\| The second, via \|\|crawling towards Toulonchamp in the middle of a Hostage Situation and holding on his leg while he's about to kidnap Jeudi at knife point, distracting him enough to let Jeudi's boyfriend Lundi pounce on him and setting Jeudi free.\|\| + However, \|\|Friederich Brandel aka Jeudi's dad/Helene's husband\|\| was the biggest one. \|\|The aforementioned Alpine Rose song? It was his most famous theme, and not only it doubled as a symbol of La Résistance against Those Wacky Nazis but as his biggest token of love for Helene after they became Star-Crossed Lovers. Jeudi using it to prove her identity to Helene totally undid all of Toulonchamp's plans in regards to the Durants, and before that it was one of Jeudi's few memories about her own past as well.\|\| + Also, \|\|Toulonchamp's spy Anna commits the VERY dumb mistake of trying to kill Jeudi via dropping a pot on her head, which the girl barely manages to escape from. This not only scares the crap out of Jeudi's grandparents (reducing their willingness to collaborate with Toulonchamp no matter what he says), but it also terrifies Mathilda herself and leads her to, despite not defecting to his side, drop some of the info she has to Lundi.\|\| This ultimately forces him to \|\|directly go to the Durants's home, right in the moment when General Guisan (a highranked military leader as well as a friend of the Durant family who knows that Jeudi is the real Durant girl) shows up as well...\|\| * JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: + Diamond is Unbreakable: First, \|\|Shigechi\|\| gives a Dying Clue to lead everyone to Yoshikage Kira. Then Hayato trails Kira, \|\|who has impersonated his father\|\| around, which gets noticed by Rohan during his investigation and ends up leading the team to Kira's location. + \|\|Polnareff\|\| in Golden Wind. During the time he was recuperating from his injuries, he accidentally discovered \|\|the method of awakening the power of Requiem\|\|, something that Stand Users weren't aware even existed, and ultimately decides to share this information with the heroes to help them defeat Diavolo. * This is basically Chika Fujiwara's defining character trait in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War She's prevented Shirogane and Kaguya plans to force each other to confess so many times that most fans are convinced that she's secretly doing it on purpose. * Akiyama sees Nao Kanzaki as this in regards to the Liar Game. The Liar Game's producers break even by collecting on the players' debts, and profits when the winning contestants forfeit half of their winnings to Opt Out of the game. Nao, however, has consistently been using her winnings to pay off other players' debts while increasing her own as a result. Akiyama believes that Nao has the potential to completely bankrupt the Liar Game by doing this since by the end, her personal debt will have gotten so high actually collecting would be impossible. * Lupin III: Part 5 has Lupin's ploy to \|\|fake his death\|\| to get away from assassins nearly fall apart due to \|\|Zenigata running up and "rescuing" him.\|\| If it wasn't for this, Lupin would have successfully pulled his plan off right there and then, but instead is forced to trek across the desert and have both of them, as well as Ami, nearly die of thirst. (He does successfully manage to pull of the plan eventually, though, after some improvisation.) * Maria no Danzai: During the Cultural Festival, Okaya sets out to catch Maria by luring her to a location only she would be able to guess correctly and setting up a bomb that requires information only Kiritaka's parents would know in order to defuse. Not only that, he has \|\|his mother, who's the chief of police,\|\| standing by in order to capture her, planning to use \|\|her ex-husband Taiichirou, who's in the hospital, as a hostage\|\| in case she resists. Maria sees the trap for what it is, realizes that there's no time to confirm if the bomb is fake or evacuate the building before the timer runs out, and refuses to risk innocent lives for the sake of her revenge, so she plans to take out all of her targets then and there before killing herself. Before either party can enact their plans, however, \|\|Taiichirou himself shows up to defuse the bomb before anyone realizes what's going on\|\|. * Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, and Mazinkaiser would be so much more different had Boss not interfered with the baddies plans. To clarify: + In Mazinger Z, thanks to Brocken Ball, Koji is able to rescue the kidnapped civilians. Not to mention the fact that in the same series, he saved Koji's life several times, gaining Koji's respect in the process. And in the Mazinger-Z versus Great General of Darkness, as a squad of Mykene Warrior Monsters are trashing Mazinger-Z he suddenly interfered. He only deterred them for several seconds, but those seconds were all that \|\|Tetsuya needed to intervene with Great Mazinger and save Kouji's life. And because Kouji did not die, he could help to save the world in Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer.\|\| + In Great Mazinger, if he would have not flirted with Jun and followed her when she was buying clothes, the good guys would be dead by the THIRD chapter. + In the Mazinkaiser movie, he pretty much saved the world (or at least what's left, since at that point is a Crapsack World). The Mycene's plan to send one of their general to attack Koji while he is out of Mazinkaiser is completely foiled because Boss attacked the general with Boss Borot. * Monster (1994): The perfect suicide that \|\|Johan\|\| planned as the end of his Gambit Roulette is ruined \|\|when an alcoholic townsperson angrily shoots him in the side of the head before Dr. Tenma can kill him\|\|. * \|\|Midori Sugiura\|\| from My-HiME threw a big wrench in the Big Bad's plans to take over/destroy the world through the "winner" of the battle royale by enlisting the help of the most unlikely of characters: \|\|Miyu the Robot Girl, whom she located and rebooted. More importantly, she lets her keep her memories of Alyssa, deciding to trust in that. More than the right decision considering this allowed what seems to be the spirit of Alyssa to activate Miyu's strongest mode and smash the pillars containing the souls of those sacrificed, with the side effect of freeing the previous Crystal Princess...\|\| * Naruto: + Big Bad Tobi outright calls Naruto one of these after he defeated Pain and convinced him and Konan to turn against Akatsuki, which led to Tobi losing Pain's resurrection technique, Amegakure's support, and the technique needed to seal the two remaining tailed beasts into the Gedo Mazo. + Killer B also threw a spanner in Akatsuki's plans, when he faked his own capture to go on a vacation. He does it again when he foils Kisame's attempt to capture him, helped with Kisame's sword betraying him and Killer B's brother turning up to save him. However, it later turns out that Kisame throwing away the fight was all part of the plan. + Sasuke is one to Itachi's plan, which was ironically meant to keep Sasuke safe. Sasuke's actions lead to the exact opposite of what Itachi had planned for him, culminating in him becoming a criminal wanted by two villages. + Tobi also becomes a spanner to Itachi's plans, as after Itachi's death, he starts revealing Itachi's secrets to people that he wanted to hide them from. + Itachi has foiled or complicated the plans of nearly every single person or organization he's come across in the series. In chronological order, the Uchiha clan's plan to revolt against Konoha, Danzo's plan of taking over Konoha, Orochimaru's plan of stealing Itachi's Sharingan eyes and later preventing him from taking over Sasuke's body, Team 7's attempts to rehabilitate Sasuke (in order to preemptively foil any plans Danzo might have after the Third Hokage's death), a failed attempt to foil Akatsuki's plans as The Mole and also a failed attempt to foil Tobi's plan to brainwash Sasuke. Even the resurrected Itachi foils Kabuto's plans by sealing the resurrected Nagato, and then traps Kabuto himself in an infinite loop. Phew! He also foils his own plans for Sasuke multiple times by needlessly messing up with an already vengeful Sasuke's mind. + Kabuto threw a spanner in Tobi's plan summoning \|\|the real Madara Uchiha. He did made Tobi's plan far more complicated as he never intended to resurrect Madara in the first place.\|\| + \|\|Ironically, Tobi himself became a spanner in Black Zetsu's plans with his reluctance to resurrect Madara and a wish to take control of the Moon's Eye Plan since Black Zetsu wanted Indra in place of Madara in order to complete the plan, forcing him to use Kabuto to revive Madara as a zombie in the first place. Also, his Heel–Face Turn and his wish help Team 7, becoming a spanner to Kaguya's plan to get rid of them and ultimately becomes the cause of her defeat and re-sealment.\|\| * Negima! Magister Negi Magi: + Nodoka, Kazumi and especially Chisame derail \|\|Kurt Godel's Thanatos Gambit\|\|, because \|\|when Negi goes One-Winged Angel on him after he reveals what happened to his Doomed Hometown, Nodoka and Kazumi hold him in place, and then Chisame slaps him back to sanity.\|\| + And it's not the only one. \|\|Natsumi Murakami is the owner of an artifact which hasn't been found/used/invoked in centuries, obtained from her Pactio with Koutarou. Said artifact is basically an Invisibility Cloak... and she uses it to bring a whole rescue team to the place where a captive and unconscious Asuna is about to be used by Fate to rewrite the whole Magical World. Fate's horrified face when he sees what happened is priceless.\|\| * In Neon Genesis Evangelion, everything is going perfectly for Gendo, until Rei FINALLY gets some self-awareness and realises that no matter how fucked up Shinji is, he would still be a better choice for godhood than a) the lunatic standing with his hand in her chest (literally) b) the group of lunatics who are killing everyone Rei has ever known. So the world is destroyed, recreated and in the end everyone who wants to live is allowed to live. Or SOMETHING... * Noir: + Mireille Bouquet may the least deadly of the assassin girls in the series (which only means that she has to obey the laws of physics), but her ability to tell the Ancient Conspiracy that it can go screw itself and her surprising faith in her partner brings down a major portion of it. + Most importantly, \|\|Mireille's mother Odette's Last Request was... for Kirika, her own soon to be killer and later Mireille's aforementioned partner, to take care of Mireille. A last wish that, many years later, Kirika would ultimately follow to the letter — ruining Altena's desire for a Chloe/Kirika Noir match.\|\| * Overlord (2012): + In an odd inversion, Ainz unwittingly messes with his subordinate Demiurge's plans to Nazarick's immediate benefit. By showing up in the Empire and giving a perfect demonstration of how overpowered he is (he willingly turned off his melee protections, used no magic and still wiped the floor with a giant, intelligent and PVP-optimized troll), Ainz \|\|gets the Empire to declare itself a vassal state of Ainz in the hopes that they'll fare better as his property than as his enemies\|\|. Demiurge (who sincerely believes Ainz is a master plotter more skilled than himself) is flabbergasted: he never doubted \|\|the Empire would eventually submit\|\|, but he expected it to require a long and bloody war of attrition over several months, and even then only after having subjugated the neighboring Kingdom and acquiring its resources. Of course this all went over Ainz' head: he simply cannot grasp that ordinary humans might find the godlike lich who can kill thousands with a single spell horrifying, and was slightly miffed that the Emperor was rooting for the troll rather than a fellow ruler. + Demiurge does it to Ainz all the time on a much lower scale: since Ainz' greatest fear is that his underlings find out he isn't The Chessmaster they think he is, he always tries to get the others to give their opinions on the plan (so he can learn what the plan is, being just as ignorant as the audience), and then appear to have planned it all along... only for Demiurge to laugh and explain that Ainz' genius runs far deeper than that, causing Ainz to scream internally as the others beg Ainz to explain the true plan. * Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: In "The Stripping", Scanty and Kneesocks are running a casino in order to feed a money ghost and make it more powerful. This seems to be working quite well, until the two heroines show up and have copious amounts of dumb luck. Not even Kneesocks stepping in and rigging the roulette wheel further can save them once they start selling their own clothes to fuel their gambling addiction. * Penguindrum: + \|\|Ringo Oginome\|\| pretty much tells \|\|Shoma Takakura\|\| that he became one for her \|\|"Project M"\|\| in episode 11. This, because \|\|Shoma is the first person to question said "Project M", in which Ringo wants to reach almost all the possible extremes to bear the child of Tabuki-sensei since it means she'll live the life of her dead older sister Momoka; among other things, Shouma tells Ringo that she's herself and not Momoka, which later makes her think twice in regards to having sex with a Love Potioned!Tabuki.\|\| + There's another one whose spanning "powers" act on a bigger scale: \|\|Masako Natsume\|\|.\|\|In her backstory episode, we find out that she doesn't want to be used by Sanetoshi at all and only goes along with his plans resentfully to keep her little brother Mario alive. Later on, she refuses to burn her half of the Destiny Diary, which serves as some sort of seal on Sanetoshi's power; the entire diary does get burnt to bits by Episode 23, but Masako's refusal holds him off long enough for Ringo to learn the Fate Transfer spell.\|\| * Pokémon: + In Pokémon Adventures, Giovanni has a Game-Breaker Deoxys that can Forme Change instantaneously at will. Yes, he's pretty much unstoppable...until Bill and his buddies figure out how it works and disable it. + Pokémon the Series: - Bewear of the Sun and Moon series usually evacuates Team Rocket just as they're about to get their ass kicked, though on some occasions it cuts in just as they're about to defeat the twerps. In some instances, they become savvy to this, and one time even leave a distraction for Bewear so they have time to finish a more elaborate scheme. - Nebby's Teleport-happy antics also ended up jogging Lillie from her Trauma-Induced Amnesia and exposing Faba's scheming that he'd covered up for years. - During the finale of Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions, \|\|Kodai wins, he gets the Time Ripple. All plant-life in Crown City begins to die! But suddenly it turns out to be all an illusion by Zoroark. But her illusions shouldn't work on him, he's got a device for that! Well remember that cute little Zorua he's been kicking around the whole movie? The one who tried his hardest to stop him but failed? Well turns out a lucky little bite in their last scuffle, unknown to ether of them, broke Kodai's illusion canceler, bringing Kodai's plan crashing down.\|\| * Pretty Cure: + The Movie of Yes! Precure 5 has the movie's Big Bad, Shadow, steal the device the heroines were using to collect the MacGuffin Mons of the series, then uses his mirrors to attract every last one of them into the device. With the girls watching, he ends up using it to wish for world domination. It seems that he's won, but... nothing happened. Why? \|\|Urara completely forgot to add the last of the MacGuffins to the device, meaning that it's not complete and therefore doesn't work\|\|. Oops! The scary part is that the villain, by all accounts, would have won if Ms. Cure Spanner hadn't messed everything up. + Cline's zeal to get rid of those he deems useless to the cause of Labyrinth in Fresh Pretty Cure! only failed once, and that's because the Akarun \|\|brought Setsuna Higashi (his first target) back to life and\|\| transformed Setsuna into one of the Cures. + Pretty Cure All-Stars: - Kage's big plan to defeat the Cures in New Stage 2 is derailed because Miyuki invited Mana and her friends to the Fairy Academy — his Great Big Book of Everything had nothing on the Doki-Doki team and thus couldn't exploit their Transformation Trinket weakness. - Happens again in New Stage 3 — Nozomi's the one who frees the other Cures from their dream worlds, thanks to the fact that she doesn't like being given things on silver platters. * In Princess Tutu Ahiru is this to Drosselmeyer. Made more ironic by the fact he was the one to bring her into the story to get it moving. It did... in the direction opposite to what he wanted. * Reborn! (2004) has a mid-level mechanic incidentally named Spanner that performs a Heel–Face Turn along with \|\|Irie\|\| in an effort to take down the Future Arc's Big Bad Byakuran using his technical knowledge of the base and Millefiore. It would have slightly more effective if Byakuran wasn't an ultimate Chessmaster and the in-series King of Xanatos Speed Chess forcing the epic battles, struggles and hardships just for his own amusement. * Rebuild World: After the protagonist Akira finally gets his own vehicle after having found a Treasure Map, his efforts to scavenge untouched ruins, thus striking it rich, get foiled by idiot hunters (scavengers/Private Military Contractors) repeatedly: + For the subway station ruin: Akira has his vehicle tracks retraced, merely because he was keeping his distance from other hunters, causing them to enter the ruin that was safe and he had pretty much all to himself. The spanner: One of the scavengers activates the automated subway line, which starts bringing in monsters from another place regularly, including three that grow into Kaiju, and cut off the nearby city from the rest of the world until entire divisions worth of hunters can kill them. + Akira fights his way through the entrance of the most important building of the Mihazono ruin, an ancient city where robots and factories constantly replace themselves and goods to loot, serving as a good place to train up hunters. After Akira runs inside after killing the previously untouchable defenses of the Sarenthal building, dozens of hunters hear the commotion and enter after him. The spanner: A jumpy hunter puts a bullet in the Projected Man little girl that represents the building's A.I., which causes it to activate emergency protocols and flood the city with tank drones creating a chain reaction building to a Big Badass Battle Sequence of hunters trying to save defeated hunter squads. * In Red River (1995), Queen Nakia needs a special girl's blood to perform a powerful Blood Magic that will kill her stepson Kail and give her the chance to make her own son Juda the heir to the Hitite Empire. Too bad that the girl she brought into Hattusa as her prospect Human Sacrifice, Yuri Suzuki, turned out to be a naive but very fast-learning Plucky Girl who decided to fight back to protect herself, then became the partner and concubine of the same prince Nakia wanted to murder, and she not only ended up becoming Nakia's strongest rival but also one of the most influential people in the nation. * Rosario + Vampire: In his first appearance, Gin tried to set Tsukune up to take the fall for Gin's own perversions in an effort to have Moka all to himself. The only reason it failed is because Kurumu was about to comfort Tsukune just as Gin intercepted him. Kurumu followed them and stumbled across a certain episode behind the school involving a digital camera and the girls' locker room. Afterwards, she rescued Tsukune from the vengeful locker room girls, confronted Gin on the roof, and presented a testimony that confirmed Moka's already-growing doubts about Tsukune's role in the incident. * Rune Soldier Louie: The idiotic sorcerer Louie ruins the Secret Weapon when he takes a leak in an unusual spot. After that he punches his way through a impenetrable barrier ruining Plan B as well. * Hot-Blooded Badass Normal Sanosuke Sagara from Rurouni Kenshin once threw a wrench in Magnificent Bastard Shishio's plans by \|\|sneaking close to his battleship and wrecking it with some bombs given by his friend Katsu, an explosives expert. This prevented Shishio from bombing Kyoto. And Shishio openly acknowledged Sanosuke's role in this.\|\| * In Saint Seiya and its non-canon Spin-Off Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold, Pisces Aphrodite was on both ends of the trope: + In the first, Aphrodite had devised a pretty good back-up plan shall he lose his fight with Shun: he anticipated the Saints would try and have someone keeping him busy while the other continued to run, so he planted his poisonous roses on the stairs behind his temple to act as Deadly Gas. By all rights, he had won with mocking ease, and it was about to work since Seiya fell for it in his despair and urge to go forward... \|\|But then, Seiya's mentor Marin showed up. As a Female Saint, Marin had to wear a Cool Mask — so she put it on Seiya, which allowed him to recover from the poison even when it poisoned her instead. As he wasn't breathing poison anymore and he saw his beloved mentor collapsed, Seiya gained enough physical strength and Heroic Willpower to destroy the roses, clearing his path to the top and towards the Big Bad.\|\| \|\|And by the way, Shun defeated and killed Aphrodite anyway.\|\| + In the second, Aphrodite apparently lost his first fight against \|\|Andreas Rize\|\| after being revived \|\|and was absorbed into the mighty Yggdrassil tree\|\|... but in reality, he had become this and was waiting for the exact moment to show it. \|\|When Loki-in-Andreas'-body got his hands on Gungnir and destroyed the Odin Robe, the tide was turned a the fallen Gold Saints returned, all because Aphrodite was immune to plant toxins -even Yggdrasil's- and was able to develop countermeasures, so the also absorbed and "killed" Gold Saints were only kept in a deathlike state but did not actually die. Aphrodite even pointed out Loki's fatal mistake to his face.\|\| * Saki: + Senoo Kaori does this to Mako in the same way as the poker and billiards examples listed in Real Life. Mako's playstyle is based entirely on having watched experienced players all her life. Kaori is a complete beginner. The result is that because Kaori has no idea what she's actually doing, Mako found it impossible to read her discards and ended up losing to her. + Also, Nodoka doesn't believe in superstition, and therefore doesn't notice when something weird is up. In her match against Eisui's Hatsumi, she \|\|derails the plans of Teams Himematsu and Miyamori players, who did notice Hatsumi's ability and were trying to stop it from triggering, by just playing normally\|\|. * In Sakura Wars: The Movie, the Rose Division's involvement in helping the Flower Division \|\|take back their theater and destroying the Japhkiel incubation facilities\|\|, as well as Ogami's return from Paris, ultimately put a dent in \|\|Douglas-Stewart's plans for making the Flower Division obsolete\|\|. * Samurai Champloo: + Mugen is a prime example. In the first episode, Mugen dispatches a horde of mooks and then approaches their boss, who then explains to Mugen how he is the son of the town's corrupt governor. Any attempts to harm the son of an important official will be a death sentence. He then confidently asks Mugen if he got all that. Mugen responds with, "Not a word," and then attacks him. + Mugen also manages to thwart a hostage situation simply because he was only interested in getting his kicks fighting and couldn't care less about the hostages. * In s-CRY-ed, Sou Kigetsuki and Unkei try to get an amnesiac Ryuuhou back to HOLY via using their respective Alters to have Kigetsuki's Battle Harem replace Ryuuhou's actual childhood friend Mimori in flashbacks. It falls apart when Kanami, who, little does anyone know at this point, has clairvoyance steps in and reveals the girls aren't actually human. This later results in Ryuuhou getting his memories back and rebelling against HOLY. * Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle: + The Princess has a habit of messing up the plans of both the Demon King and the Hero in her quest for a good night's sleep while in captivity. She will frequently steal and/or damage items meant to be used or found in the course of the Hero's quest, rendering them completely useless. In one instance, the Demon King and his generals are discussing a series of items, tools, and weapons they plan to dispatch against the Hero, only for the Princess to be shown ruining each and every item they describe, and in one case, its guard, in the course of washing her bedsheets. + When one of the boss monsters comes back from being defeated in battle against the Hero, he complains that the items provided for him were all more useless than the last. While the first couple instances likely were the Princess, as evidenced by being inside of sacks made of Ghost Shrouds, monsters the Princess regularly hunts for materials. However, as the list goes on, one after another the Demon King's generals, and even the Demon King himself, realize that they were responsible for the items being useless, such as replacing a bag full of grenades with avacados out of fear the Princess would tamper with them, or a robot designed to resemble the Princess being redesigned into uselessness because the Princess complained. While she was only indirectly involved, everyone lets the boss monster blame the Princess than admit guilt. * SPY×FAMILY has Anya help save the day in the Doggy Crisis arc as she finds a dog able to read the future and as a result gets involved with a terrorism plot. Her involvement prevents a war from breaking out and saves thousands of lives, one being her father Loid. * The Future Gadget Lab in Steins;Gate, a literal basement (apartment) amateur lab in a cheap building is this to the world back and forth. Completely by accident they discover Time Travel which gives the Committee of 300 SERN division the ability to conquer the world, becoming a Spanner to the world. As they perfect the Time Travel method they become one to themselves by painting a giant target on their backs, in order to fix this they have to reverse what they have done essentially becoming a spanner for SERN and the Committee, and the best thing is, due to the timeline override SERN is non the wiser. * The military high command in Strike Witches were running a conspiracy to \|\|abolish the Strike Witches in favor of their own methods\|\|. Their plan was all in place and ready to go until Yoshika \|\|attempted peaceful contact with a Neuroi\|\|. Since the high command's \|\|methods involved illegal use of Neuroi technology\|\|, Yoshika's actions forced them to act prematurely and made the other Witches realize they were hiding something. * In Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the Zentradi plans to capture the SDF-1 Macross would have succeeded without a hitch were it not for the unpredictable fighting methods of the defenders, as well as the Glamorous Wartime Singer Lynn Minmay who is insanely good at rising the heroes's morale. * In Tales of Wedding Rings, the Gisaras Empire has arranged a marriage between one of its princes and Princess Krystal of Nokanatika, keeper of the legendary Rings of Light. This marriage would grant the prince the title and powers of the Ring King, which the Empire would use to bring yet more lands into their fold. They were not expecting Krystal's childhood friend, a Japanese high school student named Satou, to follow her back to her world and disrupt the wedding ceremony, or that Krystal would take the opportunity to elope with Satou and make him the Ring King instead. * Tenchi Muyo!: + Inspector Oblivious Mihoshi actually has a distinguished service record with the Galaxy Police, but the backstory indicates it's largely a result of her bumbling in and causing too much chaos for any dastardly plan to hold up. In the original OVA, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki it was suggested she actually had had a mental breakdown from being overworked which turned her from a top cop into a comic ditz — as hinted by Kagato's comment about her past exploits. He should know, since Mihoshi's meddling \|\|led to the release of Washu, whom he held hostage in a Pocket Dimension inside Kagato's Cool Spaceship that no one but Washu and Kagato knew of, and yet Mihoshi somehow got there with ease.\|\|) Later versions, though, lack this detail and instead are all just lucky enough to be teamed up with Kiyone, who usually can get the job done in spite of Mihoshi. Yet as evidenced by her enormous reports, Mihoshi still seems ridiculously thorough. - In the OVA continuity, because Mihoshi is a descendant of Washu, she and her whole family have the ability to subconsciously alter probability around them. Being a Spanner is \literally\ her super power. + In Tenchi in Tokyo, there are three of these. - Washu, because the villains always tend to underestimate her, and in this case this lets her lock herself in her laboratory to decode the Big Bad's plans without anyone disturbing her, which she manages to do almost flawlessly. - The second spanner is Sasami, because \|\|Yugi got distracted by her desire to keep her out of her schemes since she's her Morality Pet\|\|. This was pointed out by The Dragon twice, and it never stuck. - The third and biggest spanner is Sakuya, who \|\|despite being Yugi's "shadow", in the end turns out to be more independent than she should've been, and ends up breaking through a Lotus-Eater Machine that keeps Tenchi away, snapping him out of it and letting him talk her down\|\|. + Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love! - In the first Tenchi movie, Tenchi Muyo In Love, Washu's plan to capture KAIN and prevent him from killing Achika gets derailed when KAIN decides if he goes, he's taking Achika with him. It gets worse when Noboyuki is dragged along, too. - To that end, KAIN's own plan is derailed when he decides to toy with both Achika and Noboyuki. Achika seeing Noboyuki's beaten body and how the poor guy is still devoted to trying to make her happy even in his state is enough to awaken her power when she goes into a Tranquil Fury. * Tiger & Bunny: + \|\|Maverick's\|\| longtime manipulation of \|\|both HeroTV and Barnaby\|\| for his own ends is utterly destroyed by a cascading series of spanners in the works, beginning with Kotetsu, who completely inadvertently foils \|\|Maverick\|\|'s attempt at \|\|wiping potentially incriminating knowledge from his memory\|\| and forces him into a much grander plan to try and remove him from the picture. + The plan to try and remove Kotetsu from the picture falls apart thanks to \|\|Kotetsu's former boss, Ben Jackson. Maverick wipes the memories of Wild Tiger's secret identity from the HeroTV crew, but overlooks Ben, leaving him able to come to Kotetsu's rescue when the other heroes are out to arrest him\|\|. + And, to a lesser extent than the above, \|\|Judge Yuri Petrov of the Justice Bureau, aka Lunatic. Maverick could not possibly have anticipated that Yuri had done extensive research into Wild Tiger and Wild Tiger's civilian identity after crossing his path as Lunatic, or that Lunatic's obsessive sense of justice would lead him to come to Kotetsu's aid just in the nick of time to keep Kotetsu from being arrested by the fake Wild Tiger\|\|. + And finally, \|\|Kotetsu's daughter Kaede, who goes into Sternbild to help prove her father's innocence. When she approaches Maverick to ask for help, he has no idea who she is or that she's recently manifested the power to duplicate the powers of any NEXT she touches, and simply pats her on the head... unwittingly giving her the ability to undo his brainwashing of the other heroes with a well-timed Emotion Bomb. Even once he's realized who she is and taken her hostage, he and Rotwang still fail to properly account for her power, and thanks to coming into contact with Blue Rose shortly before their capture she's able to prevent Rotwang from executing the heroes in his deathtrap.\|\| * The Autumn Arc of Undead Unluck has Anno Un aka Akira Kuno who ends up being this to God despite having been essentially erased from existence because of Unknown. \|\|Through the vision given to him by touching G-Liner, he learns that Fuuko would get killed by Sean during the Autumn fight, with her death leading to Victor killing Juiz, which results in the end of the Union and any hope of humanity winning against God. Using G-Liner and an avatar, Anno devises a plan to allow Fuuko to enter Andy's memories and those experiences allow for both of them to grow stronger, which allows for Andy to prevent Fuuko from getting killed and completely changing the timeline from there.\|\| * In the Makai Arc of YuYu Hakusho, Yusuke's decision to hold a tournament was a last ditch effort to eliminate Yomi and Mukuro, since Yusuke knew he had no hope of taking either of them in a fight. However, due to Kurama and co.'s lucky presence, and Mukuro's bugging of Yomi's estate, Yusuke's idea prevents all hell from breaking loose: if Yomi were to simply attempt to kill Yusuke, Kurama, as well as his own elite fighters, would side with Yusuke. While Yomi would be capable of killing them all, he'd expend at least a third of his power doing so, leaving him vulnerable to Mukuro and Hiei, all of this forcing Yomi to accept Yusuke's proposal. ---	SpannerInTheWorks	null
TropesAToD	# Rick And Morty - Tropes A to D Tropes with their own pages: ---------------------------- * Aw Look They Really Do Love Each Other * Bait And Switch * Bittersweet Ending * Call Back * Continuity Nod * Curb-Stomp Battle * Deconstructed Character Archetype * Deconstruction --- * Absurd Phobia: It turns out Rick is afraid of wicker furniture and pirates. * Abusive Parents: Due to species divide, Morty accidentally became one in "Raising Gazorpazorp", as chronicled in his half-alien son's book My Horrible Father. > Beth: It's a thankless job, Morty. You did the best you could. + Beth and Jerry aren't necessarily abusive, more neglectful. They didn't pay their children much attention when they were babies, one reason could be because they became parents so young. Earlier in the series, Jerry tries a little harder at being a good parent than Beth, but she has gotten much better since the end of Season 3 and dropped the Parental Neglect almost entirely. + Jerry also mentions how "they can't all be raised like reptiles by a mentally ill scientist" suggesting that Rick may have been this to Beth when she was a child. He was neglectful of her, to the point where she would draw him into family pictures with a crayon. However, this is turned back on Beth when Rick shows her the box of inventions she specifically asked him for. Some highlights include stickers that cause amnesia, shoes that make no sound (for sneaking up on people), and a sentient switchblade. Rick mentions that Beth was a "scary kid" and that he did everything he could to limit her interactions with other people. He fully admits his inability to be a good parent but makes Beth take some responsibility for her own actions. * Actor Allusion: "Meeseeks and Destroy" isn't the first time Tom Kenny has voiced an evil bean. * Actually Pretty Funny: + Subverted with Evil Rick's bug-like henchman, who randomly makes a laughing noise every few seconds, which our Rick mistakes for approval of his zingers. + In "The Rickchurian Mortydate", Rick finds the President's rivalry with them to be annoying, but clearly enjoys watching Morty verbally spar with the President. * Adam and Eve Plot: The very first thing we see Rick do in the series is drunkenly planning to exterminate the human race except for Morty and the girl he likes. * Aerith and Bob: Generally justified due to the many alien species in the series obviously having different cultures from Earth. * The Alcatraz: The Ricks of the Citadel agreed to help C-137 build the Central Finite Curve as a way to ensure they'll always be the greatest minds in reality. \|\|C-137 built it so that the rest of reality would be free of him and all the other Ricks.\|\| * An Alien Named "Bob": + Played with; Many Gromflomites have alien-sounding first names, paired with last names that sound like mundane human first names. Examples include Krombopulos Michael the assassin, and Cornvelious Daniel the interrogation agent. + Tony, the alien gentleman from "The Old Man and the Seat" who turns out to be using Rick's private toilet. + The face-hugger aliens who possess Rick's and Morty's bodies in "Promortyus" are named Bruce and Steve. + In "A Rickconvenient Mort", Rick has a fling with a very non-humanoid alien woman named Daphne. * All Girls Want Bad Boys: + Summer has a crush on Morty's bully, Frank Palicky, in the pilot episode. + Played with concerning Jessica and her boyfriend. She hates how he always picks fights, and yet they're still on-and-off until she permanently breaks up with him by the start of Season 4. * Amazing Technicolor World: Several planets and alternate realities Rick and Morty visit. * Ambiguously Absent Parent: The whereabouts of Beth's mother have not been given a proper explanation. Rick has implied that his marriage to her was not stable and that they did separate before his disappearance. Beth sheds a tear in "Pilot" when Rick tells her that he wishes her mother was present to eat the family's breakfast, but it is never confirmed if Beth's mother is actually dead. + In "The Rickshank Redemption", Rick is shown a memory in which a woman named Diane is his wife as well as Beth's mother, and she is killed in it along with Child-Beth; while Rick claims the memory was fabricated to fool his interrogator, Season 5 eventually confirms that it was real, and Diane and Beth were killed by another Rick. + That being said, it seems like the solid majority of Ricks in the multiverse did abandon their own versions of Diane and Beth to focus on science; dialogue heavily implies that this was the case for both of the Beths who act as main characters during the show, and when living with them, Rick goes along with the assumption that he was one such Rick who did so. As mentioned above, dialogue also implies that Diane is still dead in these universes as well (just from a different cause); in fact, the only time Diane has ever been seen alive on the show so far is in other characters' memories of her. * Ambiguously Bi: + Jerry is in this territory after the incident with Sleepy Gary in the episode "Total Rickall". Although his feelings for Gary appeared to be real, the entire incident was a falsely implanted memory of a relationship that never happened with a man that never existed. As Jerry hasn't yet shown any romantic interest in a male character who definitely exists, it's difficult to say whether him potentially having any interest in men at all is really the case or was just another part of the implanted memory. "Mort Dinner Rick Andre", however, makes this less ambiguous as he participates in a threesome between him, Beth, and Mr. Nimbus. + Summer, despite clearly being into boys, has given off hints of being interested in girls. In "The Old Man and the Seat", one of her selected soulmates is a woman, and the episodes "Rattlestar Ricklactica" and "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion" reveal she likes going to Boob World. + For most of the series, Beth is only interested in men, with her partners being Jerry and Mr. Nimbus (with whom she has a threesome with Jerry). Come "Bethic Twinstinct", though, and \|\|Beth—that is, both versions of her, Earth and Space Beth—fall in love with each other. The ambiguity is whether Beth is outright attracted to women in general as well as men, or if falling for a different version of herself is a special case\|\|. * Ambiguously Evil: The Galactic Federation in the first two seasons. Rick shows a lot of disdain towards the organization and his friends see themselves as Freedom Fighters going against them. The Federation are made out as oppressive and have been seen to be apathetic to civilian casualties. At the same time, this information comes from Rick and they do keep their word when Rick turns himself in so his family can return to Earth. That being said, their appearances in Season 3 and onward remove any remaining ambiguity; while many of the people working for the G-Fed are Just Following Orders, the government itself is shown committing genocide on various planets, holding an innocent child in a brutal prison simply because her father is a wanted criminal, and decide to destroy the Earth when Space Beth goes there for no real reason except that they can. * And I Must Scream: Glockenspiel Jerry is willing to do anything to live until he is incapacitated and forced to endure centuries of torment, unable to die, all scored to Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever." + Jessica is frozen in a crystal, completely immobile and unaging yet fully aware, unable to do anything but think, for hundreds if not thousands of years. * Animated Shock Comedy: Rick and Morty is generally seen as an example of this trope "done right". A lot of the humor is extremely sophomoric, with phallic imagery, burp/fart jokes, pop culture references and violence galore; however, it plays the consequences of a lot of these jokes completely straight for the sake of furthering the story and developing the characters, who even at their flattest are much more fleshed out and three-dimensional than a good deal of the show's contemporaries. The most notable of this is the writers' conscious decision to make the occasional verbal rape joke while playing every instance of the act itself completely for horror, illustrating the difference between making jokes about rape and thinking rape is funny. * Anyone Can Die: + One-off or even recurring characters might as well have countdown clocks over their heads. If someone survives a guest appearance, they'll probably be killed off for a dramatic moment when they next appear. + Overlaps with Death Is Cheap for the main characters, who can be replaced by alternate-universe versions of themselves and thus might occasionally suffer a sudden Plot Armor failure. - "Solaricks" is a particularly notable example. While the audience has followed the same versions of the titular duo throughout the entire series, by midway through the second season, the show is on its second iterations of Summer and Beth and third iteration of Jerry as the "main" versions of the rest of the family. \|\|This episode kills off or confirms the deaths of all previous versions who have been main characters in earlier seasons; Original Jerry confirms that the original Beth and Summer died offscreen after being frozen in ice in "The Rickshank Redemption", and he himself is killed by Rick Prime in The Stinger. Meanwhile, the second main version of Jerry dies when he's bitten and assimilated by Mr. Frundles.\|\| - This especially stands out in the episodes starring the Citadel of Ricks. The main Rick and Morty are safe, but any other versions of them are fair game. "The Rickshank Redemption", "The Ricklantis Mixup", and "Rickmurai Jack" in particular all see extremely high body counts of various alternate Ricks and Mortys, and in the latter episode, \|\|the entire Citadel is destroyed, killing almost every Rick and Morty there except for the main duo and a small number of other Mortys (most of whom die in the following episode anyway).\|\| - A major joke of the episode "Mortyplicity", the entire episode focuses on clones of the family who are evading squids coming to kill them who are, in turn, also clones dressed up as squids trying to kill other clones because they realize they're clones. Repeatedly throughout the episode the viewer watches one particular iteration of the family for sometimes 2-3 minutes of time, only for them to be suddenly killed and focus is shifted to another family. By the end of the episodes, the clones trying to figure out who is the real one are running around killing each other in a mass frenzy, and even then the narrative keeps focusing on a specific family only for them to die and be revealed as yet more clones. * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: + The coda for "Something Ricked This Way Comes" has the very muscular Rick and Summer beating up: a neo-nazi, a bully who pantses a kid, a member of the Westboro Baptist Church carrying one of their infamous "God Hates Fags" signs, and a guy who's mean to his dog. + Poncho's grievances against Dr. Bloom include his pompousness, negligence, and giving iTunes gift cards as holiday bonuses. + In "Get Schwifty", the first three undesirables sent to the Cromulons are a thief, a Goth, and a "movie talker". + In "The ABC's of Beth", Rick goes through some of the things Beth asked him to make for her as a child: rayguns, a whip that forces people to like you, invisibility cuffs, a parent trap (Bear Trap), a lightning gun, a teddy bear with anatomically correct innards, night-vision googly-eye glasses, sound erasing sneakers, false fingerprints, fall-asleep darts, a lie-detecting doll, an indestructible baseball bat, a taser shaped like a ladybug, a fake police badge, location tracking stickers, rainbow-colored duct tape, mind-control hair clips, poison gum, and a pink, sentient switchblade. + From "The Rickchurian Mortydate": > The President: You're a terrorist, you're an enemy of the state, and you kicked me in the balls ten minutes ago! * Art Evolution: The character outlines become smoother and the backgrounds and designs of other characters more detailed as the show goes on. * Art Shift: The post-Season 1 promos has Rick and Morty (and Mr. Meeseeks) appearing as puppet versions of themselves, and the commercials for "Two Brothers" and "Jean Quadrant Vincent 16" are animated in a more dramatic, realistic comic style. The promos made for the third season's release use far creepier looking animatronic rod puppets. + The special shorts all feature this being animated by different teams- "Bushworld Adventures" is handed in Michael Cusack's trademark style of Deranged Animation; "Samurai and Shogun" is animated by Studio DEEN and Studio Twinkle in full CGI, and "Rick and Morty vs. Genocider" is animated by Telecom Animation Film and animator Takashi Sano in the same style as the Tower of God anime. The following short with the same team, "Summer Meets God (Rick Meets Evil)" uses a more stylized look slightly closer to the show. * Ascended Extra: + Summer started as a recurring character in the early episodes. She has become more major to the show since "Raising Gazorpazorp", frequently becoming a trio with Rick and Morty in adventures. + Beth and Jerry also rise to prominence as the series goes on, with their subplots becoming more important and each of them getting a solo adventure with Rick in Season 3 (Jerry in "The Whirly-Dirly Conspiracy" and Beth in "The ABC's of Beth"). + Arguably Squanchy Cat. He appears as an almost throw-away gag for Rick's party, in which Rick seems to not know him very well. By the second season finale, it's revealed that \|\|Squanchy was a member of Rick's freedom fighters and rock band.\|\| + \|\|Tammy Geuterman and Birdperson aka "Phoenixperson" who barely appear at all throughout most of the series and fall off after the season 2 finale "The Wedding Squanchers", only to suddenly reappear in "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri" as the major antagonists of the finale.\|\| * Ass Shove: + Rick makes Morty shove two mega-seeds up his ass so that he can smuggle them through inter-dimensional customs. > Rick: When we get to customs, I'm gonna need you to take these seeds into the bathroom. And I'm gonna need you to put them waaaay up inside your butthole Morty. Put them way up inside there, as far as they can fit. + One alternate dimension is populated entirely by hamsters who live inside people's butts. It's pretty ambiguous if the people are even living things since they seem to function like mobile homes. - However, the post-credits stinger shows the family visiting the "Hamster in Butts" dimension, where a hamster helpfully shows a diagram of the arrangement. The 'people' are in fact just empty puppets where the hamsters live. The people are like cars or houses and do not seem to have separate identities. + In "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", when viewing photographs of the murders of 27 other versions of Rick, one of the Ricks was killed by having his head literally shoved up his ass. * Attempted Rape / Near-Rape Experience: Quite a bit. + Happens to Morty during an adventure. Luckily, Morty kicks ass, and then Rick kills the attempted rapist. + Rick argues that love potions are basically this, though he takes his time before saying so. In the same episode, everyone outside of Morty's family is infected by the potion, turning the tables on Morty. + Happens to Summer on another adventure. Luckily, Rick kicks ass. + In yet another episode, Jerry is the victim of it. Luckily, Beth kicks ass. * Author Appeal: + In "Something Ricked This Way Comes," the final victim of Rick and Summer's rampage is a dog abuser. Harmon and Roiland are both dog owners. Harmon put his dog on his Vanity Plate, while Roiland named Jerry after one of his dogs. + Ice-T showing up in "Get Schwifty," with Dan Harmon doing the voice. Harmon loves doing Ice-T impersonations in Harmontown + Dan Harmon does what sounds like an improvised rap in "Rick Potion No. 9." Improvised rapping is a big part of Harmontown. + In a Harmontown episode, Harmon tells the story about how he went for years without realizing he had a thing for redheads; A friend looked through his erotica collection and pointed it out to him. In the episode "Auto Erotic Assimilation," Rick has an orgy with a stadium full of redheads. In "Morty's Mind Blowers", Rick has an invention that works like a huge magnet on anything and Morty uses it to attract redheads. + In "Interdimensional Cable 2," an alien voiced by Werner Herzog criticizes humanity for doing things like putting an object up to their crotch and saying, "Look, I'm so-and-so penis!" A recurring feature on Harmontown had Harmon singing a song about a man with a chicken noodle soup can for a penis. Also on the podcast, comptroller Jeff Davis would occasionally sing a song called "Pringles Dick," about a man who puts his penis inside a Pringles can. + In "Interdimensional Cable 2," the commercial for Little Bits, the restaurant that only serves tiny food, is based on Bytes, the same idea for a restaurant frequently endorsed by Dan Harmon's friend "The Real Abed." + The plot of season 3 reflects Dan Harmon's divorce. * Awesome Achievement, Petty Purpose: Rick Sanchez, being a mix of Insufferable Genius, Laborious Laziness and Seen It All, rarely thinks twice about accomplishing the impossible for the pettiest of reasons. His family, after gaining some experience from Rick's adventures, are also capable of great achievements when properly motivated (spite included). * Awesome, but Impractical: + After their first encounter with Rick in "Get Schwifty", the President and the United States Government got to work on creating their own form of portal transportation. It works, but the military has to spend the time and resources to manually airlift the portal platform to its destination just for a few people to transport through. According to Rick, each usage of the equipment triples the deficit. + Invoked again the same episode. The US Government has developed a pill that will shrink the user to near-microscopic levels. Unfortunately, it doesn't shrink their clothes, seems to take a decent amount of time while the user shrieks in agony, and Rick claims it will give them severe and incurable cancer. Rick creates one in a day that circumvents all of these shortcomings. + Also invoked in "Vindicators 3". Turns out our heroes weren't called for "Vindicators 2" in which the titular Vindicators destroyed an entire civilized planet just to get one shapechanger villain. Ricks's response? > Rick: "I could have made you something that would have found him in about 20 minutes." - This is revealed to be a lie in the shorts; the villain was killed by a device that Rick had set up and subsequently forgotten about, and the planet was destroyed by Supernova when she miscarried. They pinned it on the villain to avoid the bad publicity. * Badass Boast: So many they could fill their own quotes page. A brief example from each member of the family: : > Rick: I'm a scientist; because I invent, transform, create, and destroy for a living, and when I don't like something about the world, I change it. > Beth: I WILL REACH INTO HEAVEN AND YANK YOUR SCREAMING DEER SOUL BACK! > Morty: Yea well if you think my Rick is dead he's not, and if you think you're safe he's coming for you! > Jerry: Life is effort and I'll stop when I die! > Summer: Bitch my generation gets traumatized for breakfast. * Badass Family: The Smith-Sanchez family. Even with Non Action Guys like Jerry and sometimes Morty, they still pull this off quite well, and several family members who start off as Action Survivors in earlier seasons end up taking several levels in badass over time. The best examples of this are seen in: + "Total Rickall": Once Rick, Morty, Summer, and Beth confirm that they're all real, the four of them work together to gun down the dozens of memory parasites in their home, complete with several instances of Back-to-Back Badasses. (Jerry, however, sits it out and hides in a corner.) + "Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri": All members of the family are vital to defeating the Galactic Federation by dividing and conquering. Rick brings everybody else to their ship to rescue the Beths and then battles Phoenix Person (ultimately losing, but keeping him busy); Summer and Morty stop the G-Fed from destroying Earth by shutting down their planet-destroying laser; the Beths break free from confinement, shoot their way through the Mooks on the ship, and save Rick from Phoenix Person (even if they also lose to him); and even Jerry uses a Chekhov's Skill to distract Phoenix Person before he can kill Rick and the Beths, giving them the chance to shut him down. + "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion": Each of the five family members gets to pilot their own Gotron mecha, and they all later form a Combining Mecha together to take down enemies even more effectively. * Berserk Button: + Don't eat Eyeholes cereal unless you want the Eyehole Man to show up and beat the hell out of you. + Rick does not take betrayal well at all, as Gearhead found out. + Morty hates being called a terrible person, especially if he's done nothing wrong. + Jerry mentions in passing that he's wondered what it's like to have a vagina. He gets increasingly annoyed at Risotto Groupon repeatedly bringing this up, until he eventually snaps and attacks him, despite normally being a Non-Action Guy. * Big Damn Movie: A game, in this case. Episode one of the game has Rick be fully aware that the sudden problem that starts the plot makes no sense. * Big Sibling Instinct: Summer plays it straight by showing some Big Sister Instinct towards Morty, and he inverts it with Little Brother Instinct towards her (in his case, sometimes to Knight Templar Little Brother levels). As they both become more and more traumatized through their adventures with Rick, they become increasingly protective towards each other. Morty in particular will not stand for other people making Summer cry. * Bizarre Alien Biology: So many examples that it could have its own subpage. Lampshaded in the pilot, when Rick points out a random alien creature and says it "defies all logic." * Black-and-Gray Morality: The combination of cynicism, black comedy, and the general Crapsack World that is the universe leaves the series with barely any characters who ever really do the right thing. Morty started off the series fairly optimistic and cheerful, but season 2 and especially season 3 have already worn him down. No character ever gets to live their lives and do everything they want without appropriate consequences. For example, Morty's desire to win the love and affection of his crush resulted in—as Rick describes it himself— a date rape drug being spread throughout the entire planet's atmosphere and transforming all non-family members into Cronenberg-style mutants. There are clearly nefarious characters and entities that clearly fall under black, but almost everyone else is grey. + Consequences are often bizarrely inappropriate in keeping with the nihilistic morality of the show. Characters suffer even for having the bests of intentions. In "Something Ricked This Way Comes," Summer shows genuine kindness and sympathy for the Devil but is of course betrayed. In "The Wedding Squanchers," the family convinces Rick to open up and genuinely enjoy the healthy activity of a friends' wedding only for it to turn out to be a hit from the galactic government that turns into a blood bath, though Rick's absence would have changed nothing. In "Look Who's Purging Now," Morty's attempt to help an innocent woman leads to them getting caught in a Whole-Plot Reference to The Purge series, where Morty jumps off the slippery slope to enjoy gratuitously killing defenseless people. In "Mortynight Run," Morty objects to Rick selling arms to a hitman, only to later cause dozens of deaths freeing the hitman's potential target and then kill the target because he poses a threat to all other life in the galaxy. + "A Rickconvenient Mort" takes this to an extreme. Planetina, a Captain Planet Expy used to save the environment with her Tina-teers. In the modern day, the latter have become greedy, soulless bastards who don't give a shit about the environment and only pretend to care to make money off of Planetina. The rest of the human race is shown to similarly not care and continue to desecrate the planet while lying through their teeth about how green they are. When Planetina is freed from the Tina-teers' rings and allowed to live full-time on Earth, she takes increasingly extreme measures to save the environment and eventually snaps and murders miners. Said miners were unpleasant, but had the valid point that they needed the income, showing how polluting corporations have too many people in their pocket for any meaningful change to arise. The episode comes to the conclusion that humans are Beyond Redemption and there is no hope; humanity will suffer an agonizing, pathetic extinction as a result of its own idiocy. * Black Comedy: Most definitely. Most of the humor revolves around Rick's sociopathy and alcoholism and the resulting damage it does to Morty's psyche. After "Rick Potion #9", the show takes a realistic look at the traumatic damage that the pair's adventures can have on Morty. * Black Comedy Rape: An interesting subversion. There are a few passive jokes about rape in the dialogue, but the act itself is always depicted completely seriously. For example, Rick makes a passive comment about Prison Rape during his and Morty's trial in "Meeseeks and Destroy," which is meant as a joke, but Morty almost getting raped in a bathroom later in the same episode is not. Rick's reaction to it cements this. * Blatant Lies: This shows up in pretty much every episode, especially from Rick, and often Played for Laughs. > Rick: I wouldn't lie to you [Morty]. Beat Well, that's a lie. Huh. * Bloodier and Gorier: While the show has never been one to shy away from on-screen violence, it was rarely extravagant, with most episodes in the first two seasons being rated TV-14. Season 3 takes the violence much further, with almost every episode getting a TV-MA rating and involving a sequence where one or more of the main characters engage in the brutal, graphic, and creative slaughter of a crowd of enemies. Usually, the crowd is a collective Asshole Victim, but it is still the heroes gleefully engaging in Bloody Hilarious violence. The late Season 2 episode "Look Who's Purging Now" is a hint at the beginning of this, with Rick and Arthricia literally dancing in a river of blood to Toni Toni Tone after killing all the aristocratic "fat cats". * Bookends: Season 7 opens and closes with a monologue by Mr. Poopybutthole. * Breaking the Fourth Wall: + Jerry, of all people, looks straight at the camera and shrugs at the end of the Christmas Episode. + All five characters at the end of "Meeseeks and Destroy". Rick even says "See you next week!" to the audience. He does this again in "Raising Gazorpazorp." + At the end of "Ricksy Business", Rick ends the episode by ordering to roll the credits, and repeatedly yells that it's the end of the first season. + In-universe, the Titanic reenactment cruise that Beth and Jerry are on fails to sink as it was supposed to, and to make up for it the captain of the ship offers everyone free "James Camer-Onion Rings". This prompts Jerry to angrily say "...and now the fourth wall is broken." + "Total Rickall" features Rick telling viewers that the show will be back after a commercial break. + The same episode has a fake flashback of Rick detailing a get-rich-quick scheme involving selling Nintendo 3DS systems. At the end of the scene, he turns to the camera and asks Nintendo to give him free stuff. + Mr. Poopybutthole mentions how "The Wedding Squanchers" ends on a huge cliffhanger, and how it'll take a year and a half or possibly longer to see how it'll be resolved at the start of Season 3. He does something similar at the end of "The Rickchurian Mortydate", referencing that Season 4 will come in "a really long time". + At the end of "The Rickshank Redemption" Rick goes on a rant about how finding some way to acquire more Szechuan sauce from McDonald's is going to be his "series arc" and he will achieve it, even if it takes him "nine seasons" or 97 years to do so. + Rick looks right at the camera with a deadpan face by saying "We'll be right back" before cutting to the commercial break in "Rickmancing the Stone." + In the cold open of "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy", Rick calls it a "Rick and Jerry episode!" + During the introduction to "Morty's Mind Blowers", Rick gives a Title Drop of the episode, then looks directly at the camera and says, "And we'll be doing this instead of Interdimensional Cable." Cue the intro. + At the end of the third season finale "The Rickchurian Mortydate", after Beth and Jerry decide to get back together, Beth makes an explicit comparison to Season 1. + "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat": Rick is confused as to how the Phoenix Protocol activated when his body died, since he "axed" it (literally) "two seasons ago" (in the episode "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez"). The ending also has Rick and Morty talk about all the adventures they're going to have, and when Summer mocks them for it, they yell at her for "ruining the season premiere". + At the end of "Never Ricking Morty", when the Story Train that Morty bought for Rick breaks, Rick insists that Morty buy him a new one rather than returning it, because "nobody's out buying anything with this fucking virus going around!" + Numerous times in "Rickmurai Jack", such as Rick calling it a "Citadel episode", noting that the Citadel "runs on canon", and stating he hates "serialized drama", and \|\|Evil Morty\|\| notes that Rick prefers to "keep it episodic". + A few as well in "Solaricks": Rick states that \|\|Jerry's original dimension, which he was accidentally taken from in "Mortynight Run" and is returned to here,\|\| is giving him "major Season 2 vibes", and \|\|refers to the Jerry who is originally from their current dimension but has been living in the alternate one as "Season 2 Jerry"\|\|. When the family has to \|\|hop dimensions\|\| at the end, Rick notes how hard that is to do \|\|without portals\|\| and that they're going to have to do "the whole fucking episode all over again!" + Rick is furious when the dinosaurs of "Juricksic Mort" repair the rift in the Central Finite Curve that was created in "Rickmurai Jack" because they could have milked it "for a whole season, or a three-episode arc at least". He responds by going home and \|\|fixing portal travel\|\|, and excitedly shouts that they're going to have "classic episodes, Morty!" * Breaking Old Trends: + After Mr. Poopybutthole's debut in mid-Season 2, almost every season finale since then (i.e. the finales of Seasons 2, 3, 5, and 6) features him talking to the audience as The Stinger. Season 4's finale is the exception, with the Stinger instead having a comedic scene with Jerry.(It may help that, unlike Seasons 3 and 5 where these finale Stingers were Mr. Poopybutthole's only appearances in the whole season, he does make an actual, proper appearance in the main story in a Season 4 episode.) + "Mort Dinner Rick Andre", the Season 5 premiere, is so far the first season premiere(not counting the pilot, which is the series premiere as well) that doesn't pick back up directly from where the previous season's finale left off. + Every season has at least one episode that mentions Morty's crush on Jessica and desire to ask her out, and also sees him get feelings for another girl at least once (Annie in S1, Arthricia (though this is one-sided) in S2, Stacy and a mermaid (offscreen) in S3, his unnamed girlfriend in S4, Planetina in S5). Season 6 is the first to break away from this; Jessica doesn't appear at all, Morty doesn't have any love interest or romantic plotline, and his Hormone-Addled Teenager tendencies are barely present, all in favor of focusing on his relationships with his family members instead. * Break the Cutie: The entire series is a long process of this for Morty. Particular examples include "Meeseeks and Destroy", in which he is almost raped; "Mortynight Run", when he has to kill Fart to save the universe, and in the process, render all of the death and destruction that he caused throughout the episode pointless; and "Morty's Mind Blowers", where he relives numerous memories that were so traumatizing for him that he outright removed them from his brain. Morty having been broken so many times is a major factor in his ever-increasing Seen It All attitude with each passing season. * Brick Joke: Practically every episode has at least one, if not several. It's particularly common for The Stinger to have one. * Buffy Speak: Used occasionally. + One example is this exchange in "Ricksy Business" that took place when Rick had a massive hangover. > Rick: Bring me the thing. > Morty: What thing? > Rick: The thing, the thing. It's got buttons and lights on it. It beeps. > Morty: Rick, that describes everything in your garage! + Also this one from "Rickmurai Jack": > \|\|Evil Morty\|\|: Tonight, the quality of dialogue stops mattering. Tonight, I do that thing I wanna do! With the curve thing! * But for Me, It Was Tuesday: + Rick has a lot of enemies that he doesn't remember until it comes back to bite him in the ass. + Meanwhile, he's on the opposite side of it in regards to \|\|Rick Prime, the man who murdered Main Rick's original Diane and Beth from his dimension. Rick spent decades of his life trying to find him, to no avail, and his failure to do so caused him to spiral into cynicism, nihilism, and alcoholism. Meanwhile, it doesn't seem like Rick Prime is even aware of why Rick is trying so hard to hunt him down, just that he is, but he apparently has enough enemies that, when he built a hideout rigged with traps for them to find, he acknowledges in the pre-recorded videos that he doesn't even know who he's talking to.\|\| * Call-Back: Happens in pretty much every episode. There are some plot points that are called back multiple times: + Rick's insane "Rick and Morty 100 Years" speech at the end of the pilot episode gets a call back at the end of the third season premiere. It even has the same music playing during the speech, and both end with the garage door closing while a confused Morty, on the floor, watches Rick absolutely lose his marbles. The fourth season premiere also has a similar rant, except that this time, Rick and Morty are both eagerly participating in it together, and then yell at Summer for ruining it when she mocks them. + Morty pulls his "every 10th adventure" card in "Vindicators 3", calling back to the agreement he and Rick made in "Meeseeks & Destroy" that Morty would get to pick one out of every ten adventures they went on. It's even a literal card, complete with nine Morty ink stamps. It gets brought up again in "Rattlestar Ricklactica", where Rick is annoyed enough about Morty's latest screw-up causing the events of the entire episode that he counts it as a "Morty adventure" and tears up his card to start it over. + In "Rick Potion #9", Rick makes a meta-joke that they can mess up their own dimension and shift to a new one only a few times. "Morty's Mind Blowers" has Rick claim they have to jump dimensions once again (though, based on series continuity, this was probably not meant to be taken as canon and was just being Played for Laughs) and remind Morty of that very issue. \|\|"Solaricks" sees the entire family (including Space Beth) do it this time, complete with everybody burying their corpses in the backyard.\|\| + "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" has Rick transferring his mind into a teenage clone of himself, but after it tries to suppress his real mind inside the subconscious of his new teenage mind, he deems the cloning project, called "the Phoenix Protocol", a failure, and destroys all of the clone bodies with an axe. In "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat", it's shown that the Phoenix Protocol is supposed to be a way for Rick's mind to upload itself into a new clone body if his original body dies, and because he destroyed all his clones in his own dimension, he reincarnates into alternate-dimension clones and has to get back home. And then in "Rickmurai Jack", \|\|Evil Morty hijacks the Phoenix Protocol so that, when the Ricks and Mortys of the Citadel die from his traps (or kill themselves to try to invoke the Protocol and escape), they'll be redirected to clone vats in the Citadel that blend them to mush to power his giant portal gun that opens the Central Finite Curve\|\|. * Call to Adventure: When the Vindicators activate their distress beacon to summon Rick and Morty, Rick adamantly refuses a "literal call to adventure", but Morty invokes his right to choose one out of every 10 adventures to force him into it. * Calling the Old Man Out: + Summer is willing to and does do this with Rick. Morty becomes more and more willing to do so over time as well. + She also does it with her parents when they didn't seem to care that Morty has a sexbot in "Raising Gazorpazorp". + In the same episode, Morty Jr. does this to Morty. + Morty calls Beth out for being as irresponsible as Rick in "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy". + "The ABC's of Beth" has quite a bit of this, with Beth finally calling Rick out for neglecting her as a child, and Morty and Summer calling Jerry out on quite a few of his flaws, as well as being unable to admit to his new girlfriend that he wants to break up. + Both versions of Beth tear into Rick in "Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri" for having cloned the original Beth, lying to both of them about who the clone is, \|\|and mind-blowing himself so he wouldn't even know who it is. They're so disillusioned with him that Space Beth literally comes back to Earth just to kill Rick, both Beths team up so they can kick his ass later, and they finally overcome their need for his approval.\|\| Rick himself admits he's a terrible father after all of this. + "A Rickonvenient Mort": After his parents (but moreso his mom) express reservations about Morty dating Planetina and refuse to let her stay with them, he completely goes off on them about how no one in family really respects him or values what he has to say despite all the experience he's had in traveling the universe. This one is a bit tricky, though, in that Beth and Jerry have legitimate reasons to be concerned about the relationship. + Beth is not happy to discover in "Amortycan Grickffitti" that Rick's "guys nights" with Jerry are really just using the latter as an oblivious punchline to pay back a debt to some hell demons. Eventually, the demons get her drunk and she gets in on it as well, but in her case, it's more like fond teasing, and she does regret it later when Jerry is hurt by it. Rick, for his part, eventually admits this was wrong. * Calling the Young Man Out: This happens a few times, too: + In "Rick Potion #9", Rick makes a Love Potion for Morty at his request (with Morty, a 14-year-old boy, clearly just seeing the "romantic" implications of this and not realizing how gross this actually is). Rick later likens it to Morty wanting to roofie Jessica, calling the potion a "roofie juice serum", and tells Morty that he's "a little creep" for it (though, as Morty points out, Rick did still make it for him in the first place and only expressed reservations about it later). + Rick gives a massive "Reason You Suck" Speech to his son-in-law Jerry in "The Whirly-Dirly Conspiracy" about how Jerry is downright predatory in his constant m.o. of acting pathetic to make people feel sorry for him, and subsequently taking advantage of that pity to get what he wants. Notably, this does get through to Jerry, and he vows that this will no longer be his "signature move". + In response to Beth calling him out in "The ABC's of Beth", Rick also turns it back on her by pointing out that At Least I Admit It; he knows he's a bad father and isn't trying to deny or excuse that, but Beth refuses to admit that she's just like him in all the worst ways and takes a Never My Fault attitude about her flaws, deflecting blame to everyone but herself. Like with Jerry, this does reach her, and she admits at the end that she's out of excuses to not be who she really is. + When Morty is \|\|returned to his original universe\|\| in "Solaricks", he meets \|\|his original dad (the Jerry of the first six episodes), who calls Morty out on abandoning his native dimension and family and not treating them like real people when he returned there briefly in "The Rickshank Redemption". While it's a bit lessened by the fact that Jerry, Beth, and Summer didn't miss Rick or Morty once they left, he's still not wrong that Morty could have made the effort to come back there and fix things, but never cared enough to bother.\|\| * Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: In "The Rickshank Rickdemption," Rick begins body hopping to escape imprisonment and enact a complex plan. Whenever he needs to leave a room, he loudly announces he has to take a dump. * Canines Gambling in a Card Game: In "Lawnmower Dog", A group of super-intelligent dogs replicate the classic image after taking over the world. * Cassandra Did It: The memory parasites try to use this to make it seem like Rick is the parasite due to his own zany wacky personality and incredibly vague backstory. The family, especially Beth and Morty, start to believe them even though Rick is literally related to them. * Cast Full of Gay: Jerry has a fake-memory-implanted relationship with Sleepy Gary, and later has a threesome with Beth and Mr. Nimbus. When Summer uses an alien-created dating app, one of her chosen partners is a woman, and she makes out with her. Rick is outright stated by Word of God to be pansexual and has been shown having female, male, and genderless love interests, and Beth literally sleeps with a clone of herself. This means 5 of the 6 members of the Smith-Sanchez family (all except Morty, so far at least) are Queer. * Catchphrase: + Parodied with Rick's "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!". Bird Person later tells Morty that this saying translates in his language to "I am in great pain. Please help me." + As of the season 1 finale, he decides his new catchphrase is "I don't give a fuck!" + He also has a fondness for saying "It's gonna be great!" when talking about his inventions. + "And awaaaaay we go!" should probably also qualify. + Morty's is "aw geez". Him saying it so often is parodied in "The Ricklantis Mixup" and "Rick: A Mort Well Lived". + In-universe, Mrs. Pancakes, in her self-titled series, has "You don't know me!" It's later turned on its head when Summer is watching the show in "Rest and Ricklaxation", where she says, "You do know me!" + With power running low, some of the computer simulations are reduced to one sentence Catchphrases like "Yes!" And "My Man!". + Later parodied in "Total Rickall" when we see a string of Rick's "really weird, made-up-sounding catchphrases", which are a series of strange Non Sequiturs such as "AIDS!" , "Shum shum shlippidy-dop!", "Graaaaaassss... tastes bad!" and "BURGER TIME!" The context of the scene would lead the viewer to assume that they're the result of the memory-tampering parasites, except that none of the flashbacks feature the parasites and none of them seem to be pleasant memories, meaning Rick really does have these catchphrases even if they've never appeared onscreen before or since (although he re-uses "Riki-tiki-tavi" and "And that's the waaaay the news goes" in the last part of the episode, after all the parasites have been exterminated). * Caught with Your Pants Down: Generally involving the 14-year-old Morty. + In one flashback, his 17-year-old sister Summer walks in on him. > Summer: Oh my god! > Morty: I thought you went to a concert! > Summer We forgot the tickets! Why in the kitchen?! > Morty: I do it everywhere! Stop shaming me! > Summer: You're not the victim here! > Morty: I hate you and I was thinking about your friend Grace! > Summer: [inarticulate scream] + Referenced in one episode where Jerry opens Morty's bedroom to ask him a question. At the end of their conversation, Morty gives him a protracted warning that he's asking for trouble by bursting into a teen's bedroom without warning. + Invoked by Jerry in "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate." When nearly caught by the doctor browsing confidential patient documents, he drops trou and loudly declares he was masturbating. + The season three intro features a butt-faced Morty watching porn where a woman has faces on her ass and quickly trying to cover it up when a butt-faced Beth comes into his room. + The wizard from "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty", before his final confrontation with the slut dragons, emerges from what seems a medieval portable toilet, hastily closing his robe, while in the toilet there's some kind of magical mirror that apparently shows a Hot Witch. + The time-traveling snakes from "Rattlestar Ricklactica" first attack Morty in his bedroom while he's masturbating. He manages to pull his pants back up before fleeing the room for help, but remains shirtless. * Central Theme: Nihilism and Cosmic Horror. + Embracing the inherent chaos, unpredictability, and cosmic meaninglessness of the universe and finding something to keep yourself tethered to the mortal plane despite nihilism. While nihilism is usually portrayed in media with the mindset of "Life is pointless, so why bother?", Morty actually points out a positive note in "Rixty Minutes" when he tells Summer that nobody and nothing is designed to happen and that it's up to everyone to find their own purpose and enjoyment. > Morty: Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV? + The mental conflict between intelligence and human connection. + Both Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland have stated that the study into nihilism is really to help find a sense of purpose and live a better life by focusing on human relationships and experiences, and not preoccupy our minds with unanswerable questions. + The last few episodes of Season 5 put the spotlight on numerous characters who deal with genuinely sympathetic negative emotions, such as trauma, grief, insecurity, and loneliness, in very unhealthy ways, to their own detriment: - "GoTron Jerrysis Rickvangelion": Summer feels lonely and insecure at being the "odd one out" in her family, and in her effort to keep them together and win Rick's approval, enables him in everything he does, including his worst habits, and pushes the rest of her family members away, leaving her in tears when she realizes this. - "Rickternal Friendshine of the Rickless Mort": \|\|Bird Person is so filled with grief at Tammy's betrayal and death that he tries to destroy his mind and die in the process and refuses Rick's efforts to save him, only relenting and changing his mind when Rick reveals to him that he has a daughter, whom BP decides is Worth Living For\|\|. - The above episode and "Rickmurai Jack" reveal that \|\|Rick did indeed lose his wife Diane and child Beth in an explosion, and he spent decades afterwards trying to hunt down the alternate Rick responsible, killing countless other versions of himself and making many enemies, only to fail and spiral into being the cynical, nihilistic, depressed, lonely man he is today. A younger version of himself from Bird Person's memory is horrified to see what kind of person he'll become\|\|. - Also from "Rickmurai Jack": \|\|Evil Morty is revealed to have been a normal Morty who snapped from all the abuse he had to put up with from his and other Ricks, and he came up with a plan to escape Rick's influence forever, which is totally understandable. What is not acceptable, though, was how he lost any empathy he once had and was willing to kill thousands if not millions of Ricks and Mortys to achieve his plans, and came to care only about helping himself and no one else.\|\| * Cerebus Retcon: + Although an observant viewer may have inferred it prior, it's revealed at the end of "Ricksy Business" that Rick's constant drinking and abuse of the occasional Fantastic Drug isn't just for fun; he's actually numbing himself from an intense amount of emotional pain. + In the same episode, his "Wubba lubba dub dub!" catchphrase, previously portrayed as just a parody of other nonsense-word catchphrases, is revealed to actually be a phrase in an alien language. It means "I am in great pain. Please help me." + In "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", Morty, after seeing all the Rick-and-Morty pairs together in the Citadel of Ricks, expresses happiness at how he and Rick have such a close bond that it spans across infinite universes. He's disappointed to learn from Rick that a big part of this is due to Ricks needing the brainwaves of Mortys to conceal them from enemies, rather than Ricks actually caring about their Mortys. This is already fairly dark, but it gets much, much worse after "Rickmurai Jack", which reveals that \|\|the Ricks of the Citadel purposely engineer Morty's birth across infinite dimensions, and clone them to create a mass-market of Mortys who can just be sent off to any Rick in the multiverse that needs them, meaning that most Mortys are essentially part of a Slave Race to Ricks. As much crap and abuse as "our" Morty has to put up with from "our" Rick, he's actually one of the lucky ones in that he has a Rick who actually cares about him and doesn't just see him as disposable, which is more than most Mortys get.\|\| + Also from "Close Rick-Counters", at the end, Morty asks what will happen to all the Mortys who lost their Ricks. He's told that the Rickless Mortys will return home and lead ordinary lives. Instead, "The Ricklantis Mixup" reveals that Mortys without Ricks are kept away from their families and sent to a school where they are groomed to serve as docile replacements for other Ricks, with many shuffling through many Ricks. Mortys who fail to graduate are dumped in "Mortytown," a burnt out, crime infested section of the citadel where they victimize each other. \|\|This is probably because, as per the above reveal, many of these Mortys are clones and don't have a home dimension to go back to, because the original Mortys that they were cloned from are already living there.\|\| + In the earlier seasons, Jerry and Beth are quite unhappily married (despite having quite a few moments of bonding and growing closer), with an alien marriage counselor stating that theirs is the worst relationship he's ever seen and the two of them never should have gotten together in the first place. Then we find out in "Rickmurai Jack" that, \|\|related to the above reveal, Beth and Jerry were manipulated by the Citadel into getting together in countless different universes—sometimes even through some kind of love-drug—just so they would eventually give birth to Morty. In other words, the marriage counselor was completely right that they never should have hooked up, and it was engineered by alternate versions of Beth's own father. Luckily, the main Beth and Jerry of the show do have a much more functional relationship in later seasons, but this is not the case for the vast majority of Jerrys and Beths in the multiverse.\|\| * Cerebus Rollercoaster: + While the series never stops being dark, whether dark elements are played for laughs or treated seriously vary greatly. While most of Rick's actions and the horror Morty goes through because of them are treated as Black Comedy, things like his near-rape experience or replacing himself in an alternate universe are not. The marital troubles between Beth and Jerry can go either way. + A self-contained example is the episode "Rixty Minutes", which is simultaneously regarded by fans as one of the funniest and one of the most mature and emotional episodes of the entire show, after an excuse to throw around a bunch of random jokes inadvertently triggers a B plot where Summer learns she was nearly aborted. + "Total Rickall" features the appearance of several absurd characters, one being named Mr. Poopy Butthole. But the same episode features Rick goading Morty to fatally shoot him in the head, someone accidentally seriously injuring a long-time friend to the point they required physical therapy and an implication that Beth also has a drinking problem. + "Pickle Rick" alternates between the absurdist comedy of Rick turning himself into a pickle and Dr. Wong pointing out the hubris and self-destructiveness behind such a stunt and the way Beth rationalizes it and refuses to acknowledge the deleterious effect it has on her family. * Chekhov's Gag: In "Promortyus", Summer even lampshades that her "thing" for this episode is to have a toothpick sticking out of her mouth. This ends up saving her from being possessed by the same face-hugging aliens who successfully do so to Rick and Morty, because numerous facehuggers that try to possess her just end up impaling themselves on her toothpick and dying. * Chekhov's Gunman: + Or at the very least, Chekhov's dead gunman. In the season 3 premiere, Summer digs up the dead body of her own Rick that died in ''Rick Potion No. 9" to get the portal gun that ultimately sets her and Morty's plan to rescue their Rick in motion. + The quiet, eyepatch-wearing Evil Morty in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" turns out to have been remotely controlling Evil Rick all along, meaning that he was the true mastermind behind the serial killings of Ricks. He proves to be this once again in "The Ricklantis Mix-up", where we find out that the newly elected leader of the Citadel of Ricks, President Morty, is actually him. \|\|And then he becomes the Final Boss of Season 5 by facing off with Rick and Morty directly in the season finale.\|\| + "The Rickshank Redemption" has Rick being interrogated by agents of the Galactic Federation so they can view his memory of how he invented his portal gun/interdimensional travel and take the technology for themselves. Said memory involves an alternate Rick (known as "Weird Rick") offering him the technology, Main Rick refusing in favor of being a family man to his wife Diane and child daughter Beth, and Weird Rick blowing up Diane and Beth with a bomb. Rick then claims to his interrogator that this backstory was completely fabricated so he could overpower him and break out of the memory device. \|\|"Rickmurai Jack" later shows that, while the part of this memory where he invented the portal gun was indeed fake, the rest of it—including Weird Rick (or rather, "Rick Prime")—was Real After All, and Rick spent most of his life after Diane's and Beth's deaths trying to hunt him down for revenge, to no avail, eventually becoming the man he is today. What's more, in a double-instance of this, "Solaricks" further reveals that Rick Prime is, in fact, Main Morty's original Rick from the same universe, and Main Rick originally came to that dimension and met Morty with the hope that Rick Prime would come back there someday.\|\| * Chekhov's Skill: + A minor, easy-to-miss example, but in Season 1, Beth mentions Jerry's education in civics (and implies it was a waste of time). In Season 2, his "Cervine Institute" con exploits the jurisdiction limits of Brad's Law to let Beth save the deer's life. + At the beginning of the pilot, Rick planned to use a neutrino bomb to destroy the Earth; since then, Morty has had to disarm Rick's neutrino bombs before. This comes in handy in "Vindicators 3: The Return of World Ender", which shows that Morty carries a set of wire clippers for just this purpose. > Rick: "Morty...how many of these have you had to...?" > Morty: (Interrupts) "Too many, Rick! Too many!" * Chekhov's Time Travel: Defied by the creators, as Rick has a box on his shelf with the text "Time Travel Stuff", but time travel is about the only sci-fi trope they haven't touched yet. Roiland and Harmon have said that the box on the shelf is a Stealth Pun, indicating that all time travel stories are "shelved" for the series. (It's for this reason that Rick can't simply go back in time to when Mulan was running in theaters to try McDonald's Szechuan sauce). Time Travel has since been officially reaffirmed as off-limits by the authors in interviews; they reason that it makes all problems just too easy. + The in-universe existence of a Time Police further helps to defy this, especially since the Clock Roaches that happen to run it tend to solve time travel problems in the rawest way possible. + That being said, the show finally makes its foray into time travel during "Rattlestar Ricklactica", while utterly lampooning and deconstructing the entire concept. This is symbolized by the "Time Travel Stuff" box on the shelf being tipped over for the episode. + "The Vat of Acid Episode" revisits this with Rick inventing a device to give Morty his "save point" idea. Morty uses it to pull pranks, avoid injury, fall in love and have a long-term committed relationship...and then Rick points out that it's not a time-travel thing, but an alternate universe thing, and that all of those things really happened and involved an alternate reality Morty dying in agony so Morty could hop over, to the latter's complete horror. * Clip Show: + Following from the episodes of Dan Harmon's Community which parodied clip shows by featuring clips from episodes the audience had never seen, "Total Rickall" gives us the same joke taken to the next level - the things that everyone keeps remembering never even happened. + Similarly, in "Morty's Mind Blowers", the titular mind-blowers that Morty is seeing are, out-of-universe, original content. In-universe, they seem like new content to Morty too because the clips are actually memories of Morty's that he's had removed from his brain because they were so traumatizing; Rick outright calls them a "Clip Show made of clips you never saw". * Clock Roaches / Time Police: When Rick attempts to repair the fractured timelines in "A Rickle in Time,", one of these—a Sufficiently Advanced Alien who doesn't like his methods—appears and antagonizes him. The alien's odd appearance is inspired by another, particularly iconic group of Clock Roaches. Rick later purposely attracts their attention in "Rattlestar Ricklactica" to make sure they resolve the family's time-traveling snakes issue. * Clone Angst: + More "robot" than clone, but in "Rickmancing the Stone", Rick makes robots resembling himself, Morty, and Summer to take their places in the house with Beth while the three of them are on an adventure. Morty's robot-double eventually gains sentience and wants to have real human experiences and feelings, before being shut down by Rick. + In "The ABC's of Beth", Rick offers to make a clone of Beth so she can go out and do what she wants in her life. The Season 4 finale reveals the other Beth was out in space, fighting the new-and-improved Galactic Federation, but both are eventually made aware of each other and they try to figure out who is the clone. In doing so, they also realize their mutual dislike of Rick and decide to just keep living their own lives. Rick made a memory tube of who is who, but nobody cares anymore. The tube reveals that Beth asked him to make the decision. \|\|He made a clone, properly labelled the cloning vats, but then removed the label and started switching them around until the camera cuts away to make it impossible to see who is who\|\|. Rick verbally acknowledges what a shitty father he is. + "Mortyplicity" deals with the aftermath of meeting Space Beth, where Rick created decoy clone families and placed them all over the country because there are always enemies that want to hunt them down. With families being killed by alien squid people, other Ricks are alerted to the clones, leaving the families confused what is going on. Rick uses decoy override protocols to shut the decoys down, but also learned that there are decoys who also came up with the idea of creating decoys, which leads to the decoys who discovered they were decoys to dress up as squid aliens to hunt them down. Rick explains the "Asimov Cascade" where all the decoys will inevitibly kill each other. Complete chaos ensues when the decoy families begin to kill each other, until the last family themselves get killed by Mr. Wants To Be Hunted because they didn't hunt him. Meanwhile, the original family is returning from a space adventure and meets up Space Beth, and the confusion begins all over again when Rick reveals the decoy families. * The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: In the season 3 premiere, Summer starts acting crazy, thinking there must be some way to reconnect with Rick. She goes into the garage, which has now replaced all of Rick's gadgets and sees a group of dead flies on the countertop. She thinks that maybe if she rearranged the flies, they'd activate a hologram or a door of some sort. When Rick later comes back to the garage, he sets everything back to normal by setting the flies a certain way. Summer's placement wasn't even that far off. * Cold-Blooded Torture: Evil Rick tortures hundreds of alternate versions of Morty to hide from the Council. The fact that it's actually Evil Morty at the wheel here makes this an especially wicked Expendable Clone scenario. * The Collector: In "Morty's Mind Blowers", Rick and Morty are shown to have been captive in a menagerie, and escaped by replacing themselves with unwitting doubles in a parody of Contact * Color-Coded Item Tiers: Different colours of portal fluid have different properties: + The President and the Galactic Federation use blue-coloured portal fluid that can only create portals within a single reality. + Rick and most of his Alternate Selves use green-coloured portal fluid that can create portals to anywhere within the Central Finite Curve. + Evil Morty uses golden-coloured portal fluid that can create portals to the outside of the Curve. + Rick Prime uses black-coloured portal fluid that can transport people against their will by turning into a Blob Monster and absorbing them. * Comedic Sociopath: Rick definitely fits this, although it is implied he is more empathetic than he lets on and his sociopathic tendencies are some sort of defense mechanism. * Comic-Book Adaptation: Several. There's the main-line Rick and Morty, as well as several spin-offs: Lil' Poopy Superstar, Pocket Like You Stole It (based off on "Pocket Mortys"), Rick and Morty vs Dungeons and Dragons, and Rick and Morty Presents:. Now has its own page here for these adaptations. * Comic-Book Time: It doesn't really matter how many hundreds of adventures Rick and Morty are implied to have been on, or what events transpire over what period of time during the course of any given season, or how many times Christmas or Thanksgiving happen, or even what dimension you visit. Morty is fourteen years old, Summer is in her late teens, and both are likely to remain roughly the same age no matter how many seasons pass. + Summer's age in particular is given a Lampshade Hanging in "Never Ricking Morty" where Rick and Morty are shown a possible story of Summer finally turning 18 after what "feels like years" and moving out to attend college — a scenario that Rick explains could have become canon if it wasn't being presented as a possibility. + Also lampshaded in "Bethic Twinstinct" when Summer comments that Morty "really came of age this Thanksgiving", and Morty responds by asking how old the two of them are even supposed to be and how many Thanksgivings they've had by now. * Comically Missing the Point: Most commonly seen with Jerry and Morty, whom the latter admits are the biggest idiots in the family, and occasionally happens to side characters as well. * Conditioned to Accept Horror: Aside from the immediate threat of death, almost nothing in the multiverse fazes Rick, not even having to bury his own corpse. Over time, the rest of the family becomes this more and more, too, especially Morty and, to a slightly lesser extent, Summer. * Conjoined Twins: A pair of conjoined twins named Michael and Pichael (the former being a news reporter and the latter being the host of his own cooking show) appear in "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate". * Conservation of Ninjutsu: The Citadel of Ricks lives on this trope. + This includes the Citadel's leaders, the Council of Ricks. Despite, in theory, being all the same insanely clever scientific genius, the original Rick and Evil Rick easily outsmart them in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick-Kind". + Taken even further in "The Rickshank Redemption", where they are reduced to mooks, with the original Rick being able to sabotage them repeatedly without effort, despite them expecting him, and the Federation security being able to inflict heavy casualties on them, if not about to overpower them. This is the same security the original Rick could smack around effortlessly by himself. + It happens again in "Rickmurai Jack", where OG Rick takes on a security force of several alternate versions of himself who just attempt to use guns and spears and the like to attack him, which he easily prevents with a force-field that they apparently can't counter. He then easily beats all of them up, since they apparently don't have their own similar force-fields. * Continuity Snarl: Possibly. "Morty's Mind Blowers" from Season 3 seems to indicate that after "our" Rick and Morty were shown hopping dimensions to live in a different universe in "Rick Potion #9" (from Season 1), they've since done so again offscreen at an unspecified point when Morty accidentally incurred the wrath of the squirrels of that universe. The problem is, based on references in other episodes, there's no point in time that this could have occurred to fit with various events. Certain plot points(Namely, the dead Rick and Morty of the current universe that our Rick and Morty replaced, and their graves being in the backyard) indicate that, after "Rick Potion #9", Rick and Morty are still in that same universe in "Rixty Minutes" (also Season 1) and "The Rickshank Redemption" (the Season 3 premiere), both of which reference what happened in the former. Furthermore, events of the Season 4 premiere are a direct result of Rick's actions in "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", a Season 2 episode, proving that Rick and Morty haven't switched dimensions between then either. The best explanation is probably just that Rick's claim in "Morty's Mind Blowers" of needing to change realities again was being Played for Laughs, wasn't meant to be taken seriously, and is just subject to Rick's MST3K Mantra of "Don't think about it!", especially since it wasn't shown happening on screen and has never been mentioned again since. * Conveniently Close Planet: The plot of "Look Who's Purging Now" is kicked off by a large alien bug hitting the windshield of Rick's spacecraft, and Rick heading for a nearby planet to get more windshield wiper fluid. * Cool Old Guy: Definitely Rick. Not only is he capable of making almost any sci-fi gizmo you can think of, he's a total badass both physically and mentally and spends almost all of his waking hours spending his idea of quality time with his grandkids, which ranges from death-defying inter-dimensional adventures, to freezing time to play pranks on the neighbors, to dancing to booty jams in the front yard. He's even shown to be "cool" in the more traditional sense in "Ricksy Business", co-hosting a killer party and getting, in his own words, "Riggedy-riggedy-wrecked." * Corrupted Contingency: Numerous versions of Ricks and Mortys across the multiverse have a plan to cheat death called the "Phoenix Protocol", which allows their consciousness to escape into a cloned body when in mortal peril. However, the main villain of season 5 rerouts all of the cloned bodies to be dumped into an enormous meat grinder upon revival. * Cosmic Horror Story: The horror that we are insignificant specks in a vast universe, at the mercy of beings whose power and motives are beyond our comprehension. Rick And Morty has Cosmic Horror tropes in spades, and surprisingly, they are usually Played for Laughs. Examples include: + Morty convinces Rick to help him get a date with his dream girl, but something goes wrong, then Rick's attempt to fix it makes it worse, then Rick's attempt to fix that makes it worse, culminating in every human on Earth except Morty's family turning into gibbering mounds of flesh and limbs. Rick gives up on trying to fix the world and just takes Morty to another dimension where Earth isn't completely ruined. This also involves Rick and Morty burying the mangled corpses of that dimension's Rick and Morty to take their place. \|\|And come "Solaricks", they have to do this again, this time with Summer, Jerry, and both Beths joining them as well.\|\| + Rick creating an entire universe in a box, so the intelligent denizens living in that universe can perform slave labor to act as a battery for his spaceship. + Played for Drama: In "Rixty Minutes," Morty talks Summer out of running away when she finds out her birth ruined her parents' dreams. By revealing the events of "Rick Potion #9," Morty turns what would otherwise be a horrifying statement about mankind's insignificance into a very touching moment. > Summer: So, you're not my real brother? > Morty: I'm better than your brother. I'm a version of your brother you can trust when he says "Don't run." Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV? + Morty eventually convinces Rick in "The Vat of Acid Episode" to give him the "do-over remote" he wanted, which lets him erase his mistakes and try again to avoid consequences for them. At least, that's what Rick tells him it does. He later discovers, to his shock, that every time he uses the remote to "do over" something, he'd really just been hopping to a different timeline, killing and replacing the Morty there, and considering how many times he's used it by now, he realizes with utter horror that he's killed dozens of other alternate-timeline versions of himself. And all of this was because Rick wanted to teach Morty a lesson for criticizing one of his ideas. + "Rickmurai Jack" is probably the most extreme example yet. Morty learns that the Central Finite Curve he lives in is \|\|a walled-off section of the multiverse containing all the universes where Rick Sanchez is the smartest man alive, separating them from all the others where he isn't. What's more, across a huge portion of these infinite universes, the many incarnations of Rick in the Citadel engineered Morty's entire existence—via manipulating his parents to fall in love, sometimes even through Love Potions—and cloned countless more versions of him to act as their mail-order sidekicks whenever their Mortys died and they needed new ones, essentially making the Mortys of the multiverse a Slave Race to Ricks, with very few exceptions (though the main Morty of the show is one such exception).\|\| Needless to say, Morty is horrified to learn this, and his trust in Rick is shaken by it. * Cow Tools: The Plumbus. Although it's implied to be a household multipurpose tool, it's specific purpose and function is intentionally unclear. The How-It's-Made-segment in which it's introduced is equally nonsensical, with all of its components and assembly being improvised by the VA. A manual released as a tie-in to the DVD release for Season 2 implies it can be used for, among other things: cleaning brush, bed warmer, frying pan, religious icon, and music player. * Crapsaccharine World: Despite the colorful art style and silly characters, this show is often very dark and existential. * Creator In-Joke: When Rick talks about his interest in watching a show about a world of intelligent dogs, it's a reference to Roiland's previous project Dog World that never aired. Earlier in the episode, Rick name-drops a character from the proposed series, Ruffles. * Creepy Child: + The little girl that haunts the centaur's dreams in "Lawnmower Dog" certainly qualifies. Doubles as a Shout-Out to "The Shining", even though there is only one of them. + The two children in the Strawberry Smiggles commercial from "Rixty Minutes" who tie down the leprechaun and cut his guts open just to get to the cereal that he'd already eaten. And then they eat it, covered in blood and guts and all. + Done in "The Ricklantis Mixup" by a Morty to Cop Rick. The Morty is by himself, crying, in a filthy room and asks if Cop Rick is "my new Rick." Cop Rick picks him up in a carry and it looks like there will be a tender moment, then Mood Whiplash strikes as the Morty stabs Cop Rick several times, forcing Cop Rick to shoot and kill him. Also of note is the crib present in the room, which Cop Morty explains being there as "a way to make you [Rick] feel bad." * Crossover Punchline: + This video teases a minor crossover with Gravity Falls. However, because Alex Hirsch and Justin Roiland are really good friends, it's probably just a joke. Although Gravity Falls' Big Bad, Bill Cipher, does show up on a screen at the marriage counselling clinic in "Big Trouble In Little Sanchez," strengthening the theory. + Rick and Morty also appeared in an extended Couch Gag in The Simpsons. + A background character occasionally appears in the show with rainbow suspenders and a football on his shirt with stitching that looks like Roman numerals. The corresponding letters of the alphabet were supposed to be part of a crossover hidden message along with Gravity Falls and Murder Police. Only Rick and Morty followed through with the plan, and given the fact that Murder Police was pulled from Fox's schedule before it ever aired, the crossover may never happen. * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: + Jerry is pretty on-the-ball when he's not being constantly emasculated. + Morty may be a neurotic, dim-witted wimp, but when push comes to shove, he can put up a surprisingly good fight. Mr. Jellybean, Evil Rick, and Nick learned this the hard way. * Crystal Dragon Jesus: The various Mortys in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" offer a Chick Tracts-like booklet that describes "The Path of the One True Morty", which was available in physical form with DVDs of the first season and describes a religion which preaches them to never follow Rick and live a simple, independent life, after which they go to an afterlife filled with space motorcycles and all the Jessicas they can ever want. * Curb-Stomp Battle: Very frequently inflicted by Rick on his enemies, and sometimes by others as well. See here. * Curse Cut Short: + The head alien in "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!" says, "This is going to be such a mind f——!" cut to commercial. + Morty reads a note that Jerry left for him in "Solaricks, and shouts "Motherfu—" before the commercial cut. * Cutaway Gag: A major plot point of "Total Rickall". The mind parasites manifest themselves in the form of flashbacks, which are presented as these. * Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Justified / deconstructed. Rick is often involved in various bizarre get-rich-quick schemes even though he could easily make himself wealthy simply by selling his inventions to the public or use them for more productive purposes...but that would require Rick to give a crap about other people or anything related to mundane adult life. This is best illustrated in "Something Ricked This Way Comes": Rick combats the Devil's shop of Be Careful What You Wish For cursed items by starting a shop of his own that de-curses the items, leaving just the benefits, but as soon as the reality of running a business rears its head and he finds himself at the butt end of a lot of paperwork, he loses interest and sets fire to the place. Not to mention, selling his inventions to people would only get Rick money for Earth C-137. Not exactly a big motive when he travels to all sorts of planets and dimensions and just wants to do things like spending the afternoon at Blips and Chitz. * Daddy's Girl: Beth is willing to abandon her marriage and allow her kids to go on "adventures" that repeatedly expose them to the threat of death and rape (as well as making them complicit in countless murders and other crimes), all so that her daddy won't leave again. Cemented in "Pickle Rick" when she flat-out ignores her children's emotional health in favor of bonding with Rick. + Later dialed back in "The ABCs of Beth" when details from Beth's childhood are revisited and she's forced to accept that Rick was a pretty awful father. It's dialed back even further by the end of "Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri" when she meets Space Beth and \|\|it turns out Rick doesn't even know which one is the original Beth and which is the clone\|\|; in subsequent seasons, though Beth does still love him and still wants him around, she fully admits Rick is a piece of shit, is no longer an Extreme Doormat to him, and gets sick of his bullshit just as fast as the rest of the family. + To be fair, Beth was forced to admit that she was also a pretty awful child as well. One of the "toys" Rick made for her was a sentient knife. Who was worse is debatable, the child that requested items like "silent shoes" and "sleepy darts" so her father would pay attention to her, or the father that made these things for her? > Knife: "Hi, Beth! You've gotten taller. Shall we resume stabbing?" * Dance Party Ending: A very unique one at the end of "Ricksy Business" to celebrate the end of Season 1. * Darker and Edgier: Acknowledged in-universe that Season 3 doubles down on the series' more upsetting elements, violence and black comedy. Toned back down in Season 4 and beyond, however. > Rick: Oh, it gets darker, Morty. Welcome to the darkest year of our adventures! * Dead Alternate Counterpart: Rick takes advantage of this at the end of "Rick Potion #9"; when he causes a Cronenberg Apocalypse, he and Morty escape to a very particular universe where everything else is the same and all the events of the previous episodes happened there too, but their counterparts cured the Cronenberg plague and are killed almost immediately afterwards by an unrelated incident. \|\|They, along with the entire rest of their family, do the exact same thing at the end of "Solaricks" after an alternate Jerry releases a sentient alien virus that renders their home dimension's version of Earth uninhabitable, requiring them to hop realities and once again bury their dead counterparts in the backyard.\|\| * Deadly Game: + The Cromulons have a show called Planet Music, wherein they travel to planets looking for talent, teleport qualifying planets to their region of space, then force them to compete against each other. Losers and those who refuse to participate are disintegrated by plasma ray. + Rick creates one for the Vindicators while black-out drunk—which they would, for the most part, be capable of surviving if they really are as heroic as they claim to be—to prove to Morty that they're not real heroes and aren't worth admiring. Sure enough, by the end of the episode, all but one of them are dead, with the last one alive showing herself to be an utter psychopath. In fact, only two of the Vindicators are killed by the death traps in Rick's "game"; the other two are killed by infighting. * Death Is Cheap: + There are an infinite number of dimensions and an infinite number of Ricks and Mortys populating them, so no version of Rick or Morty is truly irreplaceable. + This is even true of the main Rick ("Rick C-137"), and he has all sorts of technology to keep his consciousness alive in the event of his death. Case in point: in "The Rickshank Rickdemption", his original body was killed by SEAL Team Rick, all while he transferred his mind from one Rick to another; then in "Rest and Ricklaxation," he's mauled to death by a monster, but "births" a new body shortly before that that either has all his memories or is used to transfer his consciousness; and finally, in "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat", he suffers from The Many Deaths of You, but just Body Surfs into a cloned body with the Phoenix Protocol (see below). In other words, Rick's physical body has died numerous times during the series, but he's still alive thanks to preserving his mind with his tech. + At the end of "Interdimensional Cable 2 : Tempting Fate", Jerry gets shot 57 times by alien bodyguards, with very graphic footage of the bullets going straight through his body and skull. Cue his family screaming in horror as the screen fades to black with Jerry lying face down in a pool of his own blood. What happens next? He opens his eyes to a TV commercial about butthole ice-cream as his family rejoices around his hospital bed. Turns out, getting shot down in a super-advanced alien hospital is no worse than getting a splinter removed from your finger. + "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Repeat" reveals that, thanks to the multidimensional "Phoenix Protocol" project, when a Rick dies, he'll reincarnate in one of his clone tanks in his basement. In the event that all of his own clones have been destroyed (as is the case for the main Rick), he'll instead be uploaded into a clone body of a Rick from an alternate reality. + "Rickmurai Jack" shows that the Citadel, in addition to having many Phoenix Protocol clone tanks for the Ricks and Mortys there as well, purposely invokes this for \|\|Mortys of the multiverse at large. Because Mortys are ideal sidekicks for Ricks but die extremely often (be it accidentally on adventures or because their Ricks kill them or get them killed), the Citadel has created and cloned at least millions upon millions of them, acting as a Morty-making factory that sends new Mortys to any of the infinite Ricks in the Central Finite Curve who need one.\|\| * Death Glare: Rick pulls one after he realizes that Morty was almost raped in the bathroom. He later kills Morty's attempted rapist. * Deconstructive Parody: The show parodies plenty of things from 80s pop-culture, science fiction, and Dom Com sitcoms while also ripping apart as many of their story conventions as possible to tell a story about characters developing as people and learning to live a good life in the mist of living in a nihilistic universe nobody matters. * Deconstructor Fleet: Of Western Animated Fantastic Comedy. * Delivery Stork: In "Get Schwifty", Principal Vagina's head religion believes that undesirables should be sent up to the Cromulons by balloons, whereupon they'll be sneezed back as better babies. * De-Power Zone: In "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty", Rick follows the sorcerer who sold him Balthromaw back to his home dimension, intent on making him cancel the soul-binding contract. When the sorcerer refuses and threatens retaliation, Rick is confident that the sorcerer's magic will be no match for the "real power" of his technology. Rick then gets a rude awakening when he finds that, due to the nature of the dimension, none of his tech works there. Rick is forced to cobble together a Magitek device to fight back. * Depraved Homosexual: Played for Drama in "Meeseeks and Destroy" with King Jellybean, who outright attempts to rape Morty. It is also implied that he has done so to other young boys. * Destructive Romance: + Beth and Jerry's rocky relationship starts as darkly humorous squabbling before becoming full-on toxic by the middle of season 2, where it's shown just how badly their unhealthy dependence on one another despite being totally mismatched is more damaging than it first seemed. When Rick finally manipulates them into getting a divorce at the start of Season 3, one could argue he's doing them a favor. + However, this becomes largely averted once they reconcile at the end of Season 3. In subsequent seasons, while they definitely still have their rough patches and argue occasionally, they both put in a lot more effort at making their marriage work and overcoming their individual flaws that caused some of their previous problems, including regularly attending family therapy, and have a significantly healthier and happier relationship for it. + That being said, this is still the case for the vast majority alternate of Beths and Jerrys of the multiverse, who don't get most of the Character Development that the main versions do. "Rickmurai Jack" has a rather dark reveal of why this is: \|\|the Citadel of Ricks manipulated countless versions of Jerry and Beth, in countless universes, into hooking up and getting pregnant with Summer, sometimes even drugging them to do so, so they would get married and eventually give birth to Morty, whom the Citadel would then clone to make even more Mortys. Essentially, Beth and Jerry weren't necessarily meant to get together to begin with, and were basically forced to in many cases, all for breeding purposes. No wonder their relationship is so screwed up in most dimensions.\|\| * Devil, but No God: Zig-zagged: + Seemingly played straight when Rick's established as a Hollywood Atheist in the pilot, when he tells Summer "There is no God, gotta rip that Band-Aid off now, you'll thank me later." When the Devil shows up in "Something Ricked", there's no mention of God, and Rick's only reaction is to figure out how to defeat his evil powers with science. + On the other hand, different episodes imply that Rick believes in or at least considers/fears the existence of a God since he says "Jesus Christ, our savior, was born today" about Christmas in "Anatomy Park", and starts praying to God when he thinks he's going to die in "A Rickle in Time" (though he then immediately takes it back and says "Fuck you, God! Not today, bitch!" once he's saved). + Jesus shows up in Season 4, but its as a direct result of Rick exploiting Story Lord's fourth-wall-breaking technology to intentionally sabotage the show by turning it into unwatchable Religious Edutainment. + The beginning of Season 5's "Mortyplicity" has Rick and Morty preparing to kill God, who has apparently been asleep for thousands of years. Though considering that they turn out to be clones/decoys, who knows how reliable that is. + In "Rick: A Mort Well Lived", all the Morty-minded NPCs in the game think that Roy (Rick) is trying to sway them to some kind of new religion, and he responds with: > Rick-as-Roy: There's not even a God in the real world! God is double-fake in here! * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: At the end of "Something Ricked" Rick and Summer get their revenge on Mr. Needful by bulking up and beating the shit out of him in front of thousands of people at the n33dful.com product launch. * Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Rick nonchalantly "buys" an ironically-cursed item from Louis Cypher (you don't pay for items in his store... not with money), analyses it, takes out the curse while keeping the supernatural benefits, and offers to do the same for other "customers" of Satan's store in exchange for cash. This drives Satan to attempt to commit suicide, only being saved by the timely intervention of Summer and a Monkey's Paw. * Dirty Old Man: Rick. It's first seen in the pilot where Rick spends a large amount of time having sex with beautiful women in another dimension, to the point where his portal gun has no charge left. In "Lawnmower Dog", he's shown to have a fetish for BDSM. In "Auto Erotic Assimilation" he makes a lot of rather bizarre sexual requests to Unity, including a giraffe and stands of men who remotely resemble his father. Furthermore, he has no problem with being completely butt-naked in front of his family (including his still-underage grandkids) or even in public, sometimes completely covered in blood. * Disney Acid Sequence: Fart's "Goodbye Moonmen" song is accompanied by bizarre visuals whenever he sings it to Morty. Though, the second time he does it, it's abruptly interrupted when Morty kills him. * Disproportionate Retribution: Rick, petty bastard that he is, does this incredibly often, and it rubs off on his family over time as well. + Also the case for the all-female Gazorpian society in "Raising Gazorpazorp". A simple faux pas like one's hair being messy is treated as a Felony Misdemeanor and carries the sentence of "The Silent Treatment". Death sentences can be earned from things like farting and being a man. + Headism, the religion that springs up around the giant head-shaped rock aliens in "Get Schwifty", involves sacrificing "undesirables" via tying a bunch of balloons to them and having them float away into the sky in an attempt to appease the giant heads. Some of the people deemed to be undesirables are goths, people who talk during movies, and people who tell inappropriate jokes. + Rick's car/spaceship, containing an AI that was created by Rick himself, is naturally also prone to this. In "The Ricks Must Be Crazy", she slices and dices, paralyzes, and psychologically tortures people who get too close to the car as part of her directive to "keep Summer safe", and she promptly incinerates all of the Changeformers who make fun of her in "Amortycan Grickffiti" (though they're big enough assholes that it's hard to feel bad for them). + A lighthouse keeper in "Look Who's Purging Now" agrees to give Rick and Morty santuary if the latter will listen to his screenplay (which turns out to be completely awful) and provide honest feedback. Morty offers some very light, actually-constructive criticism, and the man promptly tries to kick them out and calls Morty a terrible person. + Rick claims to Morty in "The Rickshank Redemption" that he manipulated Jerry and Beth into divorcing just to get revenge on Jerry for wanting Rick to turn himself in to the government in the previous episode. How much of that Rick actually planned isn't completely clear. + What does Morty do in response to Ethan breaking up with Summer in "The Whirly-Dirly Conspiracy"? Forcibly turn Ethan into a horrible living abomination. + In "One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty", Rick is pissed with Miles Knightly for beating him and Morty to a grave-robbing, so he goes through the trouble of getting into HeistCon, including assembling an entire crew, just to try to upstage him. And the events of the entire episode—including creating a robot that apparently destroyed entire planets—are manipulated by Rick to make Morty disillusioned with heists because he felt Morty was focusing too much on writing his script for a heist movie and was afraid of losing him. + Everything after the first act of "The Vat of Acid Episode" happens because Morty complains about how needlessly complicated Rick's "vat of acid" trick was and that Rick refuses to take any of Morty's suggestions for inventions. Rick responds by creating something Morty wanted in the most Jackass Genie way possible, which includes Morty unknowingly killing countless alternate versions of himself and having to fake his death in a fake vat of acid, just to teach him the lesson of "never criticize my ideas, ever". + Played for Laughs in "Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri", where Rick's Pre-Mortem One-Liner before killing Tammy is "You made me go to a wedding." He then adds the Bond One-Liner of "And you killed my best friend," and notes that he should have led with that. + The whole conflict of "Night Family" is started when Rick refuses to do a better job of rinsing off the dishes even at the Night Family's request, and makes an even bigger mess just to spite them for asking. * Distracted by the Sexy: + In "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate", alien doctors need Jerry's penis in order to save an old ruler. When Beth is given a catalog of prosthetic penises to choose from, she reads it like a Playgirl magazine. > Jerry: Hi, honey, so, here's the thing... these guys... they want to completely remove my penis and use it as an alien's heart. And we just need you to sign off on it. > Beth: What?! > Jerry: (to the Alien Doctors) Uh-oh. Maybe we got a problem here after all, guys. Yikes. > Alien Doctor: (to Beth) His penis will be replaced with a sophisticated prosthetic. Now, there's a wide range of options to choose from. They're all in this catalog. (gives Beth the catalog) > Beth: I don't care about prosthetics. This is insane. What do you people think you're doing? > Alien Doctor: I understand your feelings, Mrs. Smith. > Beth: Oh, I don't think you do. I-I bring my husband in for emergency treatment, he's gone an hour, and now you want his penis, (opens catalog) and you hand me some... catalog. (sees catalog's contents) It's-it's-it's-it's-I mean... + Morty enters a store in "Solaricks" looking for \|\|his original family in the Cronenberged dimension\|\|, only to see a magazine with a naked girl on the front and start leafing through it. * Distress Call: In "Auto Erotic Assimilation", Rick insists that you always answer these. Nine out of ten times, it leads to a ship full of dead aliens waiting to be looted. (And a bunch of free shit, Morty!) * Does This Remind You of Anything?: + The monsters in The Stinger for "Ricksy Business" seem to be getting a lot of pleasure from shoving people into each others' holes. The human teen seems to enjoy it, too. Abradolf, not so much. + Also, from the same episode Squanchy was always looking for a place to squanch. We never find out explicitly what that is, but it sure looks a lot like auto-erotic asphyxiation. + The mining of Pluto in "Something Ricked This Way Comes" is a pretty clear allegory for oil drilling and global warming. + The entire Citadel of Ricks as portrayed in "The Ricklantis Mixup" runs on this: - The fact that the Mortys of the Citadel are treated as second-class citizens inferior to the Ricks, and sometimes end up shunted to the slums and subjected to Police Brutality (sometimes even from other Mortys) while most of the Ricks aren't interested in helping them, serves as a parallel to racism in the United States, with Mortys serving as a stand-in for people of color while Ricks represent white people. - Furthermore, the portrayal of many Ricks being forced to work menial jobs and being passed over for promotions they deserve in favor of others who got the position for petty reasons, while a select few Ricks hold all the power and authority despite often not deserving it more than any of the other Ricks do, is a clear allegory for classism in western society. - It's worth noting that the political undertones of the episode are very intentional, as the writers themselves outright stated. * Donut Mess with a Cop: In "Rick Potion #9", several donuts can be seen on the ground next to the dead police officer when Jerry grabs his rifle. * Doting Parent: The one person Rick is rarely seen disrespecting or swearing at is his daughter Beth (with the one major exception being when they finally have it out and talk about their issues with each other in "The ABCs of Beth"). He even calls her "sweetie" sometimes. He was absent for a large portion of her life, but it's hinted that he is actually deeply ashamed of this. \|\|More accurately, this Rick, specifically, did not abandon his daughter since she was murdered in childhood, but he is full of self-loathing for failing to protect her, and knows that many alternate versions of himself did abandon their Beths, including the Beth he currently lives with.\|\| Even after he's cloned Beth and has two versions of her in his life, he loves them both and considers both to be his daughter. * Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi: Rick's relationship with Unity in "Auto Erotic Assimilation". Unity is a hive mind that possesses the bodies of everyone on the planet it's conquered, which she uses to have sex with Rick. The thing is, whether they are aware of it or kept unconscious for the whole time, they are being used for sex while unable to give consent. What makes it striking (and disturbing) is that none of the characters—not even Summer, who initially disapproves of Unity and its actions—seem to even remotely consider the possibility that this might be a form of rape. * Downer Ending: + "Rick Potion #9" is up there with "Jurassic Bark" and "You're Getting Old" as one of the biggest downer endings in the history of adult animated sitcoms. Rick and Morty accidentally destroy civilization with a plague and have to move to an alternate timeline where they fixed everything, but died shortly afterwards. They had to leave behind their family from the original timeline, but in the post-credits scene, it's shown that, in the original dimension, Jerry and Beth got over their marital problems and are happy without Rick and Morty around. It's a fairly disturbing ending since it still involves real characters dying (only to be replaced just like that). But as Rick says, just don't think about it. Ironically, if either 1) Morty had just passed the screwdriver Rick wanted in the first place, or 2) Rick hadn't screwed up as badly as he did (i.e. if he had managed to cure the Cronenbergs instead of abandoning the world to its fate and travelling to a universe where his counterpart succeeded instead), then they (the original Rick and Morty) would be the ones who died and were replaced instead. + Rick gets his first downer ending in "Auto Erotic Assimilation", in which he runs into an old lover of his, Unity the hive mind. They get back together until Summer convinces Unity that Rick is a bad influence on it, and it leaves him. At the end of the episode, we see him drunkenly prepare to commit suicide via a disintegration ray aimed at his head. However, he passes out just before it fires, and it misses, leaving him unconscious on his desk while uncharacteristically emotional music plays in the background. + "The Wedding Squanchers" serves as this for the entirety of Season 2. It turns out Tammy is an undercover agent for the Galactic Federation and was planning on using her wedding to Bird Person to trap as many of Rick's friends as she could. The Smiths manage to escape, but Bird Person was killed and Squanchy's fate is unknown. Rick has a Heel Realization and decides to turn himself in so that his family can resume their lives on a now-alien-occupied Earth, but only Jerry (who is Rick's most vocal critic and benefits greatly from the Federation taking over Earth) ends up happy because of this. Oh, and Mr. Poopybutthole molested a pizza guy in The Stinger. Season 3's got a hell of a starting point. + Pretty much the entirety of "The Ricklantis Mix-up". Factory Worker Rick snaps and attempts to escape the Citadel, inadvertently killing Simple Rick in the process. He's then captured and forced to replace Simple Rick in a Lotus-Eater Machine. Cop Rick's innocence and idealism is shattered when he's forced to kill the corrupt Cop Morty. Campaign Manager Morty is killed after unsuccessfully trying to stop Evil Morty from winning the presidency. Then Evil Morty kills the cabal of Ricks secretly running Citadel, seizing full control of the station. The only non-evil characters that get a decent ending are the Stand By Me Mortys, except for Slick Morty, who essentially committed suicide by jumping into the "Wishing Portal". + "The Old Man and the Seat" gets a surprising downer ending: Rick visits his new friend Tony, the guy who was using Rick's special private toilet without his permission (whom Rick refuses to admit is his friend), at work...only to find out that Tony died in an accident after quitting his job to live a happier life. The episode ends with Rick sitting on his toilet, dejectedly watching the message he'd left for Tony to see the next time he came there to relieve himself (which consists of many hologram versions of Rick mocking Tony good-naturedly about how lonely he is and how nobody wants to be around him). + "A Rickonvenient Mort": Morty finds what seems to be true love with Planetina, who falls for him and loves him for who he truly is. He even saves her from the Tina-teers, who were going to sell her like a slave to the highest bidder, and sets her free from the rings. However, prolonged exposure to all the horrible damage that humans are inflicting on the Earth drives her to Black-and-White Insanity as she becomes a progressively-more-violent ecoterrorist, culminating in her killing hundreds of coal miners who, despite not exactly sympathizing with her, were mostly doing their jobs. A heartbroken Morty can't abide by this and reluctantly dumps her, and both of them are completely crushed by the breakup, culminating in Morty sobbing in Beth's arms afterward. * Dramatic Ellipsis: In "Lawnmower Dog", when Rick and Morty go from the completed A Plot to the developing B Plot. > Rick: Out of the frying pan, dot dot dot, eh Morty? * Dream Within a Dream: In "Fear No Mort," Rick and Morty jump down a hole and enter a dream state that brings to life their worst fears. After conquering that fear, they wake up, but then realize they have another fear, and after dealing with that, wake up again. This is repeated half a dozen times. \|\|Eventually Morty realizes R Ick isn't even in the hole with him.\|\| * Driven to Suicide: + Mr. Lucius Needful, a.k.a. The Devil, in "Something Ricked This Way Comes", until Summer saves him. + Rick sticks his head into a disintegration ray at the end of "Auto Erotic Assimilation" in complete despair after Unity breaks up with him because he's a Toxic Friend Influence. It only fails when he passes out at the last second. It's especially noteworthy in that, in a show that runs off some of the blackest Black Comedy out there, this is played completely humorlessly. + In "The Ricks Must Be Crazy", the scientist who created the teenyverse in the hope of harnessing its energy commits suicide when he realizes his own planet was created by another scientist for the same purpose. + The "Stand By Me" Mortys from "The Ricklantis Mixup" each toss something important to them into the "Wishing Portal" to make a wish for something they want. Slick Morty wishes that life in the Citadel could get better for them, and throws himself into it. + In one of Morty's erased memories from "Morty's Mind Blowers", Mr. Lunas did this after being falsely accused of being a pedophile. Morty and Rick themselves both try to do this after accidentally erasing their memories and trying to replace them with the Mind Blowers (which are all awful experiences that convince Morty his life totally sucked), making a Suicide Pact with each other, but are stopped when Summer enters the room. + Through the use of a death crystal in "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat", Morty gets a judge to let him go free by convincing her that her dead lover is speaking through him. She immediately runs off to commit suicide and join him, as noted on the news ticker on TV immediately after. + Whatever the secret of the talking cat from "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty" was, it was apparently so disturbing that almost caused Rick to kill himself. + Morty forms a heartwarming, months-long, serious relationship with an unnamed girl in "The Vat of Acid Episode", only for Jerry to mistakenly hit Morty's "do-over remote" and erase the whole thing. Morty then tries to start over with the girl, but scares her and she maces him, causing him to accidentally hit the "save" button on the remote and ruin any chances of salvaging the situation. He's so distraught that he then uses several "do-overs" to jump into a cage full of crazed gorillas and get ripped apart, several times. + Some of the decoy family members in "Mortyplicity" resign themselves to this when they discover that they're just clones. + Professor Shabooboo jumps off a wall to his death in "Rickdependence Spray" when it's clear that his plan to combat the monster sperm is going to cause the creation of an incest baby. + When Rick tries to \|\|restore Bird Person to life\|\| in "Rickternal Friendshine of the Rickless Mort", \|\|BP resists his efforts and tries to destroy his own mindscape, which will kill him. He later reveals to Rick that he's in enough despair over Tammy's betrayal and death that he just wants to die like he was meant to on his wedding day. It takes Rick revealing that he and Tammy had a daughter together to change his mind and convince him to live for her sake.\|\| + The Night Family of the titular episode, after hijacking their "Daymanoids"' bodies and going on a hedonistic spending spree, go broke, get tired of having to deal with tedious day-to-day aspects of life like finances, and decide to end their existence to escape the consequences, destroying the Somnambulator and restoring the family to normal. + Piss Master in "Analyze Piss" tries to pick a fight with Rick and makes a lewd comment about Summer, prompting Jerry of all people to fight him to force him to apologize to her. Jerry wins, Summer records the footage and posts it online, and it goes viral; Jerry becomes famous throughout the universe, while Piss Master is subjected to such scorn and ridicule (even becoming estranged from his daughter) that he kills himself in the bathtub, leaving behind a suicide note blaming Jerry for it and claiming that all he ever wanted was respect, but everyone else just wanted to see him fail. * Drowning My Sorrows: It becomes more and more obvious as the first season goes on that Rick doesn't just drink because he wants to. In "Ricksy Business", Bird Person flat out states that he does it to cope with a dire amount of emotional pain. Rick no doubt feels remorse over his failures as a father and a grandfather as well as the traumas he's seen. + A particular example is seen when Unity breaks up with him. Rick hits the bottle hard, and is so distraught that he actually tries to disintegrate his own head with a laser, but passes out before he can so thanks to having already drunk so much. + Jessica references that Rick did this offscreen in "Rest and Ricklaxation" after Healthy Morty ditched the family; Rick apparently missed him so much that he kept drunk-dialing her and crying about it. + It's also shown when Rick \|\|is forcibly returned to his home in his native universe, where his original Diane and Beth died, and encounters an AI "ghost" of Diane that he designed when he was younger to "haunt" himself. Rick immediately starts hitting the bottle, hard.\|\| + Beth is also a Lady Drunk in earlier seasons to deal with her abandonment issues, unhappy marriage, and dissatisfaction with her life. She gets a moment of this onscreen after shooting Mr. Poopybutthole (mistakenly believing he's one of the memory parasites), and immediately rushes to the kitchen in horror, tears streaming down her face, and pours and chugs multiple glasses of wine with very shaky hands. * Dude, She's Like in a Coma: In "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!" Jerry has sex with a stalled simulation of Beth and seems to find it more enjoyable because she wasn't moving. Or, knowing Beth, because she's not making comments about how disappointing he is. * Dumb Is Good: + Jerry is acknowledged by pretty much everyone in the family to be a total idiot, but he's a Kind Hearted Simpleton who, even later into the series, still holds onto an innocence and good nature that even Morty has started to lose. + Doofus Rick - ten times dumber than our Rick, but at least a hundred times nicer. Perhaps having all the other Ricks making fun of him constantly has made him compassionate. * Dysfunctional Family: + Rick is an alcoholic sociopath, Morty is a neurotic teenager who gets broken several times, Jerry is hopelessly insecure, Beth is thinking about leaving him and is slowly regretting marrying him, and Summer is starting to feel unwanted. Even worse than the Simpson family. + And later, Jerry and Beth divorce for a season, Rick spirals even harder into his nihilism, Morty and Summer grow more and more cynical thanks to Rick's Toxic Friend Influence, and Beth fears her father may have cloned her and she might be the clone that he'll dispose of if she becomes self-aware. + Notably, though, they really begin to work on this starting at the end of Season 3, when Beth and Jerry reconcile. They still remain this trope and probably always will since it's a staple of the series, but they become happier together and grow into being a Family of Choice who, despite learning that they're from mostly different universes, choose to stick together anyway.	RickAndMorty	null
Military	# Awesome But Impractical - Military > The fiercest serpent may be defeated by a swarm of ants. > > — Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, discussing the Yamato-class battleships; his proposition was to build more Shokaku-class aircraft carriers instead. Examples -------- * Back to Real Life --- * Paratroops in general. True, they are the cream of the crop in each and every army, provide a potentially unexpected avenue of attack, and jumping out of a perfectly good plane mid-air is just plain awesome. However, paratroops suffer from a number of downsides. First, unless the drop zone is secured, the jump planes are easy to shoot down and the descending paratroopers are similarly vulnerable to ground fire. Second, paratroops are generally unsupported by heavy weapons such as artillery and armored vehicles, which cannot be easily carried by planes and are very difficult, if not downright impossible, to safely drop by parachute. Third, parachute operations are heavily dependent on the element of surprise: once deployed, the paratroop is at a disadvantage, as their opponent can call for more firepower and reinforcements. Fourth and finally, if the paratroop cannot link up with friendly forces in a timely manner, then it will eventually run out of supplies, at which point surrender is the only rational option. The experience of WWII paradrop operations was that large scale paradrops usually fail (Market Garden is an obvious example, not helped by the fact that Bernard Montgomery, the mastermind of the operation, tried to use paratroopers as regular army units to hold and defend strategic objectives, which is exactly the opposite of how paratroop regiments are supposed to function) and even successful ones (Normandy, Crete and Operation Varsity) are costly, and typically only succeeded because the regular armies were able to arrive and reinforce them within a few hours to a day at most, but small scale operations (up to company level) usually succeed (an example would be the POW rescue in Los Baños). Helicopters have more or less superseded both gliders and paratroops in most armies around the world. + Case in point to this is the infamous "Battle of the Bulge" in the twilight months of World War II. As a result of the above-mentioned Market Garden and related military operations, the American 101st Airborne found themselves far ahead of the Allied Army's support, and the logistical issues stemming from Market Garden meant that getting reinforced was a long way away. Unfortunately for them, the Wehrmacht were aware of this, and staged a large offensive from the Ardennes which completely overwhelmed the under-supplied and under-supported 101st, pushing them as far back as the city of Bastogne. To the 101st's credit, they stubbornly held Bastogne even as the German military leaders claimed to have completely surrounded the city, but it was not until General Patton's Third Army arrived from the south to chase off the German forces that the Screaming Eagles were finally relieved, and with heavy losses. + On paratroop gear, the German wartime RZ (Rückfallschirm, Zwangablösung) parachute. It was designed to open quickly, the rationale being the lower the drop, the less time on chute fall (and thus less time floating slowly, exposed to enemy fire). Unfortunately, it opened extremely violently, resulting in bruises and broken ribs. Moreover, it had one single riser instead of the normal four, making controlling it in-flight impossible: the paratrooper hung on the parachute like a spider on the web, helplessly, and the only thing he could do was to try to pivot into the wind. The German jump position was a crucifix dive instead of the leaning rest, and instead of the safe parachute landing fall, the paratrooper landed on all fours, making wearing gauntlets and kneepads a must. The descent speed was faster than with Allied parachutes and thus landings were always hard, and many Fallschirmjäger broke their arms or ribs on landing. The rig itself took almost three minutes to undress and could not be unharnessed prone. The horribly unsafe RZ rigs were largely responsible for the horrendous Fallschirmjäger losses. Jumping with the RZ rig is prohibited today for safety reasons, and Fallschirmjäger re-enactors use normal four-riser Bundeswehr canopies attached on RZ harnesses on jumps. Even stranger is that the Luftwaffe at the time had and even used perfectly normal four-riser parachutes, but only as rescue rigs. + Russia took paratroops to the logical extreme by forgoing the parachute entirely, running trials with soldiers jumping out of a low-and-slow flying plane, sans parachute, and aiming for snow drifts and water to break their fall. Naturally, this didn't get very far in practice, not just because a plane flying at the speed and altitude needed for such a drop would be vulnerable to anyone with a good arm and particularly heavy rock, but also because it was really difficult to judge just which snowdrifts and/or bodies of water were sufficient for a freefall, and which would turn the unfortunate trooper into a puddle of borscht soup on impact. + The Russian airdrop operation at the Hostomel Airport, done during the first days of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, showed the downsides of paratroopers in full. Without adequate planning and supplies, the Russian VDV lost a lot of helicopters and soldiers when Ukraine counterattacked, forcing them to retreat into a nearby forest. While the VDV eventually took over the airport with reinforcements, by then it was too badly damaged for strategic use, rendering the mission pointless and forcing the Russians to abandon their attempts to take Kyiv (near Hostomel airport). * The Russian "Tsar" projects. After Tsar Bell and Tsar Cannon, it has become sort of Russian joke to call "tsar-something" anything impressive-looking, but unusable. + The Tsar Bomba was the highest yield nuclear weapon in history at 50 megatons. That's almost 1600 times the power of Fat Man and Little Boy. The test of the bomb was the most powerful single thing ever done by mankind.(And the version they tested? It was actually tuned down to 50% yield. It was designed to be a 100-megaton monster - big enough that its explosion would have amounted to more than a full quarter of all radioactive fallout caused by testing of nuclear weapons since their invention fifteen years prior. It was toned down simply because there was no way in hell any plane that could drop the thing would be able to get out of its blast radius in time at the full yield.) In spite of that there was never a need for such a single, powerful nuke, since it is far more efficient to destroy a large area using multiple, smaller thermonuclear warheads instead of one giant one. * What could be more awesome than War Elephants? Unfortunately, they tend to panic in battle, trampling friend or foe with indifference. Elephants are also extremely expensive with regards to food and upkeep, and have slow gestation and growth periods, meaning they are nigh-impossible to domesticate properly. Yet another issue was simply getting them, as they weren't exactly easy to find in Europe (though places like India, which have ready access to elephants, made much more use of them). It's theorized that the use of war elephants outright rendered some subspecies of elephant extinct due to it placing such a heavy burden on them. + During Timur the Lame's invasion of India, his forces faced 120 armored Indian war elephants with (for even more awesomeness!) poisoned tusks. In an act of genius, insanity, or both, he ordered all his camels lit on fire and sent the screaming animals towards the advancing elephants. The massive beasts panicked and trampled over their own forces. Timur's army then easily ran down the fleeing enemy troops. Timur then picked up the Idiot Ball himself, incorporating the elephants into his own army, perhaps figuring that no one else would figure out his strategy. + War elephants had been made obsolete in Europe by the Roman ways (yes, ways) of dealing with them, that include such things as ox-driven chariots equipped with huge spikes to wound the elephants and pots on fire to scare them (these ultimately failed, but provoked many losses among Pyrrhus' war elephants), insane numbers of flaming arrows (scary enough to make Pyrrhus war elephants panic and stomp his own troops), extremely loud horns, and simple axes and thrown spears. By the era of the Empire, military manuals actively described the whole field as obsolete. + Despite common depictions of the contrary, only one of Hannibal's 37 elephants survived the crossing of the Alps and the first battles in northern Italy and did little more than parading Hannibal around. + During the decade-long Numantine War (sometimes nicknamed "Rome's Vietnam") the Romans themselves hired a company from the allied African kingdom of Numidia. As they were about to charge before the walls of Numantia, however, the local warriors threw a stone hit one of the elephants in the head. The elephant panicked, the other elephants panicked in turn, and before they knew it the entire herd was stomping the Roman lines behind. The Romans would never use elephants in Hispania again. + King Mongkut of Siam once tried to send a herd of elephants to American President James Buchanan to aid in transportation and as beasts of burden. By the time the letter ended up in America, Abraham Lincoln was the president and the American Civil War had broken out, and he obviously (but politely) turned it down on the grounds that American climate is not suitable for elephants, and that steam engines would do the job better anyways. + The awesome but impractical nature of elephants is exemplified in the origin of the expression "white elephant". In Thai culture white elephants are perceived as very auspicious symbols, and gifting a noble with a white elephant was one of the highest honors a king could've bestowed him with. At the same time elephants were very expensive to feed and care for, and being a King's gift it was impossible to use it as a normal working elephant to earn its own support. Thus it was a constant drain on a noble's finances, so several white elephants too many can easily bankrupt less prosperous ones. But despite all this, turning down a King's gift was not only impossible but unthinkable. So, as rumor goes, the Siamese kings sometimes used them as a hint or outright punishment for the too troublesome and/or ambitious courtiers. * In another (possibly a myth, as there is no definitive evidence) attempt at weaponizing animals, the Swedish once attempted to create a unit of moose cavalry (Sweden having a limited supply of good cavalry horses but plenty of moose) in the 17th century. It turned out that moose are vulnerable to more disease than horses, are far more difficult to feed on pastures using fodder (since wild moose are used to foraging large areas), and are too peaceful in nature- they are too fearful to allow themselves to be ridden into battle and are too easily frightened by gunfire. The idea ended up being stillborn. * The nuclear survival bunkers constructed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, such as Cheyenne Mountain or Mount Weather. Theoretically they can survive a near or direct impact from a single nuclear strike and have some self-reliance for food and air, but they cost a ton to build and were built in an era when accuracy for nukes was measured in miles instead of yards. Both sides stopped building them when they realized the other side could manufacture a dozen nukes to target each bunker, something which no amount of mountain will protect you from. * The Spartan military. A well-bred elite warrior class trained from childhood for war is undeniably awesome. However, since every male Spartan had to go to war, in addition to the fact that they didn't intermingle with the lower classes, any major defeat would take a significant chunk out of their future population. Since having fewer soldiers would potentially lead to even more defeats, the population went into a free fall over the centuries. The Spartan army just had fewer and fewer men until they ceased to be a relevant threat altogether. For this reason, the Peloponnesian War can be considered a pyrrhic victory for Sparta; despite winning the conflict, they lost so many Spartiates that by the time of the Spartan-Theban war, they could barely fill their right flank with Spartiates, which was the most important side of an ancient Greek army. In fact, as early as the first phase of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta was already facing significant manpower problems. At the 425 BC Battle of Pylos, the Athenians defeated a Spartan force on the eponymous peninsula and trapped 420 Spartan hoplites on the nearby island of Sphacteria. 120 of these were Spartiates, which represented a full one-tenth of the total number of Spartiates in the state. The Spartan government thus treated this as a full-scale crisis and attempted to negotiate peace with the Athenians. Over a mere 420 men in total! By the time of Philip and Alexander, Sparta could barely muster 1000 men, a far cry from the 10,000 that they could muster at the height of their power. + The Spartan training method as well, for that matter. Contrary to popular belief, the Spartan hoplite was nowhere near as effective as their hellish training and constant exercising would suggest. They were certainly better than the average Greek hoplite, but not by enough to offset their numerical disadvantage, population issue and sometimes just plain smart thinking from their enemy. There have been multiple occasions in history where the Spartan army lost to enemy forces of equal size, sometimes even smaller. Not only was their fighting effectiveness not that much better, but their morale also wasn't that much greater than the average hoplite either. During the battle of Tegyra, 300 Thebans routed over one thousand Spartans by simply breaking through the middle of their line. + Their Training from Hell of The Spartan Way ultimately meant that enormous proportions of their male population either died or failed out of the Agoge, meaning that in spite of every boy being drafted, perhaps very few even made it to the actual force. Secondly, tactical inflexibility meant that Spartan armies often were ultimately just outmaneuvered or cornered. And thirdly, records show that Sparta did not have an amazing record of Curb Stomp Battles; they could be beaten and it was not a rare event, and it was at the hands of armies of citizen soldiers and mercenaries. + The training and singularly-focused martial culture required to produce a Spartiate meant that, to a far greater extent than its contemporaries, Sparta relied on large numbers of slaves – the helots, an unusually cruelly oppressed slave class. This meant that the total number of Spartiates, especially in later years after the Peloponnesian Wars had killed many of them, was actually extremely small. They were tactically effective, but Spartan institutions could not economically or culturally sustain enough individuals whose defining feature was that they did not labor, for their contingent to be reliably decisive in battles. Worse, the crippling imbalance between a minority of armed-to-the-teeth homoioi and oppressed-but-seriously-pissed-off helot slaves meant that the Spartans regularly could not field their army, or have it on campaign too long, or too far away, for fear of a slave revolt killing their families at home and crippling their shaky economic foundations. This fear was totally justified - there were a number of strategically very significant helot rebellions. * Some military thinkers in history advocated coastal fortifications as a superior defensive investment compared to warships because you didn't have to worry about the difficult engineering problem of putting large guns and thick armor on something that was supposed to float; you didn't need to worry about space to store ammo; and you couldn't sink a shore fortification. While coastal forts did have their uses and could tangle with warships in the right circumstances(a Norwegian fort famously sank the German heavy cruiser Blucher as it passed by on its way to the Norwegian capital, because Blucher's captain didn't think the fort had any military value as its armament was hilariously obsolete and it was mostly manned by trainees and retirees; suffice to say, even ancient Whitehead torpedoes are fully capable of sinking a cruiser if they hit), there was one major problem: that being that ships moved and forts didn't. Even setting aside the obvious problem of ships moving out of range, WWII Germany's famous series of shore fortifications on the French coast, for example, was highly impractical as they had to set up forts everywhere the Allies could attack, whereas the Allies just had to move their ships to the few places they did attack, so most of those forts were wastes of money. Shore fortifications did have their niche as area denial tools in particularly important chokepoints; Vladivostok, for example, was left alone in both the Russo-Japanese war and WWII because Japan didn't think it was worth it to brute force their way through the fortifications, and WWII Sweden devised a defensive naval strategy that involved fortifications working in tandem with coastal warships to deal with a probably numerically superior invading force. But most of the time shore fortifications were best used as storage facilities for spare battleship guns. * Old-school mass armies, at least since the end of the Cold War. While it has a great intimidation factor and can cover much territory, armies prioritizing quantity over quality are very inefficient. Modern militaries are so equipment-intensive and have such high personnel costs that fielding millions of adequately-equipped men is simply too expensive- and reducing equipment levels to compensate for that is can put one at risk of a Curb-Stomp Battle. The Chinese military is an example of this in practice: their old-school "people's army" performed poorly in Vietnam and took horrendous losses, which was a catalyst for Deng to begin modernizing the PLA along Western lines, which intensified after The Gulf War, in which a modern Western coalition defeated what was at the time the fourth-largest standing army in the world in four days, vindicated modernization efforts. Then there's the fact that large scale wars between great powers that would necessitate large armies were pretty much considered suicidal with the proliferation of nuclear weapons. + Conversely, an Elite Army can also prove to be this. While the very high training and equipment levels are undeniably awesome and also possess an intimidation factor, casualties (of both men and equipment) are a near-certainity in modern warfare, and being unable to weather said casualties due to having too few personnel can be just as crippling of a flaw as having too many inadequately-equipped personell. There is also a limit as to what a handful of people can do, and at the end of the day no man can be in two places at once. * The entire Axis military in World War II was the epitome of Awesome, But Impractical. The Germans had tanks with superior armor and firepower compared to any fielded by the Allied forces while also inventing wonder weapons like the ballistic missiles and fighter jets. Likewise, the Japanese had some of the biggest and most powerful capital ships that out-displaced even entire US naval task forces in some battles. Yet despite their advances, Axis military technology was notoriously expensive and unreliable, meaning that their forces couldn't replace losses or produce enough equipment to cover multiple fronts. Not helping matters is that while Axis technology was superior on paper, the lack of experienced soldiers and sloppy logistics meant that their weapons couldn't perform to their full potential in practice. By the end of the war, the heavy casualties in the early stages of the war meant that Japan lacked experienced sailors to crew the Yamato-class battleships. Likewise, Germany's disrupted supply chain lead to a shortage of fuel and spare parts, resulting in more German armored fighting vehicles being lost to mechanical failure or crew abandonment than enemy combat. Axis logistics was so abysmal that Canada, a minor Allied nation, had more trucks than all Axis forces combined. Furthermore, the Axis nations never fully cooperated as an alliance, meaning that they didn't share technological advancements whereas the Allies regularly improved on each other's technology like when the British installed their Merlin engines in American P-51s for superior performance. * According to some veterans, the US Army's approach to infantry fighting during World War II can be best described as attempting to turn standard infantry into expert marksmen, insisting that every man be a perfect shot and that every shot kill the enemy. In reality, most isolated riflemen didn't shoot to kill because they were too scared and felt that they couldn't even make a single difference in a prolonged fire-fight. Most of the effective killing done by infantrymen wielding rifle-caliber weapons actually came from machine gunners, who simply overwhelmed their enemies with the sheer number of bullets that could come out of a machine gun. The Germans were ahead of the Americans in this regard, with their emphasis on the machine gunner and his assistants as the key members of the squad. See the development of the M14 for why emphasizing the individual rifleman as the primary killing power of any army doesn't really work (or why one gun cannot take over the roles of five or six different ones, for that matter). In spite of the development of the select-fire assault rifle as the general issue infantryman's main arm and the full-power general purpose machine gun as the platoon's primary firepower, it appears that several armies (including the US Army) still insist that the rifleman lead the way with perfectly placed single shots. This, of course, leads to the machine gunners being neglected and their guns being unable to do much good away from base. * Sometimes a military bureaucracy will become so preoccupied with maintaining the secrecy of a classified technology or a plan for a classified operation, that they'll go too far and make it inaccessible even to decision makers and technical specialists who will be necessary to its implementation. Hell, sometimes they'll come up with an idea and just plain forget to tell anybody. Sure, enemy spies are less likely to find out about it if you tell almost nobody that it even exists, but look what happened to the Canal Defense Light, a tank equipped with a powerful arc lamp that could be used to blind the enemy: since few British commanders knew it was available, it was hardly ever used. This also bit the British in the rumps at the Battle of Jutland, where they were so concerned with the secrecy of Room 40, their signals decryption office, that even Admiral Jellicoe, the guy commanding the Grand Fleet in said battle, wasn't given access to most of the codebreakers' data- including things of such vital importance as where the enemy fleet was headed. + Another case is the Mark 6 Exploder, which was used in the U.S. Mark 14 Torpedo; the plans for the exploder were locked up in some obscure place where nobody could look at them, and since few people knew how the detonator of the torpedo actually worked, it took longer than it otherwise would have to discover why the torpedoes were failing to explode when used against Japanese ships. Worse, any submariner who opened the thing up and actually fixed the issues out of frustration would be cited for "improper maintenance" since they had clearly done something against the book, which they had never been allowed to read in the first place. And just to add insult to injury, these attempts at fixing the torpedo made it difficult for engineers to tell if the torpedo was failing because of the most obvious issue, or if a sailor had actually fixed that one and the torpedo failed because of the several other critical problems in the torpedo's design that weren't initially obvious because the first issue masked them; for example, one problem was that the torpedo ran too deep and so didn't get near enough to its targets to properly detonate, but if somebody set the depth control sensor to shallow running so they actually went where they were supposed to go, the magnetic detonator was also faulty and so sometimes wouldn't set off the torpedo... and if some exasperated submariner turned the magnetic detonator off, the backup contact detonator was also faulty, and engineers obviously couldn't tell how a specific torpedo had failed after said torpedo had been fired. + A world-altering example is the British Secrets Act, which is a major factor in the relative unimportance of the British computing industry. Despite making incredible advancements in computing machines during WWII, all the post-war commercialization happened in the USA. British philosophers, mathematicians, and engineers were not allowed to discuss their work, and thus were very limited in their ability to develop it. In one notable example, Tommy Flowers tried to start a company building programmable electronic computers after the war was over. However he could not find investment because people did not believe that such a thing was possible, and he was not allowed to tell them that he had already built several of the things at Bletchley Park. * Most of the weapons adopted by the Russians with Rusting Rockets in The New '10s lean towards this trope. Nearly all of them extremely ambitious, which is helped by the hyped marketing (by various groups including Russian state media). But even if they do live up to the hype, Russia cannot afford to procure many of them quickly due to its economic state, and most of what they do have currently are prototype models hastily refurbished for combat as opposed to serial production models. While Russia could fund mass production with sales of the T-14 and SU-57, most nations opted instead to either buy non-Russian equipment or stick with their old Soviet-era wares.(Largely because of CAATSA sanctions, where the US government will sanction anyone who purchases weaponry and/or oil from countries it deems adversaries such as North Korea, Iran and Russia. Even before this law, the US government can (and has) fined even nominal allies for working with countries they deem adversarial to the US. As a result, many countries would rather not risk major economic damage by buying Russian military equipment.) Even if Russia could afford to build more Su-57s and T-14s, they can't domestically produce (and also can't import, especially since additional sanctions in 2022) important manufacturing components like microchips for sensors and weapons guidance. This is why the Russian military relies more on their larger stock of (upgraded or otherwise) Soviet-era weaponry in the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War. (By contrast, their Chinese rivals have little trouble in developing and mass-producing new weapons thanks to China's larger and more stable economy.) The existing vehicles are Too Awesome to Use because there aren't enough of them to make a meaningful strategic difference, meaning it isn't worth the potential risk of them being destroyed (or worse, captured and analyzed) by Russia's adversaries. + The Su-57 allegedly has maneuverability and stealth comparable to the F-22, but the F-22 is the absolute best in the stealth category and has maneuverability similar to Russian fourth-gen aircraft. The Su-57 by comparison has design that only makes it LO (Not stealthy to the extent of the F-22 and F-35, which are considered VLO), and it has to use Su-35 engines as a stopgap as it's Iz 30 engines are not ready yet. Furthermore, Russia only has a handful of Su-57s compared to the 187 F-22 that the USAF has in service, and their economic state means they are unlikely to be able to procure more on short notice. The only current tangible advantage the Su-57 is being an purchasable option for states that were/are adversarial to the US (since it, unlike the F-22, is being offered for export in the future, and unlike the F-35 doesn't require the buyer to be on good graces with the US). Even so, most of the nations interested in it haven't confirmed export orders yet, rendering this advantage questionable (for the current time being). + The T-14 seems like an incredible leap forward in tank survivability, especially compared to legacy Soviet/Russian tanks such as the T-72. The turret is completely remote-controlled—allowing the remaining crew of three to be encased in a separate armored capsule inside the hull—and the tank incorporates the Afghanit hard-kill active protection system to intercept incoming projectiles. However, it is still a very risky leap as nobody else has deployed tanks with unmanned turrets, and once again it is questionable whether Russia can truly afford such an expensive vehicle. The automotive performance of T-14s on parade is also not encouraging: the handbrake seems to be the best-made part. * Warriors coming from a warrior caste/nobility like European knights or Japanese samurai, complete with honour codes. Being trained from the youngest age possible to be a warrior sounds glamorous, but this also means it takes much longer to train a new knight or samurai if they die in battle. Additionally they're really expensive (both to hire, pay and equip; this is why feudalism initially became a thing, as a king would pay his knights for their service with land so he didn't have to pay them with money) and because they're so devoted to warfare they rarely if ever can work normal jobs in peacetime. The aristocratic mindsets and honour codes can also prove a liability if the warrior caste feels they don't have enough privilege or respect (which led to a civil war in Japan's case during the early Meiji Restoration), or they may decide to rush into battle to gain prestige (one of the biggest factor that lead to the French defeat at Agincourt). In Japan in particular after the end of the Sengoku Period a lot of samurais had to be reshuffled into being civil servants because having such a huge warrior caste in peacetime was too expensive. * The Spanish Armada sounds like an awesome plan. The English have been sending out pirates like Francis Drake with plausible deniability (though the crown profited from his actions as an investor) and screwing with your rebellious provinces in the Netherlands, so you decide to land an army on their soil, smack them around a bit, and force them to come to terms. Sounds great, especially when it's being considered by the greatest military power of the age, ordered by an emperor who is, technically, in charge of roughly 50% of the world's landmass. Slight problem, the plan as conceived by Philip II's whimsical mind (after rejecting a minor and much more manageable project of invading Ireland first) was basically impossible. It would have required incredible coordination between the Navy and the Army of Flanders (which didn't happen) and phenomenal luck crossing the English Channel (which didn't happen). Building up the resources necessary meant working with tons of involved aristocratic, ecclesiastic, and bureaucratic nonsense such that, once the ball got rolling, it was impossible to stop the operation. An amphibious operation of that scale was essentially impossible at that time, even absent the natural wind and currents of the English Channel. Though English historians in the centuries since have touted it as English superiority at its finest, the fact is that the English attempt at their own amphibious invasion of Spain a little while later failed in the same way for the same reasons. * The real-life USS Enterprise — specifically the nuclear carrier (CVN-65), not her legendary, but conventionally-powered, World War II namesake (CV-6) — which is powered by eight nuclear reactors. Why eight? Conventional large aircraft carriers had eight boilers, so logically the "Big E" should have eight nuclear boilers, right? Also, the size of the boilers matched up nicely with the reactors that the Navy had already been building for submarines, meaning it was much simpler to adapt than to create a massive new reactor (which they later did). Fortunately, the USN realized how silly the eight nuclear reactors were after drastic cost overruns nixed the five sister ships she was supposed to have (and resulted in the next two carriers being conventionally-powered), to the point that engineers realized even a ship that big only needed two nuclear reactors (though Nimitz-class reactors are much larger and more powerful). + The Big E was also the fastest carrier in the fleet. Unfortunately, this speed turned out to not be that useful because it meant that the Big E was faster than almost anything else in the USN that was escorting her (including the handful of nuclear cruisers that the USN had), putting her in danger of outrunning her own escorts and being caught alone. + USS Enterprise also earned the nickname Mobile Chernobyl as she ages in service due to the increasing tedium and trepidation involved in maintaining eight aging nuclear reactors. Even after her retirement, the Enterprise couldn't even be used as a museum ship like other carriers, due to the danger posed by those aging reactors. The ship literally has to be cut into pieces in order to safely decommission them. Sadly, there just won't be enough left of her to make a museum out of, aside from maybe saving the distinctive cube-shaped island and placing it on shore and recycling some of its steel to build a Gerald R. Ford-class Enterprise. * Sailing ships from The Renaissance, like carracks, naus and galleons, turned out impractical as warships for the Mediterranean sea, where galleys were the norm. Sailing ships could carry immense cargos and comparable amounts of artillery while needing relatively small crews, but they depended on wind for dear life to move and had blind spots at anything but their broadsides, all of which made them easy prey for galleys, which were way lighter and nimbler and could move without wind thanks to their oars — and given that the Mediterranean has relatively calm waters and inconsistent winds, galleys had the advantage. As a consequence, sailing ships were relegated to support roles as cargo ships, floating batteries and troop carriers, and even this required a lot of tactic skill (they also remained largely limited to western navies, which needed to build such ships anyway to partake in capitalist trade and navigate the Atlantic). They only became suitable warships again at the Baroque age, when western shipbuilding, artillery and naval tactics had advanced enough to compensate for their disadvantages with a revenge. + The first battle where sailing ships were declared officially impractical for the Mediterranean, the Battle of Zonchio, is unique by the fact that both sides went to the extreme and met an epic fail for it. The Venetians had two great 1200-ton carracks they intended to use to go Straight for the Commander, while the Ottomans also had two massive 1800-ton carracks with oars built by a renegade Venetian engineer. Started the battle, the two Venetian carracks immediately engaged one of their Turkish counterparts, wrongly believing it to be their flagship (it was the other). Being so unmaneuverable and lacking wind, the Ottoman ship couldn't dodge or disengage even with its oars, so it was overpowered — but by the same reasons, the Venetians couldn't disengage either when the Turkish captain pulled a Taking You with Me and set fire to his ship. As a consequence, all of the three burned and sank, having fought an impressive but ultimately useless duel. + The Knights Hospitallers invested their meager resources in building the Santa Anna, a 900-ton carrack fitted with 60 guns and a primitive ironclad armor, which stood as one of the biggest ships in the Mediterranean. The ship herself wasn't excessively impractical as long as she was well supported, as her size and firepower meant she served well as a deterrent even whenever she didn't participate in operations, and was also reasonable well used in those (such as the conquest of Coron in 1532, when she and a comparable Genoese carrack were used by Andrea Doria to prop siege ramps up to Coron's walls). However, she was simply too costly to maintain and support by the Knights, who even used her as floating palace and a wheat freighter in an attempt to amortize every spent buck, and who were also in permanent worry of losing the investment if the ship was captured. Eventually, after Henry VIII confiscated the order's properties in England, they found themselves short of money and decided to dismantle the Santa Anna once and for all. + The Battle of Preveza put the nail in the coffin. The Christian fleet featured many types of vessels, as their Genoese admiral Andrea Doria was experienced at managing mixed fleets, while the Ottomans had only brought galleys, opting not to take any risk. When Doria ordered his sailing ships to attack, intending to sandwich the Ottomans between his ships and galleys, wind vanished and left the ships immobile, and meanwhile most of the Christian galleys refused to obey him and left (they were Venetians, who had a fierce rivalry with the Genoese), or according to another version, Doria never ordered the galleys to attack because he secretly wanted to lose the battle (this being obviously the Venetian version). Anyway, the ships were still too many and too heavy for the Ottoman galleys to overpower, but a few of them were captured, and the rest were ultimately forced to flee the as soon as wind came again. + The Venetians later attempted to compromise by building galleasses, a sort of hybrid of galley and galleon which would hopefully combine the self-propulsion of the former and the size and firepower of the latter. Strictly speaking, it didn't work — when they were deployed in the Battle of Lepanto, they could barely move and had to be towed, so it would have been the same had they been sailing ships. However, although their true performance in Lepanto is still discussed, they did well enough to become an occasional fixture of Italians and Spanish fleets in the Mediterranean. * Even in the Atlantic, where rowdy winds and seas made sailing ships much more convenient than galleys, it was usual for over-ambitious kings in The Renaissance and the Baroque to build absurdly massive ships and be disappointed with the results due to their sheer unmaneuverability. There was an entire Lensman Arms Race focused on this, which nobody really won at the end. + King Francis I of France tried to seal the race with the Grande Françoise, a giant ship of possibly up to 2000 tons, which would have almost doubled the size of the biggest ships in the Atlantic of the time. She was so big that she had a ballroom and a tennis court, but in turn was so cumbersome that she would simply not sail, and was eventually scrapped without ever leaving port. + The Battle of the Solent in 1545 managed to cram the biggest three vessels around, featuring the giant carrack Mary Rose and the even bigger Henry Grace à Dieu in the English side, and the Great Michael in the French side. None was particularly successful, with the Mary Rose in particular sinking entirely by herself when it leaned too deep to one side and water rushed through the gunports. + The Swedish ship Vasa, launched in 1628, has gone down in history as a cautionary tale of hubris. Armed with 64 cannons (out of 72 planned, the cannons weren't ready in time and were going to be installed later) on two decks, the Vasa was one of the most powerful warships in the world. She was also beautiful, covered in hundreds of brightly colored decorative carvings meant to glorify the king and the country. However, she was also top heavy, giving her little ability to naturally right herself (this is important in all but the calmest seas). The lower gun deck was far too close to the waterline. In fact, she was so ill-designed that she managed to sink on her maiden voyage, in full view of the citizens of Stockholm who had all turned out to watch. Even her name highlights that: "Vasa" sounds close to "Vase", and vases are associated with fragility. + The Vasa's design doubles with Disaster Dominoes, Executive Meddling, Unit Confusion and Honor Before Reason. After the catastrophe, a thorough investigation was held, and her five half-sisters were built with broader beam, more ballast, less armament and standardized Swedish (Stockholm) measurements. One of her half-sisters, Äpplet ("The Globus Cruciger"), which had been sunk as a blockship in 1658, was discovered in 2022. * Atlantic galleasses were an obscure type of ship built by the Spanish mid-16th century which got phased out in some generations. Despite sharing a name with Mediterranean galleasses, which they were developed concurrently with, they were entirely different vessels, basically galleons with oars they would use to strategically race or turn during battles. In a subversion, they weren't impractical at all, and in fact were hugely successful at hunting down enemies; they were eventually discarded because the design of sailing ships became advanced enough over the years that the oars wouldn't be that decisive anymore, making them unnecessarily complicated vessels. * During The Eighty Years' War, in order to try to break Alexander Farnese's siege of Antwerp, the Dutch assembled a gigantic ship, the Fin de la guerre ("End of the War"), built like a floating castle, with four masts, many guns, shooting platforms and a rudimentary plate armor. Only one thing they did not have in account, namely that her size and weight were completely unsuited for the shallow waterways she was expected to pass through, especially after she suffered multiple redesigns in order to make her bigger and badder. The Fin de la guerre consequently ran aground and was quickly captured and dismantled by the Spanish, who jokingly nicknamed her Gastos Perdidos ("Lost Expediture"). * First-rate ships of the line during the era of Wooden Ships and Iron Men were 100-120 gun monsters with 800-strong crews and which weighed in excess of two thousand tons. Whilst they were terrifyingly effective in their intended role (to stand in the line of battle and engage enemy fleets in pitched sea-battles), they were effectively useless for anything else, and could not be sent out alone, as a well-commanded frigate could easily outmaneuver them and pass up battle whenever they wished... albeit that a few well-built first rates (like HMS Victory) were fast enough to catch a frigate in heavy seas. They were also fiendishly expensive to operate. When not at war, the Royal Navy generally only maintained less than ten ships of this class, usually as flagships for the various fleets. The rest were kept "in ordinary" — tied up at port with skeleton maintenance crews, and which would then be re-commissioned as the strategic situation demanded. + For comparison, the standard Ship-of-the-Line was a "3rd Rate" with 74 guns. They were 20-25% faster, half the cost, about two-thirds the manpower requirement, and much more seaworthy. After everyone figured this out (around 1700), the 1st and 2nd rates quit being built except as one-off trophy ships. Being able to field two 3rd rates vs one 1st rate was actually more combat effective, unless your navy was a) built up to the point that you already had frigates and 3rd rates coming out your ears, and b) planning on engaging in massive battles where maneuverability was worth less than raw slugging power- the Battle of Trafalgar was one such instance, where Nelson's plan involved using his first rates to brute force his way through the French line of battle, cutting the enemy fleet in two. * The Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad (Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity), a ship larger than the already massive first-rate ship of the line. For comparison, here is HMS Victory◊ — the Santísima Trinidad carried 140 guns, compared to HMS Victory's 104. It was so huge that it crawled at a snail's pace, to the extent that her original nickname of el Poderoso (The Powerful) quickly turned into el Ponderoso (The Ponderous), and so many men were required to man it that its supplies ran out very quickly unless it was near a friendly port. Historians have debated for ages about how useful the whole ship was, but the conclusion is obligatorily "not much" at the best. While she did participate in multiple successful engagements, she never achieved anything that a normal first-rate (or even a particularly feisty third-rate) couldn't have, and the Spanish soon wrote her off as a failed experiment. After a faux pas in the Battle of Cape St Vincent, which almost ended with her captured, she had her best service in her Dying Moment of Awesome in the Battle of Trafalgar, where the Trinidad simultaneously engaged up to seven enemy ships and proved a formidable challenge before being eventually overpowered and surrendered. The British tried to take her as a prize, but she was so damaged and obstinate that they ended up giving up on moving her in any reasonable time and scuttled her in a storm. + The US Navy had the USS Pennsylvania, a four decker of 130 guns physically larger than the Santisma Trinidad. It was authorized in 1816, laid down in 1821, and... launched and commissioned in 1837, as the US Congress cut funding for the Navy to almost nothing in the time following the War of 1812. The HMS Victory, for comparison, took only six years to complete (then spent twelve years in ordinary until finally commissioned during the Revolutionary War), while the HMS St Lawrence, of 112 guns and the only first rate in the Great Lakes, was laid down in April 1814 and completed and commissioned in September 1814.(Despite the extravagance involved in building a first rate ship of the line to fight on a lake, and the fact that St Lawrence never saw combat, she was arguably a case of Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing instead of this trope. The reason she never saw combat was that she so effectively hard countered the US navy's frigates (their speed and maneuverability advantage didn't mean much in such confined waters) that they never sailed on the Great Lakes for the rest of the war, meaning the St. Lawrence pretty much captured the Great Lakes for the British just by existing.) The Pennsylvania's only voyage was in 1837-8, from Delaware Bay to Chesapeake Bay, and was finally burned in 1861 to prevent her capture by the Confederates. * The very earliest iron-hulled ships fit this trope. The benefits of switching from wood to iron were numerous: iron has more structural strength per unit of mass than wood does, allowing the creation of bigger or more efficient ships; it is fire-resistant, which was a major plus when trying to integrate steam engines; it lends itself to the attachment of armor plating; and under ideal conditions the iron experiences ductile failure when pierced by gunfire, limiting the extent of the damage and avoiding the flying splinters associated with wooden hulls taking hits. The problem was that these early iron ships were built at a time when metallurgy was not perfectly understood (even when they did manage to make iron ships work, it was mostly due to trial and error; the scientific reasons for early iron ships' failings were only conclusively worked out in the 20th century), leading to some nasty surprises. They encountered problems like galvanic corrosion eroding away the hull (caused by dissimilar metals such as iron and copper touching each other while immersed in salt water, which acts as an electrolyte) and the brittle-ductile transition point of iron being inconveniently at the water temperatures most navy ships sailed in. When they worked, like the East Indiaman Nemesis (which avoided brittle failure due to being deployed in the relatively warm coastal waters of south China), they were terrors, as most cannonballs would only dent them a bit and even if a round did get through it wouldn't create the deadly cloud of splinters you'd get with wood. When in anything but the very specific circumstances that avoided their problems, they cracked, splintered, and eventually plain dissolved. * The Yamato-class super battleships of the WWII Imperial Japanese Navy. Wielding the largest guns ever placed on a warship, an incredible amount of armor, and (eventually) hundreds of anti-aircraft guns, they were meant to be the superweapons that would issue the killing blow against a belligerent (read: the United States) naval force — after the IJN's carrier, cruiser, destroyer, and submarine forces had softened it up with air and torpedo attacks in a single, decisive battle. Unfortunately for the IJN: + The rapid advance of aircraft and aircraft carrier technology during Yamato's construction eventually made it clear to the IJN that they could not risk the Yamato-class ships until US Navy airpower had been wiped out. But by the time Musashi had launched in August 1942, the USN had annihilated the core of the IJN's carrier fleet at Midway and was only a few months away from launching the first of 24 Essex-class fleet carriers. By the end of the first year of the Pacific war, it was obvious that the essential prerequisite for fielding the super battleships — that being the total destruction of the US carrier fleet — was never going to be met. + Even if the "decisive battle" the IJN hoped for actually occurred, the super battleships weren't necessarily the best tools for the task. Despite their massive size and armament, the super battleships just didn't have the level of technology and survivability one would expect for a ship that required such a tremendous amount of resources to build and operate. There is evidence that the construction of these ships actually damaged the Japanese economy; the curtain woven to conceal Yamato's construction from prying eyes required so much rope it crippled the Japanese fishing industry. - Although the super battleships were reasonably speedy for their incredible size (27 knots, just shy of fast battleship speeds), they were still slower than all but the oldest of carriers (note that the IJN's slowest carrier, the converted battleship Kaga, could do 28 knots, and Ranger, the ship the USN considered -amongst other things- too slow for deployment to the Pacific Theater, could make a little over 29), and consumed massive amounts of fuel.(Given that they were designed specifically with the vast Pacific Ocean in mind, the Yamatos' cruising range of 7,200nm/13,300km was shockingly short, less than half that of contemporary American battleships, and slightly less than even pre-Treaty American battleships.) As a result, in the few instances they risked leaving port, they tended to operate as a separate "Main Force"... meaning that by the time they got anywhere useful, the action was already over. One key instance of the speed problem was during the Battle of Guadalcanal where the Japanese forces on the island could have benefited from extra fire support from the battleships. Unfortunately for them, the only battleships in the Japanese Navy that could operate economically were the Kongo class, which were a) of pre-WW1 construction, and b) built as battlecruisers. All the other battleships, including the Yamato and the Musashi, either burned up too much fuel or were too slow to effectively support their ground operations (any ship that wanted to make it back in one piece had to be in and out while it was still dark and aircraft based in Henderson Field couldn't fly). And before long, American battleships gave a reminder of what happens when battlecruisers fight battleships (and, to be fair, what happens when a ship with 16-inch guns and commanded by a man with multiple Olympic gold medals in marksmanship gets the drop on anything); had Yamato and Musashi been built as smaller but faster and more fuel-efficient ships, the outcome could have been very different. The premature withdrawal at the Battle off Samar was influenced, among other things, by concern that the Yamato was burning too much fuel in the Stern Chase of Taffy 3. - Both sides were reluctant to commit battleships to Guadalcanal, because the constricted waters in the Solomons meant a) there was a much higher than normal chance of hitting something with your big unwieldy ship, and b) smaller ships (cruisers, destroyers, maybe particularly audacious PT boats) could easily use the cover of various islands to get into torpedo range, where they could dish out disproportionate damage- which actually happened multiple times, such as the first night of the Battle of Guadalcanal, wherein several US destroyers were able to get in so close to the battleships that they couldn't be effectively targeted. Battleships (Hiei and Kirishima on the Japanese side, South Dakota and Washington on the American side) only came into play when the fierce fighting meant that both sides just straight up ran out of aircraft carriers and were about to run dry on cruisers too- and the destroyer situation wasn't good either, so it was either battleships or letting enemy supply convoys and bombardment forces straight through. - The steel armor available to Japan wasn't of the same quality as that in the United States, so despite its incredible thickness it was still vulnerable to the USN's "super-heavy" model of 16-inch armor-piercing shells. Its own 18-inch armor-piercing shells, likewise, were only about as effective as the USN's 16-inch shells, at least at long range. Thus, its guns and armor were comparable to the USN's Iowa-class, even though the Iowas were about 2/3 the displacement of the Yamatos and fast enough to operate alongside carriers. - Although the IJN excelled at naval gunnery at the start of the war, the accuracy of their manpower-intensive fire control systems deteriorated rapidly under actual combat conditions and had problems tracking maneuvering targets or compensating for evasive action. Since most early surface engagements were short, sharp battles that took place within short range at night, these shortcomings were neither apparent nor material for most of the war. The IJN did not develop or install new fire directors and radar as rapidly as the USN, and never developed anything close to the Mk I fire control computer that US battleships carried. So despite the massive range of the 18-inch shells, they could not match the accuracy of US guns even at the beginning of the war, let alone the radar-guided gunnery many USN ships were fielding by 1944. Yamato's poor gunnery at Samar was as much due to crew exhaustion from the repeated air and submarine attacks she'd experienced in the previous 48 hours as it was to the poor visibility which forced her to constantly switch targets, making it hard to "find the range". - Most problems with the IJN gunnery was because their brass completely overlooked the radar as something that will never catch on, despite Japanese researchers making several important contributions to the radar development, such as the Yagi-Uda antenna. The first time the naval brass has ever seriously considered the military use of radar was after they captured some British units at Singapore in 1942, two years after Yamato was commissioned, and they didn't even figure that the "Yagi antenna" mentioned in the documentations referred to a Japanese person at first. They did try to compensate, and by the 1944 Yamato actually carried three radars... none of which was tied into its fire control system. All the while American ships not only started mounting radars much earlier, but had actually built their fire control systems around them. Off Samar, most American ships employed radar-guided gunnery, their cannons being laid automatically by the sophisticated fire-control computers, while Yamato still used traditional visual range finding with the (severely tired and overworked at this point) humans as main decision makers and means of communications. - Damage control doctrine of the IJN was lacking, which meant any damage the ships absorbed could not be repaired as rapidly, and certain types of damage had the potential to cause a cascade of failures, most infamously and embarrassingly in the sinking of the Taiho (a brand new armored carrier, lost when avgas fumes from a cracked tank, caused by a single torpedo hitting it, were inadvertently allowed to spread throughout the ship to the point it was instantly crippled, and half its crew was instantly killed, when they found an ignition source over six hours after taking that hit). By using resources that could have built several capital ships to instead build one very large capital ship, the IJN compounded this issue. + And finally, not to put too fine a point on it, the value of the super battleships is evident in their abysmal performance during the war. The Yamato engaged US surface ships in only one engagement, the Battle off Samar, where (despite weighing more than the entire force she opposed) she only contributed to the sinking of three small ships, two destroyers and one escort carrier (Gambier Bay)- though to be fair, she fared better than the other ships, who lacked radar and were easily foiled by smokescreens and rain squalls. The Musashi, meanwhile, was sunk by aircraft(The same fate suffered by her sister ship Yamato, in an attempt to draw fire away from the rest of the fleet) in the Sibuyan Sea prior to the Battle off Samar (though taking an impressive 17 bombs and 19 torpedoes to put down), and never fired a single shot at an enemy surface vessel in the entire course of her career. In the end, neither ship ever came into gun range of an enemy capital ship. And those hundreds of AA guns were underpowered and obsolete even before they were installed, serving mainly to increase the number of men who went down with each ship. - The Sanshikidan "Type 3" AA shells for Yamato's main guns deserve a special notice here. Weighing almost 3000 pounds, they are definitely the largest unpropelled AA munitions ever fired, and, combined with the powder charge, come only a bit shy to the largest of the modern SAMs. Unfortunately, the terrible quality of their manufacturing made them almost unusable: poorly machined leading bands damaged barrel riflings, and their detonator safeties were imperfect. Musashi may have lost a main gun in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea because a Sanshikidan shell detonated in the barrel. Also, incendiary units in their payload were designed for the task of scaring the pilots off and disrupting their attack runs by limiting visibility, their damage potential was subpar at best, but at the distances where those shells exploded, pilots still had more than enough time to re-adjust for the attack. So these giant fireworks were not up to their task, though they proved remarkably effective at the Boring, but Practical work of shore bombardment... or at least, the variants used by other battleships were; neither Yamato-class ship ever performed shore bombardment. + One of the biggest flaws (and the reason for the above) is that the ships were Too Awesome to Use(In fact, Yamato and Musashi spent most of their careers either docked in naval bases or moving between them) and the Allies knew it. This prevented the ships from being used as a threat to shipping (not helped by the fact that the different nature of the Pacific, being the ocean that doesn't border western Europe, meant there was less merchant shipping for them to target in the first place) and thus the Allies didn't really put any effort into sinking them until they were forced to sortie in desperation. They ended up costing Japan a lot more money than it took for America to sink them. Contrast the careers of the German battleships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Tirpitz. These were designed for merchant raiding and even when they weren't sailing, the threats they posed required a lot of active planning from the Allies, like using capital ships as escorts. While Tirpitz had an even less successful career than Yamato on paper, she cost the Allies more than fifteen times her total build and maintenance cost to finally sink, and more if you consider the cost of escorting convoys against her. The Yamatos, on the other hand, were sunk without doing much of anything - at best, Yamato temporarily disabled the USS White Plains with a near-miss, and is theorized to have contributed to sinking the USS Gambier Bay - or any real effort expended hunting them. To put it in perspective, SS Lawton B. Evans and SS Stephen Hopkins, both armed merchant ships, had more successful combat careers than Musashi did.(For those curious, the former provided some rather effective shore bombardment and shot down several planes in support of amphibious operations. The latter scored a Mutual Kill against a German commerce raider.) + Other examples of the Awesome Yet Impractical nature of the Yamato and Musashi: their guns were so powerful that the ship's boats could not be left out on deck while the guns were fired. Special hangars had to be incorporated to store all the boats, which was one more added cost and also meant they carried fewer boats than would be expected for such mammoth ships. And fewer boats to load the crew into is a problem if the ship, you know, sinks. Likewise, the ship's crew could not be outside on deck either when the guns fired, because the concussive force would literally knock them unconscious. And potentially rip their clothes off their bodies. This proved even more problematic when it became clear that even the largest, best-armored battleship is extremely vulnerable to air attack and thus the IJN had to find a way to put lots of anti-aircraft guns on deck without them being damaged by the main guns' blast. + Even if they hadn't been rendered obsolete by airpower, Yamato and Mushashi defined the ragged outer edge of practicality for battleships. Manufacturing their armor pushed the limits of the Japanese steel industry. The maximum range of their guns exceeded the practical distance of naval gunfire, as the time of flight was so long that a target at extreme range could just dodge the shells by changing course when they spotted the gun flashes. The sheer size of their guns required the Japanese to invent an entirely new technology in materials handling equipment just to move the projectiles around the magazines. The extreme weight of their turrets exceeded the metallurgy available for their supporting bearings. Their build cost, plus side expenses (like that veil mentioned above that crippled Japan's rope industry) were just too much for Japan's economy to take. Finally, their actual performance in operation makes a pretty convincing demonstration that the even bigger battleships planned by the Japanese and the Germans simply wouldn't have worked. * After their defeat at Midway, the Japanese were desperate to put more carriers to sea to compensate for their tremendous losses. One of these measures was to change their two Ise-class Battleships into hybrid battleship-carriers. The idea of battlecarriers is inherently somewhat iffy as it involves a ship that you want to send into direct combat and expect to take hits being also loaded with extra ammunition and highly flammable fuel for the planes, but Japan managed to fail even at creating a proper battlecarrier in the first place, as they didn't have any available planes and pilots to equip the two ships after their conversion process was completed. To top off how foolish this decision was, even if they did have the pilots on hand, the only planes they would've been able to launch and recover were floatplanes (slower and bulkier than a normal plane). Normal carrier-based aircraft could be launched from the converted Ise-class battleships, but couldn't land on them, meaning their only use would've been for Kamikaze attacks or close to friendly land bases where they could land, which would have defeated the purpose of loading on and launching from the Ises anyway. Ultimately the Ise and Hyuga had their catapults removed and the flight decks were used as a platform for anti-aircraft guns. + Note also how the original plan was to convert all of their battleships except Yamato and Musashi into full-fledged carriers. Lack of both resources and time forced the IJN to drop this decision, with the two Fuso-class battleships having been scheduled to be converted as the Ises, had they been successful. * Battleships in general, at least eventually. There's still debate over exactly when the battleship became obsolete (The rise of air power? Modern anti-ship missiles?), but it did. And when those weren't a large concern for the US Navy (e.g., off the coast of Lebanon or the first Gulf War, where the 16-inch gunnery of Iowa-class battleships proved very useful), they were still impractical for being extremely expensive to operate and manpower-intensive. However, on account of their awesomeness, all four completed Iowas are currently preserved as museum ships: Iowa at Los Angeles; New Jersey at Camden, New Jersey (right across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, where she was built); Missouri in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and Wisconsin in Norfolk, Virginia. + Additionally, the aging of the battleship fleet and lack of replacement meant that by the end of the 2000s, they shared literally no systems with new ships coming off the ways - steam turbines have been replaced fleetwide with diesels (most support ships), gas turbines (combat ships and some support ships) and nuclear power (aircraft carriers), the modern Tomahawk missiles are built for a different carrying system (the battleships used an armored box launcher that was phased out in the mid-90s, modern ships use a vertical launching system), their 5"/38 secondary guns used completely different shells than new destroyers' 5"/54 and 5"/62 guns; the 16" guns were completely unique. Additionally, room (and weight) would have to be found for the networking equipment required to work with other ships in the modern Navy. These old ships were struck from the Navy List in 2009, so they will likely never put to sea again. + The military function of battleships (killing enemy ships of all lesser capabilities without them being able to do anything about it) ended up largely taken over by aircraft carriers as soon as aircraft technology took off and navies got the hang of carrier operation (something of a learning curve, due to how different they were to all previous warships; for instance, it took a while to get it through designers' heads that carriers did not need surface-action guns) due to several factors, with the most pertinent ones being range (a carrier can target a battleship long before a battleship can target a carrier) and versatility of operations; while a carrier can't beat a battleship in all circumstances (narrow waterways, bad weather, night battles for most of World War II, etc), the carrier will do so in more circumstances than the other way around, and if a carrier is caught in circumstances where it would be vulnerable to a battleship, something has gone horribly wrong. + An argument can equally be made that the battleship became obsolescent the moment the submarine became a viable weapons platform. The essential point remains the same - the extreme construction and operational costs of a battleship can only be justified if it is essentially invulnerable to lesser ships. The moment that a vessel or collection of vessels of significantly inferior tonnage/cost can stand a reasonable chance of crippling or destroying a battleship, then the battleship becomes too great a concentration of military resources to justify. The same can be said of the aircraft carrier, too - more aircraft carriers were sunk by submarines than by any other means in WWII. Carriers, however, have become more efficient at sub-hunting with the development of effective hunter-killer aircraft - something battleships were and remain incapable of doing. - For that matter, anti-ship missiles took the battleship from obsolescent to fully obsolete. Now any ship could provide torpedo-grade anti-ship firepower at a range battleship guns couldn't respond to. Vessels of inferior tonnage had moved from having a reasonable chance of crippling/destroying a battleship to a near certainty, and it also provided far better means for aircraft to destroy them than torpedoes and bombs. It's not a coincidence that the last battleships began to disappear right around when viable anti-ship missiles began to proliferate. At the same time, anti-ship missiles pose a huge threat to any ship, especially aircraft carriers, which don't even have the armor plating of battleships to give them a little more survivability. It's for this reason that Soviet tactics for facing US carrier battle groups was to attack with a combination of submarines and a crapload of surface and air-launched missiles, something which the Chinese were happy to adopt and improve on by utilizing their own anti-ship missiles, including ballistic anti-ship missiles. + One could argue with hindsight that the very concept of the battleship was inherently flawed, as it depended upon the superior range of their big guns to keep smaller ships outside of the range of their own guns and torpedoes. Unfortunately, that presumed battleships would only be employed in open water under under ideal visibility conditions, something that often didn't happen in the real world. Take for example the Battle off Samar, where poor visibility seriously hampered Japanese battleship gunnery, negating much of their range advantage, or the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, where the battleship Hiei was smothered by a saturation bombardment from the fast-firing dual purpose guns of several US destroyers and cruisers that had managed to sneak up to point blank range in the dark in restricted waters where she couldn't maneuver. Few of the hundreds of smaller projectiles (from 8 inch down to 20mm but especially lots and lots of 5 and 6 inch) actually penetrated her armor but they did set virtually her entire superstructure on fire, rendering her all but untenable for her crew. + What made the battleship become obsolete isn't so much their increased vulnerability but rather their decreased combat effectiveness compared to other ships. Contrary to popular belief, military technology doesn't become obsolete when it experiences new counters(As deploying that countered equipment forces the enemy to invest time, resources, and space - both in terms of storage space and space on the ship for whatever system fires the counter - to continue to manufacture, carry, and deploy the counter.), but rather when something else can perform the same task but better. For battleships, they were viable from the 1870s to 1940s because their combination of firepower and armor was necessary for when a sizable navy needed to stand their ground (ocean?) and fight. They were also essentially area denial weapons as if you had a battleship (or several battleships) floating around in your part of the ocean, you essentially "owned" that part of the ocean because there was nothing anyone could do about the honking big battleship sailing around with enough firepower to turn any enemy ship it came across into a new modern art sculpture on the seabed. Even during WW2 at the tail end of the battleship era, battleships proved to be decisive weapons in key engagements with non-battleships (such as Warspite at Narvik, Washington at Guadalcanal, and 7th fleet at Surigao Strait), even beating carriers if a carrier commander was stupid enough to let his ship anywhere near them(This actually happened once when the captain of HMS Glorious, who had only previously commanded submarines, let his command be caught by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with only two destroyers as escort, resulting in Glorious being sunk)). However, by the end of WW2, carriers could both attack and defend themselves at much longer ranges, cruisers could be in more places at once, and destroyers were far cheaper and could do disproportionate damage with a lucky torpedo strike, plus do any odd jobs the fleet needed. While all these ships had the same vulnerability to torpedoes, bombs and missiles as do battleships, they also offer superior combat capabilities that would offset their vulnerabilities. Area denial evolved became a more difficult role as instead of relying on a singular capital ship, you now needed a versatile network of ships, aircraft and wireless communications between all associated units in order to better cover your own territory and ensure the enemy couldn't approach—or at the very least, ensure any enemies that did approach were also turned into the aforementioned deep-sea modern art sculpture. Some of the surviving battleships, like the Iowas, were kept in service because they had other uses (in their case, the Iowas were fast enough to operate in a single force with the carriers and made great escorts, and their 16-inch guns were excellent for shore bombardment and cheaper than missiles for that purpose), but the construction of new battleships stopped once it was no longer an efficient use of resources compared to adding more carriers, destroyers, submarines, etc. One of the major silver linings in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor was that despite all the tonnage sunk in the attack, none of it was from aircraft carriers; the carriers were on the target list, just behind battleships, but none of the four the USN had were in Pearl Harbor that day- Enterprise was returning from Wake Island and would've been present had she not been delayed by bad weather, Lexington was delivering planes to Midway, the Saratoga was in San Diego, and Ranger (which never participated in the Pacific War on account of being a Flawed Prototype) was off in the Atlantic. Being left with little other than carriers to conduct operations also helped the American military put extra focus on developing strategies to employ what turned out to be the backbone of any modern Navy, which it remains to this day. + Possibly the most impractical of battleships were the U.S.'s Montana class, which were designed to be the Mighty Glacier to the Iowa class's Fragile Speedster. They were never built for a multitude of reasons, most of which are discussed above, but also because they were too big to fit through the Panama Canal, meaning that no matter how well they did as battleships, they were always going to be impractical for a navy that regularly needed to move ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific and vice-versa. They were built in the hope of some of the canal's locks being widened, but when that plan fell through, so did the Montanas. * On the topic of battleships, many battleships of the Pre-Dreadnought era and the early years of the Dreadnought era had some of their guns in an off-set arrangement (for example, the en echelon arrangement used by the USS Texas and USS Maine in the 1890s, or the staggered arrangement of the HMS Neptune in the early 1900s). In theory, this allowed for maximum amount of firepower fore and aft, in addition to being able to fire the entire main battery in a broadside. In practice, the off-set guns couldn't be fired fore or aft without risking damage to the ship's structure due to the off-center force of the recoil, and if fired in broadside, the guns on the far side could damage the deck or superstructure of the ship due to the heat and force of the cannons firing. Which is exactly what happened to the USS Texas at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. + Similarly, the earlier examples of super-firing main batteries (where one turret is placed to fire over the top of another turret, also seen on the HMS Neptune mentioned above) avoided the structural problems with off-set turrets, but the heat and blast (not to mention the hot gasses and such) from the upper guns firing could still damage the lower turret in some circumstances (such as the HMS Neptune's aft turrets, if the upper turret was aligned within 30 degrees of the stern of the ship.) + "Wing turrets" of any description proved impractical in service, as they essentially doubled the weight without doubling the firepower they provided. The extra turret was useless without separate fire control, ships almost never fired to both sides simultaneously, and being offset from the roll center along a different axis than the centerline turrets they were inherently less accurate, something easily demonstrated with simple geometry. Finally, their magazines were very difficult to armor and virtually impossible to provide with torpedo protection. The Captain of USS Atlanta reported that her wing turrets were not worth their weight and they were deleted from following classes. Yamato and Musashi had their secondary battery wing turrets removed early in their careers for similar reasons. + Perhaps the most impractical of all, though, was the superposed turret. That is, one turret with another turret mounted literally on top of it. In theory, this allowed more guns to be mounted while taking up less space. In practice, the top turret served to damage the bottom turret whenever it was fired, and to weaken the bottom turret's armor simply by existing. It also complicated the ammunition supply, as a mechanism had to be included for carrying two sizes of shells (for the main guns on bottom and secondary guns on top) through the same turret. + The Russian Navy attempted to avoid this problem on Gangut and Imperatritsa Mariya classes simply by setting all their main gun turrets on the centerline of the ship on deck level and rejecting superfiring turrets. This arrangement had several advantages: it reduced the stress on the ends of the ship, since the turrets were not concentrated at the end of the ship; it increased stability by leaving out elevated turrets and their barbettes; it improved the survivability of the ship because the magazines were separated from each other; and it gave the ship a lower silhouette. Disadvantages were that the magazines had to be put in the middle of all the machinery—which required steam pipes to be run through or around them—and that there was a lack of blast-free deck space. Moreover, it also meant that the arc of fire of the two middle turrets was extremely restricted, and that any secondary armament had to be installed on hull casemates below the main deck. Indeed they they were still susceptible to main gun blast damage and were prone to getting hit by waves while sailing in rough weather. Combined with inverted "ram" bows, these ships were extremely wet and fared miserably in weather. + The Royal Navy's Nelson-class battleships, the first battleships built under the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty, attempted to maximize armour and firepower within the tonnage limit via an unconventional armament layout in which all three of the main gun turrets were grouped together forward of the superstructure. This resulted in a shorter ship relative to its weight and armament, and thus a smaller area that needed to be armoured. The first two turrets were superfiring, as had become universal by this point, but the third had to be placed below and behind them because making it superfiring as well would've made the ship so top-heavy as to be at risk of capsizing. As a result, the third turret was of very little use due to its limited arcs of fire. It was also discovered that the third turret was placed so close to the superstructure that the blast from firing its guns would shatter the windows on the bridge. The windows were replaced with thicker tempered glass...which still shattered when the guns were fired at a high angle. * The dreadnaught battleship HMS Agincourt was a ship that the Royal Navy didn't particularly want, but seized it to keep it away from another country, who bought it from a third. At the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil got into a naval arms race, each country buying battleships from foreign yards, as they couldn't build their own. Brazil, with plenty of cash from coffee and rubber plantations, ordered a ship from Armstrong Whitworth of Newcastle, with fourteen 12" guns in seven turrets (the most ever fitted to a battleship), partially in the spirit of this oneupmanship and to appear powerful to the Brazilian public. However, soon after this, the Brazilian economy took a sharp downward turn due to competition from rubber plantations in the Far East (planted by British companies, ironically enough) and Brazil sold the incomplete ship to the Ottoman Empire. The ship was actually completed and ready for delivery to her Turkish crew when World War One broke out, and the UK government seized the ship. This was actually a provision of the contract, but only if the UK was actually at war. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill didn't want to take any chances and ordered the Turks held off by gunfire, if necessary, which turned Turkish public opinion against the British and contributed to them joining the Central Powers. Now named after a famous British victory over the French(and nicknamed "Gin Palace" after the luxurious fittings the Turks requested and her name being A Gin Court), she was put into the Grand Fleet, where her shortcomings became apparent. Her firepower was so impressive that a full broadside completely hid the ship in flames and smoke, but to protect all those turrets and their magazines required the armoured belt to be unusually long, and thus it was unusually thin to keep the weight down. Barbette and deck armour was also thin compared to other dreadnaughts, making her something of a Glass Cannon. And for all that, she participated in only one major battle, at Jutland, where poor visibility meant she fired 144 12" shells and 111 6" shells, but never hit anything. * Plunging fire from battleship guns was a concept that seemed promising in the early 20th century. The main battery guns of battleships were high-velocity weapons (for the sake of range, armor penetration, and making it easier to calculate the firing solution), and tended to send shells on a relatively horizontal trajectory. Because of this, warships had their thickest armor oriented to stop hits to the side. They also had deck armor, but it couldn't be as thick because of the larger surface area it would need to cover, and it didn't need to be anyway because even a shell that arced enough to hit the deck would still probably do so at an angle close enough to parallel to glance off even this thinner armor. However, if you could lob shells in a high enough arc to hit the deck at a more perpendicular angle, it could theoretically go through the deck easily and cause massive damage. Some big guns were made with the capability to shoot in this way, and special super-heavy shells were created for the purpose. Unfortunately it turned out to be impractical, since firing this way made it nearly impossible to score accurate hits. In order to make high velocity guns drop shells at a steep enough ballistic arc, it was necessary to fire from an extremely long distance away. Even in general, super long range battleship gunnery was impractical because it would magnify the inherent spread of the gun, and the longer the shell spent traveling through the air the more difficult it was to lead the target. Sure, you might score a hit eventually through trial-and-error plus sheer luck, but that would give your enemy more time to try and hit you first. In practice, captains tended to try to get in closer for a better chance of hitting, which was obviously not an option for plunging fire. Add to this the fact that deliberately arcing higher further increased the travel time of the shell, and the result was for hitting a moving target at such range to be practically hopeless. * Battlecruisers were this when they first came out. They were designed to go hunt down and mop up enemy cruisers that might be raiding or harassing overseas bases, and as such they had high speed (so cruisers couldn't escape them) and battleship-tier firepower (to quickly deal with cruiser-grade armor), but their armor was only cruiser-grade. This was fine in their original role because they'd only face cruiser guns, but their speed and firepower made it tempting to stick them in actual battle formations- where they tended to fold like paper airplanes the instant an actual battleship landed a hit. Fast battleships neatly solved the problems with both standard battleships and battlecruisers, but also came with a hefty price tag. + The Royal Navy took the battlecruiser concept to an extreme with the Courageous class of "large light cruisers", built early in the First World War. The design featured two twin 15-inch gun turrets located forward and aft, a few secondary guns, and very little armor. They were so lightly built that firing the main guns caused damage throughout the ship. They had little success in the war, and in the 1920s all three were converted into aircraft carriers. In that role they were useful, but Admiralty blunders resulted in the loss of Courageous and Glorious to German attackers early in the Second World War. + The Furious was a modified ship of the Courageus class that pushed the idea even further, with a main armament consisting of two single 18-inch turrets (almost the same calibre as the main guns of the later Yamato-class battleships). Like her two sister ships she ended up being converted into an aircraft carrier, including an awkward intermediate step with one of these big guns at the stern and the standard aircraft carrier flight deck, ultimately surviving the war. * The American Alaska-class "large cruisers". The idea was essentially that battlecruisers had gone wrong because they tried to match the caliber of guns battleships were carrying, which was overkill for their stated role of killing less armored ships. Thus a large cruiser fitted guns around the caliber of WWI battleships but with the catch that they could fire them more quickly due to the size reductions. The downside is these special rapid-fire turrets made them cost around the same as battleships to build despite the cost savings the smaller hull allowed. Despite costing the same as a battleship, they only really had the performance capabilities of a cruiser, due to their thinner armor and lesser number of AA guns. They were built specifically to hunt cruisers and weren't efficient for anything else. Only two of the ships were ever fully completed, arriving only in the last years of the war when fuel shortages severely limited the use of enemy heavy cruisers and most of them had already fallen prey to air attacks and submarines. Even if the Alaska class cruisers had arrived earlier, it's speculated that their higher cost would have made the USN treat them as Too Awesome To Use just like the battleships. * The Soviet Union's Kirov-class cruisers, built in the late 1930s. The USSR, unburdened by naval restrictions that clearly defined heavy and light cruisers, decided to build cruisers with an intermediate caliber gun 180mm, which wasn't a bad idea. Unfortunately they also did not want to spend a lot of money, and made the cruisers as light as possible. This is idiotically accomplished by making the turrets incredibly tiny (thus meaning there didn't have to be as much ship supporting them) but this also make the Kirovs absolutely unsuitable for actual ship-to-ship combat. The guns were right next to each other with no spacing at all, meaning they would blow each other's shells off course. Nearly as bad, the tight spaces inside the turret made loading an extremely time consuming process (negating on the biggest theoretical advantages of the 180mm gun), with the Kirovs loading slower than many contemporary battleships. * Super destroyer concepts generally fell into this category. Since navies began experimenting with super battleships, super cruisers, and eventually super carriers, why not make a super destroyer too? Take an incredibly powerful yet compact engine, build a super streamlined hull around that, slap as many weapons as you can on the result, and finally finish it out with all the high tech bells and whistles you can fit. The resulting ship will be able to beat the crap out of any other destroyer in the world but will probably cost five to ten times as much. Unlike a super battleship however, it still only takes one well-placed shell to send the whole thing to Davey Jones, much like a much cheaper regular destroyer. And at the end of the day, your ship simply can't be five places at once to justify costing as much as five regular destroyers. + To add insult to injury, the main purpose of a super destroyer is to actively hunt down and destroy enemy destroyers. However for the same cost you could build a light cruiser (or even a heavy cruiser in extreme cases). The five normal destroyers or the cruiser are more capable for use as escorts and at the end of the day are quite capable of bagging enemy destroyers that are forced to try to engage them. And then aircraft carriers became a thing and were far better at hunting down and sinking enemy destroyer packs than destroyer hunting surface ships ever were. + "Super destroyers" evolved from dedicated flotilla leaders (sometimes just called leaders). These were either extra-light cruisers or enlarged destroyers designed to provide destroyer flotillas with both extra firepower and command facilities. However, these two roles turned out to be quite counterproductive to each other. Strapping on extra armaments meant that commanders tended to want to have leaders involved in the action, where said commanders would be at extreme risk. Navies eventually phased the concept out by adding custom but discrete command modifications to production-model destroyers. * The People's Republic of China's Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Varyag, purchased from Ukraine in a half-finished state and completed/commissioned as Liaoning, was this at first. It's purchase marks the beginning of China's carrier ambitions taking fruit, but whether China can operate an aircraft carrier as an effective weapon of war, as opposed to just a symbol of prestige, is still up in the air. Their main expected adversary, the United States Navy, has nearly a hundred years of experience in carrier aviation when the Chinese bought Liaoning, something that can't easily be matched overnight. As a result, China has taken a huge gamble by trying to modernize its navy from a(n admittedly large one given its huge coastline) defensive force to one capable of power projection. Fortunately for China, they have more than enough resources at their disposal to operate her effectively, resulting in Liaoning being consistently in better condition than her still-in-service Russian half-sister; as a result, China has been able to use her consistently in learning how to operate aircraft carriers. + The Kuznetsov-class carrier in general is a fairly impractical vessel, as it was built under the Soviet doctrine of being a cruiser first and a carrier second; in fact, the line is referred to as an "aircraft carrying cruiser" in original Russian terminology (Part of the reason for this Soviet doctrine has to do with treaty limits concerning the types of ships that can cross the Bosphorus. A pure aircraft carrier cannot cross the Bosphorus under the Montreux Convention, but a cruiser that just so happens to carry aircraft can). To put that in perspective, the Kuznetsov-class has more raw firepower than traditional carriers, which allows them to function as actual attack ships instead of just floating runways, but this comes at the cost of having a smaller aircraft-carrying capacity than traditional carriers, while also making the ship far too large and carry too few missiles to be effective as a missile-armed combatants. In turn, the aircraft carried are normally used in fleet defense rather than frontline action, which the Russians reserve for ground based aircraft. Overall, the Kuznetsov is something of a go-between for carriers and cruisers, capable of performing either type's roles but nowhere near as effectively as "real" carriers and cruisers dedicated to either role. China has realized this and removed the anti-ship missile tubes on Liaoning while completing her, thus giving her a somewhat larger hangar capacity (which is helped by them not being a signatory under the Montreux Convention and thus having no need to obey the size/type limitations). * The Tessarakonteres is an ancient example from the Hellenistic period. The largest human-powered vessel ever built, it had 4,000 rowers... and roughly the maneuverability of the Parthenon. A 2011 study suggests that it was never meant to be used in ship-to-ship battles, but was intended as a siege platform against harbours. This fits the style of warfare of that time, which consisted of campaigns along the eastern Mediterranean coast and the Greek isles to conquer the coastal cities. * The submarine aircraft carrier - such an awesome idea that the Germans, British, French, Americans, Italians and Japanese all pursued the idea. Only the Japanese ever actually built one, though. The Japanese actually built 47 submarines with the capability to carry seaplanes (between one and three, depending on the model). But the aircraft carried were limited in capabilities (with potential strike damage essentially limited to propaganda value), the process of surfacing, launching, recovery and submerging took a lot of time, and the submarine itself was vulnerable to attack while doing so, especially given that they also tended to be very large. It's still an awesome idea, though... and one which just might have a shot at becoming practical in the 21st century, in the form of submarine-launched UAVs. + One of the great technical achievements of the Japanese was their secret development of the I-400 class boats, which were among the largest non-nuclear submarines ever built, with a displacement of 6,560 long tons: - Shortly after Admiral Yamamoto conducted the attack on Pearl Harbor, he conceived the idea of long-range submersible carriers which would be used to stage surprise attacks on American mainland cities. This fit in with his overall strategy against the much bigger United States, which amounted to a desperate gamble that Japan would be able to terrorize the military and population United States so much within a short period that they would decide the cost of opposing Japan was too high, and thus be forced to make concessions in exchange for peace without having had a chance to mobilize their full war-making potential. Sadly for Yamamoto's ambitions, it was an issue of starting too late, lacking resources, and ultimately having a limited payload. If such a weapon had been available in numbers immediately following Pearl Harbor, it might have at least been able to inflict panic on American civilians. As it was, the development process was doomed to run longer than Japan's narrow window for taking the initiative, so that by the time they came out the Americans were already outproducing the Japanese by a huge margin and defeating them in one battle after another. Any such submarines would now face a steep challenge getting in and out of coastal striking distance in the face of such enemy naval and air superiority, and their construction took up scarce resources that the rest of the Japanese fleet wanted for themselves. After the U.S managed to kill Yamamoto by shooting down the plane he was on in April 1943, his pet project was no longer safe against cuts: initial plans to make 18 of these vessels were reduced to nine, five, and finally to the three that were actually completed (the third was finished after conversion to a tanker submarine). - The ways that they solved the various technical problems was ingenious; Each sub displaced twice as much as their American contemporaries, used a crew of 144, and had enough range to circumnavigate the globe one-and-a-half times. In order to support and balance the weight of the watertight airplane hangar on top, the pressure hull had a figure-of-eight cross section. The hangar held three specially designed Aichi M6A1 Seiran floatplanes, with wings that would rotate 90 degrees and fold backward for storage, as well as floats that were detached and stored separately. For deployment, the wings were unfolded, the floats reattached, and the motor oil piped into the engine pre-heated so that a crew of four could have it ready to take off in just seven minutes. A compressed air catapult would launch each plane into the air, and after delivering their single 850 kg torpedo or bomb load they would land on the water alongside the sub to be retrieved by a collapsible crane. In theory the sub could attack and then disappear before the enemy had a chance to strike back. - The problem was that there were too few of these subs, and despite their size they could each only hold three small seaplanes: Any damage they could have dealt towards a land target would have been negligible, assuming they were able to get past any sort of alert antiaircraft defenses or fighter patrols. Towards the end of the war there was a plan to deliver a Seiran force disguised with American paint and markings to attempt a kamikaze attack on the locks of the Panama Canal, with the goal of preventing more U.S. ships from entering the Pacific. The disguise part would have violated the laws and customs of war, and in any case the plan was called off because Japan realized there was already too much U.S. tonnage in the Pacific for shutting down the canal at that late stage to make a difference, and that the sub carriers might yet be needed for the defense of the Home Islands. A different proposed attack that would have used a biological weapon instead was thankfully never undertaken because Japan surrendered. The I-400 class accomplished practically nothing in World War II, but significantly affected the Cold War that came next: after studying the captured subs and then scuttling them so the Soviets couldn't learn from them, the Americans developed the Greyback class missile submarine and Regulus nuclear cruise missile. The Japanese thus created the ancestor of modern nuclear ballistic missile submarines, the problem being they lacked a nuclear weapon that could have allowed their sub to deliver a strategically significant payload in a reasonably small package. * In 1917 Britain launched the first of what was planned to be four M-class submarines, a class of gun-armed submarine cruisers. The original idea was for a coastal bombardment monitor, but what they ended up building it for was to target merchant shipping: torpedoes were then considered ineffective at hitting a moving ship at any range over 1,000 yards, so they gave the M-class a single 12-inch gun forward of the conning tower which could fire from periscope depth out to 15,000 yards. Unfortunately, the 12-inch gun could only be reloaded when the sub was surfaced and also represented a weak point in the hull. M1 did not see action during World War I; M2 and M3 were completed after the war was over, and M4 was scrapped before completion. In 1925, a Swedish ship collided with the M1 which caused her gun to be torn off and created a gaping hole that allowed seawater to gush through. After the accident and the Washington Naval Treaty restrictions on cruiser submarines, M2 was converted into an impractical Carrier Sub and M3 was converted into a Minelayer Sub, making M3 the only one to have any useful purpose. * During the interwar period France built its own submarine cruiser, the Surcouf, as a form of Loophole Abuse to avoid the Washington naval treaty limits on the number of cruisers France could have. This provoked an Obvious Rule Patch that completely banned the construction of submarines armed with heavy guns, from which only the Surcouf itself was spared by a Grandfather Clause. It was armed with a pair of 8-inch (203mm) guns in a forward turret and weighed in at over 4000 tons, making it larger than destroyers of its day and the largest submarine to date until the Japanese I-400 appeared in 1943. There was also a single small seaplane for reconnaissance and spotting for the main guns. Its more conventional armament was a dozen torpedo tubes. There were numerous problems with having big guns on the low deck of a submarine subject to more roll from waves, including that it had no point of observation high enough to see out to the gun's maximum range (hence the need for the floatplane); that it took at least 3 minutes and 35 seconds after surfacing before it could fire; that firing had to occur at the precise moment of pitch and roll when the ship was level; that training the turret to the side was only possible when the boat rolled eight degrees or less; and that it was not equipped to fire at night. Surcouf was undergoing a refit and therefore in no condition to fight when the Germans overran France, so it limped across the English Channel to Plymouth where the British seized it, and subsequently gave it to the Free French Navy. Its only notable action was participating in the liberation of Saint Pierre and Miquelon by the Free French military. On the night of 18/19 February 1942, the submarine was lost with all hands off the coast of Panama under unclear circumstances: it is believed to have either collided with another ship, or been sunk by friendly fire. * The USSR's Project 705-class submarine, nicknamed "Alfa-class" by NATO, was a SSN set (and to this day still holds) the record for the fastest and deepest-diving non-prototype military submarine in the world,(second only to the preceding Papa class, itself deemed to fit this trope too much to produce beyond one prototype) and knowledge of its production greatly alarmed the West, to the point that the US and Britain both designed torpedoes for the specific purpose of hunting down Alfas.(As for standard torpedoes, an Alfa could just turn around and outrun them. The Soviets specifically tested this by firing torpedoes at their own subs!) Unfortunately, the Alfa had very maintenance-intensive lead-bismuth-cooled nuclear reactors that couldn't normally be turned off, as doing so would let the metal solidify and essentially turn the whole thing into a solid inert lump. Entire maintenance facilities had to be constructed at Alfa homeports simply to keep the reactors hot when they weren't being used, but the facilities themselves weren't properly maintained and often didn't work. Consequently, Alfa reactors were often running at all times, which they hadn't been designed for and which resulted in several expensive failures. While the reactors could remain active for 15 years, they also could never be refueled and were intended to be replaced at the end of their life, like a battery is; despite this, the Alfa hadn't been designed with quick reactor replacement in mind, so the process would have been expensive and slow, potentially more than refueling a traditional submarine. * The Triton one-off radar picket submarine. Intended to extend the radar range of sea-based air wings; it was the largest submarine produced at the time, with two nuclear reactors and a traditional "knife" submarine hull made it stable on the surface but severely impeded speed underwater. The radar picket role would become obsolete with the rise of carrier-based AWACS aircraft (the first, the E-1 Tracer, was already flying when the Triton launched), and the Triton ended its career as a conventional attack submarine. * The Seawolf-class submarine, which was the last Attack Submarine of the Cold War era, was designed to combat the advanced Akula-class and Typhoon-class submarines of the Soviet Navy. Cue the fall of the Soviet Union which led to the Seawolf becoming so unnecessary (and more importantly, expensive; in today's dollars they'd cost over $5 billion apiece, comparable to the cost of a new supercarrier) that only 3 out of an intended 29 of them were built. The class was an example of a costly political boondoggle, as Bill Clinton's promise to keep the program afloat in 1992 enabled him to carry the state of Connecticut (Electric Boat, the USA's submarine contractor, is a huge employer in the state) over New Englander Paul Tsongas in the Democratic primaries and ultimately become President. The Seawolf was succeeded by the Virginia-class attack submarine, which was a less capable blue-water sub, but less costly to build due to using commercial-off-the-shelf electronics and lower-grade material. * The German electronic industry of the 1930s was a pioneer of the radar and Kriegsmarine battleships had very advanced radar systems, more accurate than ever battleship guns when ranging a ship-sized target, yet none of them had a plotting grid or means to broadcast the radar data to the fire control directors, so each radar range had to be corrected by optics to get a firing solution. It had over 40,000 kilometres of electric wire and was very prone to shatter and vibration damage. Moreover its Unusual User Interface - the fire control officer fired the guns by blowing into a mouthpiece fitted with a pressure switch which closed the firing circuit instead of an ordinary pistol firing key - meant it was an embodiment of this trope. Pneumatics fare badly at sea, and the British estimated the German gunnery was efficient only for the first ten minutes, after which it deteriorated sharply. + As this article demonstrates, this was something of a persistent problem for the Kriegsmarine. The company that built the AA fire control system, for instance, bragged that only twelve employees (out of 20,000!) could assemble the damn thing. * The Italian Littorio-class battleships of World War II had greater firepower of anything that wasn't American or the Yamato (yes, even the famous Bismarck was badly outgunned by the Italian ships) with the longest-ranged guns of any battleship ever (and a piercing capability comparable to the much bigger 406mm-caliber guns of the American battleships and the 460mm guns of the Yamato), had an awesome point defense, were 30 knots fast (enough to qualify as fast battleships, and faster than most), and were awesomely armored. Also, the guns were tremendously inaccurate at the long range they were used at (not just due a lack of radar: they remained inaccurate even after the Italians managed to develop and install it, because one of the biggest issue lies with their ammunition: the quality is extremely uneven) and had short barrel life (due to the excessive velocity) and low rate of fire, the torpedo defense used an ineffective design more expensive than the conventional (it would have been superior to normal, had the right construction techniques been available and not been compromised by speed-optimized hullforms), and the combination of high speed and thick armor made them fuel hogs, with the fuel shortage suffered by Italy during the war forcing them to stay in harbor for most of the war. Note that this is the less impractical version: the ships had been originally built with bulbous bows for higher speeds but had been modified due to excessive vibrations, and the original design was supposed to use 406mm-caliber guns, but opted for smaller 381mm guns because they would have to be designed from the ground up while 381 designs to improve were already available. + Italian ships from the war in general: as Italian doctrine of the time was geared to fight the French Navy, ships other than battleships were built with high reliability, ludicrous speed and thin armour in mind, so that their light cruisers would chase down and sink enemy destroyers and lure enemy light cruisers towards where heavier firepower was available, their heavy cruisers would chase down enemy light cruisers and lure enemy heavy cruisers into the guns of the battleships (that would have been able to sink enemy battleships from range and avoid counterfire at smaller ranges thanks to superior speed), and their destroyers would simply avoid enemy battleship fire and torpedo them with impunity. While arguably effective against the intended opponent, the Italians never fought the French Navy - they fought the Royal Navy, whose more aggressive combat doctrine, combined with higher initiative allowed to British commanders, the presence of carriers, the British ability to consistently break Italian and German codes, and the usage of superior radars (which Italy lacked, having incorrectly figured radar was a passing fad) ended up causing Italian ships to fight with similar-sized opponents again and again, where speed was less a factor than thick armour. * Similar to the above, the Italian Zara-class cruisers were one of the finest cruiser designs of the second World War: A unique armor layout made them the best protected cruisers until the introduction of the Des Moines-class by the USN after the war, an innovative scheme of secondary weapon placement that made their anti-aircraft defenses extremely formidable, and saved weight meant they were only 2kts slower than the preceding Trento-class, whose Glass Cannon tendencies they were designed to address. Indeed, there were no better ships for their intended mission - zooming up and down the Italian coast defending it from French attack. In the Battles of Calabria and Cape Spartivento, they gave the British serious difficulty. However, all that weight reduction meant cutting down the superstructure, meaning it was very difficult to mount radar, which in turn meant the Regia Marina didn't bother (which did not even matter because, as mentioned above, Italy didn't even have access to radar technology when the ships were being designed). The folly of this decision was demonstrated at the midnight Battle of Cape Matapan: three (radar-equipped) British battleships, the Warspite, the Valiant, and the Queen Elizabeth, were able to close to within 3 kilometres of a flotilla of three Zaras - point-blank range in naval terms - and opened fire, illuminating the Italian ships with their searchlights (the Valiant's searchlights were commanded by Prince Phillip). Within minutes the Zaras were out of action. They had not even managed to fire a single shot in reply. * Meanwhile, the Imperial Japanese Navy's post-Washington Treaty light cruisers showed that they were all about this trope. While they pioneered the idea of circumventing the treaty by abusing its loophole of defining light cruisers only by gun caliber and building what were effectively heavy cruisers with light cruiser guns in huge numbers (the US Navy and Royal Navy promptly copied this idea, in the form of the respective Brooklyn- and Town-class cruisers, which were far more balanced) in the form of the Mogami class, they also insisted on using 6.1-inch (155mm) guns even though the IJN already had ships in service with 6-inch (152mm) guns of nearly identical capability to the new slightly larger guns. Why? Because they were so offended by their government agreeing to the treaty that they required that every treaty-compliant ship have the absolute maximum allowable capabilities - even when it resulted in complicating the fleet's logistics for no discernible gain. + The resulting Mogami class was supposed to come in under the treaty limit at 9,000 tons (treaty allowed for 10,000), but the resulting ship turned out to be badly flawed structurally (the hull buckled during the gunnery testing). The resulting fixes not only cost heaps of money, but wound up adding 4,000 extra tons to their displacements. The Japanese "solution" to the fact that their new cruisers now greatly exceeded the legal size limit was to simply lie about their displacement. * There are modern schools of thought that suggest the modern concept of the supercarrier (massive floating airfields with dozens or over a hundred aircraft and thousands of sailors and airmen) is, itself, awesome but impractical for the purposes of naval engagement. While they are powerful political tools and amazing resources for fighting asymmetrical wars (being essentially unreachable by "boots on the ground"), anti-ship missile technology has matured to the point where even relatively lower-tech countries can afford to just spam effective anti-ship missiles in such numbers that getting through to such a massive target is virtually certain. Additionally, supercarriers and their escort fleets can be easily spotted even from space by their massive wakes and by surface radar. + Basically, the theory goes that they're already outdated, and there just hasn't been a symmetrical naval war large enough to make this fact apparent. Not to mention the extreme expense that goes into building and operating what is effectively an entire floating city compared to more Boring, but Practical measures like simply basing aircraft out of ground-based airfields in friendly territory. + Much of this has always been true (and has been argued since before WWII), but the problem has been magnified by procurement decisions of the United States Navy over the last 50 years. Most specialized strike aircraft, anti-radar aircraft, anti-submarine aircraft, and everything else that isn't a COD or a helicopter have been folded into the Hornet and Super Hornet programs, sacrificing operating range in order to maintain the two aircraft as supersonic-capable air superiority fighters. The lack of long-range interdiction capability requires carriers to operate closer to land, and within anti-ship missile range. The problem will be magnified in the future, as fifth-generation stealth aircraft are expected to complete the vast majority of their missions on internal fuel, as to not compromise their stealth. A way around this is using drones, which can have over double the effective range of manned aircraft. This is why the Navy is now investing heavily in Northrop Grumman's X-47B, which is able to autonomously land and take off from carriers. + Conversely, proponents of the aircraft carrier argue that a sea denial network capable of doing all of the above qualifies for this trope as well. The arguments hinge around carriers being actually very hard to find when they don't want to be; satellites have known tracks, surface radar still needs to cover enormous swathes of ocean(Even with Super Hornets, searchers are staring at searching an area of sea bigger than Texas, and air-to-ground missiles and the longer-ranged F-35C stand to make the problem worse), and without the carrier and its escorts blaring out radio emissions there's no easy way to home in. The sheer array of assets the Soviets dedicated to the problem backs this up: hundreds of Backfire bombers, dozens of nuclear-powered guided missile submarines, surface ships, and reconnaissance aircraft, and a lot of big, sophisticated, and thus rather expensive missiles. - On the note of a sea denial network, much like the coastal forts mentioned in the general section, a sea denial network is a considerable investment, due to the need for all the aforementioned assets to hunt carriers and more to make it work, and like coastal forts it cannot project power beyond the coast of the region it's in. China in particular realized this, and while they are also continuing in building up their sea denial network, they are also working on aircraft carriers to aid their power projection. + Also, conversely, using a system of many smaller aircraft carriers rather than fewer super carriers, though a bright spark always seems to suggest it every few years. In theory, it's less expensive and you have a lot more ships that can be in different places at once. In practice, it's actually significantly more expensive, especially over time. See, building more ships with the same capability as fewer good ones is actually more expensive thanks to the Square-Cube Law making larger ships (to a point; see the section on the Yamatos for what happens when you push it too far) just more efficient in everything from combat capability to operating costs. And in a quantity over quality model, build quality is always going to be sacrificed at some point to try to compensate the previous law. This in turn causes the ships to wear out and or become obsolete faster and thus need replacement more often. If you want to be in a lot of places at once, that's what your destroyers and frigates are for. And as for the whole "put your eggs in more baskets" argument, most modern navies haven't fought another navy since the second World War and if two that could realistically sink aircraft carriers went to war, how a conventional naval war would actually turn out would be the least of everyone's concerns. * The submarine itself was like this for many years. It was slow and often more dangerous to its operator than to an enemy ship - the first successful sinking of a surface warship (the USS Housatonic) by a submarine (the H. L. Hunley, armed with a spar torpedo), during The American Civil War, was followed soon after by the third sinking of that same submarine in only half a year since its completion. Germany - ironically the last Great Power to build a submarine - was able to demonstrate its capabilities once and for all when, in the opening weeks of World War I, a single U-boat sank three British cruisers in under an hour. Having a submarine with 24 men take down three cruisers and 1500 enemy sailors proved hard to resist, and the Germans quickly capitalized on their success... only to ultimately use that weapon in such a way that it neither weakened Britain in any significant extent (which, given that Britain is both an island nation and a net importer of food could have been devastating if enough transports had been disrupted) nor did them much good in the diplomatic arena, and ultimately brought the US into the war. * The US Navy's Zumwalt-class destroyer. It was optimized to provide coastal bombardment from over the horizon – and out of range of shore-based anti-ship missiles – as part of an emphasis on building littoral capability for a US Navy that had otherwise focused on oceanic combat. To accomplish this role, it was equipped with an Advanced Gun System, which would be cheaper than missiles, and a tumblehome hull to maximize radar stealth. Unfortunately, this all came at cost to its combat capabilities in other areas, especially compared to the Arleigh Burke destroyer. Despite its larger size, the Zumwalt's tumblehome hull means that it carries fewer missile cells than the Burke. Its radar system and anti-submarine suites are optimized for littoral tasks but are less capable for blue-water operations, reducing their strategic capabilities. Yet most crucially, its fire support role was rendered obsolete by the advent of longer-ranged coastal defenses. Even its AGS became useless as the long-range guided projectile the AGS was designed to fire got cancelled due to ballooning costs making them just as expensive as the missiles they were supposed to replace. Worse, the AGS is so specialized around those long-range guided projectiles that it can't use conventional NATO-standard 155mm artillery shells. Altering the guns to fire such readily available shells was deemed too expensive to be worthwhile, and thus ships hyper-specialized for gunfire support no longer have guns that actually work at all. Seemingly the only reason, aside from the Sunk Cost Fallacy, that the US Navy keeps these white elephants in service at all instead of cutting their losses and getting back the scrap metal value is that their engines can produce a lot more electrical power than other destroyers and cruisers. The Navy hopes that this will allow the now-useless AGS to eventually be replaced with large railguns. * Conceived in a post-Cold War environment, the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program was intended for the US Navy to produce smaller ships that would solve the Navy's deficiency in asymmetric costal combat, resulting in the Freedom and Independence-class ships. Each LCS vessel has many features to provide top-tier combat for lower costs like stealth abilities, automated systems to reduce crew size and swappable modular packages that could reconfigure each ship for any role on a short-notice. However, the LCS fell victim to feature creep that resulted in cost overruns and technical problems. Many modular packages like the unmanned de-mining and anti-submarine suites were unreliable and altogether costed over $7 billion, leading to the Navy abandoning the system. Likewise, the automation system proved inadequate for long-term operations, resulting in an overworked and understaffed crew. Additional trials showed numerous design problems in each ship like the Freedom having problematic engines and the Independence having cracking hulls. The decision to pick both ship classes instead of just one created a logistic crisis as they couldn't share the same parts or crew training. In hindsight, LCS was too costly and complicated for a specialized role that could've been filled by a cheaper, more proven design like the Visby-class corvettes. * India's new aircraft carrier Vikrant is an impressive technical accomplishment for the Indian shipbuilding industry, particularly her deck-edge elevators, one of the most daunting naval architecture challenges around. At the same time, she is also badly limited by her design choices, particularly her small elevators. Reportedly 10 meters x 14 meters, while the elevators were the right size for the ship's MiG-29K fighters, they're too small for larger, newer planes like the French Rafale or American Super Hornet. Worse, the small elevators limit the size of future fighters, with the Indians forced to expend effort on a completely new fighter design just for their new carrier. * The famed Bismarck-class battleships (Bismarck and her sister Tirpitz) were powerful ships, and nominally larger than a majority of their opposition, but suffered heavily from being built in a country that had been prohibited by treaty from building a substantial navy for decades, meaning they were terribly inefficient for their power. However, their biggest flaw was in their intended use. The Germans hoped to use them primarily as merchant raiders, not to engage the Royal Navy directly, ideally being fast enough to hunt down the merchants and large enough to fight off any escort they may have (which, to be fair, often included battleships which could easily curbstomp any raiding cruiser, but which Bismarck could potentially deal with), but this would have meant regular long sorties for both battleships with no guarantee of finding targets (a massive drain on Germany's already limited fuel and crew supplies), and if a convoy proved particularly feisty, the battleships could expect long periods in French drydocks (well, drydock, singular, as France only had the one drydock big enough to fit a Bismarck- meaning that if both were damaged, one would be outta luck) well within reach of British bomber planes. And the one time they actually tried to send a battleship out commerce raiding, the operation quickly went Off the Rails and no convoys were ever spotted, much less attacked; Bismarck was chased down by the Royal Navy and sunk, while her companion Prinz Eugen got away due to the RN being dead set on Bismarck but suffered equipment failures shortly afterwards (Admiral Hipper-class cruisers were also inefficient and overcomplicated things as a result of German military shipwrights being over a decade out of practice, and their machinery was very finicky as a result) and had to return to France empty-handed. * Multi-turreted tanks, a major fad of the 1920s and early 30s which turned out to be a dead end. They were most popular with the British and the Soviets, but almost everybody was trying to get in on it at one time or another. + One of the problems of interwar tank development was how to arm a tank to deal with various types of opposition such as infantry, tanks, aircraft, and fortifications, and engage multiple targets in various directions. The idea of the tank was still new enough that the answer wasn't yet obvious, and what a lot of people did was look for analogy with warships. This makes sense when you consider how ironclad warships had preceded the tank by decades, and the fact that Britain's tanks had originally been developed by the Landships Committee under the auspices of the navy, hence the use of naval terminology for tank parts such as "hull", "bow", "deck", "hatch", etc. There were thinkers such as J.F.C. Fuller who believed that battles between tanks would be like battles on the seas, complete with different speed and weight classes such as "cruiser tanks" and "battleship tanks", as well as "harbors" on land to which they would return for resupply. Just as battleships required big guns to punch through heavily armored warships at long distance, smaller, quick-firing guns to hit fast-moving torpedo boats, and automatic cannons to shoot down aircraft, the thinking was that a tank needed multiple types of armament that could all be targeted independently. Needless to say, in reality the battles were nothing like that, and all these designs quickly fell out of favour and were replaced by more practical ones. The idea of a tank with guns pointing everywhere may have seemed neat and effective, but the difficulty a commander faced in coordinating all the guns, the increased crew requirement to man each gun, problems in ammunition management and supply for varying calibres of weapons, increased weight, effect on armor layout, and the complexity and cost that multiple turrets and sponsons added to production led to the idea falling out of fashion by the second half of the 1930s. + The Vickers A1E1 Independent, a single prototype ordered in 1924 and delivered in 1926, was the design that started the multi-turreted dreadnought fad. It was very long in order to cross wide trenches, and had four machine gun turrets surrounding a main turret with a three-pounder gun. One machine gun turret could point its weapon straight upwards for anti-aircraft use. The penny-pinching government refused to pay for a production run, but various countries around the world were inspired to copy it. Both Germany and Russia obtained the plans through espionage, and a British officer named Norman Baillie-Stewart was court-martialed in 1933 for selling its plans to Germany. + The Soviet T-28 tank was probably based on the British A1E1 Independent, and also somewhat resembled the Mark III Medium: three turrets, one cannon, and up to five machine guns. It was more advanced than anything else when introduced in 1931, but it didn't age well and the Soviets kept it in service beyond its effective life. The advancement of anti-tank guns rendered it poorly armored in proportion to the large target it presented, and its tracks were so long in relation to the distance between them that maneuvering in anything other than a straight line was very difficult. Finnish troops captured seven of these beasts during the war, giving them the nickname Postivaunu (Stagecoach). + The Soviet T-35 heavy tank deserves special mention here, being something of an Independent on steroids and the only five-turreted tank in history to enter serial production; it weighed 45 tonnes and took 11 crew members to operate, carrying a 76.2 mm gun, two 45 mm guns, and six machine guns. It was also slow, very poorly armored for such a heavy vehicle, and incredibly expensive and complicated to produce; only 61 were built, of which 48 were on hand when the Germans invaded. The excessive length made it difficult to turn, and it was top-heavy enough to make tipping over a potential danger. It wasn't an unreliable vehicle per se, but the Soviets drove them hundreds of kilometers without maintenance in their haste to stop the Germans, causing more losses from mechanical issues than from combat. Worst of all, the T-35's turrets, when aligned a certain way, actually blocked the escape hatches. So, if the tank was hit, the poor bugger crewing it had to hand-crank his turret out the way before he could bail out - or, if the turret was damaged and unable to rotate, presumably use his sidearm to shoot himself rather than burn to death. + The T-100 and SMK were competing prototypes, produced in 1939 by Factory 185 and the Kirov Works, respectively. They were supposed to replace the T-35 with something simpler, more reliable, and more heavily armored; the original request was for a central 76.2 mm main turret raised on a pedestal, and two 45 mm secondary turrets fore and aft, but the aft turret was deleted from the design before construction. An apocryphal story tells of Stalin snapping the third turret off a wooden model, exclaiming, “We are designing a tank, not a department store!” The two tanks looked similar, but the SMK was marginally better at 55 tonnes instead of 58, using torsion bars instead of coil springs, and most other components differing as well. The SMK's namesake was Sergey Mironovich Kirov, an assassinated chairman of the Communist Party. The Kirov team had actually been dissatisfied with the multi tier layout to begin with, and simultaneously produced a single-turret version, the Kliment Voroshilov, which despite its own problems outperformed both of the problematic multi-turreted tanks in trials. All three prototypes were sent to be tested in battle with the 20th Heavy Tank Brigade against the fortified defenses on the Karelian Isthmus, Finland; despite the SMK bouncing at least a dozen shots of 37 mm, one jammed the overly exposed main turret ring, and while preoccupied with this problem the tank drove over an anti-tank mine, wrecking the running gear and forcing it to be abandoned. The KV with its single turret would be the only one of them to get produced. + In 1926, while Weimar Germany was secretly experimenting with tanks in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, they ordered several companies to produce prototypes for a heavy tank, called Großtraktor ("large tractor") to conceal its real purpose. This had the main gun turret in front, and a lower-slung machine gun turret on the rear. From 1929 these were tested at the proving grounds in Kazan, USSR which the Reichswehr was using in cooperation with the Red Army at the time. They had many mechanical problems, including the transmission, and ended up as monuments or practice targets. + Picking up where the Reichswehr had left off with the Großtraktor, the Nazis ordered the Neubaufahrzeug ("new construction vehicle"). In 1934 they produced two prototypes in mild steel, and then three with proper armor in 1935-6. There were two machine gun turrets borrowed from the Panzer I, the first mounted front right, the other rear left. Between them was the elevated main turret, a Krupp design whose appearance would be echoed on the latter Panzer IV, with a short-barreled 75 mm main gun and a coaxial 37 mm. On one hand this was a lot of firepower on paper, and they looked pretty cool. On the other hand they were slow, complex, unreliable, short on operational range, and protected by no more than 20 mm of armor. Development of the Neubaufahrzeug was stopped in favor of the more mobile and all-around better Panzer IV. As a result they became propaganda vehicles, being shown off in the 1939 Berlin International Auto Exposition. In 1940 the three armored ones were sent to help in the invasion of Norway, mainly by trying to trick the enemy into thinking they had real heavy tanks. They had a lot of mechanical problems that kept them from seeing much action, the exception being one which was penetrated by a Boys anti tank rifle and was subsequently blown up by its crew. + The British A15 Crusader had a front-mounted machine gun turret which, despite having a wider field of fire than a hull-mounted machine gun, was both an uncomfortable position to man and an easy weak point for an enemy soldier with an Anti-Tank rifle. It was left empty and eventually deleted in the Mark 3 variant. The Cruiser, Mark I (A9) had two machine gun turrets on the front, which weakened the frontal protection and were unbearably hot to crew during the North Africa campaign. + The Vickers 6-Ton light tank, designed in 1928 and also known as the Mark E, showed the world that even light tanks could get in on the multi-turret action. The Type A had two side-by-side one-man turrets, each with a water-cooled machine gun, so they could spray the enemy in two directions at once. Of course, this made it useless against anything except infantry. The type B with a single two-man turret introduced the important innovation of a “duplex” mount combining a proper tank gun with a coaxial machine gun, meaning it had more firepower than the type A and thus became markedly more popular. + The American M2A2 light tank accepted in 1935 looked similar to the Vickers 6-Ton type A: it had twin turrets, one with a .50 cal machine gun and one with a .30 cal. The two side-by-side turrets limited each other's field of fire, and like most countries the U.S. concluded from the Spanish Civil War that a tank armed only with machine guns was useless against other tanks. The M2A2 and its slightly upgraded A3 version were superseded by the stopgap M2A4 in 1940, with improvements including more armor and one turret mounting a 37 mm main gun. + The M3 Lee Medium Tank was developed as a stopgap so the U.S. would have a medium tank with a 75 mm gun while they waited for the M4 Sherman to arrive; this meant putting the 75 in a limited traverse sponson in the hull. Ordinance Department head Gladeon Barnes wanted it to be a turretless tank, but the Infantry arm which still held sway demanded that the 37 mm in a turret also be retained because of its ability to fire canister shot. So in addition to the hull 75 there was also a turret with the 37... and on top of the turret was a rotating commander's cupola with a .30 cal machine gun that he could fire. Basically, a mini superimposed turret. The machine gun cupola was replaced with a simple hatch in the M3 Grant variant made for the British, because by this time even they realized it was silly. * Overlapping somewhat with the multi-turret dead end was the idea of tanks with loads of machine guns. Since tanks were mostly controlled by the infantry arm in most countries during the interwar period, they wanted tanks that could kill a lot of enemy infantry. The United States in particular had what Harry Yeide has called the "cult of the machine gun". The M2 Medium tank had a turret with a 37 mm gun in case it had to fight an enemy tank, but primarily it was designed to be a mobile machine gun nest. It had nine .30 cal machine guns: one coaxial, two fixed-traverse machine guns in the glacis to be fired electronically by the driver, one sponson mounted MG on each of the hull's four corners, and two more stuck on the outside of the turret as spares. As the tank drove over an enemy trench, the rear sponson machine guns could aim at bullet deflectors on the rear fenders to ricochet the rounds down into the trench. The tank started production in 1939, just in time for World War 2 to begin in Europe and show that it was already obsolete. Trench warfare was gone, it was really inefficient to have four out of six crew members just be machine gunners, and a 37 mm was no longer adequate for the anti-tank role. The Army also determined from tests that a 75 mm high explosive shell was actually more effective against infantry than machine guns, so they experimented with putting a 75 in the hull of the M2 as a prelude to producing the M3 Lee. Equipping the 75 was a step in the right direction, but the M3 Lee and some very early M4 Shermans retained the glacis-mounted driver's machine guns as a last gasp of machine gun fever. * Throughout World War II, having a hull-mounted machine gun with its own gunner (usually doubling as an assistant driver/radio operator) in addition to the coaxial machine gun on the turret was viewed as a necessity. If an enemy foot soldier happened to pop up in the front arc of the tank with a Panzerfaust or some such, the bow gunner could react quicker. He could potentially shoot more accurately on the move—if not with pinpoint accuracy, then at least suppressively—because turret gun stabilization was either non-existent or imperfect, while the BOG could somewhat compensate for the bumps by moving the gun up and down with his body. On the other hand, the weak point created by drilling a hole in the front armor to stick a machine gun through was increasingly dangerous as tanks got more powerful guns, and by removing the machine gunner's position it would be possible to either add much-needed ammo racks for the larger shells that tanks were now using, or move the driver to a more optimal central position and give the hull front a glancing "beaked" shape. By the end of the Korean War, the improvement of turret gun stabilization and the benefits to be gained by deleting the bow gun caused it to finally disappear. * Electric transmission on heavy armored vehicles, which has been tried in various prototypes and production vehicles since World War I. In theory it could avoid the reliability problems of a mechanical gearbox, respond better to the fluctuating torque requirements of a tracked vehicle driving off-road, enable neutral steering in the days before that was a standard feature, allow the vehicle to drive as fast in reverse as it did forwards, and accelerate quickly. On the other hand, electric tank drive has tended to be bulkier and heavier than the mechanical equivalent because of the need for both combustion engines and generators to supply the motors with electricity, and many vehicles with this system were underpowered or had overheating problems. The quantities of copper required were also problematic during World War II. Today's vehicles could ditch the internal combustion or turbine engine and be purely battery-electric, which would also lower their noise and heat signatures, but even lithium ion batteries are still expensive, heavy, and slow to charge. An electric powertrain requires specialist electricians to repair instead of your normal AFV mechanic. And furthermore, some of the extra abilities aren't really practical to use: driving in reverse at 60 kilometers per hour would be potentially dangerous and in almost every case quite pointless. Because they've been through decades of refinement, diesel engines and mechanical transmissions for tanks have reached such a level of efficiency that electric can't get enough of a performance edge to justify the bother. * Military turbine-powered road vehicles have dubious practicality. The only two nations to field a fully turbine-powered vehicle were the US and USSR (notice the pattern?), and the Soviets canned their turbine-powered tank, the T-80, as soon as the end of the Cold War happened, because they couldn't pour money into their fuel tanks anymore: one T-80, including building, maintenance, and fuel expenditure, was equivalent to three T-72 or T-90. A common joke has it that the Americans are only keeping a turbine-powered tank because of their habit to solve any problem by drowning it in money. On the other hand, the turbine engine does have the benefit of being capable of consuming multiple fuel types (a boon when capturing fuel caches), and the ridiculous fuel consumption was partly addressed with a suitable auxiliary power unit to keep the communication equipment running without the turbine. Finally, due to the immense heat being dumped by the turbine, infantry can not sit on top of the tank or work as close support due to the incredible temperatures, which was the push that finally encouraged development of a multi-fuel diesel engine variant of the tank. * Heavily-sloped side hull armor, as like most famously done on the T-34 medium tank of WWII fame. While sloping side hull armor also offers increased protection compared to non-sloped side hull armor, doing this plays merry hell with a tank's internal volume. The crew gets less space, there is less space for roof hatches (making the tank difficult to escape should something unexpected happen), limit the size of turret rings (which makes upgrading the tank more difficult, because this also limits the size of the turret that can be put on it), and all of this for less benefit as tanks normally face incoming fire from the front (if a tank gets hit from the sides/rear, it's usually an ambush and no amount of sloping can help in this case). Unsurprisingly, the next Soviet medium tank/main battle tank, the T-54/T-55, ditched the T-34's side-sloping. * The Soviet KV-1 heavy tank, named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov. It was created as a single-turreted version of the SMK multi-turreted tank, and was the more successful of the two during test-fielding in the Winter War, leading to it being accepted for serial production. It was so heavily armored that it was practically immune to the common Finnish and German anti-tank guns of 1939-1941, while the 76.2mm ZiS-5 gun that it had was able to punch through the armor of early German tanks from a thousand meters away. However, KV-1s, weighing 45 tons, are too heavy for most bridges to support and had no ability to ford rivers, severely limiting their mobility. In addition, it was slow, expensive to produce, and very prone to mechanical issues due to being a heavy tank the size of the Panther but using components and machinery that were used in pre-war medium tanks. Out of the 600 KVs the Soviets had at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, 200 broke down without ever seeing the enemy, and another 200 were incapacitated by non-penetrating hits. Other variants of the KV-1 were just as impractical: + The KV-2 version was created in response to the Red Army's difficulties with the Finns' fortified Mannerheim line, and the problems plaguing the KV-1 went from bad to worse as a result. In order to equip the huge bunker-busting 152 mm howitzer so that it would have 360 degrees of rotation, the Soviets built a very tall turret for it, increasing the tank's overall height to 4.9 m (16 ft)! Unfortunately, this turret was a giant, impossible-to-conceal target, so to protect the unfortunate crewmembers who have to operate the massive gun, the Soviets made the turret armor a whopping 110 mm thick on the front and 75 mm on the sides, hoping to compensate for its huge profile and lack of sloping. Unfortunately, this made the turret so heavy that the traverse motors couldn't turn it against gravity. As a result, the tank couldn't operate at even a slight angle, or the turret would seize, and on a more pronounced lateral slope the top-heavy turret put the whole tank in danger of toppling over. The extra weight added to the tank further reduced reliability, and the recoil of the gun was so powerful it could damage the turret ring, gearbox, or engine. Ultimately, the Soviets stopped producing the KV-2 due to how poor their combat performance was, and focused their efforts in putting a (newer, more accurate) 152mm howitzer in a casemated superstructure, resulting in the far more effective and successful SU-152. + The KV-1S—the S stood for Skorostnoy, meaning "fast"—was an attempt to correct the mobility problems of the KV-1. Armor was reduced to save weight; the old turret was replaced by a new low-profile cast turret with a commander's cupola and proper protection for the turret ring; and a new planetary transmission was used to improve reliability and replace the old clutch-and-brake steering. Production began in August 1942, then stopped in late 1943 because they realized they'd gotten the tradeoffs all wrong: a slight increase in speed wasn't worth sacrificing armor—the only advantage that the KV had over the T-34, especially considering the cost—when what the Soviets really needed was a tougher and more powerfully armed heavy tank to deal with increasingly gnarly German guns and tanks. The remaining tanks were upgraded to the KV-85, which was just a KV-1S with a more powerful 85mm gun. This was merely intended as a stopgap until the more powerful IS-2 was ready. * Despite being the icon of Boring, but Practical for their army, even the famous Soviet T-34 medium tank qualified as this in the first months of the war with Germany. The original version was a well-balanced tank with good mobility courtesy of its powerful diesel engine, Christie suspension and wide tracks, in addition to good protection from its 40-45 mm of sloped armor on all sides, and a 76.2mm gun whose firepower easily outclassed what the Germans had at that time; the tank was a nasty shock to German vanguard forces during the summer of 1941 in the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. However, all was not rosy for the T-34; its crew ergonomics were awful (the original version had a cramped two-man turret without a cupola which negatively affected the commander's situational awareness, and his vision was also similarly bad because the tank's large front-hinging turret roof hatch blocked the front view when opened and was impossible to see around, save for using a traversable periscope), production quality varied widely (due to the German invasion punching deep into the USSR until they were within range of T-34 production facilities- factory No.112, for example, was notorious for shoddy quality on their T-34s) which negatively affected reliability, and crews were often hastily trained if at all (to the point that sometimes the crew would be those who built the tank in question themselves, since they at least already know how the tank works). Fortunately, things started to look up once the Germans were held off and eventually kicked out of the USSR, with the T-34's early reliability and ergonomics kinks being worked out slowly and the tank itself receiving upgrades, before 1943 introduced a comprehensive upgrade in the form of the T-34-85, which had a cast 3-man turret with a 85mm gun. * The A7V was the first and only German-made tank to see combat during World War I. the tank looked like a huge metal box, and could reach higher speeds than the British Mark IV, in addition to being heavily armed with a 57mm cannon and up to six machine guns, and also having more armor than the British Mark IV tanks. Unfortunately for the Germans, they only managed to make 20 out of a planned 100, the armor was not hardened (so despite being thicker than the Mark IV it was only immune to machine gun fire), and it required 18 crew per vehicle- far more than the British Mark IV that only required 8. Unsurprisingly, most of the time Imperial Germany relied on captured Mark IV tanks instead. * The German army fielded some of the most dangerous and terrifying tanks during WWII. However due to a mix of needlessly complicated design, poor reliability, and low production numbers, these tanks were considered to be failures. To wit: + The Panzerkampfwagen VI heavy tank, aka the Tiger I was arguably the most (in)famous tank of t, the war, featuring thick armor (100mm at the front and 80mm on the sides and rear) almost impervious to the guns that its opponents can reasonably bring to bear (at the time) at a distance of 1000m or more, while the 88mm KwK 36 L/56 gun (a derivative of the famous 88mm Flak 36) was able to penetrate them from 1500m away. In addition, it was by no means slow especially for a tank that weighed 57 tons. The Tiger I soon gained a fearsome reputation, to the point that Allied crews would often misidentify the much-more-common Panzer IV as Tigers and automatically assume a Tiger was the culprit whenever one of their armored vehicles blew up/took a hit. However, the Tiger was also something of a white elephant: it was difficult (and expensive) to manufacture, difficult to transport, and very difficult to maintain. It broke down often, and would not go very far before requiring a full overhaul, which meant having to send it back (often by rail) to the factory that built it, something which takes a lot of time and takes it out of combat readiness. It was also too heavy to cross most bridges, the initial ability to snorkel through rivers was left out of later models to reduce production time, and it was difficult to recover if knocked out. + The Panzerkampfwagen V Panther tank was the Germans' next generation successor to the Panzer III and IV, intended to give the Germans a standardized tank that nevertheless stood well against Soviet armor such as the T-34. On paper it looks like the best fighting tank in the war: it had better mobility, frontal armor, and gun performance against tanks than the Tiger I, yet it was far cheaper and produced in quantity second only to that of the Panzer IV. On the other hand, it's L/70 gun had a weaker HE shell than the L/48 gun used by the Panzer IV due to it being specialized for long-range open terrain anti-tank combat, and it was rushed into service which meant that, like the Tiger, it was infamous for breaking down all the time and would require frequent overhauls; most infamously, the final drive was so fragile even neutral-steering/pivot-steering would run a high risk of breaking it. Most of the technical issues were more or less fixed eventually (apart from the final drive that remained a problem until the end of the war), but by then it was too late: fuel shortages, lack of alloys for good armor and components, lack of spare parts, and insufficiently trained crews reduced their combat effectiveness so much it hardly mattered how good the design was. The French army used Panthers after the war and managed to operate them somewhat more effectively, yet noted their inherent problems in a comprehensive report. + The Panzerjäger Tiger (P), nicknamed the "Elefant", or "Ferdinand" (earlier versions; after the designer Ferdinand Porsche) was a tank destroyer made from hulls of Porsche's failed design for the competition that would eventually birth the aforementioned Tiger 1; because Ferdinand Porsche had built 91 hulls of this design, it was decided that, rather than scrapping them, they would be used as the basis for a new tank destroyer with a casemated 88mm PaK 43 anti-tank gun as its armament. The resulting tank destroyer was all but impervious from enemy guns at longer ranges due to its thick mantlet and frontal armor, while the 88mm PaK 43 could perforate Allied tanks at similar ranges. However, much like the other Tiger, the Ferdinand/Elefant suffered from severe mechanical issues, such as the engine being so overburdened that there were reports that just driving up a gentle slope on a hill would set the engine on fire. In addition, due to its immense weight of 65 tonnes, Germany's Panzer-IV based armored recovery vehicles could not tow a single Ferdinand by their lonesome- there had to be at least three to four just to tow one Ferdinand/Elefant. Ultimately, the Ferdinand/Elefant suffered more losses due to being abandoned/destroyed/disabled by their own crew than they did to enemy fire. + The Tiger II was the bigger, badder sequel to the already big and bad Tiger I, intended to replace the previous stopgap with something designed from the ground up for heavy tank supremacy. Improvements included simplified suspension, thicker, sloped armor, and the long-barreled 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71 cannon, which was derived from the Pak 43 used in the Ferdinand and thus became the most powerful gun ever mounted in a revolving turret on an operational World War II tank. It could perforate Allied tanks from up to 3km away, and there is no record of a Tiger II ever having been perforated through the front during the war. However, the Tiger II had some serious performance issues. Because of production limitations due to the Allied bombing campaign targeting German industry, the Tiger II's initial drivetrain was from a tank twenty tons lighter, resulting in frequent cases of broken transmissions and destroyed engines. It required 300,000 man-hours to build, cost as much as two Tiger I tanks or nine M4 Shermans, and guzzled large amounts of fuel which the Third Reich was dangerously short on. The sheer mass of the vehicle, at 70 tonnes, also rendered them horribly difficult to recover if something goes wrong (such as falling off bridges or getting stuck in too-deep mud). More Tiger II's were rendered unrecoverable due to mechanical failure and getting stuck in terrain than those that were destroyed. When they were destroyed, it was usually due to being in terrain "lesser tanks" had an easier time negotiating and liberal use of the air superiority that the Allies so enjoyed at that point of the war. + Related to the Tiger II 71.7 tonne Jagdtiger, the heaviest enclosed armored vehicle to see service in the war, which was essentially a Tiger II with a gigantic 128mm Pak 44 gun mounted in a fixed casemate instead of a turret. On one hand, its frontal armor was nigh impenetrable at up to 250 mm thick, while its large-calibre gun could be accurate out to about 3.5 km away and was guaranteed to destroy any kind of Allied tank it hit (in one case recorded by famed German tank ace Otto Carius, a Jagdtiger shell blew through all the walls of a house and destroyed an American tank that was behind it). On the other hand, its engine was not powerful enough for such a heavy vehicle, resulting in the Jagdtiger being slow, a fuel-guzzler, and prone to mechanical breakdowns, making it heavily dependent on the German rail transport system to get anywhere, a transport system that by this time was increasingly disabled by Allied air attacks. The gun was so powerful as to be overkill in almost any situation, and the ammo was so massive that the projectile and propellant charge had to be loaded separately, resulting in a horribly slow rate of fire. The gun could only be moved 10° to the left and the right each on account of the casemate, and while the Jagdtiger could neutral-steer, turning a 70-ton armored vehicle often broke down the running gear at an inopportune moment. In addition, by the point it was available, Allied air superiority made it very risky to use, and well-trained and/or skilled German vehicle crews were in severe shortage. + The Germans also built the Sturmmörser Tiger or Sturmtiger, consisting of a heavily armored casemate installed on a Tiger I surplus hull and armed with a colossal 38cm rocket mortar for destroying buildings. Oddly enough, this rocket mortar had originally been developed by the Kriegsmarine as a coastal antisubmarine weapon. First a normal charge would lob the round out of the barrel, and then once it was clear of the vehicle the round's rocket propulsion would fire. The huge 350 kg/770 lbs. projectile was capable of crashing through about eight feet of concrete and blasting most hardened defenses to rubble. There is also an unconfirmed report of a single one of these shells taking out three M4 Shermans near Duren and Euskirchen during the Battle of Remagen. A company of Sturmtigers saw action in the Warsaw Uprising: the unit commander reported that the 38cm rocketgun was extremely effective. So effective, in fact, that the Sturmtiger risked damaging friendly forces or even itself if either got too close to the projectile's roughly 500 meter blast. The circumstances of urban combat were forcing them to use one Assault Mortar at a time in the direct fire role, using a naval antitank sight to aim down city streets. Apart from the risk of collateral damage, there was also the problem that the massive blast of the mortar shell usually had the effect of replacing an impassable enemy fortification with an equally impassable chaos of rubble and craters, which sucked for the troops who actually had to follow through. Finally, they were at the end of the day Tigers with the expected maintenance and fuel requirements, more so because they were eight tonnes heavier. * The famous German half-tracks for used for supply and as infantry armored cars all used the same Schachtellaufwerk type of chassis and track, only scaled up or down to their respective size. Unlike tank tracks, which were classic links held together by pins, in Schachtellaufwerk tracks designed to allow high road speeds all track links were fitted on needle bearings with individual sealing and lubrication. That makes a few hundred lubricated bearings for each vehicle, with expected costs and hardship of maintainence. And all for no useful purpose, since there were strict orders to drive them at lesser speeds than possible anyway. The interleaving and overlapping wheels were also a big maintenance issue, namely that mechanics would have to disassemble the running gear assembly just to replace one wheel. * The Einheits-PKW concept of the Wehrmacht preceded the development of the Volkswagen Type 81 Kubelwagen. Standardized passenger cars in three classes (light, medium, and heavy) were designed for versatility and good off-road handling. The problem with this was that the cars made in this program were horribly complex and overweight for their engine-power, making them fuel-inefficient and occupant unfriendly (especially off-road). Many design details like 4-wheel steering on the light and heavy cars and mid-chassis spare tires as rough-ground buffering gave mechanics a nightmare. * The early Cold War saw the final development of the heavy tank concept. The Soviets, who had started the Iosif Stalin heavy tank series to counter the German Tigers and Panthers, continued making new IS models to keep ahead of its postwar Western rivals. Meanwhile, the US and allies such as Britain and France created their own heavy tank programs to counter the IS-3. Gigantic guns meant to kill enemy tanks at extremely long range were combined with thick steel armor, so they could perform over-watch support for the lighter tanks and take out the opponent's heavies. There were several problems with them, however: weight was increasing to the point where the powertrain technology of the time couldn't keep up, causing low speed, fuel economy, and reliability; the size of the shells they fired reduced the number of rounds they could carry and required two-piece loading, hence a slow rate of fire; and their size made them slow and difficult to transport to the combat zone, or to recover if knocked out. By the 1960s they were obsolete in the face of improved High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) rounds and Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs) which no practical thickness of homogeneous steel armor could protect against, and against which they were sitting ducks with their low speeds and large profiles. Indeed, there was little need for a heavy tank's oversized gun when an ATGM could kill any enemy tank at long range just as well, and at a lower cost. The heavies were rare and extensive, yet still just as likely to be taken out by mines, tank destroyers, artillery, and aircraft. Therefore they were abandoned while all focus went to developing balanced and increasingly capable Main Battle Tanks such as the Chieftain, M60, and T-64. + The IS-3 used the same giant 122 mm D-25 gun as the IS-2, which had terrorized the Germans in the Great Patriotic War. It also incorporated a new "pike" nose with compound sloping which made the upper glacis almost impenetrable, and a turret shaped like an upside-down soup bowl which was more protective and presented a lower profile.. However, the IS-3 wasn't as great as it looked. The low turret may have been protective, but it also reduced gun depression and headroom for the crew, especially the loader. Neither the gun nor its rudimentary fire control were precise at long range. Its two-piece ammunition was unwieldly, meaning that just 2-3 shots per minute were possible and only 28 rounds could be stored. Furthermore, it was built during (late) wartime production, so production quality was shoddy and there was a tendency for hull welds and turret castings to crack, which is why production was ended in 1946 at 2,311 units. Engine, transmission, and running gear breakdowns were also frequent. IS-3s were being constantly rebuilt afterwards to correct these issues, not only costing a lot of money but also reducing the amount ready-for-action at any given time. + The IS-4 was also derived from the IS-2, but at 53 tonnes it was more massive than both IS-2 and IS-3. It had a turret similar to the IS-2, but lengthened the hull and had heavier armor with a sloped glacis. By the time it entered production in 1946 it was overweight and less advanced than the IS-3, so less than 250 were made. + The IS-7 was a magnificent beast, the heaviest of the IS tanks at 68 tonnes and a technological marvel of its time. It had very heavy and well-angled armor, proof even against its own gun and the German 128 mm, yet also a 1050 HP diesel engine and 8-speed planetary gearbox that enabled a fantastic road speed of 60 km/hr (33mph). Besides an even bigger 130 mm gun it had infrared scopes and an automatic loading assistance device which enabled up to 6-8 rounds per minute. However, the gun had to be return to a neutral position for this device to work, and that rate of fire didn't account for the fact that the device itself had to be reloaded. The tank also had a silly armament of eight machine guns. This included two KVT heavy machine guns—one coaxial and one pintle mounted on the roof that could be remote controlled—and six 7.62 mm SGS-43 machine guns: two coaxial, two fixed forward-firing ones on the hull, and two fixed backwards-firing ones on the turret. Nick Moran reckons it could have stood to lose five of them. Alas, it was expensive and difficult to produce, and the weight made it impractical to transport by rail. It would have been an incredible breakthrough tank but good for nothing else; larger numbers of medium tanks and the less massive T-10 were considered more appropriate for doctrine. Only 7 prototypes were made and it was rejected for production. + The T-10 was produced beginning in 1953; it was originally going to be called the IS-10, but got renamed after the death of Stalin. It was essentially an improved IS-3 with a new, longer 122 mm gun with fume extractor, larger turret, improved engine, and tougher armor. However the T-54/55 and T-62 tanks already had comparable firepower and armor while being more flexible. As the T-64 tank, which outclassed it in firepower, armor and mobility, became available in significant numbers, T-10 production was stopped in 1966 and all further heavy tank projects were cancelled. + The last Western heavy tanks, the American M103 and British Conqueror, both used the tremendously powerful 120mm M58 rifled gun. This was supposed to allow them to out-range the gun of the IS-3, and defeat its armor at a distance where the IS-3 couldn't hit or perforate them in return. Both were impressive in their own way, but there were problems. - The 59-tonne M103 suffered from initially using the same powertrain as the much lighter M48 tank, leading to a sluggish 21 mph top speed, an operational range of only 80 miles, and serious maintenance issues. It also carried only 34 rounds and lacked proper NBC protection. The Marines received 220 M103 tanks out of the 300 built, while the Army received the remaining 80; it operated a single battalion of M103s in Europe from 1958 to 1963, when they replaced them with 105 mm-armed M60s and gave their 80 to the Marines as well. The final M103A2 upgrade actually turned out to be a really cool tank and well-liked by its Marine Corps crews, especially with the M60's new diesel engine which provided improved power and fuel economy. However, by this time it was basically an anachronism and was never used in combat. All of them were withdrawn from service by 1974. - The Conqueror was ridiculously huge at 64 tonnes and used a Meteor engine, giving it a 35 km/h (22 mph) top speed and 161 km (100 mi) operational range. This was a little bit better than the M103, and while it did have Churchill-like cross-country mobility, it still was not fast by any means. The M103 dealt with the heavy two-piece 120 mm ammo by having two loaders in the turret, but the Conqueror only had one; special fitness courses had to be offered to help Conqueror loaders develop the necessary strength. The British kept their Conquerors parked in West Germany from 1955 until 1966, when they dumped them in favor of the new Chieftain MBT which was smaller and more mobile, yet had as powerful a gun and equal or better armor. As some final trivia, there was also a Conqueror variant with a 183mm gun that never got off the drawing board.(The 183mm gun itself and a less-armored alternative vehicle to carry it both did have 2 prototypes built. When test-fired against a Conqueror, still among the best-armored tanks in existence at the time, the 183mm shell literally split the heavily armored gun mantlet in half. And when tested on a lighter Centurion medium tank, the entire turret was blown clean off as if the ammo rack had detonated...except that range targets don't have ammo stored in them. But guided missiles proved to be an even more efficient way of killing tanks with a single shot, so the QF 183mm L4 gun was also deemed too impractical to enter service.) * The FV4005 tank destroyer was a modified Centurion tank armed with 183 mm gun capable of destroying any tank at ranges of up to 1.8 km (2,000 yards). Most notably, firing test showed that FV4005's gun could blow entire Centurion turret was blown clean off as if the ammo rack had detonated...except that range targets don't have ammo stored in them. However, FV4005's gun was encased in a large turret protected by only 14 mm of steel, making it highly conspicuous and fragile. Even with a mechanical loading mechanism and two loaders, the rate of fire was abysmal. Furthermore, the FV4005's intended target of Soviet heavy tanks were never produced in quantities that would justify the FV4005's enormous firepower. Yet most importantly, technological advances allowed smaller tank guns and guided missiles to pack as much firepower for less space and weight. Fundamentally, the FV4005's firepower was overkill and didn't have any additional benefits to offset its Glass Cannon design. * British tank doctrine and production for most of the Second World War. Either they'd make the right tanks for the wrong doctrine, or they'd have a great design that got let down by the limitations of their military industries, or the tank would have practically everything going for it except for maybe one important part of the design that wasn't quite right and dragged it down from fantastic to just mediocre. + When the Second World War began, Britain—like most countries—still considered the infantry/cruiser concept to be basically sound. The well-armored but slow-moving infantry tanks such as the Matilda II and Churchill were supposed help the infantry create a breakthrough at some point in the enemy line, and then the lightly armored cruiser tanks such as the Cruiser Mk. I and Crusader would use their greater speed and operational range to rush through the gap and wreak havoc deep inside enemy lines. This would prove to not be the case, since World War II turned out to favor a more dynamic and maneuver-based warfare picture of World War II which favored Jack of All Stats medium tanks such as the U.S. M4 Sherman and the Soviet T-34, which was adequate enough to fulfill both the infantry and cruiser roles. Thus, the British were left with a tank doctrine that was ill-suited for World War II; the infantry tanks were too operationally inflexible due to their slow speed, while the cruiser tanks often had rather unpleasant encounters with German armored vehicles that were not as fast but had superior firepower and protection. + Compounding this was British military bureaucracy and industry issues slowing down development, so that the designs were not as impressive by the time they made it into production (For example, the development of what would lead to the Cromwell began in 1940. If something like the Cromwell could have been in North Africa by 1942 it would have been fantastic because of its more powerful and reliable engine, high mobility, 75 mm gun, and improved armor; instead it took until 1944, by which time the Cromwell's firepower and armor were far from impressive). + To their credit, the British were aware of this, recognizing the need for such a "universal tank" early on (with Bernard Law Montgomery its biggest advocate) but the idea didn't get very far until the Rolls-Royce Meteor engine became available as the powerpack for such a tank; Britain used the engine to make a workable late-war stopgap in the form of the Comet, a derivative of the Cromwell that was not only low and fast, but also had a powerful gun and a well-armored turret. That allowed them to take the time to develop a new model from scratch to be the best possible modern tank. The result of this was the Centurion-also powered by a Rolls-Royce Meteor engine-which barely missed the World War II but was a huge success during the Cold War and beyond, marking a huge comeback for Britain in tank design. * French tanks in the Battle of France, 1940. France had a leg up with their FT-17, the forefather of the modern tank, during World War I, and in the interwar their tanks were easily a leg up over the Germans- helping by them not being restricted by the Treaty of Versailles and thus not having to do much in terms of concealing their tank programs from prying eyes. Thus, their tanks individually were easily better than the Germans' at the Battle of France, with there being cases of tanks (mainly the B1 heavy tank) holding off multiple German tanks by their lonesome. However, they were let down by a few flaws; subpar mobility, a two- or three-man crew layout that often overstresses the crew (since each crew member often had to overlap in roles with another task; for example, the commander having to load the gun in addition to commanding the tank), lack of effective communication and coordination, and France's overall reliance on a WWI-style warfare that was ill-suited to counter the Germans' highly mobile, coordinated assault into France. As a result, France was utterly unable to counter the Germans' attack and was forced to capitulate against an army that France could have easily handled. * The Tank Destroyer doctrine of the U.S. Army, and the related choices of what kinds of vehicles got produced during world War II. + The U.S. assumed that because the Germans could always pick a small area of Allied front and make a concentrated attack with their panzers, the initial German breakthrough was almost impossible to prevent. Therefore the Tank Destroyer branch was created to give them a defensive reserve with mobile anti-tank firepower which could counterattack and stop the panzers before they did too much damage. To suit their specialized mission—in which speed, situational awareness, and cost-effectiveness were valued over armor protection—the TD battalions were equipped with lightly-armored self-propelled guns instead of tanks. They started out using half-tracks and trucks with anti-tank guns mounted on them, then upgraded to vehicles such as the M10, M18 and M36 that were fully tracked and had open-topped rotating turrets. Apart from the vehicles they used, TD force also differed from the tankers in that they had a purely defensive mission and were supposed to stay concentrated in large battalions instead of splitting into smaller units. + But when the US went to war, it turned out they were almost always on the offense and the Germans rarely made the sort of concentrated armored attack that the TD battalions were designed to counter. Meanwhile the US infantry, sometimes lacking fire support from tanks, would request it from anything that had tracks and a gun on it. The result was the strict doctrine for their employment being quickly abandoned, as tank destroyers were split off into platoons and sent to help the infantry as mobile artillery and tank substitutes. In this role, the Crippling Overspecialization of the tank destroyer designs came into play: thin armor and open-topped turrets meant they were vulnerable to infantry swarming and grenade shrapnel, which was not helped by many TD designs lacking bow or coaxial machine guns and thus forcing the crew to use either the pintle-mounted .50 or their own small arms to counter such threats. While the TD crews did score higher kill rates against tanks, it was likely more due to the specialized anti-tank training they received rather than the specific equipment they were given or the doctrine they were organized under. The separate, independent TD branch was abolished at end of the war as tank manufacturing advanced to incorporate bigger turrets and guns, meaning they could supersede the tank destroyers in anti-tank work without sacrificing effectiveness against other targets. Tank destroyers themselves evolved into small, light vehicles with anti-tank guided missiles that can offer disproportionate firepower against tanks for their small mass. * The United States M6 heavy tank began as an interest by the Chief of Infantry to the US Army Ordnance Corps in 1940, and while initially conceived as a multi-turreted monster bristling with cannons and machine guns, the final design was a one-turret monstrosity weighing 57.4 tons, up to 100mm of armor on the front, and a three-man turret with a main 3-inch M7 gun and a backup 37mm M6 gun, in addition to a lot of machineguns: twin .50 machine gun for the assistant driver, two .30s for the driver that was fired electronically, a .30 on the commander's cupola, and a .50 for the loader. The monstrosity was powered by a Wright R-1820 Cyclone radial aircraft engine with a specially designed transmission (as the Cyclone produced too much torque for any existing armored vehicle transmission). By the time it was finished, the Army realized that the M6 had no doctrinal use; its crew layout was inefficient, it was too big and too heavy for standard bridges, flatcars and ship cranes, there were serious mechanical issues, and they would rather ship two 30-ton tanks to Europe rather than a single 60-ton tank. All this trouble for an increase in firepower that was simply not enough to justify the additional costs and troubles. In addition, the tank's tall silhouette meant that it was easily seen (and targeted) by enemies, while it wasn't much more well-armored than a medium tank either. Production was stopped in 1943, and while there were attempts to revive it by the Ordnance Corps, none were accepted as the vehicle's faults were all still there, and with the M26 Pershing up-and-coming, the M6 was obsolete. They never saw action because they stayed in the US for propaganda and testing purposes, and ultimately the Army preserved one and broke down the rest for scrap. * Tankettes during World War II. The idea of miniature tanks sounds awesome: you can make a bunch of your infantry more mobile and give them more firepower against other infantry at a relatively low cost. Italy was particularly keen on tankettes because they were small enough to navigate narrow mountain paths that were all but impassable to full size tanks and that Italy expected to use them on,(The main battlefields Italy expected to fight on were the Western Alps against France, the North-Eastern Alps against Germany (with whom the alliance wasn't really certain until Italy entered the war), and the Ethiopian Highlands against Ethiopia and bands of rebels. Furthermore, almost 80% of Italy is occupied by hilly terrain and mountain ranges, making the tankettes more practical than full-sized tanks even in their own homeland) and for a country without much heavy industry they were a lot cheaper to buy or produce than real tanks were. Similarly, Japan liked its tankettes, all of which had great mobility in non-ideal terrain (such as supposedly "impassible" jungles) and could easily cross improvised bridges. While they performed well during the early days of armored warfare and against poorly-equipped infantry, they quickly became outclassed due to the fast pace of armored vehicle development. Their disadvantages were their very thin armour (vulnerable to most heavy weapons and even small arms fire), light armament (most couldn't mount any weapon larger than a machine gun or autocannon, meaning they were useless against most heavy armoured vehicles), their cramped interiors, and a general lack of versatility and mobility in rough terrain depending on the design of the tracks with respect to ditch crossing and ground clearance. Most tankettes were phased out of frontline service, or relegated to non-combat or low-intensity duties. Miniature armored vehicles have come back thanks to better alloys and weapon technology, but only in very niche roles where proper tanks and infantry fighting vehicles would be impractical. For example, the Wiesel is light enough to be airdropped from a helicopter, is protected against rifle fire, and can use an autocannon or TOW antitank missiles. * Main battle tanks in urban combat are something of an imperfect solution. On one hand, putting a platoon of four 60-ton M1 Abrams tanks in the streets is one hell of a way to deter resistance by awing the population, or if necessary to blast out stubborn enemies who are fortified inside buildings. On the other hand, such monsters are too wide to navigate any streets narrower than two lanes, too heavy to cross bridges built only to withstand cars, and largely blind unless a commander opens a hatch to get a good look, which would expose him to sniper fire. Even with the TUSK modifications and infantry support, American tank commanders are very leery of entering close quarters where they can easily by ambushed and disabled by any yahoo with an RPG. It's for this reason that the US Army is interested in looking into IFVs and light support vehicles for urban combat, which, while not nearly as impressive as tanks, are lighter and more maneuverable, allowing them to move with infantry to support them, instead of having to rely on support from infantry themselves. + The worst part is not knowing if the enemy has hidden tanks within the city as well, as was the case in the Normandy Campaign after D-Day. German Panzers tended to hide within towns, knowing that the Allies wouldn't dare bombard any French town that still had civilians in it. As a result, Panzers were hunted down one at a time by tanks, tank-destroyers, and infantry armed with anti-tank weapons. The fight usually resembled a chaotic wild-west shootout, but with tanks and supporting units in place of the usual gun-fighters. And sometimes the tanks would smash through houses just to get at each other's weak spots! * Turretless casemate tank destroyers have fallen out of the wayside since the end of World War 2. During the war, many nations created such vehicles by installing big guns into tank hulls instead of mounting them into turrets. These casemate vehicles have the advantage of mounting big guns that would be too large to fit inside the limited space of existing turrets. They would be much smaller in profile and quicker to manufacture than conventional tanks, as they did not require turrets. However, the lack of a turret meant that a tank destroyer couldn't react to flanking maneuvers or infantry ambushes, limiting their roles to defensive positions. The turretless design also meant that a tank destroyer would have to constantly turn its entire body to aim, leading to a strained and degraded drive system. The mass production of main battle tanks, which excel in nearly every given role, limited the cost-effectiveness of casemate tank destroyers. Yet most importantly, the absence of large conventional wars between superpowers meant that manufacturers could spend more time and money developing tanks whose turrets could mount as big a gun as any tank destroyer. Even armies needing a cheap stopgap tank killer could just mount lighter yet equally lethal anti-tank missiles on recon vehicles and IFVs. * The chariot was a staple of bronze age warfare. At that time horses were much smaller animals than they are today, meaning it usually wasn't practical for a single horse to carry a fully-equipped warrior on its back. The chariot enabled warriors to move rapidly around the battlefield, and was an impressive symbol of status. But after bigger horse breeds and the art of horseback riding (and fighting) were developed, the chariot declined in relevance due to a number of drawbacks: + On a strategic, economical and logistical level, chariots require competent artisans capable of building the chariot itself, its axle and its wheels, and keeping it maintained in the field. This means a commander needed to find sources of quality wood and keep fed the entire team of chariot artisans in the field. Easy Logistics is very much not a thing in real life. + Chariots required a full team of horses, usually 2 or 4, which was expensive to maintain, especially when you take them out of the stable and into battle. Losing one horse could cripple the chariot. + The charioteer needed his hands to control the team, and while it was possible to do it one-handed and wield a spear in the other hand, it was clumsy and awkward. Generally, chariots would carry two soldiers, one to drive and the other to use a bow or spear to kill people. This means even more people to keep fed while on campaign. + Chariots have much less agility than a single rider and their horse, and require relatively flat terrain free of obstructions (trees, rocks, water, etc...) to be effective. This wasn't too much of a problem in ancient Egypt or the near East, but the chariots were very limited in use outside of these flat plains and deserts. + Chariots fared a little better when not directly in combat, such as a battle taxi to bring a warrior into battle (and take him out of there quickly if things go south), but even gimmicks such as Spiked Wheels couldn't stop their obsolescence. By the time of the Romans they were about as useful on the battlefield as a musket would be in the 21st century. * The heavy fighter concept. Compared to smaller fighters, the usually twin-engine heavy fighters packed much more firepower, and had much longer range, designed to escort heavier bombers and escape using their high speed. In practice, however, the concept failed; they couldn't maintain their top speed for very long, and they just couldn't match lighter fighters in terms of maneuverability. That, and the proliferation of drop-tank equipped light fighters removed their range advantage. Many were converted to night fighters (where they were more successful, since maneuverability wasn't as much of a concern in darkness) or bomber destroyers (where they were initially successful against unescorted bombers, but ultimately fell victim to the aforementioned lighter fighters). * Rocket powered aircraft in general, and The Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet particularly. Designed by Alexander Lippisch and introduced in 1944, it is the only rocket-powered fighter aircraft to have ever seen operational use. Its role was to be an interceptor which could rapidly engage enemy bombers by climbing to 12,000 meters (39,000 ft) in an then-unheard-of three minutes, and it could reach more than 1000 km/h (621 mph) in level flight, the first piloted aircraft to ever do so. However, there were a bunch of problems. First, the sheer speed and altitude. It flew so high without a pressurized cabin that pilots had to train for the brutal conditions in altitude chambers, and were required to eat a special low-fiber diet to reduce painful intestinal gas. It also flew so fast that they couldn't accurately hit slow-moving bombers with their low-velocity, short-ranged cannons: no pilot ever scored more than one victory with it. A promising solution to the high-speed targeting problem was a bank of ten single-shot, upwards-pointing cannons that would fire automatically when a photocell detected the silhouette of the bomber above it, but this came too late and was seemingly only used in combat once, on 10 April, 1945. Secondly, it burned up all its fuel in just seven and a half minutes, turning into an unpowered glider to get back to its airfield. This meant it could only be used for point defense, and rendered it helpless if the enemy decided to pick it off while it was gliding home. Thirdly, it was extremely unsafe for both pilots and ground crews. The rocket engine used two highly-corrosive chemicals called C-Stoff and T-Stoff, and created thrust by virtue of the fact that these substances were hypergolic, meaning they violently combusted upon mixing. Since these were both clear liquids that could be easily confused with one another, and were absolutely never supposed to come in contact with each other outside the engine, there were separate refueling teams for each fuel who were never allowed to be near the aircraft at the same time, and used different fueling ports on the plane. The fuel tanks and other systems would be regularly flushed out with water to prevent accidental explosions. However, even these measures didn't prevent occasional detonations on the tarmac. Moreover, the Komet had a habit of spontaneously exploding if jarred too much by, say, a rough landing, and the T-Stoff in particular was so toxic that a leak could kill the pilot even if there wasn't an explosion. The plane was made of wood to keep the weight and cost down, and while it had wheels when it was going up, they broke away from the aircraft as it took off. What did you land with? A single skid. The "best" part was that at this stage of the war, even flat runways were in short supply, so the pilots had to land them in bumpy, rocky fields. The whole idea was so poorly worked out that there were multiple incidents of these aircraft destroying themselves on takeoff with their own launch wheels. Because of the poor fields they were taking off from, it was entirely possible for the rubber-tired take-off wheel assembly to bounce higher than the altitude it was dropped from...and smash into the plane, often resulting in a catastrophic explosion. More pilots died trying to fly/land these things than in combat. Oh, and the engines were considered more valuable than the pilots. What does that tell you? + The French came with the idea of SNCASO Trident after the WWII in 1949, hosting two jet engines and a rocket. While it hads impressive performance, it was so dangerous to fly that it was shelved 1958. One prototype survives in Le Bourget air museum, Paris. * Around the end of World War II many rather impressive prototypes of fighter and bomber aircraft had been designed by various American and Russian manufacturers. Innovative uses of old technology (for instance, contra-rotating propellers) made them fast and powerful; sadly, the innovative use of new technology - namely the jet engine - resulted in aircraft that were even faster and more powerful, but also more efficient and less maintenance intensive. Needless to say, this doomed all the new piston-engine planes into never leaving the prototype stage. + Related to the above is the turbo-compound engine. It was a late development that used a turbine placed at the end of the exhaust that would recycle power wasted by the piston engine and add it directly to the driveshaft. The engines thus obtained were very powerful and efficient, but were both maintenance-intensive and impractical: the bigger the turbine was the more efficient the engine became, until someone eventually figured out that you might as well leave the piston engine out altogether and simply use the turbine as a turboshaft. - The turbo-compound could make a comeback. The problem was it put a lot of stress on exhaust valves which would fail and their shards would take out the turbine. A lot of the power that could potentially go to the turbine was also absorbed by those valves. However, if used on a Wankel rotary engine, which has no exhaust valves, turbo-compounding could potentially make a Wankel engine that runs on automotive unleaded gasoline provide fuel economy and horsepower competitive with turboshaft engines, but without the turbo-lag. * In terms of airstrikes specifically, high risk, highly planned operations which use a large amount of aircraft tend not to produce worthwhile results due to the sheer fact that, as advanced and complicated as military aircraft are, the room for errors are incredibly small; as opposed to ground operations, where at least there is a chance to pull back and reconsider your options if something unexpected happens, in an air battle there is quite literally nothing between you and the enemy, with nowhere to hide. So, if something goes wrong, such as a premature loss of vital aircraft, unexpectedly heavy defenses, or unforseen changes in the weather the only option you have is to press the attack, follow the plan as best as you can, and hope things turn out okay. Such was the case of Operation Tidal Wave, where the precise, low-level multi-squadron airstrike on the Ploiești oil refineries went to all hell due to a combination of mechanical failures, breakdowns in communication, and unexpected defenses that rendered the high-stakes operation All for Nothing with heavy casualties and no lasting effect on the refineries themselves. Of course if you want something of a more modern area, refer to the abortive Package Q operation, which, like Tidal Wave, saw several separate failures pike up to ultimately render the entire mission useless, and which was later successfully completed by a smaller strike. When it comes to massed aircraft attacks, the simpler the operation, the better—for an Airstrike Impossible that did succeed, look at Operation Catechism, one of many operations to sink the German battleship Tirpitz; the entire mission essentially boiled down to "get a shit-ton of Tallboy Bombs, load them onto a squadron of Avro Lancasters, and bomb that fucking ship to kingdom come." Granted, it took three operations to finish her off (the failed operations Paravane and Obviate, followed by the successful Catechism, but the total losses compared to the disastrous Operation Tidal Wave mentioned above were much lower, with a(n eventually) successful outcome. + Overall, massed bomber raids saw a downward trend in popularity after World War II—sure, it's one hell of a display of aerial might, with the potential to deliver tons of ordinance to a single strategic target and wreak absolutely demoralizing destruction, but the risks of sending so many planes and people into hostile territory almost guarantees crippling losses, not to mention the "demoralizing destruction" usually just ends up increasing enemy hatred of the bombers' side, which consequently leads to increased morale. With the advent of jet-powered aircraft that could fly higher and faster and carry more ordinance, along with unmanned delivery systems such as cruise missiles and drones, the need for strategic bombing soon petered out. Compounding this was the development of guided missiles, both of the ground and air-launched varieties, which would make target practice of a massed formation of big, ungainly aircraft. The most egregious, and arguably most modern examples would be Operation Rolling Thunder, which essentially was Awesome, But Impractical brought to life—mass bombing reminiscent of those seen in World War II, but with modern jet aircraft, SAM systems, supersonic dogfights, and more than 1 million tons of bombs dropped—which is almost half of the total amount of ordinance dropped during the *entire European Theatre of World War II.* Despite this, losses continued to mount as the Soviets and Chinese continued supplying the North Vietnamese, who stubbornly resisted the bombing raids, to the point that the operation was cancelled in 1968. * It's 1949, and the US Navy high command is pissed. For nearly two centuries, the Navy has been the lynchpin of US strategic defense, but now everyone is talking about the Air Force, nuclear bombing, and Strategic Air Command. The USS United States, supposed to be the largest and finest (and most expensive) American warship ever launched, has been cancelled only 5 days after being laid down. So what do you do? Well, if we can't launch strategic nuclear aircraft from ships, we'll just launch them straight off the damn sea! And so was the Martin P6M SeaMaster born. A transonic flying boat to be used as a strategic nuclear bomber. This was in many respects a cutting-edge, extremely advanced aircraft, designed to float on open water, supported by seaplane tenders or special submarines, hopping from place to place and making it hard for the Soviets to find and destroy them. Trouble is, all this brilliant innovation was dedicated to solving a problem that could more easily be circumvented entirely, and it was, with the fleet ballistic missile submarine and the aircraft carrier - suddenly back on the agenda following the Revolt of the Admirals - eventually beating out the SeaMaster for funding. The program was cancelled as Navy pilots began conversion training to use the new bomber. + The SeaMaster as originally designed was even more impractical: it was supposed to be ramjet-powered. * Some awesome Atomic Age aircraft were rendered impractical not so much by inherent design problems as by advances in missile technologies: + The XB-70 Valkyrie was a six-engined high-altitude strategic bomber designed to travel at Mach 3 (which would allow it to outrun Soviet interceptors). All very impressive — before the development of surface-to-air missiles that could effectively target and destroy high-altitude supersonic bombers. Furthermore, bomber designs like the XB-70 were made obsolescent by advances in intercontinental ballistic missile technology. An ICBM that could accurately hit a target half way around the world in 45 minutes increasingly marginalized the role of strategic bombers. There was also the huge per-unit costs. To get those impressive Mach 3 speeds, the airframes had to be made of titanium and other expensive metal alloys, making it economically unattractive to mass produce them. + The MiG-25 Foxbat was a blisteringly-fast high-altitude interceptor designed to intercept bombers like the XB-70. Despite its short range and primitive but rugged avionics, it might have been effective in that role. But it also had terrible maneuverability and a limited payload (four missiles, no cannon) which made it rather useless when its intended mission disappeared. While useful in a reconnaissance role, its combat record (in the service of Egypt, Syria, and Iraq) is poor. And since its engines were recycled from a long-range cruise missile design that wasn't meant for re-use, they would melt if it pushed to around Mach 3 (what it was designed to do in the first place),(But that was okay, because the steel leading wing edges made the plane so heavy that it usually ran out of fuel before it burned out the engines anyway) eliminating its cost effectiveness as well. - The Foxbat did get a limited, short-term use as a propaganda item as it was by far the fastest and highest flying jet fighter at the time - one incident had a Soviet Foxbat in Syrian colors saunter up to an Israeli F-4 running flat out at operational ceiling altitude, let the F-4 crew get a good look, and then accelerate and climb away - but even this backfired when the US developed jet fighters designed to defeat the plane that they thought the Foxbat was, namely the uber-successful F-15 Eagle. Then, the US got hold of one through Viktor Belenko's defection in 1976, and discovered all the shortcomings. - Its successor, the MiG-31 Foxhound, is also a pure interceptor, and at first glance looks like a two-seat Foxbat. In reality, it's only loosely based on the MiG-25, and has a stronger fuselage that allows it to go supersonic even at low altitude. The top speed was dialed back to Mach 2.8 (still very fast, and what turned out to be the top safe speed of the MiG-25). The MiG-31 turned out, despite its limited role, to be far more practical, due to its far superior radar and missiles making it effective against terrain-hugging cruise missiles, not just high-flying bombers. - The Foxhound is also seeing a new use in Russian weapons testing, apparently - with their speed, they're perfect chase planes for the Russian military's new planes. - Its incredible speed gets another good use when armed with a new Kinzhal SRBM/IRBM(No one is sure about the range of the blasted thing.), an air-launched version of the already pretty impressive Iskander land-based one. Launching it during the top speed dash adds as much as 2 points to the Mach-8 terminal velocity of the baseline missile, making it about as difficult to intercept as a full-on ICBM — however, during Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2023, there were several accounts of US-made Patriot missiles systems intercepting Kinzhal missiles, calling into into question its actual capabilities. Hypersonic speed certainly does dramatically reduce the reaction time that any air defense has, but it turns out at least some 21st century automated air defense systems are fast enough in their reaction time to pull it off. + The B-47 Stratojet had been a Cool Plane, but the features that made it cool also blew the efficiency to hell: the graceful almost Sci-Fi airframe barely had space for a crew of 3 and the wings were thin enough to be flexible in flight, the aerodynamics were so efficient that the plane would float over the runway instead of touching down, the superior maneuverability mandated the nuclear bomb had to be tossed in a wide looping like a fighter would do in a ground attack flight (less fun when the B-47 weighed almost 100 tonnes at takeoff with full load and maybe 60 tonnes at the point where the ordnance would be released) and the combat range was too short, only 2000 miles or so, shorter than a regular commercial airliner. + The B-58 Hustler was an awesome aircraft for the mid-1950s (it could climb like a rocket and cruise at Mach 2.2 for hours years before the parents of most Tropers were born), yet it was breathtakingly expensive to build and maintain (just changing a fuselage panel in the field required the specialized jig from the factory to be brought to the airbase) and had an extremely idiosyncratic design that made ground crews pull their hair out in outrage (the fuselage was too small and the wings too thin to carry fuel, so instead they just had the fuel in a massive belly tank slung under the fuselage; the problem this presented was that now there was nowhere to store a payload, so they built the bomb bay into the belly tank.). So complicated and frustrating to perform basic maintenance on that it was dropped after 10 years in service to be replaced by ICBMs. There were people daring enough at Convair back into The '60s to propose a supersonic transport◊ version◊, either for paying passengers or as a VIP transport for the military. It proved so madly expensive there was no funding even for a prototype. - That tank also was the only place to put the single atomic bomb it could carry, which had to be literally built into it. As it then, naturally, had to be jettisoned at the target together with the bomb, the plane had to rely just on the internal fuel reserves to get back. It also constantly leaked fuel into the bomb compartment, requiring the eventual replacement with the two-piece pod, where the tank and the bomb could be jettisoned separately. * The Messerschmitt Me 321. It began its life as a glider, the biggest glider ever made. The mission for this glider was to rapidly transport large amounts of troops and medium or light tanks into the battlefield. The first problem was how to make something that big glide. Thus, it was made largely of hollow steel tubing, doped fabric and wooden spars. Then came actually getting it up into the sky. Normally, a tow aircraft would be used to drag it up into the air, but two towing aircraft would have to do the job, which would be impossible to synchronize safely. The solution? They just stuck two Heinkel He-111's together with a fifth engine between. Originally it was intended to be used for the scrapped invasion of Britain, but then was used for Operation Barbarossa. After that, feedback from the people who "flew" them led to a big design change. Sticking six powerful engines on it, they turned it from a glider into the Me 323 transport plane, and it still needed the damn Franken-Heinkel to take off (or RATO or three airplanes working in sync) if it was fully loaded. It arrived just in time to support Rommel in his collapsing North African campaign. Where they were shot down in droves, because they were slow, ungainly and massive targets loaded with fuel, ammo and other things that went boom. In one famous incident, 22 were shot down in just one flight. It saw service for little under a year before being retired. + An escort gunship version of the Me 323 was prototyped, with 20mm gun turrets and additional gun positions, intended to escort loaded Me 323s. However, with only two prototypes produced, it was determined that single-engine fighters would provide better cover than the Me 323 E-2 WT, and the design was cancelled. * The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" long-range atomic bomber, which kept the balance of power during the cold war and looked positively badass. When everyone was switching to jets Convair used six huge radial engines(There was actually solid reasoning behind this. The B-36 was intended to make a nonstop flight to the Soviet Union, carrying the very bulky atomic bombs of the time, and get back to the US. The jet engines of the time were such gas-guzzlers that an all-jet plane of that size would have a significantly-reduced payload to carry all the extra fuel, or would require in-flight refueling.) - which turned out to be maintenance nightmares, both for their inherent complexity (the ground crews hated having to replace all fifty-six spark plugs in each engine) and because they were never meant to be mounted in a pusher configuration, resulting in many failures (when your plane losing an engine is considered so routine that the mission is allowed to continue as if nothing happened, you know you have a problem). And for all that the plane was still underpowered, so they eventually fitted four additional jet engines to compensate, though they were normally only used for takeoff and shut down while cruising to conserve fuel. The B-36 also featured an innovative control-by-wire system for the engines... but no mechanical backups, so if the electronics failed you were screwed. And the electronics were mounted in delicate housings that would shake themselves apart under the vibrations caused by the turret guns. Even after the design was tweaked and bludgeoned into some kind of functionality, it still had a tendency to spring oil and fuel leaks all over the place or abruptly catch fire. Then again, it could carry ten times the payload of the famous B-17 Flying Fortress, and its morale and propaganda value was enormous. + Then again, engine failures were less of a problem for the B-36 because its wings were so enormous that the aircrew could actually crawl around inside them and fix the engines in flight if necessary. + The B-36 was so very prone to engine fires (mostly caused by excess fuel from air intake icing) and failures that the aircrew soon turned the typical phrase "six turning and four burning", indicating all engines were running properly, into "two turning, two burning, two smoking, two joking and two unaccounted for". * During World War II, the US Military subscribed to the "Bomber beats Fighter" philosophy by arming their bombers with multiple gun turrets for defense against enemy fighters. Many of bombers like the B-17, B-24 and B-29 bombers sported anywhere from from 8 to 13 machine guns. In theory, long-ranged bombers could only rely on themselves for protection as then-existing fighters lacked the range necessary for escort missions. In practice, the defensive armaments turned out to disappointment despite initial successes following advancements in air combat. Although the guns were initially useful against the BF-109 used by the German Luftwaffe, these proved inadequate against newer tactics and lightning-fast jet and rocket fighters that could evade the gunfire, while also being useless against ground-based anti-air. Improvements in fighter speed and range gave bombers adequate long-range fighter escorts that proved to be much more effective at reducing losses. Yet what ultimately shot down this doctrine was the development of beyond-visual-range missiles that gave fighters the ability to safely shoot down bombers from beyond the guns' maximum firing range. Subsequently, most post-WWII bomber models have had few if any defensive weapons, which would be little more than deadweight at the cost of plane mobility and payload. + The concept was briefly resurrected with the YB-40 project, which took the basic B-17E design and removed the bombload, replacing it with a second upper turret, doubling the waist guns, and adding a chin turret, with increased ammunition supply, as a means of augmenting the ability of B-17 formations to defend themselves when carrying out missions beyond the range of fighter escort. However, the additional weight of the armor and weapons meant that it could not keep up with the returning bombers that no longer had the weight of their bomb load to slow them down, and the introduction of the long-range P-51 Mustang that could escort the bombers through the entire missions eliminated the need for gunships. The chin turret from the YB-40 program was, however, added to late B-17F aircraft and all B-17G aircraft, so the resources put into the program were not entirely wasted. * In World War 2, Japan actually deployed balloons to drop bombs. They tied bombs to high altitude balloons that would ride the natural air currents across the Pacific, at which point a built-in timer would release the payload and bomb whatever happened to be below. In a sense, they were successful, being the only attempt by an Axis power in WWII to directly bomb the Continental US that actually hit(Besides an attack by a submarine-based plane with incendiary bombs, that caused minimal damage). On the other hand, the carried bombs were too small and too widely-dispersed to reliably hit anything of strategic value, making them useless as anything other than a terror weapon, although the Japanese did also develop incendiary bomb balloons, with the aim to start forest fires. A family of six in Oregon killed by one of the bomb balloons was the only known civilian death case in the US during the war directly caused by enemy action. + The notorious Unit 731 of the Japanese Army perfected a system to drop plague-carrying fleas via the same balloons, but the US managed to locate and bomb the launch facilities before it was ready. It wouldn't have really done much damage in the scale of the carnage occurring at the time, but would have been awkward and messy to contain had a plague outbreak started in a major west-coast city. + Also, thanks to gag orders and censorship, the US government was able to keep any news of the balloon bombs out of the press. The Japanese then believed the project was a total failure and scrapped it. * The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit heavy strategic bomber was the culmination of decades of research into stealth and precision bombing: It's a flying wing with no tail or fuselage, the engines and armament are hidden inside the wing/body, and every angle and curve was designed with the help of computers to deflect radio waves away from radar receivers below the bomber. The skin is made of materials that absorb radio waves and convert them into heat, and the engines have a low thermal signature. The intended capability was to slip through dense anti-aircraft defenses to deliver nuclear weapons. Then it suddenly lost much of its value as a strategic stealth bomber when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. It has since been relegated to rear echelon status and has seen action as a conventional bomber in only four conflicts: Kosovo, Afghanistan, the 2nd Gulf War, and the Libyan Civil War. On the plus side it performs conventional bombing very well, with an absolutely absurd bomb capacity, a varied arsenal of smart munitions that it can pick out of a revolver-like bomb bay carousel, and fantastic range thanks to its flying wing design. In particular, its ability to get very close before it shows up on radar helps it to slip through gaps in ground-based anti-air radar networks and bomb them, in order to clear the way for non-stealthy aircraft to come in and wreak havoc. However, there's still the problem that it's incredibly expensive to manufacture and maintain with each plane costing over $1 billion, requiring their own specialized climate-controlled hangars to maintain its stealth coating and needing 50 hours of maintenance for every hour spent flying. It also requires a computer-controlled fly-by-wire system to safely operate the complex system of split-brake rudders, differential engine thrust, and "elevons" that control the inherently unstable flying wing aircraft, and if those computers fail the damn thing will crash. * The Messerschmitt Me-262 Schwalbe, the world's first operational jet fighter. While fast enough to leave any Allied plane in its contrails and an excellent bomber interceptor, its engines were prone to mechanical problems and required high temperature alloys that Germany didn't have enough of. It also required more fuel than the Germans could afford to ration to it. Many armchair historians have cited Adolf Hitler's decision to make the 262 a fighter-bomber as a boneheaded move that delayed the introduction of a potentially war-winning weapon, but this view is mistaken and unrealistic: Hitler was right in believing that the 262 would be the only aircraft capable of penetrating the air umbrella over an Allied invasion fleet, though it wasn't ready in time, and the fighter-bomber issues only delayed production by about a month. And by that point in the war all fighters were effectively fighter bombers, as the Allies realized that fighters made effective ground attack aircraft and used them to replace dead-end types like dive bombers. The fact of the matter is that the Germans rushed the 262 into service about as fast as they could have, and its premature birth was part of the reason for its problems. Finally, even if it had gone straight to fighter units, their primary opponents - the P-51 Mustang and the Supermarine Spitfire - still would have outnumbered them 60 to 1; this was what eventually led to the Allies' primary method of disposing of the 262, via ambushing the fighters as they were landing, since they had more than the aircraft and pilots required to track their jets to their bases and spring the trap. Even as Germany wised up and began posting their own fighters to cover their jets as they landed, this ended up being a moot point, since such exercises meant those escort fighters, and the fuel they burned, were tied up covering for the Me-262's when they could have been deployed on frontline duty. * The jetpack, sadly, turned out to be this. Starting with the Germans in the later years of WWII, several nations attempted to build a practical jetpack for military purposes (though contrary to popular belief, the earliest designs were intended for short jumps rather than sustained flight - just enough to bounce over a minefield or quickly cross a river). And sure enough, many of the designs did work, they were just too impractical. The engines were incredibly loud, they could only fly for a short time (20-30 seconds), and the pilot could get a nasty burn on his legs if he wasn't careful (not to mention he could break his legs if he wasn't careful coming down). Ultimately all the military applications jetpacks might have had could be done using easier, cheaper, and safer (though sometimes slower) methods. So while working jetpacks do exist, barring a revolutionary new discovery in small-scale rocket propulsion they are doomed to an eternity as scientific curiosities. + Perhaps, however the worst part of this all is, towards the end of its testing life, improvements were starting to be made that could have made it practical enough to regain the Army's interest. Unfortunately, the mind behind it all, Wendell Moore, died due to complications from a heart attack, and the concept died with him. + The '50s and '60s also saw the US military experiment with one-man helicopter-like flying platforms, which likewise proved possible but not practical. They could stay aloft longer than a jetpack, but only introduced a new problem: soldiers floating above a battlefield are little more than horribly exposed targets begging for someone to shoot them. Old-fashioned ground based infantry at least have the luxury of taking cover behind something. There was also the rather glaring issue that placing the pilot above the spinning rotors meant that if for any reason they fell off (such as if, say, they got shot) means the unfortunate pilot would fall straight into the rotors, which was...not a pleasant way to go, and making even a non-fatal injury and fall into a very fatal one indeed. * This was the US Army's evaluation of the Sopwith Camel during World War I. While very agile, the Camel was unforgiving to inexperienced pilots, and the Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine had a variety of quirks and shortcomings of its own (which the Americans were very aware of from operating the Gnome-engined Nieuport 28). If not properly handled, the Gnome could burst into flames. Instead, the US Army Air Service opted to adopt the SPAD S.XIII, a less agile but faster French fighter plane, for most of their front-line units. * The FIAT CR.42. The best biplane fighter ever built, it was very maneuverable (even for a biplane), and was remarkably fast and tough, for a biplane. It entered service in 1939, when monoplane fighters had got much faster, tougher and better armed, and once their RAF opponents adapted to them all they could was to fight on as a monoplane replacement was put into production. + The experimental CR.42DB variant, fitted with a Daimler-Benz DB 601A 1,200 HP engine, could reach the speed of 525 km/hr, making it the fastest biplane ever flown to this day. It was still an open-cockpit biplane, and still slower, frailer, and less armed than its monoplane opponents, resulting in it remaining a one-shot prototype. * The Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka, whose name means "Cherry Blossom", was a rocket-powered suicide aircraft developed by the Imperial Japanese Navy later in World War II. On paper, it could carry three times the bomb load of a conventional kamikaze or conventional light bomber aircraft, and could very well sink a US aircraft carrier or destroyer in one hit,(One such example of the latter was the Allen M. Sumner class destroyer, USS Manert L. Abele, when an Ohka split the ship in half.) as well as evade American Anti-Air fire and enemy fighters once its rockets had been switched on. However, because its solid fuel rockets burned up so quickly, it had to be carried within 37 km (23 mi) of its target by a G4M "Betty" bomber specifically modified to carry it. This bomber, already lacking in armor and protection for its crew, was vulnerable to American fighters patrolling the skies, and these bombers were usually shot down miles from the US fleet as a result, usually with the Ohkas still in the bomb bay. Only seven ships were successfully sunk or damaged by Ohkas. * The world's first supersonic reconnaisance drone, the Lockheed D-21, definitely looked good on paper. It had a top speed of Mach 3.5, was virtually impossible to see on radar, and could fly at altitudes of up to 95,000 feet. So why did it fail? It was designed to be air-launched from the back of an SR-71 Blackbird, but due to their similar speeds, the two aircraft couldn't separate safely, and on its fourth test flight the D-21 collided with its carrier plane, killing the co-pilot. Recovering the D-21 was also an issue; since it had no landing gear, it was instead designed to eject a capsule of film that would land by parachute. This was a far more cumbersome process than expected, and only three D-21 flights actually returned any usable film. * The F-14 Tomcat. Though undeniably an incredible interceptor and quite solid in the air superiority role, not to mention being a pop culture icon, the early-model Tomcats were plagued by the craptastic TF30 engines salvaged from the failed F-111B project, which flamed out for any reason at all, and were also big and expensive. The vaunted Phoenix missiles also had weight issues, and were not of much use against maneuvering targets. Worse, as the years went on, the effort of keeping them running rose to unreasonable levels; according to former Navy veterans, Tomcats would frequently fly without a functioning radar, just because it was such a pain to keep running. Add in a lack of upgrades (the best it got were better engines and then new avionics), and the Navy was probably not sorry to see it go in 2006. In addition, the Tomcat has the dubious honor of being the last major warplane deployed before digital fly-by-wire controls revolutionized the entire fighter concept; new planes such as the F-16 and F/A-18 blew away the Tomcat in the maneuverability department. Also, the AEGIS radar present on all new American destroyers and cruisers has rendered the "fleet defense interceptor" concept obsolete. * The Mi-24 "Hind" is one of the most iconic military helicopters of all-time. It was designed to have the weaponry of a gunship, the armor of a tank, and on top of all of that the ability to transport a squad into battle. In practice, the latter feature isn't as versatile as it sounds. Carrying infantry means having a large amount of extra weight, which limits its maneuverability, along with adding an extra distraction when maneuvering or taking fire, while its capacity of eight soldiers is on the low end of transport helicopters. It isn't too surprising that its successor, the Mi-28 "Havoc"◊, drops the troop transport ability entirely in favor of a streamlined attack helicopter design. * The concept of a "torpedo bomber" became this by mid-to-late World War II for most if not all sides. Sure, hand-delivering a self-propelled One-Hit KO to all but the toughest and most armored ships from on high might sound fun, but to get the things on target, you have to fly very low (so the torpedo won't just plunge straight down and go under the target on release) and very slow (so the torpedo doesn't break apart or accidentally detonate upon impact with the water), and at that point you're essentially a sitting target for any AA gunner with more than two brain cells to rub together. Compounding this is that torpedoes...aren't exactly the most reliable and robust things to drop from airplanes, so there's a chance they'll miss the target or prematurely detonate anyways, even if you do manage to survive long enough to drop the ordnance; the Americans learned this the hard way during the Battle of Midway, where not a single torpedo managed to score effective damage to the Japanese fleet(Admittedly, some of this was due to severe issues with the Mark 13 torpedo itself), and the losses among torpedo bomber pilots were astronomical, a fact not helped that most were flying incredibly outdated Devastators (though even the one squadron flying the new Avengers suffered heavy losses as well, and also failed to score any strategic hits.) The Japanese had better luck, since their torpedoes were more reliable, but even then casualties among "Kate" crews pulling torpedo runs were still very heavy. It is also very easy for smaller and more maneuverable ships (like destroyers) to dodge the torpedoes if the bombers dropped them very far from their intended victims. Aerial torpedoes are still used to this day from helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft as anti-submarine weapons, but they are nowhere near as ubiquitous as before, having been supplanted by anti-ship missile-carrying aircraft. + Dive bombers also saw themselves falling into the ABI category by the end of the war as well; Diving straight down on your target allowed for better accuracy and precision, and even helped with "boosting" the bombs a little to help them punch through armored plating, and it made for one hell of an impression on your hapless enemies, especially if your plane happened to have sirens (or very loud airbrakes, on the part of the American Dauntless) attached. But every second you spent with the enemy in your sights is a second spent with you in the enemy's sights, and being the pilot of a plane designed to plunge towards the things shooting at you was a good way to get killed fast. While the Americans had the prescience of mind to make their Dauntless bomber maneuverable and robust (to the point that it could fight toe-to-toe with enemy fighters if need be) the Germans' Stuka unfortunately fell prey to this trope; besides the siren and the ability to carry heavy ordinance up to and including anti-tank cannons, it was a slow, ungainly plane vulnerable to Anti-Air or enemy fighters, and took increasingly severe losses as the war went on and anti-aircraft technology progressed. What ultimately ensured the obsolescence of the dive bomber was the development of multirole aircraft as well as guided munitions (guided bombs or air-to-ground missiles), and they would replace the type entirely. + Hilariously enough, it was probably the Japanese that started the whole multirole warplane thing with the Aichi B7A "Ryuusei." The Imperial Japanese Navy noted that torpedo bombers were too vulnerable to getting shot down and that dive-bombers sacrificed good performance when flying with a lot of ordnance. So, in a strangely logical turn of events, Aichi's engineers had created the very concept of a multirole fighter, as the Ryuusei outperformed the Zero during flight testing. The answer to the issue of performance was adding a lot more horsepower, so that the plane was not as burdened while carrying bombs or torpedoes. * The AM Mauler was a massive single-engined carrier-capable attack plane of the US Navy built by Martin, capable of hauling more ordnance than the already hefty Skyraider, including the ability to carry three torpedoes (for context, most other planes that can carry torpedoes, like the competing AD Skyraider, could only carry one). Unfortunately, it was a temperamental plane with a nasty tendency of bouncing when landing on deck (putting plane and pilot at risk of missing the arresting cables and going straight into the drink) among other issues, and it was powered by an equally temperamental engine (the Pratt&Whitney Wasp Major, the same engine that powered the B-36 mentioned earlier) that made it unpopular among service crews and pilots alike, earning the "Awful Monster" nickname as a result. Because anti-ship missiles made its signature advantage over the Skyraider irrelevant, and because the Skyraider was a lot less temperamental and easier to fly (in addition to its smaller size being an advantage in cramped carriers), the AM Mauler was only in service for a short time and never saw action. + A naval plane in Awesome But Impractical was the Skypirate, which was even bigger and heavier than the Mauler, capable of carrying four torpedoes. It also still uses the same temperamental Wasp Major engine, and it proved too big to operate from the then-ubetiquous Essex-class aircraft carriers, needing the then-delayed Midway-class. As a result of this and the collapse of the Japanese in the Pacific, the project was cancelled. * The Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut. The plane looks like it flew straight out of a Macross anime, so no doubt it's awesome. However, the much touted forward-swept wing is where the "impractical" comes in: the composite material suffered tremendous stress which caused the plane's top speed to be lowered to a measly 1.6 Mach (to compare, the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker, it's forerunner, achieves 2.4 Mach) and the superb manoueverability at low speeds just didn't warrant the losses the Su-47 suffered in return for the forward-swept wing's implementation. It got cancelled in the late 2000's and replaced with the Sukhoi Su-57 whose much-less awesome trapeze wing offers almost all the advantages the Berkut had and none of the downfalls (though it is, if anything, even more expensive to operate). * Increasingly, the A-10 Thunderbolt II is being viewed this way. + On one hand, it's a famous ground attack aircraft with a 30mm Gatling gun designed to rip through armored vehicles with a burst of depleted uranium shells, and carry various bombs and missiles. The fact that it swoops dramatically low with engines roaring and a gun that goes "brrrt!" can elicit cheers from friendlies on the ground, while its combination of loiter capability and old-fashioned firepower are thought to suppress and terrify enemy ground troops more effectively than a high-flying fighter that just drops an explosive payload and leaves. The A-10 also includes an armored bathtub around the pilot, and redundant mechanisms which can enable it to keep flying after damage that would wreck a less durable plane. Supporters in both the military and the media have objected to the idea of retiring it and relying only on multirole fighters to perform close air support, arguing that these are not a substitute for a specialized ground attack aircraft like the A-10. + On the other hand, as time goes on it becomes harder to deny the flaws of the A-10. Its primitive avionics have led to at least one friendly fire incident, the iconic Gau-8 Avenger would struggle against any modern MBT, even Patton tanks made into ideal targets give it trouble, while being overkill against almost any vehicle lighter, and its slow speed makes it vulnerable to modern surface-to-air missile systems, most of which are now easily carried on vehicles as opposed to the older surface-to-air missile systems that relied on ground-mounted static launchers and bulky radar sets(Its most effective role which it is used for today is that of Counter Insurgency (COIN) strikes, where the enemy force isn't expected to have anything more advanced than technical and possibly MANPADs, both of which the A-10's armor and sturdy airframe can shrug off with little trouble. That sturdy airframe, however, is also a weakness, as it means the turbofan-powered aircraft is a relatively slow, plodding thing as it flies through the air, and for all its fuel efficiency and stability it still chugs fuel like a fratboy on Homecoming Night just to get airborne. Add onto this the maintenance costs for those robust features, and the expenses of getting an A-10 into the air for COIN ops are prohibitively high compared to dedicated COIN aircraft that can perform the same role for significantly less cost, which the U.S. military is currently looking for.), and no matter how tough the airframe and well-protected the cockpit, it simply can't withstand heavy AA, no plane can. Its best weapons are almost all missiles and smart bombs, which can be carried by faster multirole jets, large bombers and even longer-loitering turboprops. Even ignoring all this, there is still the problem that the manufacturer went under decades ago, so the only way to get spare parts is to custom make them or cannibalize existing airframes, and eventually the airframes will just be too worn to keep flying. As it is, while the USAF continues to upgrade the Thunderbolt with more modern systems and avionics, most upgrade packages are notably focused towards allowing for greater long-range strike and loitering capability, essentially turning the ground-attack aircraft into a stand-off missile deployment system instead of a dedicated CAS "gun run" plane.(While many people \think\ Close Air Support is about how close the plane is to the target, it's not. The 'close' refers to the target being in close proximity to friendly forces by the US definition. This makes the problems with using the A-10 as a gun plane obvious. Under ideal conditions, the dispersion of rounds has approximately 80% land in a 12-meter radius at approximately 1220 meters from the target. That's a circle a bit bigger than a basketball court filled with DU rounds that will turn a human to paste. With that in mind, if friendlies or civilians are close by, a single twitch on the stick is the difference between a medal, a court martial, and a trial at The Hague. To ensure things go well, the pilot must have the best situational awareness possible and the most precise weapons possible. While back in WWII the way this was achieved was flying close to the target at a slow speed, with modern electronics it's possible to get a better picture of the ground from further away at higher speeds. Knowing all this, it can be seen that minimizing use of the gun when friendlies are near, upgrading the avionics as much as possible, and using precision-guided munitions as much as possible are needed to maximize CAS effectiveness and minimize risk to US soldiers and local civilians.) * The Su-25 Frogfoot, the Soviet/Russian answer to the A-10 Thunderbolt II, is also afflicted with this later on. Like its American counterpart, this dedicated ground attack aircraft packs a powerful cannon, heavy armor (albeit it is not as heavily armored as the A-10) and enough munitions to wipe out entire tank columns. However, the Su-25 suffers from the same problems as the A-10, such as vulnerabilities to modern anti-air and antiquated avionics. Said vulnerability came to the forefront during conflicts in Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Middle East and the Caucasus where the plane suffered heavy losses to both heavy anti-air systems and MANPADs with half of the Su-25s deployed in the Soviet-Afghan war being lost to enemy fire. Furthermore, avionic advancements allowed multirole fighters like the MiG-29 and F-16 to take on ground attack roles previously dominated by the Su-25. * The TDI/Kriss Vector. A favorite of many modern and near-future military shooters, the Vector isn't just awesome because it looks cool and has a great name. The unusual shape houses a system where a weight moves up and down with the bolt, theoretically countering recoil. Unfortunately it is impractical for two main reasons. + One: The ergonomics are very weird. The bolt can take an unusual amount of force to pull back, replacing the magazine is awkward (since it uses Glock magazines, the release button is way up at the front of the receiver), and depending on how you hold it the bolt release can easily give you a blood blister upon firing the last round. + Two: The vectoring system doesn't serve its purpose in full auto, which is supposed to be the whole point. It has been observed that the firing pattern consistently moves up and to the right, and the very high cycling rate remains difficult to control. Ironically, the semi-auto civilian version is very pleasant to shoot due to this system, but the practical benefits beyond that are minimal while the ergonomic disadvantages remain. * The hand mortar. A combination between a small artillery piece and a blunderbuss- basically 16th century frag Grenade Launcher. The awesome speaks for itself, particularly considering it showed up in an era where the average soldier was still armed with a spear and/or sword. The impractical part? If it malfunctioned, the grenade could detonate in the barrel, ruining the weapon and injuring (or even killing) the user. Given how often early firearms misfired, you can see why not many soldiers wanted to use one. On top of that, it didn't actually extend grenade range that much over simply throwing it (arguably not enough to make up for its huge reload time) and was limited to fist-sized grenades that were surprisingly weak (the projectile design being primitive and the only explosives available being black powder, with 1/3 the energy to weight ratio of modern hand grenade fillers). * Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Enouy revolver. A revolver with eight cylinders that could fire 48 shots. As a surprise to no one, the gun is unwieldy, unbalanced and heavy. * Rifles as mass battlefield weapons before the Industrial Revolution. Rifling, or spiral grooves inside the bore of a gun barrel, have been around since the 15th century. The grooves impart a stabilizing spin to the projectile, and even back then rifling was known to increase the range and accuracy of a firearm. However, not only was rifling expensive to implement prior to modern machine tools (as in everything had to be done by hand), the fact that nearly every firearm was muzzle-loading meant that burnt gunpowder residue would foul up the barrel. In addition to the grooves themselves collecting fouling, a rifle needed to use ammunition that was tightly fitted to the bore in order for the rifling to be effective. Compared to a smoothbore musket which could use a sub-caliber ball wrapped in a fabric patch, it was harder to ram a bullet down a rifle barrel to begin with, and it would soon get fouled enough from shooting that you'd need to be hitting the ramrod with a hammer to force the next bullet in. The net result was that a rifleman could get off maybe 1 shot in a minute, while a musketeer with a smoothbore flintlock could do 3 or 4. For centuries the rifle was confined to civilian hunting or specialized sharpshooter units. Muzzle-loading rifles finally became practical for mass army adoption with the invention of the Minie ball and similar ammunition, which could be loose-fitting enough to be easily pushed down the bore, yet also had a "skirt" that expanded upon firing to engage the rifling and form a tight gas seal. A few decades later, the mass production of breech-loaders rendered the whole issue moot because you no longer needed to manually ram a bullet all the way down the barrel. * Volley guns and organ guns. Basically a bunch of small cannons bound together and fired off in quick succession for More Dakka. While it looked spectacular when it fired, gunsmiths quickly realized that all they really did was add unnecessary mechanical complexity to the old standby of a conventional muzzle-loading cannon firing grapeshot, thus they were rarely used past the 15th century. It helps that the usual cannon only had one barrel to load rather than several, so in net the volley gun's rate of fire might actually be slower than the regular cannons'. * The 15th and 16th centuries saw the construction of utterly enormous cannons, such as the Dardanelles Gun and Tsar Cannon. Unfortunately their awesome size and power also made them an absolute chore to roll into place, thus inferior to the smaller culverin and falconets for shooting anything more mobile than a massive wall... which the Europeans mostly stopped building at the time anyway in favor of bastion forts. * The Flamethrower. It was an ideal weapon for WWI and WWII that could quickly torch infantry, bunkers, and vehicles while also having the psychological effect of producing the hellish images of burning people screaming in pain. However, the weapon was eventually phased out since the Vietnam War for several reasons. First, it was a heavy weapon that weighed down the user and turned them into a highly visible target. Second, while its range isn't as atrociously short as depicted in the media, it still wasn't effective for long range engagements. Third, the weapon couldn't be safely stored in such a way that it would not explode if hit by an explosive or incendiary projectile. Finally, even its psychological advantage has its own downside; since flamethrowers were so terrifying, their users were always the first to get targeted or routinely executed if captured. Incendiary rockets and grenades have since been tried as more practical alternatives, although some of these have their own problems. + While largely obsolete as military weapons, flamethrowers are more useful for agriculture. Flamethrowers are not classified as firearms, and in America, 48 out of 50 states do not forbid unlicensed possession of a flamethrower, meaning that is far easier for civilians to own one. Furthermore, the limitations of flamethrowers like short range and bulky weight actually means they are less likely to be regulated compared to guns. Farmers in particular like using flamethrowers to exterminate nasty pests (like venomous snakes) and clear overgrown poison ivy as, unlike most pesticides and herbicides, they don't leave behind nasty residues that poison what they're trying to protect or accidentally create pests that are resistant to it. * During the First World War, when trench warfare dominated the battlefields of Europe, one invention that was popular among soldiers was the Periscope Rifle . This kind of weapon, as its name states, is a rifle attached to a periscope (and a large wooden stock), which enables any soldier using it to fire while still being concealed below cover. In the static trenches of WWI, it makes perfect sense at face value. However, shooting (relatively) safely from cover was about the only real advantage such rifles had. Their large, wooden stocks made them very cumbersome to use, carry, and reload, since the entire assembly has to be pulled down to access the bolt. They were also fairly difficult to aim and rather inaccurate to shoot; and their frames did not handle the actual rifle's recoil very well, with the wooden frames flying upward for every shot and requiring a tedious readjustment for the shooter. Unsurprisingly, most sharpshooters & snipers in the various militaries of the war simply opted for the standard scoped rifle when actually trying to hit enemies. * Machine pistols in general. A machine pistol is a small submachine gun using a small-size pistol cartridge and capable of being fired using only one hand. Unfortunately, those are the reasons why they're impractical: They are usually horribly inaccurate and their rate of fire is so great that they easily spray the whole magazine empty with just one squeeze of trigger. One of the most famous failures is Ingram MAC-10, whose immense rate of fire (1200 rounds per minute) and flimsy stock made the weapon so inaccurate it was nicknamed as "bullet sprayer". But, hey, they can be fun! Just look at the Trejo machine pistol, a Mexican Colt 1911 look-alike with a 7-shot magazine of 22lr. Just good enough for giggle-factor... * The Nock Volley Gun, a smoothbore flintlock small arm with seven barrels, designed to be fired from the rigging of Royal Navy warships during The Napoleonic Wars. Unfortunately, it turned out most men weren't big or strong enough to fire it without a) being thrown violently backwards by the recoil, b) falling off whatever high place they were firing it from, c) having their shoulder shattered, or d) all of the above. It also took freaking ages to reload, even by the standards of the period. Moreover, because of its enormous muzzle blast, it also had a tendency to set nearby ropes and sails aflame. Those few who were strong enough to use it without injuring themselves would be better off using actual small cannons/mortars. * The Imperial Japanese Type 97 20mm automatic anti-tank cannon, despite its name, was actually a semi-automatic anti-tank rifle. Relatively powerful for a weapon of its class and possessing a high rate of fire to boot, it was also one of the heaviest anti-tank rifles ever made, weighing an unwieldy 50 kilograms unloaded, requiring at least two people to carry it around. This went up to as much as 68 kilos when fully loaded and equipped with accessories. Eventually the gun was upgraded with a wheeled carriage, so it could be moved around more easily. * The Gatling Gun was viewed as being this when it was first developed, although it has since been Vindicated by History. With the American Civil War underway, military quartermasters already had their hands full trying to develop logistical standards for weapons and ordinance. They simply did not want to deal with another weapon with its own unique set of ammunition and upkeep needs. + One of the more notable people to hold this viewpoint of Gatling Guns was General Custer. Custer in general, valued mobility highly, and when given the option to have them present at what would become known as his last stand, he rejected not just Gatling Guns, but artillery in general as they could not fight on the move. It's debated on how much of a difference they would've made in the Battle of Little Bighorn (AKA Custer's Last Stand), with one side saying that they would've saved the day, while the other side saying that they wouldn't have made a difference fighting Indians. That the Gatling Gun in Custer's unit was really heavy and required a minimum of two people to operate it didn't help him, as it would have become a stationary target for Sitting Bull's men. + The Gatling's contemporaries, most of which were multiple-barrel volley guns on carriages, turned out to be more impractical. The guns with barrels arranged horizontally, sometimes called bridge guns, used a single percussion cap located at one end of the row of barrels in order to let off a salvo of shots. While these barrels were breach-loaded, powder, percussion caps, and bullets were still separate components to be loaded up by the assistant gunners. Imagine having to reload the bridge gun after letting off a salvo. That's what restricted the bridge guns to sentry duty at, well, bridges, of course. 7 salvoes a minute do not mean much without some form of support from other soldiers. * The Gyrojet gun fired tiny rocket-propelled bullets and was cool enough to showcase in the Bond film You Only Live Twice, but rocket propulsion caused problems. Rather than starting fast and slowing down, it started slowly and accelerated. This meant that within a certain range, the bullet would not be moving fast enough to do any significant damage to anyone with body armor. They were also both more difficult to manufacture and much more expensive than conventional bullets, costing several dollars per round. Finally, air turbulence resulting from the transition from subsonic to supersonic speed effectively destroyed its accuracy. Now, there is one circumstance where a Gyrojet would be an effective weapon, but that circumstance is in the vacuum of space, and if you're going to war out there, you have much bigger problems. So, lack of power at short range, and lack of accuracy at long range, and its only true utility is in a place where no one sane wants to fight a war. While later designs have ameliorated some of these problems, they remain more curiosities than practical weapons. + Most problems could be fixed if a new model of weapon was using gunpowder to accelerate bullets, what would then accelerate further on tiny rocket mid-flight. In that case, we would get a weapon, whose bullets would start fast and become even faster - essentially, Bolters. Too bad they're not invented yet. * WMDs fall victim to this. If you use chemical weapons on the battlefield, you automatically allow counter use... and there are a LOT of countries with covert or open stocks of chemical weapons. The standing policy of the United States (which no longer has chemical weapons in its arsenal) is that any WMD attack will be responded to in kind - i.e., with nuclear weapons, the only WMDs America still has. + Of course, that doesn't mean the US isn't willing to allow their allies to use chemical weapons themselves. During the Iraq-Iran war, the US supplied Iraq with the technology to make chemical weapons. + Hitler specifically forbade the use of chemical weapons in WWII (despite having a very large stockpile of the chemicals) because he himself was the survivor of chlorine and mustard gas attacks, and if the Germans used them then the enemy would be used in kind, and Hitler didn't want that kind of horror to be inflicted upon a human being. Didn't stop him from using it on the Holocaust victims, as he didn't see them as human. + Sure, it's possible that Hitler's reluctance to use chemical weapons was a rare, self-centered mercy based on his own war experience. It's more likely, however, that Germany avoided combat use of chemicals because their logistical transportation was still heavily reliant on horses, compared to other belligerent nations with much greater production and/or imports of trucks. German supply lines would have been terribly vulnerable to any kind of chemical retaliation. * The third type of WMD that has been developed, biological weapons. All sides had operational weapons before the end of WWII (anthrax for the US weapon, and Plague-bearing fleas that could be dropped from a bomb casing for the Japanese one). These theoretically might have been more devastating, and certainly anthrax could have been more persistent, than the nukes actually used. However, in practice they proved to be absolutely unreliable, as the stresses and conditions of deploying them tended to kill both the vectors (such as infected fleas) and the disease microbes themselves. And even in the cases when the weapons were successfully deployed (like Unit 731 did in China), they usually managed to devastate a couple of villages at most. And the strict wartime quarantine measures, available under martial law, were later shown to be very effective in successfully stopping the epidemic, negating the very reason of the weapon's existence. US learned this from captured Unit 731 members after the war, and quickly abandoned the concept. The Soviet Union toyed with the idea much longer, up to the very end of the Cold War and tried to overcome these shortcomings, but without much success. + Also, unlike conventional weapons, there's often going to be a chance that the disease will spread to your own soldiers or some neighboring allied country(then there's the political issues that make the use of biological weapons even less practical). + Developing and testing these weapons can also be an own goal. Even into the 2000s, one remote island in the Western Hebrides of Scotland was still too dangerous for humans to even briefly visit, because of its use in WWII as a test-site for biological weapons such as anthrax. The issue of cleaning it up still persists nearly eighty years on. * Among nuclear weapons, atomic bazookas are the least useful and most hazardous. During the 1950s the US Army invented with the Davy Crockett recoilless rifle to fire low-yield nukes (think the Fat Man launcher from Fallout and you get the picture). As cool as the idea of a man-portable nuke may seem, it just happened to have a nuclear fallout radius that was greater than its optimum firing range. So, it essentially it becomes a suicide weapon as the user would die from radiation poisoning after using it. * If any select-fire infantry rifle has a burst-fire mechanism, it is certainly this. Mechanically induced burst-fire tries to find a good compromise between full auto suppression and semi-auto accuracy. This ends up not giving enough rounds to properly suppress foes and ruins the accuracy of a single shot at the same time. Training soldiers to fire their weapons in short bursts is cheaper and more useful than a building a burst-fire setting into the rifles. * Project Thor, aka "Rods From God". A platform in orbit firing kinetic-energy projectiles at targets on Earth. Sounds awesome, right? Well, not so much: + It takes about 15 minutes from firing to impact, but about 50 minutes (on average) to target. + Everyone with any amount of skill in orbital mechanics (read: almost every space program on the planet) would be able to calculate exactly where a launch platform is at any instant, what it could possibly hit, when it fires, and once it fires determine very quickly what it's firing at. + Due to the plasma sheath that forms around a projectile entering the atmosphere, the projectile can't use sensors to retarget itself. + Finally, the deal-killer: the amount it would cost in money, energy and resources to put enough weapons platforms and projectiles in orbit(at the very least, the mass of a projectile needed to even make it worth using over a more conventional strike method would have to be in the tens of thousands of kilograms, at the very least, and you would have to fight the Square-Cube Law to get just the massive, dense projectiles all the way into orbit; not to mention that such an effort would not go unnoticed by others.) to make Project Thor effective as a weapon system would buy more than enough existing and conventional weapon systems and launch platforms (which have more flexibility) to make project Thor utterly pointless to have, except when conventional weapons can be easily shot down or fooled by countermeasures. * The AN-94 assault rifle, originally intended to replace the AK-74 as Russia's general issue rifle. It is extremely accurate even in burst-fire mode thanks to a system that fires them at 1,800 rounds per minute, putting out both bullets before the recoil from the first even affects the shooter's aim. However, it is prohibitively expensive, and its internals are much more sophisticated than the AK-74 (including what is effectively a second receiver within the receiver that is moved via a pulley to fire two bullets that fast), relegating it to Special Forces use. The complexity also meant that it'll jam whenever it feels like, and certain jams are extremely difficult to clear - not something you want in combat, especially when you're used to the legendary simplicity and reliability of the AK-74. A great example of such a jam can be seen here. * The German Schwerer Gustav and Dora Guns were railway siege guns, and the two biggest artillery weapons ever. Each weighed 1,350 tonnes fully assembled, and fired 800 mm shells that weighed seven tonnes. Designed specifically to destroy France's Maginot Line forts, the guns weren't ready at the time of the Battle of France, which at any rate ended up completely bypassing the fortifications altogether, thus eliminating the need for the guns in that campaign. The Schwerer Gustav was used to some effect in the siege of Sevastopol, destroying some forts and landing a lucky hit that spectacularly blew up the otherwise invulnerable White Cliff ammunition magazine underneath Severnaya Bay, but it only fired 48 rounds before wearing out its barrel (having previously fired 250 rounds in testing and exercises). The Dora was only deployed briefly against Stalingrad, but quickly withdrawn when Soviet encirclement threatened. Their disappointing performance reflects the fact that they were highly limited in what kinds of targets they could be used against. Because the shells were so heavy, the maximum range was only 48 km HE or 38 km AP, less than the 64 km range of 283 mm shells from the smaller 218 tonne Krupp K5 railway gun. And since they were significantly affected by barrel warpage and inconsistent powder combustion from variations in the local air temperature and humidity, the dispersion of the shells was too wide to hit precision targets. The guns basically relied on luck to hit what they were aiming at, so they were only useful for area bombardment of a fortified city. They were also awesomely impractical when it came to manpower and transportation. It took the equivalent of an entire regiment just to man, move, fire and maintain one single gun. The railway guns were also so large they couldn't use existing rail lines when emplaced, unlike normal railway artillery which could either pivot on its carriage or would simply use an area where the rails curved and move forward or backwards to adjust the aim horizontally. Custom rails had to be built wherever the guns had to be set up, using dual sets of tracks in a curve. When broken down for transport, the gun was moved in a train of 25 cars length on conventional tracks. Their inappropriateness for defensive warfare left them with little to do after 1942, and being so conspicuous they were increasingly vulnerable to attack from the air as the Allies gained air superiority; after being basically sidelined for the remainder of the war, the Germans blew them up in April of 1945 to prevent them from being captured by the Allies. * The V-2 rocket, a single-use weapon that cost a fantastic amount of resources per shot, and, thanks to the brutal treatment of the slave laborers making them, still the only weapon that killed more people on its own side than enemies. But since the slave laborers were also considered enemies, it still sorta worked from the Nazis' perspective. + The main problem was the guidance system, which often failed to hit any of the British Isles, if it didn't crash into a German town first. - Later it turned out that the guidance system design was basically pretty sound — the missiles' lack of accuracy was largely the result of the deliberate sabotage of the concentration camp prisoners that built them. Boris Chertok, a Soviet rocket scientist and influential chronicler of The Space Race, who worked at their Mittelwerke production site shortly after the war, noted that the workers learned to make unreliable solder joints and similarly cripple other parts so that they looked and worked fine on the initial inspection, but basically shook themselves apart due to stresses and vibrations during the flight. Another issue was that the German spy network in Britain used to report the missiles' accuracy had all been converted to double agents by the British, so when V-2s would land accurately, they would send back false reports to Germany that the missiles weren't aimed far enough, causing the Germans to "correct" the problem and end up overshooting. - Another problem was the decision to steer the missile by the "gas rudders" — graphite vanes placed into the nozzle that directed the exhaust flow. These were fragile and unreliable all by themselves, and were quickly replaced by Vernier engines of pivoting (gimballing in the engineering parlance) the whole combustion chamber and nozzle assembly together both on the Soviet and the American designs. - As if all this wasn't enough, the V-2 was intended as "Vengeance" for Allied bombing, and so it was fired primarily at London, rather than at the Western Allied beachheads in France, which were often chock-full of vulnerable supplies. + The V-2's big brother, the A9 - which, fortunately, never left the planning stage, though it did come worryingly close to actually being prototyped - was much bigger, and intended to strike the US after an intercontinental flight. It would have been so expensive as to make the V-2 look like a bottle rocket in comparison, especially as it would have required an even more massive booster stage to get the required range. Such a booster, the A10, would have used six V-2 engines. The engineers realized that if they couldn't get precise targeting from V-2s there was no way it could be achieved over such long distances, so it was decided that the second stage would be manned. The pilot, had he managed to eject, wouldn't have had much of a chance, as he'd be parachuting into enemy territory. The Nazis even built test sites for this behemoth, but none were ever produced. + And then there was the A11, which was intended as yet another stage for the A9/A10 combo, and would have used thirty-six V-2 engines. This three-stage monster was intended to target Japan, but the technology of the time would have limited the payload to... 300 Kg. For comparison, WWII-era general-purpose aircraft bombs - certainly capable of causing serious damage, but of little threat singularly - commonly had a weight of 500Kg, and often more. So Germany would have expended huge amounts of fuel, metal and manpower to deliver a payload that would have, possibly, destroyed one or two buildings. Nor did Germany, which was at the time allied with Japan, have any actual desire to attack them. Not surprisingly, this one didn't even leave the drawing stage. * The V-3 artillery cannon, which was a massive 130-meter-long cannon originally designed to bombard London from across the English Channel. While the gun could actually be fired, it was horribly unreliable since it used a series of controlled explosions to propel the projectile instead of a single explosion. This also made the gun prone to exploding, which is what destroyed the prototype. The guns also could not be turned or moved in any way, though given that they were intended to fire at cities (which by definition also cannot be moved) this was considered unimportant, but it meant that the V-3 guns were incredibly vulnerable to air attack. The intention was that the V-3s would fire 24/7, each one landing a 140kg shell in London every 12 seconds. While each individual shell wouldn't do much damage, an actual sustained bombardment would have completely shut the city down since it would never be safe to leave the bomb shelters. In practice, they never achieved such a sustained bombardment and the V-3 guns aimed at London were destroyed by Allied bombers before they could even be fired. A second set of two V-3 guns managed to shell Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge, but failed to do any significant damage and amply demonstrated why the original plan never would've worked even without the Allied bombers destroying the guns. Over five and a half weeks, they managed only 183 rounds fired (a far cry from the intended rate of fire(On average, it's 1 shell per 18177 seconds - 1514 times slower than intended. If they somehow managed to keep intended speed, they would have fired 277200 during all this time, if provided with ammunition.)) and only 44 of them were confirmed to actually hit the city, killing only 10 people and injuring 35. In addition to the inherent technical problems with the design, the Luxembourg bombardment was impaired by severe ammunition shortages due to the German railways being under constant air attack. This resulted in the gun crews improvising a much smaller 95kg sabot round containing only 9kg of explosives. + The third Vergeltungswaffe (Vengeance Weapon), the humble V-1 flying bomb, proved to be Boring, but Practical. It became the grand-daddy of all cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. * The Karl Device, a 124 tonne self-propelled siege mortar designed and built by Rheinmetall for the German Wehrmacht. The second-largest weapon by caliber ever fired in war (600 mm, compared to the Schwerer Gustav's 800mm), each heavy concrete-piercing shell weighed 2,170 kg and contained 289 kg of explosive filler. The SPG could only be effectively moved by rail, and was almost useless as tactical weapon. But it sure blew the hell out of whatever it hit: Here is what it looked like when it hit the old offices of the Prudential Insurance Company◊ in Warsaw. Here is a picture of a dud◊ shell. One was also used during the Siege of Brest Fortress, where the shockwaves from the impact could travel through metres of concrete and still be lethal. * One of the weapons the Ottomans brought with them during their siege (and eventual conquest) of Constantinople was Basilica, a 27-foot-long cannon that could launch cannonballs as heavy as 600 pounds up to a mile away. It probably didn't see much action due to a lack of effective ammo to get the desired results and required 60 oxen to drag it from place to place. It also took three hours on average to reload, giving the Byzantines a chance to repair the damage between each shot. + There was also the somewhat-smaller ("only" 17-foot) Dardenelles Gun), which came in handy when repelling a British invasion in 1807 - roughly 300 years after its initial construction - during which the Ottomans fired it with grapeshot and caused 28 British casualties in the process. * The XM29 OICW. It was a standard 5.56mm assault rifle with a 20mm grenade launcher that had programmable airburst grenades. Issues came about due to weight,(the target weight was 15 pounds, three heavier than the existing M16A2 with M203 combination; the actual weight ended up being 18) cost,(Whereas the M16A2 and M203 cost $1,000 together, the projected cost for the full XM29 was $10,000 per unit, and the actual cost was likely to be $35,000 at minimum, to say nothing that each 20mm grenade for the launcher cost $150, versus a regular 40mm grenade only costing $8; the only reason the regular bullets didn't cost more was that those were the same as with the M16) and the ineffectiveness of both the 20mm grenade(it was too small for proper lethal air-bursting or fragmentation, and any larger-caliber grenade launcher would further exacerbate the weight issues unless it was single-shot...and having the grenade launcher be magazine-fed instead of single shot was the entire point of seeking a high-tech replacement for the existing M16A2 and M203 combo) and the rifle itself compared to the M16A2(thanks to a barrel just barely longer than nine inches, which wasn't enough to generate an effective muzzle velocity for bullets to go where they were actually aimed or particularly damage what they did hit. The M16A2's 20-inch barrel is generally considered to be ideal for maximizing the 5.56x45mm cartridge's lethality; anything shorter than the M4 carbine's 14.5-inch barrel - and for the record, only one military AR-15 derivative has gone below ten and a half inches - is intended for a role similar to submachine guns rather than a normal rifle.). + The grenade launcher part did manage to spawn the XM25, using a larger and more effective 25mm grenade, which saw continued testing and some actual service. Unfortunately, the XM25 would also fall victim to this trope. Despite its original design as something that would later be recombined with the concurrent XM8 rifle to give another shot at the full OICW package, the XM25 and its ammunition were rather heavy, forcing the user to forego a rifle. This reduced their combat effectiveness, since it limited their close-range combat capabilities, along with its lower overall ammunition capacity. The air-bursting grenades were quite expensive, even moreso than the XM29's at $1000 per round. Eventually, 40mm grenades were developed with air-bursting capability, which were much cheaper and more standardized than the XM25's specialized 25mm rounds, and following lawsuits between the people who were supposed to produce the weapon, the project was finally canned in 2018. + The South Koreans tried to salvage the design in the form of the Daewoo K11, a combination of a 5.56mm assault rifle and a 20mm bolt action grenade launcher, with such features as a ballistic computer, thermal viewing capabilities and an effective engagement range of 300 meters, all while weighing 6.2 kilograms (13 and a half pounds) while unloaded. It was apparently tested in Afghanistan and while initially showing some serious defects (most notable defects with the striking mechanism and the barrel moving during firing) DAPA managed to repair these and the weapon is now fully functional, even getting export requests from several other countries, most notably the UAE and Saudi Arabia. However, even the improved model was demonstrated to have absolutely abysmal accuracy, with testing at 500 meters showing only three shots out of fifty hitting, alongside the high costs despite the lower equip rate (even with the South Koreans realizing the concept would only work as a specialist's weapon, issued to a couple grenadiers per squad, rather than entirely replacing the standard rifle, the project has cost the equivalent of $100 million USD) which ultimately saw the project suspended in late 2019. * Arguably, a lot of the weapons in the US Army's Advanced Combat Rifle program could fall into this by the sound of it. Varieties include stuffing two bullets in a single cartridge(For example, the Metal Storm system, which used multiple barrels, each loaded with multiple rounds, to produce a storm of metal. However, the personal version of the weapon was ludicrously heavy (and the "artillery" version had serious design flaws), reloading was time-consuming, and accuracy was not a priority in the design, ultimately scrapping it), making cartridges shorter by packing the gunpowder on the side, flechette rifles(While flechette cartridges are available for shotguns, the fin-stabilized flechette design (think of it as the fletching on an arrow) was designed to increase range and didn't do a very good job of it. In addition, the fins would frequently break or fail to deploy when the round was fired, making the bullet a lighter, less accurate round that frequently failed to reach the ranges they were supposed to, or even the ranges of standard slugs), and caseless ammunition weapons(Caseless ammunition was designed to increase fire rate, by removing the mechanical necessity of ejecting a spent cartridge from the weapon after the slug was fired. While it worked, one thing the designers neglected to consider was that the ejected case also took with it a lot of the heat and fouling from the explosion of gunpowder. As a result, the barrels of caseless weapons would quickly get dirty, overheat, and warp from a single magazine of ammunition, rendering the weapon useless). Unfortunately, none of these weapons produced results that were significantly better than what was available at the time. It didn't help that this program was obsessed with smaller ammunition that didn't perform any better all for the sake of More Dakka (though many rounds, such as the 4.7mm round, were also designed with armor penetration in mind, and the thinking was that even if the bullets were individually less lethal the sheer number would make up for that). Oh, did we mention that the failed programs wasted billions of dollars in the process of proving that the US Army Ordnance Corps couldn't properly design a rifle? + Then again, the program did produce several rifles that were as good as the M16 and slightly better in some ways (especially in the weight department)... just not better enough to justify the Army replacing all their existing stocks of Boring, but Practical M16s with the new gun (which would likely have been the fantastically expensive H&K G11). The new types of ammunition developed for the project also came with their own teething problems independent of their ballistic properties; for example, the G11's caseless rounds were so fragile that just dropping them could potentially ruin them. Though many of the problems exhibited by the program's entrants could probably have been solved with a little more R&D, the program was already too short on time and money to sit through another development cycle. It's unlikely that the US armed forces will be replacing the M16/M4 family any time soon. It is also known that retooling lots of munition factories to make any rifle to replace the M16 and the M4 would require lots of time and money. Even if a replacement rifle had better performance, the retooling process would make logistics units miserable! + The Russian equivalent of the ACR program, Project Abakan, similarly failed to bear much fruit. The engineers toyed around with some neat ideas like "balanced recoil" systems to eliminate muzzle climb, and even welding two AK-74 rifles together to increase the total rate of fire, but none of the prototypes would be particularly successful. Tellingly, the rifle that actually ended up adopted at the end of the program was the above-mentioned AN-94, and its adoption may have been more down to Russian politics than to any actual superiority of the design itself. * The XM214 Microgun. Intended to be a man-portable version of the M134 Minigun, it was scrapped when someone figured out two simple facts: 1) the combined weight of the gun, battery and ammo pack were still too much for any soldier to carry, and 2) such a huge amount of firepower is rarely actually needed - normal machine guns provide more than enough for the vast majority of purposes. * In the great Soviet tradition of moar firepower, the Soviets designed their rotary GSh-6-30 cannons differently than the US: instead of being powered by electric motors, they ran on the gas they themselves generated, which made them very fast to spool up and ridiculously dakka-capable. It did, however, come with a few issues: because they were adapted from the naval CIWS guns (more specifically, the AK-630), the massive recoil and vibration, while not as much of an issue onboard ships that have the mass and stability to absorb the massive recoil and vibrations, were putting so much stress on airframes that stress fractures and breakage of minor systems was practically a given (they had to install powerful lights near the landing strips, because the aircraft's own landing lights would almost invariably break upon firing of the gun), and not-so-minor ones like the landing gear or, in one case, *the entire control panel*** would sometimes break as well. In addition, it fired so fast a full magazine would be exhausted in less than 2-4 seconds of fire, shells would occasionally rupture prematurely and damage the firing aircraft, and the cannon could be fired no more than ten times, because it was ignited by pyrotechnic charges. As a result, the final generation of Soviet fighters (and the post-Soviet Russian designs to date) have reverted to a single-barrel cannon (and repurposing the pyrotechnic charges of their rotary cannon to give the GSh-301 the unique ability to unjam itself in the event of a dud round). * In general, fully automatic combat shotguns. Weapons like the H&K CAWS, USAS-12 and the AA-12 are typically designed for close-quarters engagements in built-up urban or thick jungle/forest areas. However, where they have raw firepower, they lack versatility. With the military, shotguns are largely relegated to the role of door breaching and lack the versatility to quickly adapt from a close-range to medium-range threat like a rifle or carbine (requiring unloading and reloading with a different shell type for the new purpose - the CAWS program was actually brought to a halt partly because someone asked what exactly a soldier armed with one was supposed to do if they encountered an enemy further away than the 100-meter maximum range intended for the weapon). For the police, that much firepower is simply overkill, and private citizens who want to own one have to go through a mountain of expensive paperwork. Besides, such weapons have large recoil and high mass of both ammunition and weapon itself - and brutes capable of accurately firing them are better off using belt-fed machineguns (since they have more fire rate, range, are better against armor, and are overall more practical). + The Mk3 Jackhammer never even got as far as most of the others (which are available for purchase): designed as one of the very first automatic shotguns, the Jackhammer was weighty, inaccurate (which is saying something when you're talking about a shotgun, which with normal buckshot is supposed to use less-than-perfect accuracy as an advantage), and most damning of all, could not be actually be fired in full-auto. The weapon was very quickly scrapped, and only a dozen or so prototype versions were ever made, maybe two of which were actually capable of full-auto fire (and even then they'd immediately jam after one or two shells). There were also plans to make the magazines work as an anti-personnel mine with the addition of a detonator, but that too never got further than a mock-up of a slightly-modified magazine. But that being said, the Jackhammer had a devastating rate of fire and a surprising range when it did work. * The Heckler and Koch Mk 23 pistol. It's a match-grade-accurate, very reliable and durable handgun developed for Special Forces use. It is capable of making a 2-inch group at 27 yards and has exceptional durability in harsh environments, being waterproof and corrosion-resistant as well as being capable of firing tens of thousands of rounds without a barrel change. The .45 ACP round has considerable stopping power and yet is subsonic, making it suitable for use with a suppressor. However, since the design priority was using the pistol as a primary weapon instead of as a secondary or fallback weapon, the thing is five pounds and sixteen inches long when loaded and outfitted with all the trimmings (specially designed suppressor and laser aiming module). To compare, the Desert Eagle, the king of Awesome, But Impractical handguns, is almost four and a half pounds loaded, and almost eleven inches long. No operator wants to carry a sidearm that weighs as much loaded as an unloaded MP5, and so H&K quickly designed and released the USP series of handguns(the prototypes of which were actually used to make the Mk 23, in fact) which retain most of the good qualities of the Mk 23, but with less weight and bulk; the USP Tactical in particular does pretty much everything the Mk 23 does at two-thirds of the weight or cost and in three different calibers, thus leaving the Mk 23's civilian version to end production. * The M16, when first used in Vietnam, was supposed to represent the pinnacle of the modern assault rifle. It was made of lightweight polymers which reduced the rifle's weight tremendously while still giving the user the option of automatic or single shot fire, decent penetration for its weight, and a number of other features which are now standard design elements. However, cost-cutting measures(Particularly the removal of chrome-plating in the bore. However, considering the fact that the versions without the chrome-plating were also the ones with the fairly pointless forward-assist added, which the Air Force, Colt, and Stoner all felt was a needless expense but the Army insisted on adding, this may or may not have been outright sabotage by members of the Army brass still bitter over having to replace the M14) and a supply issue with the powder used with the ammunition it was tested with and designed for led to a switch late in the game that led to corrosion and jamming issues in the field. To make matters worse, the M16 had been issued without a cleaning kit(Or instructions on how to clean it, because apparently someone assumed that Colt saying it required very little maintenance and that the gas system was self-cleaning meant that it required no maintenance and the entire weapon was self-cleaning. Again, this may have been deliberate sabotage). While quickly fixed (as in by 1968) by the improved M16A1, evolving into a top-class assault rifle in the M16A4 and finally gaining success in its even more successful cousin, the M4A1 that became the standard US service rifle, the reputation lingers, particularly among those that have never used one. * The immediate predecessor and the rifle the M16 replaced, the M14, was also an example of this. The M14 was a far more traditional rifle than the M16, with a body made of wood, mechanisms based on the M1 Garand rifle and firing a full-sized rifle round (the NATO-standard 7.62x51mm round, which matched the ballistics of the prior .30-06 Springfield round in a slightly smaller and lighter package). Unlike the Garand, it was selective-fire and could fire on full auto as well as semi-auto. The idea of the rifle was to replace several semi- and fully automatic weapons systems with a single do-all weapon that could reliably engage a target at any possible range. The fact that it was a more "traditional" rifle compared to the M16 also meant it was more widely accepted by the old guard of the U.S Military in its approach of emphasizing the role of individual riflemen over everything else. However, it proved to be very flawed as a general infantry weapon. For starters, the M14 is two pounds heavier than an M16. Its ammunition was also heavier than an M16's, with the same amount of ammo becoming a much greater burden for a soldier trudging through Southeast Asia. The heavier round also resulted in heavier recoil, which made the M14 extremely inaccurate in sustained automatic fire (this trend had been discovered earlier by the Russians when they tested the AVS-36, one of Simonov's first automatic rifles, way back in the 1930s - the problem turned out to be that the ergonomics of semi-pistol-grip weapons like these simply aren't designed to keep on target at 700 rounds per minute). Finally, in attempting to be a do-all weapon system, it had failed to surpass any of them. It was too light to be a squad automatic weapon, too heavy to be comparable to a submachine gun and one Department of Defense report went so far as to call it "completely inferior" to the M1 Garand. The only real improvement was that it used a detachable 20-round magazine instead of feeding from 8-round clips like the M1... and John Garand, who would later go on to call the M14's gas system 'junk', had already designed a modified M1 using BAR magazines of that capacity before anybody thought of the M14. Most damning, Springfield Armory could neither produce it in the numbers needed for mass adoption (breaking one of the promises that had effectively sold the weapon over the FN FAL and thus gave the Pentagon the excuse it needed to not buy a foreign rifle; it took seven years before the change to the M14 was completed) nor use the existing production tooling for the M1 (the other promise that sold it over the FAL), since, even if that had been possible (the design turned out to be just different enough that it couldn't be made on existing Garand tooling), it had all either been broken beyond repair or sold off to Italy. To add insult to injury, the Italian firm Beretta actually designed a comparable battle rifle that could be manufactured with the original M1's tooling. Eventually, the M14 was completely replaced as a frontline general-issue infantry weapon. It was however later modified into several designated marksman's rifles like the M21, a role it has proved to be much more capable in. * In general, drum magazines tend to be this when compared to either traditional rifle magazines or a belt feed system. While they hold more rounds than a standard rifle or submachine gun magazine, and load faster than a belt feed system, they are also heavier than the former and a lot more finicky than the later. Because of the weight, a soldier could only potentially carry one or two. They can be reloaded by hand, but as you can imagine, reloading a 50-, 70- or 100-round drum magazine by hand takes a pretty long time. Finally, they have a tendency to jam. This is why almost every firearm originally made with a drum magazine either had a traditional magazine made for it later or was adapted for a belt-feeding system, and why the G.I. issue version of the Thompson submachine gun cannot load drum magazines at all. The only subversion for this was drum magazines for aircraft-mounted autocannons early in WWII- box magazines could not carry enough ammo without being unreasonably long, while belt magazines- which did eventually replace the drums later on- required a wing redesign that (at the time) nobody had time for and would have taken ready aircraft out for refit, something that nobody wanted to do given that a war had just started. * The Urumi is an extremely flexible Indian sword, more like a whip that has a sharp edge to it. In the hands of a master, almost no one can get near the user and no parry would be able to successfully block it. In the hands of anyone else, they are as likely to slice their own leg off as kill the enemy. Another downside is that it requires a lot of stamina as swinging it around, even with two hands, is very tiring. There is a reason it considered one of the most difficult weapons in the world to master. + This is also the reason why "Bladed Tentacle-Arm" weapon from Science Fiction (particularly used by robots, shapeshifters, and genetic horrors of various kinds) is so effective - since it combines all pluses of Urumi with ease of use and mastering of your fists. Essentially, that just removes the only limiting factor of Urumi. Perhaps in the near future, you could install such bladed tentacles to your body... * Every military weapon made by Italian gun designer Abiel Bethel Revelli di Beaumont, due to different reasons every time. Here's a quick breakdown: + Glisenti Modello 1910: the first semiautomatic handgun of Italian make produced first by Glisenti and then by Metallurgica Bresciana già Tempini, it was a cheap and reliable handgun (compared to the Luger P08, which required lots of hand-fitting before leaving the factory) firing an adequate proprietary 7.65mm round. When it came the time for the Royal Italian Army to adopt a semiauto, this was the chosen weapon, but at one condition: it would have to fire a 9mm round. Thus MBT redesigned the weapon to fire the proprietary 9mm Glisenti... And that's when the gun becomes impractical: the 9mm Glisenti is a 9mm Parabellum weakened enough to be fired in the more fragile Italian pistol, but aside for that the two rounds were almost identical, save for the more conical shape of the Glisenti's bullet, and during World War I Italian troops would occasionally capture Parabellum rounds and, unable to notice any difference, load their handguns with those, with explosive results. + Fiat-Revelli Modello 1914: a machine gun, it was a sound design, had an indexing multiple-column magazine that was more reliable than a belt (even if hellishly complex and slow to load without special tools), and, most important, was Italian, thus freeing the Royal Italian Army from foreign supplies that would come either from Britain (at the time an enemy), Austria-Hungary (technically an ally, but a very disliked one that the Italian government planned to betray at the first chance) or Germany (an ally. This one Italy liked, but also knew they'd stay loyal to Austria-Hungary). Less awesome were the many troubles that earned this weapon a place in the Reliably Unreliable Guns page on This Very Wiki and the fact it was adopted over a better Italian design only due the Fiat company political power and bureaucrats screwing up hard while buying Maxims. Its successor, the Modello 1935, was even worse as it frequently overheated and jammed if not oiled. + Fiat Modello 1915: AKA the Villar Perosa or, to the soldiers, the Raspberry, Trope Codifier of the submachine gun (and the Trope Maker alongside the German MP18). It was awesome also for other reasons: it was a combination of two independent submachineguns, each gun had an awesome rate of fire of 1,500 rounds per minute, and, firing the slightly underpowered 9mm Glisenti, the recoil was easily manageable. On the impractical side, the magazine for each gun contained a measly 25 rounds (AKA less than one second of fire. That's why the soldiers called it Raspberry), the weak round made it ineffective at longer ranges, and the ergonomics were so bad that you have to wonder how the soldiers managed to fire it while moving (Italian soldiers were very good at improvising). + Cannoncino Semiautomatic Fiat Modello 1916: a portable automatic cannon for infantry and aircraft use, firing 25.4mm-caliber high-explosive or AP rounds, with a higher rate of fire than its counterparts from Austria-Hungary and France. As an aircraft gun it failed due excessive weight and the rounds being too slow to hit late war airplanes, and production ended up being cut short when the British (by now allies) noticed it was suspiciously similar to their Pom-pom and threatened to sue. + Villar Perosa Modello 1918: AKA the OVP and the Half Raspberry, it's a derivate of the Villar Perosa, taking one of the Villar Perosa's two guns, modifying it to fire slower (900 rpm, still fast but on the high end of current service submachine guns), and mounting it on a spare rifle buttstock. It was a good weapon, apparently pure awesome... Except the young military officer Tullio Marengoni came up with a less expensive way to do the same thing and attach a bayonet to the gun, resulting in the Moschetto Automatico Beretta Modello 1918. * Yet another example of the Soviet love of More Dakka, the ShKAS aircraft machine gun. Quite unusually for a 7.62mm machine gun, it functions like much larger revolver cannons to ensure smooth feeding. It also has an unusually light recoiling section, allowing for an incredible rate of fire of 1,800 to 2,000 rounds per minute in the standard model and up to 3,000 RPM in the rare "Ultra-ShKAS" version. That's at the lowest level the M134 Minigun can reach, and with a single barrel. While (like any rifle-caliber machine gun) the ShKAS was shorter-ranged than a .50-caliber one, the ability to put up a veritable wall of lead greatly increased hit probability once the target did pass within its range. The problem was, the ShKAS was described as having 48 ways of jamming, some of which were difficult to clear even on the ground, and the Ultra-ShKAS was even less reliable. It was also very manpower-intensive to manufacture, a flaw that carried over to the otherwise much superior 20mm ShVAK autocannon that was developed from it. + Much of its reliability problems stemmed from the very rate of fire it was designed for. Just as an example, the rimmed Russian round required two-phase feeding, first pulling it out of the belt to the back of a weapon, and then pushing it forward into the action. Because of the insane rate of fire, the round was jerked out of the belt with such a force that the bullet would often fall out of it. They had to design a special kind of ammunition with much heavier crimping to fight this problem, but this increased the barrel pressure, leading to a whole new host of reliability issues. On top of this, these special rounds would often mix with the normal ones in the supply chain, causing issues for other guns if they accidentally loaded the ShKAS bullets - but this wasn't so much of an issue because the ShKAS-specific bullets were quite rare, tempting the armorers to load the guns with the normal ones when they weren't available. * The Luger P08 is absolutely gorgeous for a handgun and is superbly machined and precisely fitted. That's why it was a terrible combat pistol for anyone not well drilled on its usage. The toggle action is notoriously finicky if not racked properly (and will injure a person who attempts a rack on the draw), prone to corrosion at sea if not well-maintained, fails to cycle if fed low-pressure ammunition, and the degree of hand-fitting meant that interchanging parts was practically impossible without the expertise of a proper gunsmith. Additionally, while the Luger was extremely reliable and mud-resistant in the trenches, it was very expensive to produce in large numbers. In both World Wars, the Luger worked fine as an officer's sidearm for shooting prisoners and deserters or as the weapon for specialized soldiers who raided enemy trenches, but it didn't take long for the German army to notice how poorly suited the gun was as a backup sidearm for regular infantrymen, and it was eventually replaced as standard issue by the boxier-looking and less costly Walther P38, which was also quickly adopted by officers as a replacement for the Luger, as the P38 could interchange parts more easily. * The Canet 12.6" naval cannon, as mounted on the Japanese Itsukushima-class protected cruisers. Intended to give the ships a gun that could actually tackle battleship armor, it proved not only far too large for the ships, but also abominably slow at reloading, even for the era. In their only battle, it took an hour to reload the gun. Unsurprisingly, the Japanese bit the bullet and bought proper battleships shortly thereafter. * The 46cm/45 Type 94, the gun mounted on the Yamato-class battleships, is the largest gun ever put to sea, and the problems mounting it caused the ships is documented above. The gun itself, though, had two major flaws that made them even less practical. Their armor-piercing shells were designed to dive underwater and strike below the armor belt, with the result they had less penetration under normal conditions, which is one reason the American Mk. 7 16"/50 matches it at longer ranges. Further, the Japanese could only reline the guns at such colossal expense that they simply planned to replace the guns entirely when they wore out. * Most high-velocity naval guns fall into this category. High muzzle velocity has its benefits - increased range, greater belt penetration, and against lighter ships greater accuracy - but the drawbacks made them very situational based on the navy in question's operational doctrine. That high velocity wore out the guns at alarming speeds, often suffered from decreased accuracy due to the incredible firing pressures, stressed breech mechanisms, and early in the 20th century the guns themselves were too long to hold up, structurally. But above all, high-velocity guns traded in reduced deck penetration at long ranges due to their flatter trajectories. Most of the navies that opted for high-velocity guns expected to fight close to their bases, while Japan, the US, and Britain went for more modest ballistics and sought other ways to improve their guns. See the Italian 15" gun mounted on the Vittorio Veneto classes and mentioned below for a good example. * The big Cold War-era Soviet anti-ship missiles. You know, the ones that are mounted in massive canisters that seem to take up half the ship they're on. Often supersonic and long-ranged with big warheads, they were a constant headache for the US Navy and drove their development of ever-better air defense systems, but... well, look at that description again. These missiles were enormous, and required either equally enormous ships to carry them, or serious compromises in numbers and stability — which, of course, didn't stop the USSR from putting half a dozen of these on a tiny missile boat, but such boats were practical in closed theatres only, and couldn't be used to shadow American battlegroups, as the Soviet navy was wont to do. Now that technology has made smaller missiles with similar capabilities viable, the Russians are replacing these big old missiles as fast as they can. It also helps that you can put about twice as many of the new, smaller missiles on a similarly-sized boat. * The American RIM-8 Talos Surface-to-Air missile, one of the "Three Ts" that equipped early American missile ships. The Talos had, by an enormous margin, the greatest range of any missile of its era, with equally excellent altitude performance, an 80% accuracy rate, and the ability to carry a nuclear warhead. Unfortunately, they came with a laundry list of issues that drastically reduced system effectiveness. The 7800-lb, 32-foot missiles had to be carried horizontally in massive magazines that ate up so much space that only a handful of cruisers could carry it. The beam-riding guidance system required two massive guidance radars high up in the ship per launcher and meant only two targets could be engaged at once. And finally, they had a battery that required monthly replacement, and the missiles themselves needed to be tested every two months. And as the final nail in the coffin, unlike the smaller Terrier and Tartar systems, the launchers were incompatible with the later Standard missiles, which meant the ships were obsolete as soon as the Talos was. * In World War II, the British and the Germans tried out sticky bombs on the field as anti-tank weapons. They suffered from a variety of drawbacks. Both versions were infantry weapons that required the troops to get within throwing distance of a tank. Whereas the German magnetic version was unable to reliably stick to its target, the British glue version was actually too sticky and could easily attach to the user instead of the tank. * The Walther WA-2000. On one hand, it was engineered to a high standard, very accurate for a semi-automatic sniper rifle (it was built from the ground up as a target rifle, after all), and a gorgeous piece of machinery. On the other hand, it was ludicrously expensive (a single rifle went for anywhere between $9,000 and $12,500 in the '80s. Today, it's valued between $40,000 and $75,000) and, rather damningly, not robust enough for military use (despite what Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker would have you believe). Production ended in 1988, with only 176 rifles made. * So far as military logistics is concerned, the idea of a universal service cartridge sounds awesome, but has proven to be troublesome. The idea is to give every serviceman the exact same primary weapon ammunition for vastly different roles. The problem is that there are roles with vastly different requirements, so making a universal cartridge doesn't work out too well in the long run (you could change powder loads and projectile properties, but that undoes the whole "universal" idea). * Bullpup assault rifles like the QBZ-95 and FAMAS never caught on for all their futuristic flash. By placing the action and magazine behind the trigger, a bullpup rifle would be lighter and shorter than conventional rifle while still having a full-length barrel. Conceptually, this arrangement would result in a weapon with the compactness and lightness of a submachine gun while still having the longer range and high muzzle velocity of a rifle. However, when pressed into mass adoption and used in combat operations, the bullpup design proved unreliable and unergonomic. With the action closer to the user's face, many shooters experienced excessive noise and heat irritation; even worse is that some bullpup models like the SA80 do not support left-sided ejection ports, so on top the noise and heat, left-handed users have to deal with hot brass casing hitting their faces. Bullpups also have more complex internal mechanisms including longer firing linkages, leading to unresponsive trigger pulls and reduced reliability. Likewise, changing the magazine was awkward and the arrangement wouldn't allow for easy and quick "drop free" change. Subsequently, many nations that originally embraced bullpup rifles like China and France began moving back to using rifles with conventional firearm layouts that offer more reliability and better ergonomics. * Laser weapons struggle to find use outside of point defense systems on naval ships and stationary bases. Compared to conventional projectile weapons, lasers have a lower cost per shot, don't require carrying warheads or propellant charges that can cause catastrophic explosions if hit, and can instantaneously hit fast-moving targets because they travel at the speed of light. However, a power plant to supply the necessary amount of electric current is too large and heavy to be carried by a single person or installed in most aircraft or ground vehicles. As a result, such weapons can only be found on either a ship (which are large enough to have the internal volume to justify said large powerplant) or a land base (which doesn't have to worry about powerplant size or weight given their stationary nature). Furthermore, while lasers can easily melt fragile equipment (such as drones, missiles and planes), a laser needs to shoot at one spot continuously for a long time to burn through hardier targets like bunkers and tanks. That requires the user to spend a longer time exposed to attack, and exacerbates the already-high energy consumption. Even worse is that aerial debris like dust, sand and smoke can block laser beams. So while laser weapons may have advantages in point defense against airborne threats, they're not yet powerful or adaptable enough to serve as a primary offensive armament against surface targets. * Hypersonic missiles- more specifically, hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) such as the Chinese DF-ZF, Russian Avangard, or American AGM-183- possess extreme speed and an unpredictable flight path which makes them extremely difficult for any existing defense system to shoot down and gives them superb range, but once they hit their higher speed they cannot follow sensor input to precisely hit a target. As a platform for short-range ballistic missiles it certainly works well, but against any kind of maneuvering target where the exact location is uncertain, their effectiveness is less certain. They also cost a hefty price, roughly $50-100 million per missile, more than ten times the cost of subsonic cruise missiles. * The book My Tank is Fight! is all about impractical inventions of World War II. * During World War I, before the first A7V tanks were even completed, Imperial Germany decided it needed to go bigger and ordered the super-heavy K-Wagen, also designed by Joseph Vollmer. This was going to be a true landship: 13 m (42 ft. 8 in.) long and 120 t in weight, with four 77 mm cannons, 7 machine guns, 30 mm of armor, and a crew of 27! It was so gigantic that it was designed to be shipped by rail in six modules and assembled at its destination. The commander would have to give orders to the crew by means of electric light signals, including two drivers who would have to steer blindly based on the signals they got from the commander. Even assuming that it would have been able to crawl along at 7.5 km/h without getting stuck or breaking down (in which case they probably wouldn't have been able to tow it away in one piece), it would have been a huge target for artillery and cost so much that they wouldn't be able to afford the loss of one. Two prototypes begun under Hindenberg's orders were almost compete at the war's end, and were destroyed under the terms of the Armistice. * Adolf Hitler loved this trope. Here are just a few of the awesome and extremely impractical weapons that never quite made it: + If the Tiger and Panther could have been considered Awesome but Impractical, what can one say about the superheavy tank Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus? It's the most massive fully enclosed AFV to ever be actually built, with the surviving example measuring 188 tonnes in mass, 10.2 meters (33 ft. 6 in.) in length, 3.71 meters (12 ft. 2 in) in width, and 3.63 meters (11.9 ft.) in height. - The project was a collaboration, employing Dr. Ferdinand Porsche and his company to design the hull, Krupp to both design the turret and manufacture most of the tank's components, and Alkett to perform final assembly. The requirements from Hitler and the military were extremely difficult to meet: armor that would be immune to basically anything the Soviets could shoot at it; a turret big enough to mount a 150 or 128 mm gun, as well as a coaxial 75 mm gun; a powertrain powerful enough to move the heaviest tank ever while still being compact enough to fit inside it; tracks and suspension that could handle all this weight and prevent it from sinking into the ground; and finally the whole tank could be no more than 3.7 meters in width because that was the maximum that could be transported on German rail gauge without blocking train traffic going in the opposite direction. - First, the layout. In order to keep within the width limit, the hull had to be quite long and also fairly tall, causing it to resemble a huge metal brick. The 1.1 meter wide tracks with volute spring suspension were tucked underneath the hull and contained within the side armor, leaving only a relatively narrow "tub" between them for the lower hull. The driver and radio man sat in a front compartment behind the sloped glacis. Behind them on the other side of a bulkhead was the engine compartment, containing a Daimler-Benz V 12 petrol or diesel engine producing over 1000 horsepower. The engine ran an electric generator system behind it under the turret, which in turn fed electricity to the two electric motors that turned the drive sprockets in the rear. The sponsons over the tracks contained—from front to back—the fuel tanks, radiators, and ammo stowage. The turret was mounted on the rear and constituted another large brick shape more than half as long as the hull and weighed over 50 tonnes by itself. It was armed with a 128 mm Kwk 44 main gun, a coaxial 75 mm gun, and a coaxial MG 34 machine gun; inside were the commander, gunner, and two loaders. - The 128 mm gun, which saw combat as a field gun and in the Jagdtiger, could destroy any kind of tank at long range and do a lot of damage to fortifications with its giant shells. However, its rate of fire was slow. The coaxial 75 mm gun was supposed to be a more quick-firing secondary armament which would also save the 128 mm gun from having to waste ammo on weaker targets, but it merely served to make the turret cramped and reduce the main gun's ammo stowage to just 32 rounds. A 20 mm antiaircraft cannon and flamethrowers were also proposed but rejected because they'd take up too much space and add too much weight. - The non-removable side skirts made most kinds of track maintenance impossible in the field, and while it could be put up on three large hydraulic jacks to replace a road wheel, Moran suggests it might have been easier to just dig a hole under part of the track instead. Mechanically speaking, the powertrain and running gear worked surprisingly well. Steering was good, and ground pressure was acceptable. However, because it was so damn heavy the power-to-weight ratio was a lousy 6.4 hp/tonne: they couldn't get it to go any faster than 14 miles per hour on a hard surface, and the operational range was less than 100 miles despite carrying over 1000 gallons of fuel. A giant 14-axle rail transport car was specially designed for it. Since bridges were out of the question, the planned method for crossing deep rivers was for one Maus to drive submerged in water up to 7.9 meters deep, with the crew breathing through a snorkel and a second Maus remaining on shore to run its generator and supply the submerged tank with electricity through cables. This was one of the main benefits of using electric drive. Once the first one got to the other side it would provide electricity for the second one to cross submerged. - The Maus was nigh invulnerable to antitank guns because of slab-like armor—including a 200 mm sloped glacis, 240 mm gun mantlet, side armor 180 mm thick, and side skirts 150 mm thick—but this couldn't change the fact that it would have been a big, slow-moving target for Allied fighter-bombers. The biggest problem, however, was the extreme difficulty of constructing it and the fact that it was wasting huge amounts of industrial capacity and resources that Germany couldn't afford. Those resources included enough steel in each Maus to make roughly four Panther tanks, and also large amounts of hard-to-get copper for the electric components. The one factory that was capable of producing the Maus got blown up, making it the only tank in the war to have its production completely stopped by Allied bombing. After the war, Allied soldiers would discover several hollow, unused Maus hulls and turrets which testified to all that wasted effort. Had the Maus served it would have met the same fate as other heavy German vehicles, getting abandoned and blown up by her crew after taking a disabling hit or running out of ammo and fuel. - The government had ordered six prototypes and 135 production vehicles by June 1943. Later that year, though, the companies were ordered to stop all work so that they only completed two chassis in December 1943 and March 1944, respectively. The V1 prototype was a petrol-electric chassis, which was given a dummy turret for driving tests; it was supposed to get the second turret to be finished, which didn't happen. V2 was a diesel-electric chassis, which received the first and only complete turret. At the end of the war, the Soviets captured the prototypes after the Germans had succeeded in destroying the hull of V2, but not its turret. Therefore, they put hull number 1 and turret number 1 together to make a complete Maus for testing; it's now displayed in the Kublinka tank museum, albeit with most of its internals missing. + The Landkreuzer P.1000 Ratte was the super-heavy tank taken to its ridiculous conclusion. A literal landship dwarfing even the enormous Maus in size and powered by U-boat diesel engines, not only would bridge crossings have been completely impossible for the 1000 tonne vehicle (the plan was that it would simply drive though rivers), but it would also have destroyed any road it attempted to travel on! For long trips it probably would have had to be shipped in pieces by rail, then put together at the front. This tank (if you could even call it that) would have carried two naval guns as its main armament, the same 280mm guns used by the Scharnhorst-class battleships. Its secondary armament was a 128mm gun of the same type used by Maus, the intended location of which is uncertain (variously depicted as mounted in the font hull, in between the main guns in the turret, or on an independent rear turret), and numerous anti-aircraft turrets would've rounded out the armament. It would have had armor up to 250 mm thick. Nevertheless, it would have been a juicy target for Allied bombers and artillery which could have killed it outright, or at least disabled it by destroying the constant train of supply vehicles that would have been required to keep it going. There would have had to be German planes constantly in the air protecting the space above it, and large ground forces assigned to its defense. Hitler's interest in the 1000 tonne tank concept notwithstanding, the Ratte seems to have been at a very back-of-the-napkin stage of design before it got cancelled by Albert Speer in early 1943: if it's true that they were going to use spare turrets from the disabled battleship Gneisenau for Ratte construction, then the tank was definitely going to weigh a lot more than 1000 tonnes since those turrets weighed some 750 tonnes each. It's so nonsensical that some historians believe the Ratte to be a hoax, or perhaps a fanciful sketch that some engineer made for his own amusement. Wehrmacht General Heinz Guderian summed up the absurdity nicely, saying "Hitler's fantasies sometimes shift into the gigantic." + The proposed Landkreuzer P.1500 Monster took the idea from ridiculous to downright insane. A tracked, super-heavy self-propelled artillery piece specified at 1500 tonnes, the aptly-named Monster was supposed to have a crew of over 100 and use the Schwerer Gustav-type 800 mm gun as its main armament! In reality the idea that it would weigh only 1500 tonnes was sheer deluded optimism, since the railway gun it was based on already weighed 1350 tonnes. If you look at the "Artillery" folder on this page, you'll see that the Schwerer Gustav was impractical as an artillery piece to begin with. What's more, even though the Monster would have been heavily armored, the giant and slow-moving machine with its large train of supply vehicles would be an unmissable target for Allied bombers and heavy artillery. Albert Speer cancelled the project in 1943 before it had a chance to leave the drawing board and waste Germany's resources. + The designs of Ratte and Monster have both been attributed to Edvard Grotte, an engineer and the director of Krupp who was well known for his bouts of gigantism and reliance on the awesomeness to the detriment of practicality. During the times of the Weimar Republic, when Germany and the Soviet Union entertained a brief alliance, both being something of the pariahs to the West, he did some work in Russia, producing several designs for his Russian employers. While the first of them, the unimaginatively named Grotte Tank, AKA TG-1, was a fairly conventional medium that advanced to the prototype stage, generally pleased everyone, and wasn't adopted largely due to the sorry state of the early-'30s Soviet industry, his subsequent designs were a clear indication of what would then follow. The TG-5 dwarfed even the aforementioned T-35 in its sheer insanity, and was essentially an early version of Ratte, weighing the same 1000 tonnes and boasting 12-inch naval guns. It was to be driven by four marine diesels and to have 1000 mm frontal armor. + The Japanese, whose dynamics with their allies could be sometimes described as "everything that the Jerries can screw up we can screw up better", and their armor department being the proverbial redheaded stepchild of their military industry, produced the O-I, a superheavy tank that might be best described as the lovechild of a T-35 and the Maus. Equipped with five turrets with 100-to-150 mm guns, and driven with two naval diesels, it was to weigh from 100 to 120 tons in its various incarnations, and used for coastal defence and invasion protection. There's very little information on this tank, but at least one prototype was reportedly built in 1944, and sent to Manchuria for trials, where it was reportedly blown up by the retreating Japanese forces during the Russian offensive the next year. The only material remains of this tank are several huge track links in some Japanese armor museums. + The Bachem Ba 349 Natter, whose name means "Grass Snake", was a vertically launched rocket-engined interceptor that carried its offensive armament of rockets directly in front of the pilot. Endurance was even shorter than the Komet, and the plane was semi-disposable: missions ended with the aircraft breaking apart and the pilot being thrown free. So impractical it was never used operationally - and the only manned test killed the test pilot. - Because it wasn't already insane enough, the original project (later scrapped) had the pilot expend his rockets on the enemy aircraft, then steer the Natter on a collision course with one of the surviving bombers and only then eject. With any luck. + Blohm & Voss BV 40 Glider fighter was proposed to spare fuel and strategic materials for resource-strapped Germany late in the war. By getting rid of the engine and having the pilot lying prone on his belly instead of sitting, they could make the fuselage really narrow to improve aerodynamics and make it a smaller target. The fuselage was made almost entirely of wood. A Bf 109 fighter would tow two BV 40 gliders at once to operational altitude, and the gliders would dive at high speed to attack the enemy bombers with their two 30 mm cannons. The wheeled dolly was discarded upon takeoff, so after its brief attack it would have to land on a single skid. Pretty impressive for an unpowered aircraft, but the prone position was uncomfortable, and the plane was dangerous to fly. Seven were produced before the project was cancelled. + Related, the Blohm & Voss BV 246 guided glide bomb, which was also designed to be built from non-strategic materials. It never went into series production, but tests showed that it could indeed fly. The awesome part? The use of non-strategic materials...specifically, the wings made of concrete. + The Silbervogel bomber, a semi-orbital intercontinental bomber. Too impractical to build at the time, and in any case, it would have had two problems: that it wouldn't have been able to carry a large enough bomb load to justify the cost, and that it would have burned up upon atmospheric reentry. The inventor figured out that the thing would never be able to work halfway through designing it, but continued to work on it anyway for the insane amount of money the Nazis were giving him. + The ne plus ultra of impractical Nazi inventions was the Sun Gun, an idea for an orbiting space station with a giant parabolic mirror made from metallic sodium and at least three square kilometers in area. By concentrating the sun's rays into a focused beam it could function as a Kill Sat, with the ability to deliver scorching death from space to all enemies of the Third Reich. Food and oxygen were to be supplied by on-board pumpkin farms. Fortunately, Nazi Germany didn't yet have the technology, industry, or resources to manufacture manned rockets to construct objects in space, much less a space station consisting of hundreds of tons of equipment and millions of tons of sodium. Building this Sun Gun would probably be impossible even today, with all the countries of the world working together! What's more, a single mirror might not have been able to concentrate that much energy on such a distant focal point, though perhaps numerous smaller ones could have. Oddly enough, the designers also recognized its Mundane Utility: in addition to establishing Nazi world domination, they thought it could be used as a weather satellite and communications platform. * In 1918, Italy completed two prototypes of the Fiat 2000, a heavy tank weighing 40 t. It had full length tracks, a 240 HP engine, 20 mm of front armor, several machine guns, and a hemispherical rotating turret on top equipped with a 65 mm howitzer. In some ways it was more promising than the comparable A7V, with much better obstacle-crossing ability and an innovative layout, but at an average of 4 km/h it was just too slow, particularly when they tried to use it in Libya. It never entered serial production. * When Japan began work on copying the Me 163 (based on blueprints and samples provided by the Nazis), they apparently felt that the tendency of the rocket fuel to explode wasn't a bug, it was a feature. The intended use was for each pilot to take a pass or two shooting at B-29s, then ram the next one they saw. The pilot wasn't expected to bail out. Fortunately the war ended before any of these got into service. * The Northrop XP-79 was intended to be a rocket-powered flying wing fighter that would destroy incoming bombers by ramming them. (No, they thought of that, it was designed to take the impact without significant damage.) Three prototypes were built, two were abandoned after the rocket engine failed to perform adequately, and the project was entirely cancelled when the remaining prototype, fitted with conventional jet engines (and with the ramming concept abandoned), was lost (and the pilot killed) after an unexplained loss of control during test maneuvering. * The Soviet Union/Russia, like the Nazis mentioned above, came up with some impractical gems for battle. In fact, it sometimes seems that the only reason they would design and build these weapons was just to prove that they could: + Cast in 1586, the Tsar Pushka/Tsar Cannon is recognized as the largest cannon by calibre, with a barrel nearly 18ft in length and a bore of nearly three feet. However, it wasn't actually designed as a bombard (the mount and shot displayed nearby are decoration made in 1835): its intended purpose was to be the largest shotgun ever made. Mounted on a fortress wall, it was to be loaded with 1,600 pounds of grapeshot and used against attackers. But by the time it was finally completed, the Tatar threat to Moscow greatly diminished and it never had a chance to be used in a battle.(Although gunpowder residue was discovered during restoration in 2008, meaning it was fired at least once, though nobody can say at who or for what purpose.) Still made a neat showpiece, though. In fact, showing off the prowess Russian bronzeworkers was a major purpose from the start. + The Antonov A-40 "Krylya Tanka" is... a Flying. Tank. It's a tank with wings. If anyone remembers making paper airplanes as a child, you can understand where the problem comes in. Tanks weren't/aren't designed to fly for good reason: they're heavy and aerodynamically unsound. To actually make it possible for it to fly this stinkin' thing, it was stripped of most of its ammunition, armament, armor, and headlights. This made it less a tank and more of a very heavy and cumbersome armored car that would have had very limited survival once on the ground, let alone still in the air. Only one was made, and in its solitary test, it did in fact fly... but was still far too heavy and overtaxed the tow-plane's engines to the point it risked a fire. The project, not surprisingly, was scrapped afterwards. + After limited success with an experiment to create a flying jeep - basically a modified jeep with helicopter rotors allowing it to be towed into the air and for it then to fly under its own power for limited distances - there was serious work done on extending the "flying jeep" idea to a Cromwell tank. This was scrapped on saner reflection when it was realized the rotor blades necessary to support a tank would need to have a two-hundred-foot span, and at least two heavy bombers would be required, plus a one-shot wheeled undercarriage, to get nearly thirty tons of tank into the air. * The Western Allies got in on this, too. Due to the German blockades, the British had a huge shortage of steel during the early part of the war, which was needed to create new carriers and the like. One genius came up with an idea: "Pykrete", a mixture of ice and wood pulp, such as sawdust or even old newspaper. The resulting material was not only stronger than regular ice, but still light enough to float and also resistant to melting. The idea was to make a huge unsinkable aircraft carrier out of the stuff. It never got past a theoretical stage, because the giant refrigeration units that would be needed to produce ice on a scale to build a capital ship would consume just as much steel as one built the conventional way. * Project Pluto and the Supersonic Low-Altitude Missile (SLAM). Imagine a cruise missile. Now, imagine that cruise missiles with a ramjet engine powered by a nuclear reactor the size of a locomotive, flying at low altitude to avoid radar at three times the speed of sound, lobbing nuclear bombs at things. In addition to the nuclear bombs, the shockwaves and radioactive exhaust from the engine would destroy, kill and irradiate whatever it flew over. Project Pluto involved the development of a nuclear reactor and engine that could withstand such air pressure and temperatures, a feat achieved through huge experimental efforts and at great expense. Unfortunately, the problem with building a weapon that spews nuclear waste everywhere is that nobody will give you permission to test-fly the damn thing, and your allies might disapprove of it flying over their countries to get to the USSR. Nuclear-tipped ICBMs turned out to be a lot cheaper, a lot safer, and a lot faster. On the other hand, the guidance system developed for it was used in later cruise missiles. * The Convair X-6, a nuclear powered bomber. The X-6 had potential if it was practical, such as being able to stay aloft in the air for weeks at a time without refueling. But to shield the crew at a minimal safety level required 12 tons of lead and rubber. There were also concerns about the fact that peacetime crashes carried the possibility of contaminating large swaths of civilian land, both yours and your allies, not to mention the fact that even the best shielding scheme wouldn't guarantee against the constant emission of hot radioactive byproducts directly into the open atmosphere above everyone's heads. While test flights with an operational nuclear reactor on board were conducted on a similar aircraft as a testbed, the all-nuclear X-6 never got off the drawing board. * The Soviets had their own nuclear powered bomber, the Tu-95LAL, which did partly solve the weight problem of the Corvair X-6 by mainly shielding the crew instead of the reactor itself(while the reactor did have the shield, it was relatively light, and mainly served to protect the mechanics working on the plane from the inactive reactor, with full shielding only in the cockpit direction), but while it was more practical (it even flew a couple of times with the reactor on), it still was too large, unwieldy and expensive, not to mention an absolute nightmare to maintain (fix a tire? Step 1: don full radiation gear...) and hugely dangerous in a crash. When the first practical ICBMs arrived, the project was canceled. * The nuclear pulse propulsion rocket concept made even the SLAM and Corvair X-6 look sedate and practical by comparison. This design used the periodic detonation of nuclear bombs for launch and forward propulsion. Surprisingly, it might have been quite practical for space travel from an engineering perspective, but it was hideously impractical politically (the nuclear detonations would violate the Partial Test Ban treaty, and that's before even considering public opinion). * The Mauler was ahead of its time. Aircraft speed increased and helicopters became a viable threat to armor, so the US Army decided to make a mobile SAM system for Forward Area Air Defense (FAAD). The M113 based Mauler would have a radar to track any aircraft so that the fire control would shine a radar beam on the target. The missile would follow the beam and then use IR to finish the job. The operator just had to press a button so the system would do the rest, which piqued the interest of the US Navy and the British Army. The problem? This was 1960 - computers filled entire rooms back then. The radar barely worked, and the missile would fly off course. There were issues with the missiles falling apart or bad rocket casings. The missiles (mounted in a 3 x 3 box launcher) would shake their launcher apart. In the end, the both the Navy and the British Army bailed, and the US Army canceled the project. + The concept eventually became successful twenty years later with the Bradley Linebacker, which was the same idea, only scaled down. It had the 25mm gun in addition to four Stinger missiles. With it, the Army finally had a FAAD system that could keep up with the M2 Bradley and the M1 Abrams. It even cost the same as a regular Bradley. Problem was, with the Soviet Air Force no longer a threat necessitating its use, it was easier just to use it as a regular Bradley. All were converted by 2004. * Around the same time as the Mauler, the Navy was working on its new Typhon Combat System to replace its early SAMs. Attention was paid in particular to avoid the guidance channel limitations of early SAMs, as the early missiles required guidance throughout flight and so each guidance radar could only guide a single missile at once. The heart of the system was the AN/SPG-59 electronically-scanned phased-array radar, which doubled as both a search and guidance radar. Unfortunately, it was also the downfall of the system: the Navy never got the broadcast elements to be suitably reliable, and the radar was such a power hog it was only practical to mount it in expensive nuclear ships. Unsurprising, since the Navy was essentially trying to build the AEGIS combat system fifteen or twenty years before they actually managed it. Faced with the rising costs and mounting technical failures, the Navy cancelled the system in favor of iterating existing missiles. * During the Cold War, some armies dabbled in designing tanks with twin cannons mounted in a single turret or chasis. This arrangement would theoretically provide more firepower by letting the tank to fire two consecutive shots in quick succession. However, the double-barreled tank ran into many of the same problems experienced by the multi-turreted tanks from World War II. Not only would the arrangement add additional weight to the tank, but it would also take up too much crew space, making fighting conditions too cramped and exhausting. Also, the additional firepower would be overkill especially since nowadays a single tank round is accurate and powerful enough to destroy most armored targets. Even if a tank needed an increased rate of fire, there are always autoloader that provides the necessary firepower but with less weight and space. Currently, all armies mount twin cannons only on lighter anti-air vehicles and even then, their cannons have calibers no greater than 57 mm compared to the 90-125 mm guns used on tanks. * The amphibious Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) was an infantry fighting vehicle was conceived for long ranged amphibious assaults performed by the U.S Marine Corps. In many regards, it surpasses its peers as the EFV can carry 17 troops and has a whopping 2700 hp engine whereas its contemporaries like the Puma can carry only 6 troops and have a 1000 hp engine. However, the EFV's amphibious specialization meant that it cannot mount proper protection like a V-Shaped hull or slat armor that have become standard on most IFVs. Furthermore, the increased range of anti-ship missiles have made direct amphibious assaults too dangerous as it would be much safer to land after clearing out defenses or land on less defended beachheads. The EFV's fragility, along with cost overruns, lead to its cancellation by the Pentagon in 2012. * So far, railguns are much more Awesome than they are Practical. Despite current tests showing that a railgun can fire a 3.2 kilogram/7 pound projectile at Mach 7 speeds, there are still crippling issues with powering the gun as well as the heat from firing wearing it out quickly,(Though that has been steadily improving. FY 2015 report indicate that they now have around a 400-shot barrel life, but the Navy wants 1000.) limiting how useful it would be as an actual weapon. However, the project cost for developing the railgun is a lot lower compared to some of the other examples on this page (along with the finished version expected to a little more damage than a Tomahawk missile at a fraction of the cost), which has seen it survive several rounds of budget cuts. + More feasible than railguns are coilguns. Some already exist, as seen here. Coilguns circumvent the projectile-on-barrel friction that is the cause of a railgun's severe firing wear, by hurling a maglev bullet. + It's worth noting that the Naval railgun project has been cut, this is mostly due to shift resources to a hypersonic missile project, and the Navy has the full intention of reviving the project later down the line. * Not really a weapon per-se, but in World War II, the British experimented with a "Parachute-less Air Drop". Basically, the idea was to use small rocket thrusters to negate the speed at which a supply crate fell from the air, allowing it to safely lower to the ground. Unfortunately, the rockets were very finicky. In tests, they would either activate too soon and thus spend their fuel before they hit the ground, or slam into the ground at near-terminal velocity then fly up into the air, flinging whatever was inside and large splintered timbers about the landing zone. This idea was so impractical, it never got past the 'drop twenty feet from a crane' stage. + There was a reason for this: very poor supply of silk in Britain to make traditional parachutes. Other fibers are either too heavy, or too weak, and the three major producers of silk were China, Japan and Northern Italy - all in Axis hands during the war. The large (millions-strong) number of parachutes made for the D-Day airborne ops were made with nylon. + Other nations continued the development, though, and similar technology (in addition to conventional chutes, mind you) was introduced by the Soviet Union to cushion the final landing impact of heavy airdropped loads, such as APCs and supply containers. Both the USSR/Russia and the US used it as a last-second landing engine for their space capsules/interplanetary probes, and as recently as August 2012 the US used a pure rocket-engined sky crane to land its latest Mars rover. The newest Russian capsule is also planned to eschew parachutes and land on aerobraking and rockets only, and Elon Musk has declared that if SpaceX's Dragon capsules cannot make a soft landing on Earth using only rockets and aerobraking, the project will have been a failure in his eyes. * Project Babylon was Iraq's attempt to build a supergun that would have rivaled the Nazis' V-3 project. The project would have called for the construction of two 1000mm cannons and a 350mm prototype, each 156 meters long. The full-size cannons would have been capable of firing conventional shells over 1000 kilometers, or firing rocket assisted shells straight into orbit. The guns' intended uses were to either deliver nuclear, biological, or chemical tipped warheads or to disable enemy satellites. However, like the V-3, the Babylon guns suffered from the drawback of being locked into facing a single direction, as well as being gigantic and impossible to hide (and even if you could somehow hide it, the muzzle flash from firing it would instantly give away its position). The gun was so impractical the Israelis never considered it a serious threat; after a few shots, the Israeli Air Force would quickly put a laser-guided bomb right down the muzzle. The project ground to a halt after its lead designer was assassinated (whether by Israel or Iran remains uncertain; both were more concerned with his simultaneous work on improving the accuracy of Iraq's ballistic missiles), and the guns were dismantled and destroyed by the UN after the First Iraq War. * The Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser. Essentially a Boeing 747 with a Wave-Motion Gun, designed to shoot down ICBMs with a laser beam during the missile's launch stage. Unfortunately, the laser itself proved too expensive and required too much power, plus the massive aircraft would be a sitting duck against enemy fighters (problematic since the laser would need a line of sight to the ICBM immediately after launch, requiring flight very close to the launch site), and the project was cancelled. * The so-called Tumbleweed Tank, proposed by Texan inventor A. J. Richardson in 1936, would work like a giant hamster ball with the crew contained in a stationary internal sphere, while hemispherical outer shells on either side would rotate to roll it along. It would turn left or right by rolling the hemispheres on either side at different speeds, and fire on the enemy using machine guns sticking out of the center and from turrets on the left and right hubs. The inventor claimed that it would be gas-proof, and that anything but a direct hit would glance off of its curved surfaces. However, it appears from the picture that the only way to see out would be tiny slits above the machine guns, and since there's no periscope, cupola, or hatches on the roof or front the crew would have been driving and shooting almost blind. It's not even clear how they were supposed to get in and out of the ball! If you think about it, the problems are numerous: The big ball wouldn't have nearly as much flotation or obstacle-climbing ability as continuous tracks; it has nothing more powerful than machine guns; there's no fully traversing turret where a proper tank gun could be mounted; it looks as if the driver is also expected to manually fire a machine gun; and the most vulnerable part of the armor is the dead center of the vehicle. Richardson's version was not built, but in 1945 the Soviets captured a strange German-made "Kugelpanzer" (spherical tank) in Manchuria that uses the same principle. The mysterious object has a single-stroke engine, a crew of one man, a little vision slit, no weapons, and armor just 5 mm thick. No German record has been found of what it supposed to be used for. It might have been made for scouting, but in any case, it now resides in the Kublinka Tank Museum. * The Panjandrum was one of the few Allied experimental weapons in WWII that was too crazy to work. It consisted of two wooden wheels ten feet in diameter with rockets strapped to them, connected by a central drum that would be filled with 4,000 pounds of explosives. It was designed to be released off a landing craft so that it could run over everything in its path and then blow up the fortifications on the beach. Unfortunately, the thing was literally impossible to control, and had the nasty habit of veering off course and going into unpredictable directions. Not to mention the fact that the rockets would sometimes separate from the wheel, firing off in random directions as well. Suffice to say, the project was scrapped after one demonstration went horribly awry when the panjandrum veered off course and nearly collided with the gathered panel of high-ranking spectators. + More recent speculation is that the Panjandrum was a deliberate hoax created solely to confuse the Germans and to support the false suggestion that the invasion of France would be via an assault on the Pas-de-Calais. * The Mark 90 Nuclear Bomb (aka 'Betty') used as a depth charge. It entered service in 1955, and left it in 1960. The Betty had a 5 kiloton warhead. Just for reference, the Hiroshima bomb had a 15 kiloton warhead. Tests showed that the nuclear depth charge was in of itself a feasible weapon, as the immense shockwave generated by the explosion would almost guarantee the destruction of a submarine. Problem was that the detonation of a nuclear depth charge at a shallow depth produced radioactive rain and steam that is much more concentrated than the dust produced by an aerial explosion over ground, which could badly affect the crew that launched the thing. Pairing it with the ASROC (Anti-Submarine Rocket) system solved this problem, but by then there was a comprehensive ban on underwater nuclear explosions, and the development of guided anti-submarine torpedoes provided a weapon that was nearly as effective at destroying submarines, without the potential complications posed by a nuclear weapon. * The TOG II, a British interwar tank prototype whose name was an abbreviation for "The Old Gang", referring to its designers who had been responsible for tank design in World War I. It was based around the idea that WWII would be just like WWI; thus, the TOG was to be a "breakthrough tank". Slow, lumbering, but heavily armed and armored, designed to dismantle enemy trench lines and allow smaller tanks to pour into the gap and exploit the hole the TOGs had made. It was 33 feet long, propelled by petrol-electric drive, and weighed eighty tonnes; despite this, it reportedly trialed successfully, reporting no reliability or mechanical issues. Sadly, WWII was not like WWI, and this feat of engineering - though not common sense - was not put into mass-production and never saw action. * Towards the end of WWII, Allied planners had to find ways of breaching the German Siegfried line of defenses on the River Rhine. One school of thought held that very heavy armored vehicles - purpose built for the task - would be sufficient to knock a large enough hole in the German defenses that the Allies could then exploit with faster armor. Both the United States and Britain designed and built vast super-heavy tanks designed for the sole purpose of breaching the lines: + The US offering was the T28 Super-Heavy Tank. To confuse matters, they later changed the name to 105mm Gun Motor Carriage T95, and finally changed it back to T28. Weighing in at 95 tons, 36 feet long, with a high-velocity 105mm main gun and 300mm of frontal armor (for those reading at home, that's a full foot of steel), this lumbering monster had a top speed of only 8 miles per hour on roads(Some witty World of Tanks players have suggested that it didn't move, it just turned the planet beneath it.). It was low and very wide, with a double set of tracks on each side to distribute the ground pressure; in order to make it narrow enough to get on a flatcar or LST, the outer track modules were designed to unbolt from the main body and attach to each other, so the main vehicle could tow them behind it. Getting a T28 to the front would have been a huge logistical problem, and the whole assumption that super-heavy armor was required turned out to be erroneous when unarmored heavy artillery in theatre managed to creep up to the German bunkers under cover of smokescreens or blind spots and then blast them apart. One of the two T28 prototypes was destroyed by a fire. The other was supposed to be destroyed, but the Army somehow managed to misplace the heaviest armored vehicle it has ever built, so it sat forgotten in a field in Fort Belvoir, Virginia for 27 years, until a hunter found it "hidden" behind a much smaller bush and decided to tell the army about it. When he told them what it looked like, at first they didn't believe him! It is now on display in Fort Benning, Georgia, and supposedly in running condition. + The British came up with the Tortoise, which was (slightly) more practical than its American cousin. Weighing 87 tons, and 33 feet long, it was slightly less well armed and armored than its American counterpart with a 94mm gun and 228mm of frontal armor, it was however designed as though it might actually, y'know, drive somewhere, with a more powerful engine. In trials it was found to be a decent gun platform and also fairly reliable... unfortunately, the military need for it had completely dried up. Six prototypes were built; one - in running condition - is displayed in Bovington Tank Museum, whilst another is used as a target at Kirkcudbright Military Training Area. * Winston Churchill was so convinced trench warfare was coming back in 1939, he came up with the Cultivator No. 6, a trench-cutting device. It would operate at night, digging a trench to intersect with enemy trenches, so the following infantry would be protected from most enemy fire. A larger version would accommodate tanks. Because Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time, he got the Department of Naval Land Equipment to create and build it. The French were prevailed upon to provide soil samples from the front. A scale model performed as advertised, and a full prototype was completed in 1941. By this time, even Churchill had to concede that it was not needed. As its use could not possibly be stealthy, one must assume the enemy would not simply sit and wait for it to break through. Churchill was very proud of his concept: "I am responsible but impenitent." Even weirder: there was a competing design, independent of Churchill's. * Humanoid vehicles with two arms, two legs, and a cockpit for a human pilot—Humongous Mecha, in a manner of speaking—have been produced by private individuals and companies. For example, Masaaki Nagumo and farm machinery manufacturer Sakakibara Kikai have produced a Gundam-style robot called LW-Mononofu, which is equipped with an Arm Cannon that shoots sponge balls. In theory a military mecha could do things that tracked vehicles couldn't, such as navigate through anti-tank obstacles, switch quickly between different hand-held weapons, or remove debris to clear the way for other vehicles. Unfortunately, we aren't remotely close to making them work like they do in fiction. For example, bipedal walking is actually quite dangerous for a sluggish, heavy machine that can't replicate the complex, fluid movements of human gait, since it would be likely to lose its balance and damage itself by falling. Nagumo's robots don't actually walk by lifting their feet off the ground but have to shift their legs around to simulate walking while actually scooting on wheels concealed under the feet. Promisingly, a South Korean mecha called Method-2 is able to actually walk on two legs, but it can only take small steps at a time and is "only" 13 ft tall. Merely having legs is a weakness: if a robot only has two legs, having just one shot out from under it will make it collapse in a wreck. The Square-Cube Law makes it unlikely that a humanoid mecha would be fast-moving or structurally sound under stress; their large surface area to volume ratio would make them more difficult to armor adequately; and their tall posture would make them easier targets for the enemy than wheeled or tracked vehicles. A solution to some of these problems is to make the robot tracked or wheeled on the bottom, such as Suidobashi Heavy Industry's Kuratas which has wheels on the end of each of its tripod "legs", or MegaBots, Inc.'s Eagle Prime which stands on caterpillar treads. However, even a mecha with a humanoid upper body sitting on a tracked base would have the same problem of an unnecessarily high silhouette. As of The New '20s, the money to be made is in using them for amusement, either selling mecha rides or making entertainment out of robot fights and contests. Meanwhile, militaries are focusing their development on more practical UAVs, bomb disposal robots, etc. Even the legged robots in military testing such as BigDog are small, unpiloted, and have four or more legs. Admittedly, a robot with human-like arms might be useful in the future, but probably for behind-the-lines construction and loading/unloading of cargo rather than front line combat. * Speaking of robots, the Boston Dynamics "BigDog" was meant to serve as a robotic "pack mule" that could keep up with soldiers in the field across a variety of terrains, essentially becoming a Walking Arsenal so the soldiers wouldn't have to carry heavy or dangerous equipment like mortars or demolition charges. Unfortunately, the government lost interest in the project because it was reported that robot was just too loud. In order to have the power to keep up, it used a small 2-stroke engine that made an ungodly amount of noise, even with a muffler; it essentially would have made it painfully easy to track a squad's location and would have interfered with communication — while installing a four-stroke engine was out of question because their mass efficiency is significantly worse, and a sufficiently powerful engine would've been just too heavy, defeating the whole purpose of having a "pack mule". * Col. James Burton's Blitzfighter concept is basically an A-10, but stripped down to the bare minimum until it was basically just a GAU-8 Avenger, a titanium bathtub cockpit with a radio and basic navigational instruments, and the engines and airframe itself. While a cheap, easily produced flying gun sounds cool in theory, the truth of the matter was this "Blitzfighter" was what amounted to a highly-expensive COIN aircraft-analogue which had about as much versatility as, well, a flying gun, and one which unfortunately would be utterly useless against modern main battle tanks at the time, the armors of which had already surpassed the GAU-8's piercing capabilites at about the same time the original A-10 rolled off the assembly line in the first place. When his superiors told him it would at least need a radar or thermals, he claimed that you couldn't tell anything about a ground target on radar so mounting radar on attack aircraft was a good way to get refugees killed. * Soviet Laser Kostomavt Pistols. It's high-tech, but it's shots have from 1 to 10 joules(Just to know how low it is, for comparison. Stabs are around 17-31 joules; .22LR has 178-277 joules; 9\19 Parabellum has 481-729 J; .357 Magnum has 731-1062 J; .44 Magnum has 1005-2078 J; 7,62\39 has 1516-1607 J; 5,56\45 NATO has 1679-1859 J; 7.62×54mmR has 2650-2787 J; 7,62\51 NATO has 3470-3590 J.), and has effective range of 20 meters. In other words, it's only capable of destroying cameras and unprotected eyes. Therefore, it's borderline-useless in any plausible practical situation; enemy satellites are kilometers away from your ship - while any kind of serious boarding enemy (be it enemy astronauts, or alien invaders) will have good UV eye protection, making them impervious to laser shots(To start boarding a space-ship, you need to go into Extra-Vehicular-Activity in space. To go EVA, you need protection from sun and space radiation. Said protection also doubles as great anti-laser protection. In case of non-eye body shot, even shot at naked torso/limbs/etc will do negligible damage, even if enemy in question is very small.). + Hypothetically, if laser chemical bullets were made bigger, they could burn holes in someone. Such as, by making bullets 1600 times bigger, it would put their stopping power on level of low-end assault rifles. Problem is - chemical laser bullets of such size would be more akin to cannon shells, and be extremely expensive; in other words, it would be as bulky as a howitzer, yet merely as strong as a rifle. ---	AwesomeButImpractical	null
MarvelUniverse	# Shadow Archetype - Marvel Universe Marvel Universe =============== Shadow Archetype in this franchise. --- Comic Books ----------- ### The following have their own pages: * Spider-Man --- * Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel: Blue Marvel's nemesis Anti-Man went through the same experiences as he did, from fighting in the same war, suffering the same restrictions in society and getting their super powers from the same source. They were good friends. Blue Marvel just happened to be lucky enough to maintain his right mind upon being empowered. Anti-Man wasn't (and, it later transpired, \|\|Blue Marvel's attempts to help only made it much, much worse\|\|). Therefore, while Anti-Man didn't react to their circumstances in the best way going forward, Blue Marvel believed it was not Anti-Man's fault and tried to help him... until Anti-Man accidentally killed Blue Marvel's wife. Even then, Marvel eventually (after being shown \|\|his unwitting role in Anti-Man's insanity\|\|) finds it in himself to try and reconcile with his insane counterpart. * Ant-Man: The Killer Robot Ultron's programming was based on his creator Hank Pym's own brain patterns. Pym is understandably very disturbed by what this implies about him. Ultron is essentially a copy of Pym's own mind acting on his subconscious misanthropy. \|\|When they end up in a Fusion Dance in Rage of Ultron, this is why Pym doesn't fight Ultron's control.\|\| * Captain Marvel: There were two early attempts to give Marvel Comics' second Captain Marvel an Arch-Enemy. Both doubled as shadow archetypes. + Moonstone is also a Legacy. She has the same values and the same desire to be special, but doesn't hold the same values in equal measures. Moonstone and Captain Marvel both provided a service, but Moonstone values power over service, keeping her from doing her job to its fullest. They both got powers on the job while dealing with criminals. Captain Marvel immediately set out to find a way to put them to good use, Moonstone immediately induldged in criminal activity. Losing their powers was almost fatal to both. They both ended up as leaders in their new fields, displacing Captain America and his villain, Baron Zemo, respecitvely. The one fundamental difference is Moonstone's sadism, and even that doesn't stop her from being more like Captain Marvel. It's the different lessons they learned from the rich and powerful. Helping people feels as good to Moonstone as hurting them. Her pursuit of hedonism ahead of duty stems from learning to put herself first ahead of all other distractions. + Nebula rose up to captain freight, not unlike Captain Marvel, just in outerpace instead of on the water. She turned her talents to mercenary work, where Captain Marvel went to harbor patrol. Nebula also has the same deepseated desire to be special, but where Captain Marvel's role models were a firefighter and a seemstress, where she was shoehorned into the "Captain Marvel" legacy and reluctantly relinquished it to the man's family, Nebula's role models were Warlod Zorr and mass murderer Thanos Of Titan, legacies she claims ahead of their families despite lacking proof of relations. Captain Marvel got her powers pursuing criminals misuing an extra dimensional power source, Nebula became a pirate misuing similar things. When Captain Marvel got super powers, she joined The Avengers, Nebula used hers to torture the group. Losing her powers wasn't inherently life threatening to Nebula as it was to Captain Marvel, but she still ended up infirmed as a consequence of her choices. Despite it all, Nebula isn't incapble of altruism. She inspired loyal followers from thousands of worlds and willingly joined Gamora's Graces to defend The Universe from The Annihilation Wave. She incinerated her followers to save herself and ended up corrupting Graces, but Nebula could have been just like Captain Marvel with more positive influences in her formative years. On the flip, Captain Marvel showed similar vindictiveness toward the Beyond Corporation that ensnared her as Nebula did to her jailers on Titan. She didn't go out of her way to repay them the way Nebula did, but different circumstances could have made her just like Nebula. * Daredevil: Daredevil's classic counterparts are Bullseye and the Kingpin, whose constant evasion of criminal convictions cause Murdock to seriously doubt the law's ability to deal with the most calculating criminals. Mark Waid's run introduces Ikari, who has all of Daredevil's powers along with sight, which was accomplished by recreating Daredevil's origin. Appropriately enough, his costume resembles Daredevil's original yellow and red. * Doctor Strange: Baron Mordo to Doctor Strange, who represents what Strange might have become if he hadn't learned humility, patience, and respect for others. Doctor Strange: The Oath introduces Nicodemus West, yet another student of the Ancient One, with the added resonance of also being a physician. * The Incredible Hulk + Totally Awesome Hulk: Of course, the Hulk transformation acts this way for most people. However, the trick is that it acts differently for each person. When Amadeus Cho begins blacking out and not remembering what he did as the Hulk, it becomes critical for himself, Maddie, She-Hulk, Rick Jones and Bruce Banner to all try and piece together what issues Cho's hulk might bring to the table because while he might not be messed up like Banner, he's his own brand of messed up. * Iron Man: Iron Man (1968) #293 positions the Controller as one to Tony and his current status quo: Whereas Tony has been paralyzed and is consciously neglecting his own recovery in order to continue to operate as Iron Man (using a remotely-controlled armor), the Controller has mind-controlled several of Stark's employees in order to force him to help him cure his own broken body. * Moon Knight: Dr. Yehya Badr (Hunter's Moon) to Mr. Knight. Dr. Badr is a faithful priest to Khonshu himself, while Moon Knight is faithful to the mission, but not to the god. While Moon Knight is the right hand of Khonshu, Dr. Badr is the left hand, the Hunter's Moon. While Moon Knight wears white, the Hunter's Moon wears black; while Moon Knight uses a crescent, Hunter's Moon uses a full moon. * The Punisher: The arc "The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank" introduces a trio of vigilantes, called The Holy, Elite, and Mr. Payback, who all essentially represent different negative takes of Frank Castle. The Holy, as a priest turned unstable axe murderer, represents the idea of Frank Castle being an almost-pitiable nutcase ruined by trauma. Elite, a nakedly racist and classist neo-Nazi, represents Frank as an arch-conservative defender of white suburbia. And Mister Payback, a guy who guns down white-collar businessmen in crowded office buildings, represents Frank as a laughably reckless crusader against social ills. * The Sentry: The Sentry and his nemesis/other-half, the Void are a pretty literal example given the Void's appearance and the nature of their relationship. * Thunderbolts: After the death of Mar-Vell, Karla Sofen (Moonstone) became written as a shadow to the second Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau). They both have mother issues but while Rambeau worked hers out Sofen shut hers out, and then was revealed to have killed her. Both are attached to their super powers, to perhaps an unhealthy degress, but Rambeau got hers by dumb luck and was initially frightened by them, falling in love with them later after being deemed the new Captain Marvel by news media, while Sofen decided to steal hers from the first Moonstone, along with his title. Both often seek posisitions of leadership, but Rambeau is a somewhat reluctant leader who takes charge when she thinks she is best for the job and lives to serve, while Sofen seeks leadership as a means to control others and live more comfortably. Sofen has discovered genuine joy in serving other people, but unlike Rambeau Sofen refuses to do so unless she herself is benefitting first. Since "leaving" The Masters Of Evil Sofen has recognized their shared interests, desires and flaws and attempted to convince Rambeau that Sofen's goals align with Rambeau's values. They usually don't, and Rambeau knows it, but she was persuaded into helping Sofen complete Project Auru during Strikeforce. * X-Men + Sabretooth is what Wolverine would be like if he ever fully embraced his berserker side. Wolverine is Sabertooth if Sabertooth learned to love other things as much as himself. The two characters initially had nothing to do with another but were revised with a connection because it made too much sense for them to not clash. + Emma Frost is a powerful psychic mutant with a high degree of intelligence, a great education, a vast inherited fortune she has only built upon and a love of teaching, much like Charles Xavier. Despite their inherited wealth, both Frost and Xavier had a rough upbringing with Abusive Parents and bullying siblings. While Charles was lucky enough to have his brother temporarily removed from his life by circumstance and savvy enough to learn to force his parents to approve of him until he became successful enough to no longer need to, Emma Frost had to compete with her sisters at every step she took to the top and never really came to terms with her parents. While Charles ultimately decided he wanted to make people happier than he had been, usually fighting the temptation to abuse his powers, Emma Frost wanted to indulge in all the things she had been denied and regularly uses her power to make others suffer everything she used to and more. While Charles was drawn to teaching as a means to make the world a safer place by keeping the powerful from misusing and abusing their gifts, as he once had, Emma Frost feels entitled to pass on what she knows to the worthy. Nonetheless Emma Frost cares as much for her students as Charles Xavier does, and this eventually leads to the two pooling their resources and working together. Emma Frost sometimes has nagging feelings of inferiority, as helping people does feel good to her, just not as good as immediately satisfying her various whims, and since she is psychic she knows this isn't the case for the various X-Men she has found herself surrounded by. Xavier also has feelings of inferiority, feeling he has committed too many crimes to deserve to live in his human-mutant utopia, should it ever arrive. + Cassandra Nova is Prof. X's shadow archetype, being his evil twin that was killed before birth when she tried to kill him in the womb and he defended himself. Everything she has done since finding herself alive is something Xavier himself could have done, and is more than likely tempted do to. The two even have some of the same values. Both were horrified to discover an "extinction gene" within homo sapiens that was not in "homo sapiens superior", proving that many of Xavier's enemies were right about the inherent superiority of "mutants" in a way. While Xavier put his best scientists to work on studying the extinction gene with the goal of ensuring it never activated and hopefully finding a treatment to remove it, Nova simply decided mutants were the problem and needed to culled as soon as possible. They simply take different actions based on those values, with Nova invariably choosing the quickest and most callous. Films ----- * Hulk: David Banner is one to his son, Bruce Banner. Both are brilliant researchers who gained abilities through radiation exposure. However, unlike Bruce, David has almost no moral fiber or concern for human life. * Marvel Cinematic Universe + The Avengers: Loki works as a warped mirror to the Avengers more than once. He's an example of different parts of their personalities, like Thor's values about becoming King, the Widow's past murderous life or Tony's Big Ego, gone wrong. In Tony's case, he's able to figure out what Loki's big plan is because it's something he'd do. > Tony: Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? THAT'S what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience... This is — this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered... [Beat] Son of a bitch. - Thor and Thor: The Dark World: Loki is a twisted reflection of Frigga. Both are sly, fashionable, spell casters and agile combatants. But Frigga is benevolent, puts others first and is content with not being number one. She is admired by the Asgardians because she is what is expected from the Queen. Loki could never compete with Thor in Odin's eyes, and was disparaged by his peers, Proud Warrior Race Guys for being different. The need for validation made him self-centered, ambitious, and ultimately villainous and violent. In Avengers: Infinity War, he comes to terms with who he is and shows that he cares for those he loves \|\|more than his own life\|\|, just like Frigga. + Thor: Ragnarok: Hela is this to Thor, showing what Thor might have become if Odin didn't managed to teach him humility: a violent, sadistic Blood Knight who talks about the glory of Asgard, but cares nothing for the people in it, to the point of murdering its army and trying to keep the people in line with murderous undead. + Ant-Man: Dr. Darren Cross's inherited not only Dr. Hank Pym's Yellowjacket identity but also the Mad Scientist and Sanity Slippage traits typically associated with it, and serves to demonstrate why Hank stopped using the Ant-Man suit in the first place. Invoked late in the movie. > Darren Cross: All those years ago, you picked me. What did you see in me? > Hank Pym: I saw myself. > Darren Cross: [hurt] Then why did you push me away? > Hank Pym: Because I saw too much of myself. + The Fantastic Four: First Steps: Galactus is one to The Fantastic Four overall, but especially Reed Richards. Galactus built his own ship and technology but eons of starvation and isolation have left him cold-hearted and desperate for an end to his hunger. Reed admits he's had similarly callous ideas about other problems and has a bad habit of self-isolation. He also admits upfront he'd never, ever go so far as to sacrifice an innocent baby, especially his own, and holds the Four close to keep himself grounded. Galactus, meanwhile, who has no such connections to hold onto, has become a ruthless monster who would do anything to get rid of his hunger by any means necessary. * X-Men Film Series: + X-Men: Apocalypse: When Oscar Isaac encapsulates En Sabah Nur's modus operandi in the "Clan of Akkaba: Apocalypse and his Horsemen" documentary on the Blu-Ray, it's identical to Professor X's. Apocalypse is the warped mirror image of Xavier if the latter loses all self-restraint and fully succumbs to "absolute power corrupts absolutely" — Charles even gets Drunk on the Dark Side for a couple minutes to showcase that he's not immune to its effects. En Sabah Nur governs his Apocalypse Cult with the Four Horsemen as his devotees, whereas Professor X can be interpreted as a highly idealized cult leader (if a truly good-hearted one exists, then he'd be it) with the X-Men as his disciples. > Isaac: He finds people that are in need, people that are in a very dark part of their lives, that are searching for something. He zeroes in on these people and reads them, and figures out what it is that they need to feel fulfilled, to feel strong. + Logan: X-24 is this to Logan, being a literal clone of him who embodies all the things Logan most hates and fears about himself. While Logan fears that he is nothing more than a monster and a murderer who poses a serious threat to his loved ones when he loses control, X-24 has been bred from birth to be the personification of unstoppable rage. Their Older Hero vs. Younger Villain dynamic also represents Logan's insecurities about how his body is failing him in his old age. Live-Action TV -------------- * Daredevil (2015): Frank Castle serves as a direct shadow for Matt Murdock. Both serve as vigilantes fighting crime after a series of traumatic event (The Punisher for Frank; Dardevil for Matt) and both use violent methods in doing so. However, Matt refuses to kill anyone during his crusade against crime, while Frank believes the only way to stop crime permanently is to kill the criminals causing it. Also, Matt is constantly questioning himself on wether he has crossed the line into becoming an evil, while Frank has fully convinced himself, that he is forever dead and damned. * Ironheart (2025): Riri Williams (Ironheart) is one to Shuri. Riri embodies a lot of what Shuri was like in the first Black Panther film, being expressive and willing to voice her opinion, while Shuri is put through a Trauma Conga Line that leaves her much more reserved and melancholic in comparison. Western Animation ----------------- * The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: Nick Fury is one to Iron Man (Anthony "Tony" Stark). Both are leaders of super-level organization among other things. However, Fury's tendency to keep his subordinates and allies in the dark, not to mention his unscrupulous acts for the greater good, makes Stark with all his egotism look moral in comparison. * X-Men '97: Bastion serves as one to the X-Men themselves, being the next stage of evolution for Sentinels and humans in the same way mutants are often thought to be the successors to mankind. Storm even points out that since Xavier tried to recruit Sebastian as a child, he could have been a member of the X-Men had things worked out differently. His endgame serves as a darker reflection of Xavier's dream for mutants as the cornerstone of humanity's future...as slaves. ---	ShadowArchetype	null
MarvelCinematicUniverse	# The Bus Came Back - Marvel Cinematic Universe Marvel Cinematic Universe =========================== The Bus Came Back in this franchise. --- > "You know that story, it's full of emotion and love and thunder. And it introduces for the first time a female Thor. So, for us there's only one person who could play that role. Only one. And she's here, I'ma introduce her to you right now. Please welcome to the stage... Natalie Portman!" > > — Taika Waititi at the 2019 Comic Con panel about Thor: Love and Thunder introducing Portman, who hadn't appeared in an MCU film since 2013 * Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. introduces Ghost Rider in the Season 4 premier, but drops him into another dimension to give the villains something resembling a fighting chance. He then comes Back for the Finale in The Return. * Captain America: Civil War has William Hurt finally make his return as General Ross, who had not been seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since The Incredible Hulk eight years earlier. He briefly appears in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Black Widow as well as Captain America: Brave New World, albeit played by Harrison Ford due to Hurt's passing. * Spider-Man: Homecoming: After not appearing in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, \|\|Pepper Potts\|\| returns for a cameo appearance. * Avengers: Infinity War \|\|has a surprise reappearance of the Red Skull, last seen getting teleported away by the Tesseract in Captain America: The First Avenger. As it turns out, he ended up on the distant planet Vormir, where he was then made into the keeper of the previously unseen Soul Stone for over 70 years\|\|. * Avengers: Endgame: \|\|Valkyrie, Korg, and Miek return alive and healthy. Also, Harley Keener from Iron Man 3 cameos at Tony's funeral\|\|. * Spider-Man: Far From Home: After being absent from the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a good long while since Iron Man 1, William Ginter Riva (the guy Obadiah Stane yells at for not being able to re-create the Arc Reactor) returns \|\|as an accomplice to Quentin Beck\|\|. * Spider-Man: No Way Home: The film sees the return of villains from Sony's pre-MCU Spider-Man films, most notably Norman Osborn from Spider-Man 1, Dr. Octopus from Spider-Man 2, Sandman from Spider-Man 3, The Lizard from The Amazing Spider-Man 1, and Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2; justified as they are characters from the multiverse being drawn into the MCU, along with \|\|the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as their respective Spider-Man roles as well. There's also a brief cameo from Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock/Daredevil\|\|. * Jane Foster returns in 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder after not having been seen in the films (besides a brief cameo in Endgame, which was achieved via recycled footage) since 2013's Thor: The Dark World, as does Erik Selvig, last seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron. * The real Mandarin and the Ten Rings were hardly touched for years since the Iron Man 3 tie-in short film All Hail the King, before returning to importance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. * The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: After not appearing since Captain America: Civil War, Zemo returned complete with a Beard of Evil (at first) and the character's trademark cowl. Likewise, Sharon Carter has not reappeared since Civil War, and according to the script for Endgame, she went through the Blip off-screen and has also returned. Georges Batroc also returned for the first time since Captain America: The Winter Soldier. * Darcy Lewis returns in WandaVision after having been absent for 8 years since Thor: The Dark World. * Emil Blonsky/Abomination was first revealed to make a reappearance in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, having not appeared since the 2008 Hulk film. However, he would first make a cameo appearance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings one year prior. * Lady Sif made a cameo appearance in the fourth episode of Loki, the first time that she has appeared appeared in a main MCU entry since The Dark World. (After The Dark World, she made two guest star appearances on the Marvel Television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) Like Jane Foster, she also made her big return in Love and Thunder. * In addition to Abomination, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings features the return of \|\|Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery, not seen since All Hail the King in 2014\|\|. * In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, apart from Karl Mordo returning (in an alternate universe), the trailer shows MCU Strange encountering The Illuminati, led by Patrick Stewart's \|\|Professor Charles Xavier (the first appearance in the MCU) in his first appearance since Logan. Besides Xavier, the film also brings Peggy Carter back, this time as Captain Carter, and even more shockingly, Anson Mount's Black Bolt who hasn't been seen since the Inhumans series\|\|. * Betty Ross shows up in the third episode of What If…? (2021), her first appearance since 2008's The Incredible Hulk. * Hawkeye features the return of \|\|Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, in his first appearance since Daredevil ended in 2018 and still played by Vincent D'Onofrio\|\|. * The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special brings back Cosmo the Talking Dog, last seen in Guardians of the Galaxy. She is also talking (transmitting her thoughts through her collar). Yondu Udonta returns as an animated character as well. * Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania sees the unexpected return of \|\|Darren Cross, the Big Bad of Ant-Man. He was presumed dead, but was actually sent to the Quantum Realm where he went on to become M.O.D.O.K.\|\|. * Deadpool & Wolverine, AKA "The Bus Came Back: The Movie": + Aaron Stanford's Pyro returns 18 years after his last appearance in X-Men: The Last Stand. Per the title and like Stewart, Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine after allegedly being done playing the character in Logan. Likewise for many X-Men Film Series characters such as Lady Deathstrike from X2: X-Men United, Azazel from X-Men: First Class, and even Sabretooth (played by Tyler Mane) from X-Men 1. There's even a character dressed as The Russian from the 2004 Punisher film. + Alioth reappears for the first time since Loki. More specifically "Season 1, Episode 5" as Deadpool refers to it. + An older Laura / X-23 from Logan appears, encouraging Logan to be a hero and fighting against the guards. + Wesley Snipes also returns as Blade, twenty years after Blade: Trinity, along with Chris Evans reprising his other Marvel role as the Human Torch seventeen years after Rise of the Silver Surfer and Jennifer Garner as Elektra, nineteen years after her solo movie. * Captain America: Brave New World brings back Samuel Sterns as a villain after he was last seen in The Incredible Hulk, more than 15 years ago. * While both Daredevil and his Arch-Enemy Kingpin returned to the MCU, the 2025 Sequel Series to Daredevil, Daredevil: Born Again brings back a lot of the supporting characters (namely Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Vanessa Fisk and Bullseye) who were last seen in the third season of the original show in 2018 or, in Karen's case, 2019 in the second season of The Punisher. Episode 4 also brings back \|\|Frank Castle, the Punisher himself\|\|. ---	TheBusCameBack	null
WesternAnimation	# What Happened To The Mouse - Western Animation --- * 101 Dalmatians: The Series: + In the final episode, Willie's dog, whose owner runs the cult of alien worshippers, disappears halfway through. + In "Full Metal Pullet", Tripod has three friends who never show up again in the series, not even as background puppies. * In the Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers episode "Queen's Lair", a secondary character was forced to betray the Rangers because the Queen had his family held hostage. While the Rangers resort to an Indy Ploy to work around this change in plans, we never do find out what happened to the poor man's family. Seeing as the Big Bad is a classic God Save Us from the Queen!, the things she's done to Zach's family, and the fact Never Say "Die" was averted in the series...it doesn't look good for the poor bastard. * The original Chipette from Alvin and the Chipmunks. Charlene was introduced one year before the others in 1982. She has a resemblance to Brittany and sung a duet with Alvin in "You're The One That I Want". She was phased out when the other Chipettes were introduced. An unnamed chipmunk in the Rockin' Through The Decades special greatly resembles Charlene but has never been officially identified as her. * American Dad! + The episode "Hurricane!" has news reporter Greg get sucked up into the sky by the eponymous hurricane. A later scene has his boyfriend asking people if they've seen him, but it's not revealed whether he survived or if the storm killed him. Seeing as how he appears in the following episodes, he has in fact survived, but how he did was never explained. + Played for laughs in "Stan's Night Out." Stan counts on an intelligent mouse named 'Cheesers' to rescue him from the bad guys, but the mouse runs away, apparently abandoning him. The scene ends with Stan presumably losing a leg because of that. Next time we see Stan, he is back at work and just fine. When his coworkers ask how he escaped, Stan reveals the mouse in his pocket. "Cheesers came back." + In the first season episode “ Deacon Stan, Jesus Man” Steve gets pregnant with Roger's baby after he does mouth to mouth resuscitation when he starts choking, at the end of the episode he makes out with his crush Betsy White resulting in her becoming pregnant with the alien baby, she goes to live with her grandparents until the baby is born, this storyline has never been revisited and she has never been seen or mentioned again in the nearly 20 years since it aired. * In the Season 2 finale of Amphibia, "True Colors", General Yunnan and Lady Olivia mysteriously disappear roughly 15 minutes in. They return in Season 3 however. * The Animals of Farthing Wood: + Fox and Vixen's second son Friendly played a major role in the second season as well as when he was introduced. During Season 3 he appeared for the first three episodes but then went missing for the rest of the series. + In Season 2, both Mossy and Ranger have sisters who each stop appearing after an episode or two. * Archer: Rip Riley (from Heart of Archness) and Kazak the dog were well-developed and well-received characters, both in fact being current or ex- Isis agents, and yet neither have reappeared. * Avatar: The Last Airbender: + Avatar: The Last Airbender had a lot of these that were eventually answered in the comics: - The Grand Finale answered most questions but left three plot points hanging: \|\|what happened to Ursa\|\|, \|\|did Toph ever make up with her parents\|\|, and \|\|Iroh's journey to the Spirit World\|\|? The first two points were later addressed in the comics, and the last in Book 2 of the Sequel Series The Legend of Korra. - There's also the final fates of \|\|Smellerbee, Longshot, Long Feng and the Earth King.\|\| The Promise confirms the fates of three of those: \|\|Smellerbee and Longshot are alive, having reassembled the Freedom Fighters to protest the Fire Nation's occupation, though we don't know how they made it out of Lake Laogai. Meanwhile, Earth King Kuei is back in place as King.\|\| - After the culmination of \|\|Azula's Villainous Breakdown in the Grand Finale, she's not seen again for the rest of the episode. The Promise reveals that she was sent to an asylum.\|\| - When Iroh reveals to Zuko that \|\|his maternal great-grandfather was Avatar Roku\|\| and said man was given the Crown of the Prince of the Fire Nation as a gift, Iroh then gives the crown to Zuko. It is never seen or mentioned again, and becomes somewhat moot \|\|when Zuko is crowned as Fire Lord in the Grand Finale\|\|. - Speaking of Zuko, Lieutenant Jee and the rest of the crew of Zuko's ship is never seen or mentioned again after they're pressed into the service of Zhao to invade the North Pole. It's possible they died when "Koizilla" counter-attacked and wiped their fleet out but nothing is made of this possibility by Zuko or Iroh, ending it on a particularly sad note as the crew were by and large pretty good people. - Early on in "The Fortuneteller", Aang presents Katara with a replacement necklace he wove out of Sokka's fishing line. Shortly after, the necklace unceremoniously disappears and Katara remains bare-necked until her original necklace is returned. - Haru, Teo, and The Duke all but vanish during the "field trip with Zuko" episodes until they can be conveniently Put on a Bus in "The Southern Raiders". Chit Sang, the prisoner from "The Boiling Rock", never reappears after the same bus ride in "The Southern Raiders", unlike the previous three, who came Back for the Finale. It's equally probable that he got thrown back in prison, or that he made himself scarce. - Towards the end of Season 2, Guru Pathik moves into one of the old Air Nomad temples, and he tries to help Aang control the Avatar State, but Aang leaves without mastering the final chakra for the Avatar State. He's only referenced once in Season 3, and it's while Aang was hallucinating due to sleep deprivation. - Xin Fu and Yu's fates are left unexplored after Toph left them in the metal cage they used to trap her. Toph's father mentions in the comics that they returned without her, implying that they somehow escaped. - After his premature partial Heel–Face Turn left Zuko in an Angst Coma, Iroh tells him that "this fever is not a natural sickness" and that he will emerge from it as "the prince he was meant to be," which seems to suggest that there's more going on than mere stress, possibly something supernatural. However, this plot point is never elaborated, and Zuko returns to his jerk-y ways soon after. - In the Book 2 episode "The Library", a history professor allows himself to be trapped in a mystical library with all the world's knowledge as it's pulled back into the spirit world (trapping himself with its giant, pissed-off caretaker). It wasn't clear to fans if the trip killed him, if Wan Shi Tong murdered him, or if he was still kicking it in the Spirit World reading. \|\|Until Legend Of Korra, where Jinora visited the library and found his skeletal corpse propped against a shelf clutching a book.\|\| + The Legend of Korra: - What happened to the Lieutenant after Book 1's finale? \|\|Betrayed by his bending boss and thrown in a corner, never to be seen again?\|\| - Of the previous series' main characters and antagonists, Azula, Mai, Suki and Ty Lee never appear in either flashbacks or present-day in The Legend Of Korra, leaving their final fates unknown. - Played for Laughs when Varrick tells his horridly twisted account of what's happened in the series, where Bolin is the star and the villains are Unalaq, Vaatu, Zaheer, and Zombie Amon. Zombie Amon does nothing but take part in the telephone call where they discuss their evil plan and try to ditch Unalaq and then promptly vanishes from the story. > Bolin: Wait! You like that?! It doesn't make any sense! What about Zombie Amon?! What happened to him, huh?! And-and-and-and stars are magic fairy dust?! Are you guys crazy?! Are you crazy?! > Refugee: It's just a mover. Don't overthink it. It's like a ride. * In Barnyard, the story essentially revolves around Otis, his dad, and his pregnant, widowed love interest Daisy; Daisy later gives birth at the end of the movie. Come the spinoff series, Back at the Barnyard, and both Daisy and her son are demoted to non-speaking background characters in early episodes. They're eventually never seen again, instead replaced with Abby, who becomes Otis's girlfriend. * In Beast Wars, Airazor and Tigatron left to search out the downed stasis pods, then were captured by the Vok. While a few more stasis pods showed up, there were dozens that were never seen again. The IDW comics attempt to resolve the storyline of the missing stasis pods by having all the Transformers within emerge as either Maximals or Predacons thanks to the machinations of Razorbeast in a convoluted storyline involving time-space displacement and whatnot. + Considering that the planet that the series takes place on is \|\|70% water\|\|, it wouldn't be surprising if a great many of them were \|\|crushed in the great pressures of the deep\|\|. Not to mention it is heavily implied that the "quantum surge" in the Season 1 finale destroyed or damaged most of the pods. The ones that created Quickstrike and Silverbolt were heavily damaged causing the scanner to fuse two beast modes together for them. More telling, early in Season 2 Rhinox comes across a "blank" stasis pod. This means the Spark of the protoform inside has been extinguished, meaning it is dead, which can lead the audience to assume the remaining pods that were not destroyed upon impact suffered the same fate. Rhinox basically says that as far as they know, all of the pods are dead after the surge. Tigatron and Airazor were going to go explore to see if there were any more, but he didn't sound hopeful. Tigatron and Airazor never found any, so we can assume they all died except for Silverbolt, Quickstrike and Rampage. + One pod was found in Season 3. It was a blank and Megatron used it to create Dinobot II, with half a spark of Rampage. + In the final season, a big deal is briefly made of \|\|Megatron having the original Megatron's spark as well, as destroying him would cause a time paradox. Optimus Primal even prevents Tigerhawk from finishing him off because of this. It's never so much as mentioned ever again, as scene of them returning it was cut for time and can instead be viewed as a bonus feature of the DVD.\|\| * Centaurworld lampshades this. Throughout the show, there was a Running Gag where some of the characters would shoot miniature versions of themselves out in droves, with these tiny clones running away in panic. In the series finale, everyone learns that Comfortable Doug has taken all of them in form a personal army of sorts, and he proceeds to use them to aid in the final battle. As Rider looks on in concern, Wammawink happily remarks that she's glad that plot point received actual narrative payoff. > Wammawink: Oh! I'm so glad we tied up that story arc. * Code Lyoko. Far too much of it. + Project Carthage is mentioned once at the end of Season 2 as Franz Hopper's former employer, possible origin of The Men in Black (who are themselves not explained) and motive for creating Lyoko and XANA... and is never mentioned again after that. - It's revisited in (and is the main focus of) the novels, thankfully. + Taelia. An exact doppelganger of Aelita, subject to many fan theories about her origins — but never mentioned after "The Girl of the Dreams". It's unknown whether she's still a student at Kadic (though quite unlikely). + The wolf motif in Aelita's nightmares, where they are often seen chasing her — or, for that matter, the whole sequence with wolves chasing Mr. Pück — goes entirely unexplained in the show. The second novel reveals that (in this universe, anyway) \|\|the wolf visions stem from Aelita's residual memories of Anthea's kidnapping, wherein Aelita was menaced by Grigory Nictapolus's Rottweilers, Hannibal and Scipio. Of course, Rottweilers and wolves have vastly different appearances, but it's wholly possible that, at age four, Aelita simply remembered the menacing dogs as wolves.\|\| + More minor example — In "Double Take" at the end of the battle between Yumi and a XANA-possessed William, William has Yumi cornered with his sword. He then lowers it, approaches her, and begins stroking her face. Yumi pulls his hand away, and William pushes her off the cliff. The incident is neither explained (Trickery on XANA's part? William resisting XANA's control?) nor mentioned again. * Codename: Kids Next Door: + The show is usually good with continuity, which makes this oversight all the more damning: In "FUGITIVE", the operatives and the head of decommissioning, Numbuh 86, are going after an escaped operative, Numbuh 208, scheduled for decommissioning. Numbuh 86 briefly mentions sending their best spy, Numbuh 362, to infiltrate the Delightful Children's mansion (where 208 is entering). While inside, 208 escapes from 86 and was last seen running down the hall, then a similarly-dressed 362 runs back and is mistaken for him and captured. 362 became a major character in her own right, but the show never got around to answering what happened to the escaped operative. + We never find out whether or not Chad was transformed into a Senior Citizombie in Operation: Z.E.R.O., although it is implied that this happened to him eventually. + What happened to the Delightful Children from Down the Lane is also unknown, though with their final exit \|\|it's assumed they drowned\|\|. * Courage the Cowardly Dog: In the episode "Ball of Revenge", Le Quack, one of the villains Eustace hired to kill Courage, suddenly disappears after the halftime show of a lethal dodgeball game without any explanation. Also, the clam that the weremole hid in isn't shown when the other villains crash through the floor. * At the end of The Critic's run (at least a couple of seasons), Jay, who up to that point hasn't had much luck with women, was in a steady relationship with a mature, decent, likable woman, and despite a few stumbles, they were hitting it off great. Then comes the short-lived internet adaptation, and she's completely gone along with his son and longtime boss. The first webisode has Jay mention his "second divorce", implying that the relationship ended badly, but no details are given and it's still unknown what became of his son or (now former) boss. * Played for Laughs in The Cuphead Show! when The Devil is forced to unleash his "third finest" demons to hunt down Cuphead after killing the first and second finest in fits of rage. One of the third finest is a cyclops with an eyepatch who is blind as a bat: unlike the rest of the demons who run to the carnival and are taken out one-by-one, the cyclops lumbers blindly into the forest never to be seen again. * Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: At the beginning of "A Plain Shortage of Planes", Dastardly's and Klunk's planes are destroyed when Muttley makes Zilly's crash into them and it kickstarts a plot about the lack of available planes for the Vulture Squadron. However, Muttley's plane wasn't damaged and it's never been confirmed Zilly's was. Neither plane has even been mentioned for the rest of the episode. * Two early episodes of Defenders of the Earth show Jedda projecting her powers through a "Pendant of Mystery". However, the Pendant's origins are never revealed and it disappears from the series as abruptly as it appeared, never to be seen or mentioned again. * Around the halfway point of The Deputy Dawg Show, the characters of Ty Coon and Al E. Gator disappeared and were never heard from again. * In Dexter's Laboratory, Mandark's sister Lalavava is never seen again after her only episode. Mandark becomes an only child afterwards. * Duckman: King Chicken's wife Honey and daughter Tammy are introduced in "Cock Tales For Four". While Honey came back in the final episode, Tammy was not even mentioned. * The Fairly OddParents!: + "The Boy Who Would Be Queen" established Trixie as a closet tomboy, apparently setting something up between her and Timmy. This is never mentioned again. + In two episodes, Trixie's best friend, Veronica, is established as having a crush on Timmy, and again, also setting something up between the two. Like with Trixie's Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak, this is never mentioned again, and Veronica appears to think very little of Timmy otherwise, much like her friend. + During the first half of "Birthday Wish", Timmy witnesses Vicky constantly bullying Tootie per usual. After being established that Vicky ruins Tootie's birthday on a yearly basis, he then loans his fairies to the latter for the rest of her birthday. However, Vicky disappears from the rest of the episode after Tootie makes her birthday wish, with Crocker taking her place during the second half. + At the start of "The Fairy Beginning", Timmy is trying to find a good look for his school photo. This causes Cosmo to bring out his yearbook of the Fairy Academy and show him peoples' pictures, which leads to the main conflict of him learning he never graduated because someone stole his final exam. This becomes the focus of the episode, and Timmy's school photo plot is never mentioned again. * Family Guy + In the episode "You May Now Kiss the... Uh... Guy Who Receives" Chris' romance with the blonde girl vanishes after she talks to Chris outside the City Hall. + In the episode where the Griffin house gets possessed by poltergeists, Herbert the Pedophile fights back against a tree demon who is about to eat Chris and the two (Herbert and the tree) fall to their dooms after the tree splits the ground open. On the TV version, this counts as a "What Happened to the Mouse" moment because we never see Herbert or the tree for the rest of the episode. On the Season 4 DVD, however, \|\|there's an extra scene where, after Peter ditches the cursed skull in the trash as The Griffins drive away, Herbert and the tree come out of the hole and apologize to each other for fighting. Herb then invites the tree over to his house and asks him if he's a "giving tree" or a "receiving tree"\|\|. Apparently, the FOX censors turned this Brick Joke into a What Happened to the Mouse? moment because \|\|they didn't approve of the anal sex joke implied in the "giving/receiving tree" line\|\|. + In another episode where Chris is put on a diet, Stewie gloats in front of him about being able to eat whatever he wants and consequentially gains a ton of weight and grows increasingly listless as a result. \|\|In the final scene with Peter in the hospital, Stewie is skinny again, with no mention of how he lost weight.\|\| + A small one happened after The Cleveland Show was cancelled. The Browns had a dog, Rock Hudson, but, ever since the Browns moved to Quahog, he hasn't been seen and it not said if they gave him away, lost him in moving, if he ran away, or if the writers of Family Guy writers lost him to writing lore, besides one episode having Cleveland say, "That's a pet leash, if the good Lord decideth we should have one." + In the episode "Long John Peter," Chris is set up with a vet intern named Anna, only to blow it by trying to be a "bad boy" and failing at it. The episode ends with them reconciling after Chris apologizes. By the next episode, Chris is back to being single and Anna is never mentioned again. + In the uncut version of "And Then There Were Fewer" it's mentioned that Jillian is pregnant, but there's no follow-up to that after this episode. * Futurama: + The Season 7 episode "The Bots and the Bees" features Bender having sex with a vending machine that gives him a son the next day. Said son, Ben, is never seen or mentioned again afterwards. + In the last movie, Into the Wild Green Yonder, towards the end, the eco-feminists break out of prison. While all of them leave, we only see Leela, Amy and LaBarbara getting picked up by the Planet Express ship, leaving it uncertain what happened to the others. + In "Yo Leela Leela," Leela creates \|\|(read: rips off from a group of five aliens)\|\| a Show Within a Show aimed at preschoolers called "Rumbledy-Hump" that becomes a huge breakout hit. \|\|After Leela fesses up that she didn't create anything, the producer turns it into a reality show starring the aliens themselves, also hiring all the orphans as members of the crew\|\|. However, there is no mention of any of this after that episode. On the same token, Bender is certified as a tugboat, which is also never brought up again. + In "Stench and Stenchability", Zoidberg manages to win the affection of an attractive woman with no sense of smell. When she undergoes a transplant and receives a working nose, she actually loves his horrible odour, and the episode ends on a positive note. The (much) later Christmas Episode "I Know What You Did Next Xmas" establishes that Zoidberg is single again with no explanation. * Fraidy Cat most notably has terrible continuity when it comes to its episodes, most instances having characters not being shown again after a scene. Examples include: + In “A Scaredy Fraidy'', Fraidy meets Edgar Allen Crow. When Jackie the police horse chases Fraidy up the tree, Edgar disappears without any explanation. - When Fraidy mentions that he's in a cemetery, a bat flies onto a gravestone and has only one line. We get no mention of him ever again. + “Choo Choo Fraidy” has a minor character named Ruth the Buzzard fly towards a Wile E. Coyote parody, Smile E. Coyote, before the latter howls and causes Ruth to fall. She was never seen again after that scene. + Quite literally in “The Not-So-Nice Mice”. A gang of mice capture Fraidy and after a while, all but three disappear without any explanation. The remaining three include a giant mouse named Tiny, a gang member with a baseball cap, and the leader of the gang. Later on, we get no mention of the last two, with only Tiny remaining. + In “Cupid and the Cat”, Cupid accidentally shoots his arrow at Ant the ghost dinosaur and Chuck, Lulu's boyfriend. After that, he isn't seen again. + “Magic Numbers” has Cloud Nine shoot a lightning bolt at an old dresser with Fatty Catty and Long-tail still in it. They both pop out as toast-shaped cats, and they are never seen again, with no mention of them. + In the final episode, “A Semi-Star is Born”, Fraidy (who is disguised as famous TV star Boris the Cat) eats at a table with Mister Fred, Gentle Babs, Laffy, and Lawrence the lop-sided lion. In the scene after Laffy announces that the real Boris has come to the Animal Actors Retirement Home, Mister Fred and Laffy aren't seen again. - This happens a second time at the end of the episode. Lawrence conducts a test to see which Boris is real, whereas both cats are given a food bowl. Being the picky eater he is, Boris turns his nose to the bowl, and Fraidy downs it. Boris doesn't get shown in the rest of the episode again. * In the U.S. Acres segment "An Egg-citing Story" of Garfield and Friends in the flashback to Booker and Sheldon's origin story three other chicks are shown with them, two of which are initially bullies to Sheldon but learn to accept him after he saves them from the Weasel, those chicks are never seen again outside of the flashback. * Goof Troop: + Towards the end of "Unreal Estate", Goofy gets catapulted into the mountains, and that's the last we see of him for the rest of the episode, though he is back again unharmed in most later episodes. + In "E=MC Goof" Pete exits the rocket toward the sun to go after his "space souvenirs" and that's also the last we see of him for the rest of the episode. Negative Continuity means he's okay in the next episode, though. + At the end of "Date with Destiny", a relationship seemed to be starting between Goofy and Miss Pennypacker and Max seemed fully supportive of his dad dating his principal. She was never seen again afterwards. * Gravity Falls, despite being a mystery series, surprisingly has a few of these. + In "Double Dipper," Dipper makes numerous clones of himself to pull off a circuitous plan to dance with Wendy. Naturally, the clones eventually rebel and Dipper destroys them with water. However, the plan involved Clones #3 and #4 going into the woods, so they actually weren't there when the others died. This goes unaddressed until \|\|the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue in the Grand Finale, which shows them living happily in the woods, wearing raincoats for protection from a storm\|\|. + The same episode introduces Pacifica, who becomes a recurring character, and her Girl Posse, who receive no independent characterization and are never seen again. + In fact, Weirdmageddon was directly caused by Mabel being tricked by Bill Cipher possessing Blendin. None of the other characters ever find this out and it's never brought up again. Not even Journal 3 addresses this. It's finally brought up in the comics, but even then, the other characters don't find out about it. + An unimportant, yet notable one occurs in the episode Boyz Crazy, \|\|where Wendy suffers a nasty breakup with Robbie and becomes mad at Dipper for asking her out for bowling shortly after\|\|. While the ending implies that \|\|she'll eventually forgive Dipper\|\|, such is never shown, mentioned, or even explained how as the two are immediately back on good terms in the episodes that followed. + Journal 3 reveals that .GIFfany survived "Soos And The Real Girl" and went into Rumble McSkirmish's game. Yet when Rumble McSkirmish is released during Weirdmaggedon, .GIFfany is nowhere to be seen. If they were in the same game, why would he be released but not her? Presumably one could chalk that up to "that" Rumble being from the arcade's cabinet, and not the one in the pizza place, but that just raises the question as to why there weren't two Rumbles and .GIFfany running around. + The purpose of the Zodiac and what it does is never revealed, even though it was briefly shown at the end of the theme song and its symbols were alluded to throughout the show's run. Word of God says it was never meant to be anything important anyway. That is, it was just a MacGuffin. + The Henchmaniacs of Bill, introduced as his friends in the Grand Finale, tend to randomly disappear at times; in fact, you'll never see all of the Henchmaniacs at the same time. For example, in the scene where they crash against the Weirdness Magnetism Law in "Weirdmageddon 2: Escape From Reality", only Paci-Fire, Zanthar, Pyronica, Hectorgon, Keyhole and Kryptos are seen crashing, but Lava Lamp Guy, Amorphous Shape, 8 Ball and Teeth are nowhere to be seen. + During the Shacktron battle againist the Henchmaniacs in "Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back The Falls", Hectorgon, Lava Lamp Guy and Amorphous Shape are the only Henchmaniacs who don't participate in the battle, in fact they're the only Henchmaniacs whithout a "Dark Evil Form". + After the Shacktron battle, 8 Ball and Zanthar disappear completely, we never see them again, but it's heavily implied that they were sucked by the rift, like the rest of the demons from the Nightmare Realm, after Bill's death. * He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983): There were several Evil Warriors (Strongarm, Jitsu and Fang Man) who each appeared in one episode early in the series and were then never seen again. * In High Guardian Spice, Chompy the chest never appears again after episode 4 * In The Jetsons, Orbitty, the Jetsons' alien pet that was added in the second season, doesn't appear in the third season (aside from one cameo) or any of the movies. * Jonny Quest episode "The Fraudulent Volcano". + In the opening sequence, an old man manages to escape from the underground base. He doesn't appear at any subsequent point in the episode, and there's nothing to indicate that he contacted the authorities in any way. + When Jonny, Hadji and a police sergeant go off to rescue Dr. Quest and Race Bannon, the sergeant is attacked by two enemy guards and left in a heap. Jonny and Hadji take off and leave the sergeant behind and he doesn't appear again in the episode. It's not even made clear if the guards killed him or just rendered him unconscious. * Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: In season 2, the campers go through a whole episode and fight off a T. rex to send off an emergency beacon in hopes of being rescued. After they're forced to leave, the audience sees the beacon clearly displays "Message Received." As of season 4, not only has there been no follow up to this, but groups who should have knowledge of a message—\|\|Mitch and Tiff in season 2, using stolen Jurassic World tech; Dr. Wu's team in season 3, actual Jurassic World employees coming to retrieve his research; Mantah Corp employees in season 4, who have been committing corporate espionage against Jurassic World\|\|—don't bring it up, even in context of "Wow, that wasn't some fluke!". While Season 5 confirms that Mantah Corp did indeed receive the beacon, there is no follow-up on why no one on the mainland (who the emergency beacon was presumably intended for) ever received and answered the beacon. + Several species, variants of certain species or even individual dinosaurs that either did not appear in the previous Jurassic Park / Jurassic World movies and debut or returned after a long absence in the show but have yet to return post-Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Leaving it uncertain if they perished on Isla Nublar prior to or during Mount Sibo's eruption or if they were among the rescued dinosaurs that escaped Lockwood Manor. - Ouranosaurus, which first appeared in season three in "Safe Harbor" and was last seen in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo among a herd of stampeding dinosaurs in "Eye of the Storm". - Monolophosaurus, which first appeared in the third season in "Casa De Kenji" and was last seen when a pair were lured by Brooklyn in "Stay on Mission". - Ceratosaurus, which first appeared back in Jurassic Park III and after a long absence returned in the "The Watering Hole" and would make subsequent appearances throughout the series until they were last seen on Nublar in the season 5 episode "Clean Break". - Bioluminescent Parasaurorolophus. A herd of them first appeared in the first season in "Welcome to Jurassic World" and after a various appearances where several of them were killed the Scorpius Rex, an individual was last seen in the season three in "Stay on Mission". - Chaos the Baryonyx, who first appeared alongside her siblings/pack-mates Grim and Limbo in the second season in "The Art of Chill" and subsequently menaced the main characters as a group on several occasions until \|\|Grim was shot by a Evil Poacher and later Limbo was stolen and relocated to another island where she seemingly died while fighting a Tyrannosaurus, with Chaos as the Sole Survivor of her pack,\|\| making her last appearance in the fifth season in "Clean Break". - Tarbosaurus which has made its first and only appearance in the CYOA interactive episode "Hidden Adventure". * At the end of the Life With Loopy short "Larry's Girl", Larry starts dating a girl at his school, Stacey, from their mutual interest in The Charlie Chicken Show. She is never seen nor mentioned again for the remainder of the series. + At the end of "Goldfish Ghost", a stray cat finds the ghost of Loopy's goldfish and starts chasing after him. After the fish gets away, Loopy notices how hungry the cat was, feeds it, and appears to take it in as her new pet. The cat is never seen after the episode, nor is it mentioned. However in the final episode, "Rock 'N Roll Loopy", a litterbox can be seen briefly in one scene which may imply they still own the cat. * Kaeloo: In Episode 56, Mr. Cat cons Olaf out of 6000 dollars. While he is eventually punished for it, we never find out if he ever returned the money. * Kim Possible: + An early episode had Kim and Señor Senior Jr. finding out they were a perfect match through a matchmaking fad. The episode ended with Kim finding her locker full of flowers and an e-card from Junior saying he awaited seeing her again. This was never brought up again; no Stalker with a Crush storyline, no Foe Romance Subtext (well, none from Junior), nothing. It just disappeared. + The reason? Until the fourth season, the producers said the show only had "continuity by accident". Despite the odd Continuity Nod, the board was reset for every episode — evil lairs destroyed, villains sent to jail, lessons learnt: all undone for the next time they were needed. + One episode ends with a army of monkey ninjas pledging their loyalty to Ron, never to be seen again. Amazingly, the reason why they pledged their loyalty to Ron (which, at the time, was treated as a one-off joke) turned out to be a significant recurring plot element that even played a major role in the finale, but Ron still doesn't have the loyal monkey flunkies. + Many fans were curious what happened to Ron's short-lived interest Zita after only two appearances. She comes back in the finale without so much as a line, as a couple with fellow B-character Felix. * King of the Hill: + Several episodes had Bobby meet a girl and presumably ended up going out with her at the end. The next episode has him single again with no mention of the girl ever again (except for one girl, who was referenced in another episode and Connie, who was already part of the main cast when they broke up). + Bill is also like this. In one episode he's dating Kahn's mother and mentions that he's still dating her in another one. Then, all of a sudden, he's single and lonely again. They dropped her because they decided they liked Bill as his lonely, pathetic self. Makes sense, but it would've been nice if they had actually provided an in-show explanation for her disappearance. - Kahn's Mom is another example, after her initial appearance, she is shown several times in the background at her son's house, but then sort of vanishes, and a passing reference implies she went back to Laos. - It Makes Sense in Context as Connie's thuggish cousin Tid Pao, a character that did receive some closure (the Season 7 episode "Bad Girls, Bad Girls, Whatcha Gonna Do"), was sent to go live in the Midwest where she was last seen shoveling cow manure on another uncle's farm. Kahn's mother returning to Laos would mean that uncle's word of warning would still hold water as, if she was to make trouble, she would be leaving the country to go live with her. Bill may not have stayed with her, but Connie's cousin can still learn from her past mistakes. + Several plot motivations were also forgotten during the course of an episode in the series. One such example was from "The Courtship of Joseph's Father", where Dale Gribble has Joseph attend Spencer Academy over Arlen High School because he was a great football player. The sole reason for Joseph being able to attend Spencer Academy (playing for the varsity squad) was never discussed while he attended the school. + "Returning Japanese" had a subplot where Luanne, watching over Ladybird while the rest of the Hills were out in Japan, thinks that she had died and gets a new, identical bloodhound. However, upon attempting to transfer Ladybird's collar to the new bloodhound, Ladybird jumps up and Luanne soon gets confused as to which one is which. The closest thing this got to any resolution was Luanne walking both of the dogs (using color-coded collars) and thinking of using the excuse that she learned cloning at community college. The other bloodhound is not mentioned in any later episodes. + The Season 12 episode "Untitled Blake McCormack Project" reveals that John Redcorn has another child with an old fling, who developed a friendship (and budding romance) with Joseph. The episode ends with John Redcorn and the mom moving in together, but these characters are never seen again. * In Kong: The Animated Series, no final fate for Tiger Lucy is given. In the final two episodes, every other enemy is defeated one way or another, but Tiger Lucy, the fourth of De La Porta's henchmen (who has the least screentime of the four) is never seen nor mentioned in the final episodes. * The Life and Times of Juniper Lee: + Whatever happened to those clones of June's friends? We see Ophelia's clone shopping at the same music store as the original but what happened to the others? + Also, the turtle in "Little Big Mah" \|\|that was used to defeat the villain.\|\| The energy-syphoning Darnock demon sucked up all those turtle years but where did the turtle itself go? Not to mention, it wasn't even a random turtle, but one that Ray Ray was supposed to return to a friend during the episode. It's never mentioned again. * In the Ub Iwerks cartoon “Little Boy Blue” one of Little Bo Peep's lambs is kidnapped by The Big Bad Wolf who intends to eat her, Bo Peep, Little Boy Blue, and a scarecrow go off to rescue her, the last time the lamb is seen is when the wolf drops her after the scarecrow tackles him, she is never seen again for the rest of the cartoon, even though the wolf locked his house preventing her from getting out. * The Loud House: + In "Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru", Liam gets a girlfriend. However, she's never seen again and in "Dance, Dance Resolution", he's back to being single. + The Yates family haven't made a single appearance since "Future Tense" in Season 2. + In "Too Cool for School", Lynn is not seen again for the rest of the episode following the opening scene, and it's unknown how she suffered the school's freezing temperatures as a result of Principal Ramirez relying on Astrid Bjorklunden's techniques. * Mario cartoons: + In several episodes of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! King Koopa will turn a person into a pile of bricks using magic. Sometimes these people will get turned back by the end of the episode, sometimes they are forgotten about. + In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode "Reptiles in the Rose Garden," a bunch of kids get turned to stone by King Koopa. At no point do they get turned back. * Martha Speaks + In the episode "Martha's Dirty Habit", Martha and Helen's dad Daniel Lorraine make a deal: if she gives up digging, he will give up snacking. The episode ends with Daniel still trying not to snack but wanting to, and in the next episode he's acting normally again. We never find out what became of Daniel and his plans to give up snacking. + At the end of "There Goes the Neighbourhood", Kitten gets adopted. We never find out who adopted him, although we do know they live in the neighbourhood. + In "Martha's Life in Crime", that shows how the Lorraines got Martha, they're seen almost adopting a cat instead. It's never revealed what happened to the cat, though seeing as she's not seen in "Ain't Nothin' But a Pound Dog", and the pound is evidently a no-kill shelter since Pops was living there for years, it's safe to say that she was adopted. * Mighty Max examples: + The Conqueror, after being defeated by Norman, has been set free of his never ending cycle of fighting, and wishes to join humanity (though humans flee from him out of fear, which rather irritates him). He's never seen, heard of or mentioned again after that. Apparently, eight foot tall humanoid talking lions just wandering about is no cause for attention. + In the episode "I, Warmonger", Skullmaster orders his dragon to leave after it takes him and Warmonger to Zero Island. This is the third and final time said dragon is seen in the series, (the first two times being the very end of "Pandora's Box Part 2" and most of "Blood of the Dragon" respectively), and it doesn't reappear in the series finale, nor is it even acknowledged. + In "Zygote's Rhythm," an elderly tourist couple is hit by a devolution ray and turned into apes. They are never turned back. * Molly of Denali: In "Sticker Shock," Tooey hurts Molly's feelings when he doesn't leave a seat for her at the picnic table. Tooey says he wants to apologize to Molly for what he did, but he never gets to by the end of the episode. * Essentially every Pony in the pilot episode to My Little Pony didn't appear in the series spinoff; mainly Firefly, Ember, Twilight, and Applejack. They were major to the plot, saving everyone in Pony-Land from being turned into slaves, but they were never mentioned again. There were, however, comics in the UK where they did appear. Ironically, Firefly, Twilight and Applejack were the inspirations for three of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic's mane six (namely Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Applejack, who was the only one whose name was kept unchanged). * My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: + Trixie turned Snips and Snails into babies during her second battle against Twilight in Magic Duel. They are never seen getting turned back into their normal ages, though given they show up as normal in later episodes, one can assume that the spell was somehow reversed. + The "Pony of Shadows" who appeared at the end of Castlemania has yet to be mentioned again. There's debate amongst fans whether or not he was Lord Tirek, and when asked about it Jayson Thiessen's response was less than helpful. An actual Pony Of Shadows, actually a corrupted unicorn named Stygian, appears much later in the series but is an entirely different character (he was imprisoned during the events of Castlemania), leaving the identity of whoever or whatever it was under that cloak a complete mystery. + Inspiration Manifestation: - Exactly what did happen to the evil spell after it was driven out of Rarity, since the Tome of Eldritch Lore was (presumably) destroyed? Assuming that breaking the spell didn't destroy it entirely, of course. - What of the transformed band, turned into background ponies we've seen before? Are there two Octavias out there, one of which doesn't know used to be a very different, very male pony? + In Twilight's Kingdom Part 2: - Tirek's brother is mentioned a number of times, and depictions of him are shown in a storybook, but never makes an actual appearance. Unless Tartarus gives Tirek enhanced longevity, his brother should still be around. Though considering he went back to wherever he came from and there is no easy means of long-distance communication except between Spike and Celestia, they might just not have been able to find him. + Slice of Life has several: - Matilda asks Amethyst Star for help planning her wedding, but Amethyst Star disappears and is never mentioned or heard from again. - Matilda is worried about her wedding, with several scenes (including one with Steven Magnet) reinforcing this, but it is never mentioned, referenced, or resolved in the final third of the episode. - Octavia and Vinyl Scratch never actually play their piece at the wedding. + In "Dragon Quest," after her stubborn (and also hilarious) refusal to watch the dragon migration, Fluttershy disappears from the episode entirely, and is not seen or heard from again until the next one (considering she's the star of it), save for one of Spike's pictures in the end. + After her Team Rocket Style Sendoff in The Washouts, Lightning Dust is never seen or mentioned again in the series despite her insistence that she and Rainbow Dash are rivals for life implying she'd be back for round 3 at some point. + The last you ever see of the Tree of Harmony's sentient form, an ethereal Twilight Sparkle, is in "Uprooted" when it explains how the actions of the Young Six have brought it back to life and made it stronger than ever due to their friendship. It plays no role in the series after that, is never mentioned again, and doesn't even appear during the Big Damn Heroes moment in the Series or Distant Finale. * Nina Needs to Go! + In "Play", Nina is about to rehearse her line, but is distracted by a Potty Emergency. At the end, she cannot remember her line and ad-libs by saying her catchphrase instead. We never find out what her actual line was. + In "Train", the main characters are on a train. We never find out what their destination is. + In "Library", we only hear the beginning and end of the story the librarian reads. Never the middle. + In "D.I.Y.", Nina's dad is looking for paint in the hardware store. He finds some in the right colour but it spills all over him. We never find out if he got more paint. * The Owl House: + After Lilith shows off the scrying spell to the gang in "Separate Tides" (and after The Stinger shot with Belos addressing it), it is never seen nor brought up again. + "King's Tide": - Principal Bump is never seen or mentioned despite vowing to protect his students from the Day of Unity. The only reference to him is when Eda imagines the younger versions of Raine and Lilith alongside Bump when he was a vice-principal. Though we later learned what happened to him in the later episode, "For The Future". - Speaking of which, none of the students from Hexside make an appearance at all, raising questions on where they currently are and how they're going to cope with everything post-Draining Spell and under the Collector's reign. Though just like above, we later learned what they were doing during the Day of Unity in "For the Future". - When Lilith, Derwin, Katya and Hooty are captured, Amber and Steve are curiously not among them. - When the Collector ends the Draining spell, we see the inhabitants of the Isles recover, but not Eda and the Coven heads. - The last we see of Alador is him trying to fend of the Abomatons when the Draining Spell takes effect on him. It is not clear if he gets captured or is able to escape. - Despite last episode ending with Odalia planning to find a new business partner, she never shows up in this episode, so it's unknown what her reaction would be to finding out that selling out her family and all of witchkind to become royalty was All for Nothing. - It's somewhat unclear if the Palismen for Willow, Gus, Amity and Hunter or Luz's egg were also knocked through the portal before it closed. We later learn that they were indeed knocked through the portal in the next episode "Thanks to Them". * The Penguins of Madagascar: + In The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper, there are camels and two elephants living in the zoo. Camels are never shown in the show and Burt is the only elephant living in the zoo. + Before Savio was introduced, there was a different snake living in the zoo that's nowhere to be found in later episodes. * Phineas and Ferb: + About half of the episodes end with Perry disappearing after defeating Doofenshmirtz, with no explanation how he returned to Phineas and Ferb, in addition to no "Oh, there you are, Perry" in return. + In "The Fast and the Phineas": - When Isabella brings the Fireside Girls to be Phineas' pit crew, Milly is strangely not seen during the pit stop. - When the car gets taken through the car wash by Perry, it removes all the exterior modifications and leaves it sparkling clean which Linda loves; however, the boys also swapped the engine, which could not have been removed by the car wash. + "Lights, Candace, Action!": Two of the Fireside Girls (Milly and Holly) are seen in the audience during the screening test of The Curse of the Princess Monster; when the audience gets aged into elderly seniors by Doofenshmirtz's Age-Accelerator-inator, the Fireside Girls are gone. + In the episode "I, Brobot", Candace captures one of the Ferbots in a sack, and it then gets picked up by the garbage collectors behind her back. We never see what happens to that Ferbot afterwards. Also, we also don't see what happens to the Candroid after the episode. - Perhaps the Ferbot got sent away to the place where all trash ends up. + When the boys set Oompa Loompa-like Ba-Dink-A-Dinks free, they promise to "lay waste to the surface dwellers." But it's a one-shot gag — so far, their plot thread hasn't been resolved. They've had a few minor background appearances in subsequent episodes, but... not knowing where they are can be pure horror. + In the episode "Run, Candace Run", the conflict is that Candace has made too many promises to her friends, family and boyfriend, and she has to accomplish multiple tasks in one day. One of those was apparently something involving her and Stacy on stage in a cow costume, however, Candace seemed to forget all about that, as we never see her do it and it is never addressed again. + Halfway through "No More Bunny Business" when the trio goes inside to order carrots, Ferb and Isabella disappear for the rest of the episode. + In "Night of the Living Pharmacists", Norm appears briefly at the beginning, and then leaves for the rest of the episode. Near the end of the episode, we also never find out what happened to Perry and the other O.W.C.A. agents after everyone in Danville is turned back to normal. * The Pirates of Dark Water: The Lugg Brothers just sort of disappear after leaving Zoolie's gamehouse with Konk in the miniseries. Konk is later delivered to Bloth in a barrel by some woman, and the Lugg Brothers are never seen or mentioned again. * In one short starring Pluto the Pup, Pluto and the Armadillo, Mickey and Pluto visit Brazil, where Pluto meets a female armadillo in the jungle. The armadillo instantly takes a liking to Pluto, but he initially distrusts it, but eventually grows to love it. The short ends with Mickey dragging Pluto and the Armadillo (who is at the moment rolled up into a ball) onto the plane, only to discover once it takes off that the "ball" in his hands is actually the armadillo. Despite this, the armadillo never shows up again in any other Pluto shorts. * The Point has "Life Line", sung by an unseen Distressed Dude who's begging for someone to rescue him from a Bottomless Pit. It's never revealed whether or not anyone manages to free him. * Polly Pocket: Main antagonists Griselle and Gwen Grande suddenly disappeared after Season 1 and didn't appear again until the end of Season 5. No explanation is given for their absence. Grunwalda is also missing since the Season 1 finale despite its cliffhanger ending involving her. * In The Proud Family episode "Culture Shock", Penny befriends a Muslim girl and her family as part of a school project on racial diversity. One night, the Prouds and the Muslim family return to the latter's home to find that someone vandalized it and scrawled a racist message on the garage door (in the original version, it read, "GO HOME, TOWELHEADS!"; in the reruns, the message was digitally altered to just read, "GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY!") to their shock and horror. While this does lead to Penny making a speech at school the following day about how Muslims have been discriminated against more thanks to the 9/11 attacks, and that doing so is wrong, viewers are still left wondering who vandalized the house in the first place. * In The Prince and the Pauper (1995) Tom's father vanishes halfway through the film and is never mentioned again, making him this and a Karma Houdini. * In the Ready Jet Go! episode "Beep and Boop's Game", the DSA scientists want to know if a mountain on Mars is really a volcano. By the end of the episode, we never do find out if it was a volcano or not. + In “Magnet, PI", we never find out what Mitchell's "top-secret" detective case was. When he appears again at the end of the episode, he only wonders why Sunspot appears to be tap-dancing on the ceiling, and is then dragged away by Cody. * This was the case with the original airing of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). After it aired, Rankin/Bass received a lot of letters from children asking whatever happened to the Misfit Toys, who weren't rescued and never mentioned again after their scene. In response, they created a new scene for the end credits that showed Santa rescuing the Misfit Toys and delivering them to children, which has been the version that aired ever since. On the other hand, this leaves Yukon Cornelius licking the end of his pick unexplained — to make room for the new scene, the punchline to the aforementioned build-up had to be cut. (He was hunting for a peppermint vein, in case you were curious.) * At the conclusion of The Ruff & Reddy Show "Chickasaurus" story arc, Professor Gizmo adopts caveboy Ubble-Ubble. In Gizmo's next appearance ("Spooky Rock" story), Ubble-Ubble is not seen or mentioned. * Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat: Ping-Wing the pigeon, the magistrate's pet, completely vanished after her first appearance. * Scooby-Doo: + In Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf Shaggy has a girlfriend named Googie, after the events of the movie she is never seen again. - Googie is one of several new love interests introduced in the Superstars 10 films (Snulu for Boo Boo, Desert Flower for Huck, etc.) which originally they had planned to make a whole other set of Superstars 10 films with some sequels to the previous batch. But near all those got pushed to the wayside in the Turner buyout, turning most of the characters to forever be lost mice. + Most tag-alongs such as Scrappy and Flim-Flam don't appear that much. Scrappy appears in some movies (where he's actually pretty tolerable) and Flim-Flam is completely absent after The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (although he reappears in Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost). - Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated did go Take That! on them saying Flim-Flam was doing 25 to life after some major con that he pulled. And as for Scrappy? The gang refuses to speak of him. + When the show was changed in the 80s there was no mentioning of what happened to Fred, Daphne and Velma. when Daphne returned to the show her exit was worked into the new premise but not explicitly stated on the show (she had gotten a job as a reporter). When Fred and Velma returned briefly in 1984, it was disclosed that Fred became a mystery writer and Velma was an intern at NASA. * Sealab 2020: There are clearly lots of workers in Sealab, but outside of the primary cast most get shown only in one episode to never be mentioned again. The same thing happens with Tuffy, the dolphin Gail rescued, in "Lost". * She-Ra: Princess of Power: + The Red Knight, a mysterious and very capable ally whom Angella appeared to recognize but was never seen again. + Prince Zed, the son of Horde Prime and heir to the throne of Horde World. In "The Peril of Whispering Woods", Adora/She-Ra showed him mercy and how horrible the Horde was compared to the Rebellion. When he left with Hordak, Zed vowed to reform the Horde once he became its leader. He was never seen again after that. + Corporal Romeo joined the Rebellion in "Romeo and Glimmer" and was never seen again, despite becoming Glimmer's Love Interest. In fact, not two episodes later, Glimmer was flirting with Adam. + Netossa and Spinnerella both debuted in "When Whispering Woods Last Bloomed". Netossa appeared in three more episodes after that while Spinnerella was never seen again. + Kowl's evil cousin Red-Eye joined the Horde in "Birds of a Feather" and was last seen walking back to the Fright Zone with them after their defeat. + Kowla was never seen again after "Zoo Story", despite becoming Kowl's Love Interest. + At the end of "Friendship" Lohni joined the Rebellion but was never seen again. * The Simpsons does this a lot, which isn't surprising since it's known for the Halfway Plot Switch. Whatever happens in the first act to get the actual plot running will never be mentioned again. Or if it is, it'll be to hang a lampshade on that the story's moved on and no-one's interested any more, like the badgers in "A Tale of Two Springfields". + Or the first part of "Tennis the Menace" where Homer buys a burial plot for Grampa Simpson, but ends up creating a tennis court in the backyard after a coffin salesman tells Homer that his backyard needs to be the size of a tennis court if he's thinking of burying Grampa there. Or the first part of "The Cartridge Family," where the plot goes from the family trying to survive a town-wide soccer riot, complete with fighting and houses being burned to a very special episode (a Simpsonized version of it, anyway) where Homer buys a gun for protection and drives Marge and the kids away because of how irresponsible he is with it? + The bagboy strike on "Simpson Safari" that was abandoned for yet another "The Simpsons are Going to [Insert Country/Continent/State Here]" plot. That episode hung a lampshade on it. After having lost their guide and become stuck on a boat floating down a river, Homer wonders if the bag boys have resolved their strike. The episode is later dedicated to the bag boys of America, "whose ineptness and greed were the inspiration for this episode". + In "Homer and Apu", Apu takes a bullet for James Woods (It Makes Sense in Context), says his last words and then we see him make his recovery in a hospital along with Woods before the episode ends. The assailant, who could've very well shot again at his initial target, isn't shown again. \|\|Neither is James Woods.\|\| - James Woods does eventually have a cameo in the Crossover with Family Guy. + In "The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show", the Itchy and Scratchy producers are trying to introduce "Poochie", the show's new marketing-driven dog. A test audience sees Itchy and Scratchy driving to a fireworks factory. When they're about half a mile away from it, Poochie appears and begins doing all sorts of "cool" activities like skateboarding and playing basketball. Milhouse, who is watching the show at The Simpsons' house, complains "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?!?" At the end of the episode, Poochie steals Itchy and Scratchy's car and drives off. + In "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish", Homer is diagnosed with death in 22 hours. Having nothing to lose, he accepts Ned Flanders' invitation to a barbecue he doesn't want to go to. But at the end of the episode it's shown that Homer survives. The last shot of the episode is him eating chips and watching TV; the barbecue is never mentioned at all. The commentary discusses a deleted final scene where Homer has to deal with all the consequences of what he thought was his last day alive: not only is he stuck at the barbecue, but his father now wants to spend lots of time with him rather than having accepting their distant relationship, and Mr. Burns has some harsh words for him after Homer insulted him. + After "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds", She's the Fastest just vanishes and is never mentioned again. + Also, in "Insane Clown Poppy" Krusty seems to have a pretty strong relationship with his daughter at the end, who just vanishes next episode. She eventually reappears in "The Nightmare After Krustmas," over 16 years later. + The half-greyhound half-poodle puppy Krusty gets from the Simpsons in "Today I Am a Clown" has yet to be seen again. + In the episode "Like Father, Like Clown," Krusty's assistant, Lois Pennycandy obviously holds a torch for Krusty, but this has never been referenced or referred to again. + Herb Powell, Homer's long-lost half-brother appears in two episodes early in the show's run, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" (Season 2, Episode 15) and "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" (Season 3, Episode 24). After the second, \|\|in which he regains the fortune of which Homer's blundering deprived him in the episode wherein we meet him,\|\| he all but vanishes. They later lampshade this, when Homer mentions in passing "my seldom-seen brother, Herb." - Apparently Marge and/or Homer still know where he can be contacted, they just haven't had a reason to in a while. In "Changing of the Guardian", (Season 24, Episode 11, 22 seasons after BCYSTD), they consider him as a potential guardian for the kids in case of their unanticipated demise, but discount him \|\|because he's poor again\|\|. - In another example of this trope, Herb's baby translator never comes up in the series again. + And in "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" What Happened to the Bear? The commentators would also like to know. + The commentators also want to know what happened to the Scottish woman that Willie meets in the episode "Whacking Day." + In "Homer At The Bat", Ozzie Smith ends up visiting a literal tourist trap, the Springfield Mystery Spot, which turns out to be some kind of Negative Space Wedgie, and he promptly falls into it. In the snapshot at the end we can see his specter hovering over the rest of the group (presumably invisible to all save the viewers). We never find out if he managed to escape the Mystery Spot, so as far as we know he's still falling through space and time... + It is also never revealed what happened to Scorpio after taking over the east coast and giving Homer a football team in "You Only Move Twice" as reward for helping his scheme. + Viewers with long memories will remember "Bart Gets Hit by a Car", particularly the scene where Bart goes to Hell. The Devil looks him up on a computer and says, "You're not supposed to be here until the Yankees win the pennant again," and returns him to the world of the living. October 1996 came and went. Nothing. (Okay, in fairness, he thought it would take 100 years, but come on, not even a throwaway Brick Joke?) In the DVD commentary, someone says "Well, that didn't happen," and that's all anyone involved with the episode has ever said about it. + Remember Bart's Star Trek belt from the episode "The Homer They Fall"? Neither does he. The DVD commentary does make mention of how they pretty much abandoned the "Bart gets his Star Trek belt stolen" storyline for the "Homer becomes a boxer" storyline (which they also pointed out was a rehash of "Homerpalooza," only instead of Homer taking hits to the gut without feeling pain, it was hits to the head). + The first act of "Lisa The Greek" has a subplot about Bart going clothes shopping with Marge, getting embarrassing clothes and ends with him in the car with the bullies outside waiting to kick his ass. It's never brought up again after that. + This trope was essentially why "Mother Simpson" was produced, as the then current writing team couldn't believe that Homer's mother had never been seen outside of a couple flashback cameos. + At the end of "Two Bad Neighbors" former President Gerald Ford becomes Homer's new neighbor and they discover that they have a lot in common. Other than a picture of them together that Homer shows Frank Grimes, he is never seen again afterwards. + In "Lisa the Tree Hugger", Bart wants to buy a game console and takes up a part-time job at a Thai restaurant. After a montage of Bart leaving fliers at peoples' doors, the restaurant is mentioned twice more. It's still never explained if Bart ended up buying the console or why he left a job he seemed to enjoy. + In "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington", the Simpsons are kept awake due to a re-routing of an airway causing airplanes to fly right next to their house. We don't see how the others on the street react to this, despite it being a big problem for the Simpsons. + In "Fat Man and Little Boy", Homer tries to help Lisa win the science fair, against Martin. He does so by turning her model nuclear reactor into a working one. However, after this, the nuclear reactor is disposed of at the dump and it's never explained who ended up winning the science fair, or what Lisa brought after her project was thrown out. + In "Sleeping with the Enemy", Marge takes Nelson to the dentist (due to his neglectful mother, he has no idea "doctors for your teeth" even exist). Neither the visit nor the results are shown or discussed. + "Thank God, It's Doomsday" has Homer predict the Rapture. While the Flanders family are much more religious than Homer and aware of the Rapture party, they aren't seen in Heaven after the apocalypse. + "Secrets of a Successful Marriage" is about Homer leading a class at the adult education center, solving marriage-related problems from various citizens of Springfield. Once he starts sharing secrets about Marge and gets kicked out of the house, it's never shown what happened to his class. + "Whiskey Business" concludes Lisa's plotline with people from the company that created the Bleeding Gums Murphy hologram harassing Lisa with holograms of various celebrities (including jazz legend Sonny Rollins As Himself), and then... her plotline abruptly stops with no resolution. + "Bart the Genius" has Bart cheat on an aptitude test by switching his own paper with Martin's. After the test-taking scene, Martin is not mentioned again in the episode and it's not known if he received a visit from Dr. J. Loren Pryor about the (presumably very low) score he received. + "Bart After Dark" includes a sub-plot where Lisa convinces Marge to go to a wreckage that caused an oil leak onto a beach so they can clean and save animals (although by the time they get there all animals are taken and they're left cleaning rocks). When they return to Springfield at the end of the second act, not only is this sub-plot dropped and never mentioned again, but Lisa herself goes completely missing for the entire third act of the episode. She doesn't even show up for the big musical number at the end. * Skull Island (2023): The bespectacled mercenary is grabbed and carried away by the giant hawk, and we never see him again. \|\|We don't see hide nor hair of him at Kong's temple when it's revealed that the hawk wasn't eating the catches it caught but was instead bringing them alive to Kong's home, so it's unknown what happened to him\|\|. * Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): + The first season had at least one episode where Sally is searching for her father. In the second season, she finds him, but no attempt was made to connect it with the clues found in her previous searches. + In another second season episode, they alter the past to ensure that their nanny survives to the present day, and it's revealed at the end of the episode that she does — and is never seen again. * South Park: + The episode "Coon vs. Coon and Friends" was really bad about this. The two previous episodes featured Tony Hayward and Captain Hindsight playing significant roles, but they don't appear in the finale or are even mentioned. (Hindsight removed his superpowers, but his last scene implied he regretted the decision; ending his arc there feels like a "Shaggy Dog" Story.) There were also interdimensional beings besides Cthulhu who appeared in the first episode but were simply forgotten. + Tweek becomes the "new Kenny" (translation: fourth main character) for the second part of Season 6. At the start of the third part however, the Boys were inexplicably back to three. Somewhat justified since Cartman said they were thinking about firing him in his last episode as "the new Kenny," but there was a whole episode devoted to firing Butters, who continued to be a main character while Tweek was Demoted to Extra. + "The Poor Kid" begins with Kenny and his rarely-seen siblings, Kevin and Karen, being taken into foster care. We follow Kenny and Karen throughout the rest of the episode, but Kevin disappears — they don't even throw in a line about him going to a different family or anything. + The episode "The Snuke" is a parody of 24, with part of the plot involving Hilary Clinton having a nuke implanted in her body. While the other characters manage to stop the terrorists who planned to detonate it, the plotline of her having it removed doesn't get resolved. This may be intentional, given how much 24 used this trope themselves. + At the end of "201" we never found out how they got rid of Mecha-Streisand. The Super Best Friends distract her with a Neil Diamond duet and that's the last we see of her. + Token gets shot by accident (?) and taken away in "The Pandemic Special", but is never seen or mentioned again after that, his fate left unknown. The "Vaccination Special" reveals that he survived. + The "Post-COVID" two-parter shows a possible future, which includes Wendy having married a guy named Darwin. He hangs around for the first special, having one moment as a Logical Latecomer but otherwise not contributing much to Wendy's group. In the second part, however, he disappears after their first scene. \|\|In the revised timeline, Wendy is apparently single and has a Maybe Ever After with Stan\|\|. * SpongeBob SquarePants + In "Grandma's Kisses", SpongeBob's grandmother puts Patrick to sleep on her couch. When the couch is next shown, Patrick is gone. + In "I'm With Stupid" when SpongeBob runs out of Patrick's house after failing to convince his parents he's not really stupid, he's not seen again for the rest of the episode. + "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV": - The entire premise is that SpongeBob accidentally shrinks everyone with Mermaid Man's belt. At the end when he shrinks the town (and himself) the belt is nowhere to be seen. - After SpongeBob has shrunken everyone in Bikini Bottom, Patrick strangely disappears for the rest of the episode. + In "Stanley S. SquarePants", Squidward is introduced to SpongeBob's cousin Stanley and is so freaked out that he moves out in a haste. Following this, he is not seen again for the rest of the episode, even during the Krusty Krab scenes where Stanley somehow takes his place. + At one point in "Mr. Krabs Takes a Vacation", SpongeBob is desperate to use the bathroom. When he, Mr. Krabs, and Pearl arrive at the mint, it's never brought up again. + In "Chatterbox Gary" when Squidward secretly switches Gary's chatterbox translation collar with a knockoff while SpongeBob is still asleep, the collar is not seen again for the rest of the episode with its fate unknown. + In "Fear of a Krabby Patty", we never find out what became of the 10,000 Krabby Patties. + In "Enemy In-Law", after Plankton announces he is going to propose to Mama Krabs, SpongeBob does not appear again throughout the remainder of the episode. + In "New Leaf", SpongeBob is completely absent for the second half of the episode due to the focus going to Mr. Krabs and Plankton. + In "A Pal For Gary", we never find out what happens to Puffy Fluffy after being sent away, nor do we find out if he turned back to his cute state. We also don't find out what happened to the little boy who also bought one of Puffy Fluffy's species. Did he suffer the vicious consequences, too? + In "Patty Hype", Squidward and Krabs make fun of SpongeBob for inventing Pretty Patties. While Krabs gets his comeuppance, we don't see Squidward after this initial scene. + In "Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy", we see Sandy hiding in the sewers, saying "If I'm ever going to catch this thug, I'm going to need some help!" The next time we see her, she's crawling into the Krusty Krab through a hole in the floor. What "help" did she get? The cops show up later, but it's unclear if Sandy intentionally called them or they just happened to be there. + After SpongeBob shows up to talk about the grease in "There Will Be Grease", Karen, the Krusty Krab, and the Chum Bucket aren't mentioned again. Even though the episode involves Krabs and Plankton's partnership, finding a miracle recipe that fixes everything, and both of them coming into a lot of money, which you'd expect would be relevant to their restaurants in some way. + "Squid Baby": SpongeBob and Patrick come into the Krusty Krab zonked out after 72 straight hours of pampering the baby-morphed Squidward; after Patrick falls asleep on one of the tables, he is gone for the rest of the episode. + "It Came from Goo Lagoon": Despite Squidward being one of the people who uses the Super Goo, he completely disappears midway through the episode. Even at the Krusty Krab scene at the end, he isn't there. + In "Kenny the Cat", both SpongeBob and Patrick are excited for Kenny's arrival. However, Patrick gets creeped out by SpongeBob's Kenny obsession and leaves. We don't see him again after that. + "The Night Patty": Patrick just disappears from the episode after SpongeBob fills in for the night shift fry cook, save for a brief cameo in the "Tidal Zone" epilogue. + In "Escape from Beneath Glove World", SpongeBob and Patrick are sent to Glove Jail with a bunch of kids. All the kids escape, but SpongeBob and Patrick go after just one toddler, with the rest of the kids not seen again with no explanation. + "There's a Sponge in My Soup": Patrick is shown to be living in the soup as a hippie. But he isn't seen afterwards even after the hippies go to live somewhere else. + "Spot Returns": The people who originally adopted the amoeba puppies are never seen again. We don't even find out Mrs. Puff's reaction to returning home and finding her living room destroyed. + "The Pink Purloiner": Mr. Krabs vows to find SpongeBob's net, but completely vanishes from the episode afterwards. + "SpongeBob You're Fired": SpongeBob is able to make homemade snail food for Gary (and apparently really good snail food at that) without accidentally making a Krabby Patty, but this is never brought up again afterwards. + "Unreal Estate": The pepper Squidward used to trick SpongeBob into thinking he was allergic to his house was never brought up again after he moves out. + In "Big Sister Sam", Squidward and Sam's conflict is a focus point of the episode. Once Sam throws Squidward out of his bulldozer, he doesn't appear for the rest of the episode. + At the beginning of "The Two Faces of Squidward", SpongeBob and Patrick are making jokes about Squidward in the kitchen; after SpongeBob comes out and injures Squidward's face with the door, Patrick is gone for the rest of the episode. + In "Sandy, Help Us!", we never figure out if the Flying Dutchman got back to normal size, since he's still tiny when Sandy leaves him and he doesn't appear afterwards. + "Biddy Sitting" starts with Squidward criticizing SpongeBob and Patrick's babysitting service. After they dress him up like a baby, they take on their first job, and Squidward doesn't appear again for the rest of the episode. * Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Veritas": + In-universe, Clar insists on more information about details that the lower deckers didn't focus on, such as the map of the Neutral Zone or the package from Tendi's secret mission. + Out of universe, we never do learn how Rutherford got to the Gorn wedding, or how he managed to escape. + We never find out what happened to the actual "cleaner" that was supposed to join Ransom's infiltration team, and whose place Tendi inadvertently took. * Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The Season 1 episode "Monster Arm" ends with the titular demonic arm, as it transforms back into a normal limb, telling Marco that We Will Meet Again, as it's permanently a part of him now. Star assures him that the threat is probably nothing to worry about, followed by close-up of Marco's worried face and a lingering shot on his broken arm before the cut to black. While the arm is at least mentioned briefly in Season 3 as part of a quick joke, it fails to make a return appearance for the remainder of the series. Word of God states that they attempted to return to this plot point several times, but could never come up with a good enough story. * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: + The Zillo Beast. At the end of the two-parter in which it appears and is killed, Palpatine gives scientist Dr. Boll a datapad with orders to clone the Beast. The Season 2 DVD commentary stated that the creators were thinking of following up on this in Season 7 or thereabouts, but the show was cancelled before it could get that far. It was revealed that the planned story where Ahsoka teamed up with Anakin and Obi-Wan to investigate a Sith temple far under the Jedi Temple on Coruscant would have involved the Zillo Beast, or possibly its clone, fighting monsters. However, since Tarkin confirms that Darth Vader doesn't know about the existence of the buried Sith shrine, this arc, if it ever did happen in canon, could not have occurred the way it was initially planned. - The Zillo beast clone was eventually followed up on by Sequel Series The Bad Batch. Season 2's Metamorphosis features a clone of the beast in a juvenile state in a Monster of the Week setting, where it quickly begins to mature into the more familiar adult form when it gets access to a power source. At the end of the episode, it gets recaptured by the Empire and transferred to Mt. Tantiss' research facility. It reappears in the series finale, whereupon it ends up becoming a whole new mouse - it's last seen escaping into the jungle, and it's left ambiguous whether the Empire at large is aware of that fact. + Separatist leaders Wat Tambor and Poggle the Lesser were last seen in Republic custody, despite the fact that they were free in Revenge of the Sith. Poggle's case was answered in the novel Catalyst, while Tambor appears in "A Distant Echo" out of Republic custody without explanation. Word of God was that Palpatine had Tambor transferred to a prison where the Separatists could break him out. + The number of these rises greatly when you start thinking of the clones themselves who are named and given characterization but never appear or are mentioned ever again after that episode, or are even regular characters who aren't shown dying at any point but don't appear in the movies. A brief list includes Blitz, Stone, Boil, Boost, Sinker, Rys, Broadside, Hawk, Jet, and Doom. + As a result of the first five seasons being made before Disney rebooted the Expanded Universe, but kept the show itself as a part of its rebooted canon, several character arcs and resolutions were either booted out of the canon, while others were only wrapped up in the new canon. The most significant example of this is Ashoka Tahno; Since her story-post leaving the Jedi Order- is exclusive to the rebooted continuity, Legends Ashoka's life after leaving the order remains unaddressed. * Star Wars Rebels itself has a few unresolved plot points: + "Droids in Distress": Crime boss Vizago makes off with half the shipment of disruptors the Ghost crew stole. This was never followed up on for the rest of the show. + "The Forgotten Droid": The Jerkass captain of the Imperial freighter Chopper and AP-5 steal is last seen being knocked out by Chopper on the ship. What happened to the freighter itself, as well as the captain, is unknown, although it's possible that he may be in rebel custody. + "Iron Squadron" introduces the eponymous group of naïve newcomers, three teenagers and their astromech droid. The group was led by Commander Sato's nephew, his only living relative, and they were unpopular. They joined Phoenix Squadron at the end of the episode, and aren't seen or mentioned for the rest of Season 3, which becomes especially jarring when \|\|Sato died\|\| in the Season 3 finale. - Mart Mattin, the Iron Squadron's leader, returned in Season 4 to play a supporting role. His astromech, R3-A3, came Back for the Dead. However, what he was doing during the Battle of Atollon is never brought up, and the other two members, Gooti and Jonner, did not return. + "Visions and Voices": \|\|Maul\|\| tracks Kanan and Ezra back to Atollon, the site of the rebels' base, and avoids being killed by stating he's placed a beacon with a Dead Man's Switch somewhere on the planet to alert the Empire if he's killed or injured. This beacon is never brought up for the rest of the season, not even to say it had been removed. \|\|It's rendered irrelevant at the end of the season when the Empire finds them by other means.\|\| * Steven Universe: "Last One Out of Beach City" has Pearl try out being wild and spontaneous for a night, going with Steven and Amethyst to a concert. She meets a human woman who looks like Rose, and manages to get her phone number (the episode only gives her first initial "S", but Word of God says they were calling her Sheena behind the scenes). It seemed like the two were going to hit it off and the Crewniverse even confirmed the Mystery Woman would return, but other than a background cameo in season 5, she was never seen again. * Steven Universe: Future + "Bluebird" introduces us to the titular Bluebird Azurite, a fusion between the two villainous Gems Aquamarine and Eyeball Ruby from the original series. They initially arrive at Steven's house under the guise of wanting to learn the ways of Era 3, with Steven being suspicious of their true motives. They eventually win him over, only to show their true colors when they take Greg hostage. A fight ensues, ending when the Crystal Gems arrive and squash them as Alexandrite. Aquamarine and Eyeball then fly off into the sky saying they'll always be out there hating Steven... Cue them never appearing in the series again. This is likely because the Crewniverse only had 20 episodes greenlit for Future, which led them to leaving out several story ideas, Bluebirds return potentially among them. > Aquamarine: "You may have gotten us this time, but we'll be out there!" > Eyeball: "Hating you!" > Aquamarine: "Forever!" > Eyeball: "You smeeeeeell"-\flies off into the distance\. * In the first of the Strawberry Shortcake (Classic) Direct-to-Video specials, Strawberry's pet Pupcake accidentally bumps into an arrow sign, making it point the other way. Although Strawberry sees this, she doesn't bother to fix the sign, which indicates that it should be a plot point later on. Yet the sign is never seen or mentioned again. * Street Fighter (1995) had plenty. To quote the annotation near the end of this video: "What will Cammy do next? Can Ryu and Ken stop Akuma from murdering fighters and stealing their chi? Can T. Hawk set aside his feelings to stop Satin Hammer's terrorist vendetta against those who wronged her? Will Warrior's World ever be saved and will Chun Li ever reunite with her lover? Can Fei Long end the Triad's grip on Hong Kong and rebuild his tarnished career? Will Guile ever regain his old life and will Blanka regain his humanity? And what happened to Vega and Balrog?" * In the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) miniseries, Shredder mutates more punks after Bebop and Rocksteady lose their first fight against the Turtles. Then for some reason he doesn't do anything with them, and the viewers next see them in a jail cell in the Technodrome's portal room. You never learn what happens to them when the Technodrome is sucked through the reversed portal. + Bebop and Rocksteady also count. Their last appearance is in the Season 8 episode "Turtle Trek". After the Turtles destroyed the Technodrome's engines it was stuck in Dimension X for good. After the Shredder and Krang were retired as villains so the Turtles would start to fight Lord Dregg, Shredder and Krang do return in Season 10 (which was the final season) but Bebop and Rocksteady are not referred to again, with their fate being ambiguous. * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): + The Rat King made his appearance in the fourth season, battling to a standstill with Leonardo. After the episode was over, it was made clear that the Rat King had survived and that there was a strong possibility of him showing up again in the future. Three seasons later ("The Lost Season", "Fast Forward", and "Back to the Sewers"), the Rat King still hasn't made any appearances and is never mentioned again. For better or worse, the Rat King subplot is more or less dropped after his Season 4 episode. A better title would be "What Happened to the Rat?" in this case. + What happened to the Rat King is answered in the "Back to the Sewer" season finale. Towards the end of the episode, he makes a cameo appearance, watching April and Casey's wedding from afar... The Rat King had promised himself that he would be watching the Turtles (presumably waiting for a good chance to strike). He was watching the Turtles when he was at the wedding. He probably had been watching them for a long time from off-screen. * In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles special Turtles Forever, the 1987 version of April O'Neil was kidnapped by a giant mutant banana (don't ask) and no one knows what happens to her. Knowing 1987 April, the Turtles rescued her off-screen. That's what happens every episode, after all. * The original The Transformers wasn't immune either. The last we see of the Decepticons' human collaborator Dr. Arkeville is him telling Starscream that the 'Con has to go back to Earth (from Cybertron) personally. Afterwards, Arkeville is never seen again. * In the Transformers: Animated two-part episode "Megatron Rising", \|\|the Dinobots appear in the first part, obviously hinting at an appearance in the second. Though the second part's main battle takes place on Dinobot Island, they are nowhere to be seen.\|\| This was explained in an interview with the story editor-originally \|\|they were going to be beaten rather easily by the newly resurrected Megatron.\|\| However, the animation of the scene was terrible. That, and they were afraid the fans would be upset (especially since it violated the character profile saying \|\|Grimlock was supposed to be as strong as Megatron\|\|. + By the Grand Finale, there are still several loose threads hanging, including \|\|where were Blackarachnia and Waspinator at the end of "Predacons Rising", did Ultra Magnus recover from Shockwave's attack, where did the protoform Sari used to be come from\|\|, as well as what happened to several characters who were simply absent in the end. - For example: \|\|Given the manner in which Starscream finally dies, a bit of info on the fates of Wreck-Gar, the Constructicons, and Slipstream would have been nice. Not to mention Soundwave. And Team Chaar. And Skywarp and Thundercracker.\|\| Yeah, Animated has a lot of this. But that's what you get when a show is canceled. - Thankfully, a few things do get explained in the two 'AllSpark Almanacs', such as \|\|the fact that Ultra Magnus was going to go offline\|\| in Season 4, and that there was originally a scene cut from "Endgame", showing \|\|Slipstream bringing Starscream back online (somehow)\|\|. * Transformers: Prime ends with the DTV movie Predacons Rising, resolving all but one major plot line: the final fate of the villainess Airachnid, who was last seen going vampire on a horde of Insecticons after they were all trapped on one of Cybertron's moons. This is especially jarring when the entire movie takes place on Cybertron, without a single break back to Earth. + Speaking of Earth, after having elected to stay there in the final episode to help the US Military with ultra-major threats, Ratchet returns to Cybertron, but we never learn if he goes back to Earth, or what the human companions may have been up to in the meantime, let alone how they'd react to \|\|Optimus' Heroic Sacrifice.\|\| + Shockwave is seen being attacked by a horde of \|\|zombie Predacons\|\| and is assumed to be dead. However he appears later, damaged but alive, to urge the Predacons to help the Autobots stop \|\|Unicron\|\|. He doesn't appear in the final battle and disappears for the rest of the movie. * Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) has some examples stemming from the fact that it's a sequel to Transformers Prime. + With \|\|Ratchet's\|\| return in Decepticon Island Season 2 finale and \|\|Bulkhead's\|\| return in Sick as a Bot, it was originally unknown what happened to the rest of Team Prime. \|\|Enemy of My Enemy makes mention that every Autobot has been blacklisted by the High Council, who turned out to be Decepticons in disguise.\|\| + Perhaps the most glaring one is Knockout, who pulled a \|\|Heel–Face Turn at the end of Predacons Rising.\|\| + Another example is the Big Bad Megatron. Several Decepticons are implied either not to have been aware that \|\|Megatron disbanded the Decepticon faction and is now in exile, or they refuse to accept his decision\|\|. Soundwave also attempted to contact Megatron in Collateral Damage but failed. This leaves Megatron not appearing anywhere in the show. + Outside of Transformers Prime, Blurr is the only Autobot that previously appeared in the show that does not appear in the two-part finale. * On Wacky Races (2017), Dick Dastardly, Muttley, Peter Perfect, Penelope Pitstop and the Gruesome Twosome are the only racers from the original 1968 show returning. The others had been replaced with racers I.Q. Ickly and the P.D.Q. Crew. * WinxVerse: + Stella is the Fairy of the Sun and the Moon, but all her powers focus only on the sun (except a single moon spell in her Enchantix form and a few in the fourth season, but these focus more on stars). Nickelodeon seems to have tried to amend this by calling Stella the Fairy of the Shining Sun. + Sky had a dog but, aside from a brief flashback in Season 2, it has never been seen again after Season 1. + The fake Professor Avalon, whom Darkar created to be his spy at Alfea in Season 2, completely disappears and is never mentioned again after kidnapping Bloom and bringing her to Darkar. He doesn't even show up when Faragonda, Griffin, and Codatorta fight Keborg, Darkar's other creation and pet. The Nickelodeon special retelling of Season 2, "The Shadow Phoenix", avoids this by removing the impostor entirely and having Darkar himself pose as Avalon. + As of Season 5, the Pixie Pets aren't seen or even mentioned anymore, though this was bound to happen given that their impact on the plot during Season 4 was nonexistent, and they weren't particularly popular even with the target audience. + The pixies weren't seen or mentioned even once in Seasons 5 and 8. They returned in Season 6, but Digit and Tune were replaced with Cherie and Caramel with no explanation provided. + The Witches. The first season heavily implied witches were the evil counterpart towards the fairies. Towards the end of the season, the witches turn out be...not exactly evil...with no explanation as to exactly what sets them apart from fairies anyway. In general, the witches except the Trix slowly got phased out of the show. + In the Season 4 finale of \|\|Aisha decides to take the flower that was revived with the gift of life back to Andros as a memento of Nabu. What Aisha did with the flower or anything else she did on Andros has been left unknown.\|\| + The final season completely drops Daphne and Roxy, the last of which being her first seasonal absence. She does appear in the comics, however. ---	WhatHappenedToTheMouse	null
TropesEToL	# Rick And Morty - Tropes E to L Tropes with their own pages: ---------------------------- * Even Evil Has Standards * Foreshadowing * Hidden Depths --- * Early-Bird Cameo: "Get Schwifty" appears on Summer's MP3 player in the Point & Click web game before Season 2 premiered. * Early-Installment Weirdness: + The short that the show was based on, "Doc and Mharti," had the title characters having totally different names, was animated much more sloppily, and was a parody of Back to the Future. The short also crossed the line much farther and was much more vulgar than its current incarnation. It also featured \|\|a fairly explicit display of "Mharti" giving "Doc" oral sex.\|\| + The first season was noticably different from later ones. It was much closer to a typical Justin Roiland cartoon rather than the more Dan Harmon-esque in-depth storytelling it became better known for in later seasons. The stories in season 1are much simpler and straightforward with more sophomoric and improvisational humor while later seasons are more experimental, deconstructive in nature, and the comedy is more absurdist and meta. The characters are also more one note in the first season with Rick and Morty's personalities basically being summed up as "alcoholic mad scientist and his naive and fretful grandson". The characters become far more complex starting from season 2. + The first real episode has Rick spend the first several minutes in an incoherent stupor, constantly repeating Morty's name and stumbling around. While Rick continues to be a substance abuser, he's much more of a Functional Addict for the rest of the show. + The first episode has no post-credits stinger. + The first season doesn't use the word "shit" as much. Starting with the second season, it was used more on the condition that most uses would be bleeped on TV while leaving a few uncensored. In the Season 2 premiere, one of the uncensored uses is when Rick calls his grandchildren "pieces of shit", but starting with the following season, that context would be more likely to get bleeped. * Earth-Shattering Kaboom: In "Get Schwifty", the Cromulons destroy planets with a plasma ray when they fail their music contest or refuse to participate. * E = MC Hammer: + Parodied; an equation flies by in the opening credits to establish the sci-fi nature of the show, but it's "3 + 3 = 6". + In The Stinger of "A Rickle in Time", the testicle-headed 4th dimension aliens find Albert Einstein and beat him up, telling him not to mess with time. He mutters that he will mess with time, and writes the famous equation on a blackboard. * Einstein Hair: Rick's. In fact, his hairstyle causes the Time Police to mistake the real Einstein for Rick from just seeing the back of his head. They give Einstein a beat-down and warn him not to mess with time, apparently inspiring him to create his famous E=MC^2 formula out of spite. * Ejection Seat: Rick's car has a "Passenger Purge" button, which dumps everyone in the backseat out of the bottom of the car. Rick being Rick, it's entirely on him to do this in such a way that the passengers survive the landing. * Eldritch Abomination: In the opening credits, the team is seen fleeing from a Cthulhu-esque creature with a smaller, baby version carried by Summer. It is unknown if this will end up as an episode, and whether or not they stole it from him, or the scene is implying darker subtexts. * Eldritch Location: Parodied with Cob Planet in "The Wedding Squanchers". Everything is on a cob, down to a molecular level. Rick is terrified of the planet, but it's never explained why. * Emotion Eater: + The Cromulons in "Get Schwifty" feed on the talent and showmanship of less-evolved lifeforms. Subverted when we learn that they don't actually feed on this shit, it's just part of their reality television. + A giant slug-creature at the alien spa in "Rest and Ricklaxation" has a symbiotic relationship with the spa visitors due to this; it genuinely loves swallowing stressed-out creatures and feeding on their negative feelings for 20 minutes, which in turn relieves these people of said stress. * Enemy Without: + The marriage counsellors at Nuptia 4 use a device that manifests the user's unconscious perception of their partner into a living, breathing monster. Jerry's perception of Beth manifests as a giant, Xenomorph-like beast while Beth's perception of Jerry manifests as a pathetic slug-like creature. The two end up working together to escape and cause havoc due to the Smiths' codependent relationship. + Another case comes up when Rick and Morty visit an alien spa in "Rest and Ricklaxation" and undergo mental detoxification, which literally removes the worst parts of their personalities (or, at least, what they consider to be the worst parts), manifesting them as physical copies of the pair with all their negative traits cranked up to 11. Toxic Rick soon tries to murder his detoxified counterpart. * Epic Movie: In-Universe. Two Brothers from "Rixty Minutes" definitely qualifies. > "A Mexican armada shows up. With weapons made from Two—tomatoes. And you better bet your bottom dollar that these two brothers know how to handle business. In: Alien Invasion Tomato Monster Mexican Armada Brothers, Who Are Just Regular Brothers, Running In a van from an Asteroid and All Sorts of Things THE MOVIE!" * Establishing Series Moment: The pilot has two: + The cold open has a stinking drunk Rick barging into Morty's room in the middle of the night, dragging him off to a flying machine he built out of "stuff in the garage" and revealing he built a bomb and plans to make Morty and his crush the new Adam and Eve after he nukes the world. When Morty stops him, he tries to pass it off as a Secret Test of Character, then collapses drunk in the dirt. + When Rick freezes Frank Palicky in a moment of desperation and leaves him there, only for him to tip over and shatter into a million pieces, effectively killing him. Not only does it immediately do away with The Bully cliche, but perfectly illustrates just how seriously the show takes absurd concepts like Harmless Freezing. Also, it helps show just how dark the comedy for the series can get. * Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Most of the human characters (and even some exceptions therein) place their sexual priorities a little too high. To give some perspective, Rick is one of the lightest examples on the show, and he spent almost the entirety of "Auto-Erotic Assimilation" having an orgy involving, among other things, a giraffe, a hang-glider, and a football field covered with redheads and the stadium seats filled with guys that look like Rick's dad. This trope is discussed to hilarious length in "Interdimensional Cable 2" when Jerry is approached by alien surgeons who want him to donate his penis to save the life of an important alien political figure, which of course leads to one of the greatest lines in cartoon history: > Jerry: "I'm a good person, and I demand that you put my penis in that man's chest." * "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Parodied at the end of "Meeseeks and Destroy". * Everyone Has Standards: Rick's morality is pretty loose, but occasionally he finds his limits: + Despite out scamming the Zigerians, Rick was genuinely affected by their mind tricks and especially their imitating Morty. The Stinger shows him still sort of reeling from the deception. + In "Rick Potion No. 9", Rick calls Morty a little creep for wanting to use a love potion on his crush. He even compares it to roofies. Morty, however, answers back by noting Rick still agreed to make it for him, and the only protest he raised back then was that he considered it a waste of his time and talents. + In "Look Who's Purging Now," Rick gets excited to see some "purge" carnage, but something off-screen disgusts him so much that he regrets watching. + In "Rickmancing the Stone", Rick repeatedly tries to avoid telling Morty why they're bothering to stick around in the dimension they're visiting...until Morty points out that Rick is about to eat cooked human flesh in his efforts to do so and asks if it's really worth that. Rick decides that it's not, and just tells Morty what's going on. * Everyone Is Bi: Morty is the only member of the family not to show both same and opposite sex attraction at some point. * Evil Doppelgänger: + Naturally, Evil Rick and Evil Morty. While Evil Rick actually turns out to be a subversion since he was just being mind-controlled by Evil Morty(And "our Rick" is a borderline Villain Protagonist himself sometimes anyway), this of course means that the latter plays it even more completely straight than it originally appeared. + Played with Toxic Rick & Morty, the result of the original Rick and Morty being purged of the "toxic" parts of their psyche, leading to Toxic Rick being a self-aggrandizing, abusive Jerkass, and Toxic Morty being a self-loathing ball of neuroses and cowardice, while "Healthy" Rick & Morty are far friendlier and more well-adjusted. Because there's no objective measure of what thoughts are toxic or not, however, the purging instead goes by what the person thinks the toxic parts of themselves are, leading to Toxic Rick & Morty retaining some more positive traits that Healthy Rick & Morty are now missing, such as Toxic Rick retaining his "irrational" attachment to Toxic Morty, and Toxic Morty retaining his moral compass. * Evil Laugh: Mr. Needful usually has one after saying "you don't pay for anything in this store... not with money". Rick sarcastically joins in. * Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Rick is deliberately written as an awful person, but to keep him from being an outright Villain Protagonist, the writers give him some redeeming qualities and have said that they want the show to see him become a better person. For his many faults, Rick does love his family and tries to connect with them, but he's so fucked up it doesn't really work. What generally drives him to try and do good is ultimately either his family being upset with him for being such a dick, or, worse, when he thinks he's a bad influence (as in "Look Who's Purging Now", when he stuns Morty to stop him killing people.). * The Evils of Free Will: Parodied; before Unity took over an entire unnamed alien civilization and made everyone live in hive-mind bliss, the planet was on the verge of tearing itself apart via an extremely volatile race war based on nipple shapes. Eventually, Morty and Summer conclude that the only problem with the situation is Rick being a terrible influence. * Exact Words: + Mr. Needful's microscope lets you see things beyond comprehension. It makes you too dumb to understand anything. Unfortunately for him, Rick is too smart to fall for it. + When Morty asks Rick how many people Rick invited to the party in "Ricksy Business", Rick claims it's only six. A flying saucer then lands and out pours a few dozen blob-like aliens, which aren't technically people. + In "The Ricks Must be Crazy", Rick orders his car AI to keep Summer safe. What follows is an escalating series of exact adherence to her commands as she balks at the lengths it will go to protect her. First, it unceremoniously kills people that might be a threat to Summer. When Summer tells it not to kill anyone, it instead uses a precise laser beam to paralyze them from the waist down. When Summer orders it not to physically harm anyone, it resorts to psychologically scarring them. It then secures world peace... resulting in the most disgusting ice cream imaginable. + In "Mortynight Run", the telepathic entity called Fart remarks that he will cleanse carbon-based lifeforms once he returns through his wormhole. He then remarks on a conversation he had with Morty earlier, that Morty agrees life must be protected, even through sacrifice and, sensing Morty's thoughts, notes that he hasn't changed his opinion on that. As it turns out, Fart is correct... \|\|As Morty sacrifices Fart to save life\|\|. * Executive Veto: In-Universe example. The Stinger of "Anatomy Park" had Rick's Pirates of the Pancreas ride axed by the Chief "Imagineerian". * Existential Horror: The multiverse, which holds practically infinite numbers of other Ricks and Mortys, and for that matter other Beths, Summers, and Jerrys, is played as such. Imagine that you are just one of a near-infinite number of yourselves, some of which have died anti-climatically, unmourned, and unremembered, while others still are much more successful and well-off than you will ever be. Then there is other stuff, like the alien parasites that can fill your head with Fake Memories and make you believe you've known them your whole life, to the mere concept of Mr. Meeseeks. Safe to say, the show has plenty to choose from when it comes to existential nightmares. * Expendable Clone: + Evil Rick (who turns out to be controlled by Evil Morty) tortures hundreds of alternate Mortys to hide in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind". + In "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", Rick murders a handful of younger clones of himself. With an axe. * Expendable Alternate Universe: Parodied. Rick irreversibly ruins Earth in one universe and travels to a different one. Rick doesn't care at all. Morty on the other hand is horrified. And in the stinger, Cronenberg Morty and Rick (referring to each other as such) come out of a portal in the abandoned world, having mutated everyone in their homeworld into "normal" humans, and abandoned it in the same manner. * Expy: + Rick and Morty are expies of Doc and Marty from Back to the Future. + Scary Terry is basically Freddy Krueger. Rick even says that he's a knock-off of some '80s horror film. It is also pointed out that Terry has miniature swords, not knives, on his fingers. + The Pop-Tart living in the toaster oven looks like the one featured in current Pop-Tart commercials. + King Jellybean looks almost identical to the character Crumply Crumplestein in Roiland's previous short "Unbelievable Tales." * Exotic Eye Designs: All the characters have somewhat jagged-looking pupils. * Exotic Equipment: In "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate" Jerry can be seen watching alien pornography, which features unusual sex organs. * Extradimensional Emergency Exit: + Thanks to Rick's portal gun, it's very easy for him to casually leap into another dimension if faced with danger - or inconvenience of any kind, really. As such, things only get complicated for him if his portal gun ends up being lost, confiscated or damaged. + Played for laughs in one of the Adult Swim commercials: Rick is forced to use the portal gun to quickly find a bathroom for Summer, first trying the dog dimension where the toilets are all fire hydrants, then in the chair dimension where the toilets are all inanimate human beings. Eventually, they finally find a normal toilet... but the dimension appears to be a nightmare realm populated by Cenobites. > Summer: ...I'll hold it until we get back to Earth. > Morty: This is why I let Rick put a catheter in me. * Extreme Doormat: Downplayed by Morty - he may put up with a lot of crap from Rick with little to no objection, but he does have his limits, as he shows in the very first episode before any Character Development. * Eye Awaken: Happens with Abradolf Lincler in The Stinger for "Ricksy Business". He even shouts "REVENGE!" right before getting slurped up by some testicle monsters. * Eyepatch of Power: Evil Morty. And boy, is the "power" element literal. He used it as an interface to control Evil "Rick". When he goes into hiding, he simply takes it off to reveal an intact eye with some wires sticking out. * Eye Scream: Ants-in-my-eyes-Johnson. * Fake Memories: The parasites in "Total Rickall" create happy memories in the minds of their victims, taking the form of a non-existent relative or some such, then assume the appearance of the subject of the memories. They breed by repeating this process ad nauseum. It quickly takes a turn for the ridiculous as the parasites assume ever-more implausible forms, such as fictional monsters like Frankenstein's monster, talking animals, and so forth, all of which the family accepts as commonplace because the memories tell them they are. * False Cause: In "Get Schwifty", Principal Vagina forms a religion around the Cromulons, ignorant of the true reason behind their appearance. Beth even discusses it. Principal Vagina quickly lets the power go to his head. * Family-Friendly Firearms: It bears noting that since this is an adult show, it doesn't have any compunctions about showing realistic firearms. Though this is subverted with Rick's various energy weapons - while a lot of them have a sort of Raygun Gothic aesthetic, Rick's favorite pistol loads like a conventional 21st-century automatic, and when shown, their effects are even gorier than one could expect from contemporary weapons. * Fan Disservice: + Rick wearing BDSM gear in the Dream Land in "Lawnmower Dogs". + A lingerie-clad Summer jiggling her breasts and hitting on Rick and Morty in the same scene. + In general, anytime we get a Full-Frontal Assault from Rick (which is always accompanied by his dick being pixelated out), but especially in "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", where he's not only totally naked, but also drenched in blood from killing his own clones with an axe, and proceeds to spend the rest of the episode like this. * Fantastic Racism: + Implied in "Meeseeks and Destroy", where the giants seem to be very prejudiced towards "tiny people". Given that the villagers' only idea to get money boiled down to breaking into an innocent giant family's castle and stealing from them, this might be justified. + "Rixty Minutes" features a political ad for a universe where there are men with trunks surgically attached to their faces, which allows them to have sex with both men and women. They're fighting for the right to get married. + The episode "Auto-Erotic Assimilation" has two instances: Rick spray-painting gang graffiti on a starship bulkhead to make the police think that a certain group of aliens looted it, and the blue-skinned people differentiate race by the shape of their areolas and feel so strongly about it that a pogrom can be declared with no more emotional weight than a food fight. + Tumblr-like Federation videos mention the Galactic Federation "cubifying" some humans to make them more efficient. The normal humans find this disgusting and horrifying and go so far as to discriminate against "cubified" humans until the Federation passes laws preventing this. + The Aliens of the Galactic Federation seem to have disdain towards humans. The humans respond in kind by drawing-and-quartering aliens in School Courtyards and calling it patriotism. + Rick is racist towards Gear-people. He calls Revolio Clockberg Jr. "Gearhead" instead of his real name, which by itself could just be Rick being Rick and not caring enough about Revolio to even bother remembering his name, but he also openly calls Gear-people greedy to Revolio's face. * Fantasy Kitchen Sink: + In the words of Rick himself, there are "infinite worlds, infinite possibilities". Everything that could have happened in one world but did not has ASSUREDLY already happened, will happen, or is CURRENTLY happening in another world. Naturally, that means that in addition to clones and different versions of every person in existence being very real, there are also various species of sentient and asentient extraterrestrial life (familiar aliens and non-familiar), vampires, wizards, dragons, time travel, and more. Just about everything you could imagine, and more, probably exists somewhere. + Curiously, in Season 5 regular Earth seems to be one too: among other things, we discover that the oceans are ruled by a Namor-esque character, there are genuine superheroes, and there's a race of humanoid horses living in an underground kingdom. * Fantastic Slur: + Glip-Glop for Travlorkians. It's like the N-word and C-word had a baby and was raised by all the bad words for Jews. Rick greets an entire saucer of them by calling them this. + When the dog Snuffles becomes super-intelligent and enslaves the family, he insists they call him Snowball because "Snuffles was my slave name". Technically it's more of an anthropomorphic slur. + Gearhead's real name is "Revolio Clockberg Jr." He states that Rick calling him "Gearhead" is like calling a Chinese person "Asia Face". * "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: The episode "Anatomy Park" is a mixture of this and Jurassic Park. * Fate Worse than Death: This is the punishment that the Council of Ricks has in mind for a rogue Rick believed to be responsible for a murder spree. > "Earth Rick C-137, the Council of Ricks sentences you to the Machine of Unspeakable Doom, which swaps your conscious and unconscious minds, rendering your fantasies pointless while everything you've known becomes impossible to grasp. Also, every ten seconds, it stabs your balls." * The Federation: The series occasionally mentions a Galactic Federation, which Rick is stated to have issues with. According to Bird Person, he and Rick are at war with the Federation and are considered terrorists. \|\|Earth joins at the end of Season 2, but the Federation collapses at the start of Season 3, thanks to Rick.\|\| * Fetishes Are Weird; A few examples, though often Played With. + Invoked and Subverted in "Lawnmower Dog". Rick tries to help Morty get an A in math by "incepting" his teacher's dreams. After going deeper into Goldenfold's subconscious, they reach a dream-level that is entirely devoted to his sexuality (in the form of a giant orgy), where there's BDSM, fetish gear, gnomes, and animal-human hybrids. Both Rick and Morty are uncomfortable, but Rick quickly "blends in" and engages in some pet-play with the gnomes. The only thing that crosses the line for them is Goldenfold's fantasies about Summer, understandably. > Morty: (nervously) Oh man, Rick, this is pretty weird! > Rick: Don't judge, Morty. + Downplayed in the episode, "Mortynight Run", where Morty saves a sentient fart with telepathic powers. When they first meet, Fart reads his mind and accidentally reveals that Morty is randomly thinking about Jessica's feet. It's Played for Laughs, but nobody makes a big deal about it, probably because one is a gas cloud without a grasp of human behaviour, and the other is Rick. + A sex offender tries to take a picture of Morty and Summer's feet in "AutoErotic Assimilation" when he is released from Unity's control. The creepiness is more the fact that Morty and Summer are teenagers, but still. * Fictional Currency: + The schmeckle. Twenty-five of them are enough for a boob job or a ride down some very tall stairs, and a sackful can bail a village out of poverty. According to Dan Harmon during a Reddit AMA, he said a schmeckle is worth roughly 148 USD. + The flurbo. Three-thousand of them is enough for two humans to spend an entire afternoon at Blips and Chitz! + The blemflarp. The cure to a highly infectious disease that you could call "space AIDS" is worth billions of them. + The repbul. A plumbus is apparently worth six repbuls. * Five-Finger Fillet: In "How Poopy Got His Poop Back," after the gang does a bunch of drugs, Birdperson pulls out a knife and rapidly stabs the space in between his fingers. Squanchy then grabs the knife and immediately stabs himself in the center of his hand. * Flat-Earth Atheist: + even though he's personally met Satan and a few demons, Rick is still a Hollywood Atheist. Although "Rickle in Time" gives us the "No atheists in a foxhole" gag, where Prayer Is a Last Resort is immediately laughed off when things start going the right way. > Rick #30: (as he flies through Uncertainty) I'm okay with this. Be good Morty. Be better than me. Bullsh\t. The other collar! I'm not okay with this! I am not okay with this! Oh, sweet Jesus please let me live. Oh, my God I—I've gotta fix this thing, please God in Heaven, please, God, oh Lord, hear my prayers. > (fixes device) "Yes! Fuck you God! Not today, bitch." + And later: > All Ricks Except Rick #30: "Please, God, if there's a Hell, please be merciful to me." > Rick #30: "Yes I did it! There is no God! In your face. One dot, motherfuckers!" + "Childrick of Mort" in Season 4 confirms that gods actually exist. To be specific, Rick encounters one who both directly compares himself to Zeus. The god even directly gives Jerry divine powers. Rick calls him out for completely squandering the use of those powers for showing off what great power he has instead of actually curing cancer or doing something useful. He doesn't really care that gods exist, but it's the existence of God that has yet to be proven. Flipping the Bird: + Rick does it frequently. + In "The Ricks Must be Crazy", Rick taught his Pocket Dimension that this is the symbol for peace. He thought it was hilarious. Zeep also teaches his Pocket Dimension their equivalent of Flipping the Bird for the same reason. What makes it especially funny is the fact that is the symbol for peace in Rick's dimension. Rick also had some other language-based fun at their expense. > Mayor: Fuck you! > Rick: (grabbing the mayor by the collar) What did you say to me?! > Mayor: F-fuck you! Y-you told me it means "much obliged"! > Rick: Oh. Right. Uh, b-blow me. > Mayor: No, no, no. Blow me. * Flying Saucer: + Rick's homemade spaceship uses this aesthetic, albeit with wheels and headlights like a normal car. + The Travlorkians fly one to Rick's party. * Foil: Jerry is a foil to Rick. Rick is intelligent while Jerry is ditzy, Rick is brave while Jerry is cowardly (or vice versa), and Rick is reluctant to bond with others while Jerry is quick to bond with others. The only similarities they have are that they're in the same family and they're both insufferably egotistical and miserable. * Forced Perspective: In "The Wedding Squanchers," the family's first selection for a new home planet looks very Earth-like from a distance... until Rick tries to get closer and bonks the spaceship into the planet, revealing that it is much closer and much smaller than they realized. * Foreshadowing: Has its own page. * Forgotten First Meeting: Despite Rick supposedly being away from the family for 20 years, one of Rick's memories and a picture in Birdperson's house show that Rick was secretly visiting Morty (who is now 14) when the latter was an infant. Morty doesn't remember this. This has led to some Wild Mass Guessing that "our" Rick and "our" Morty aren't natives of the same dimension, and that the baby Morty in these two instances is a different one than the Morty we follow. It's also possible that this is "our" Morty and Rick did come to meet him personally, but never officially returned into the rest of his family's lives until much later. + The episode Rickmurai Jack \|\|confirms that Rick is from a different dimension than Morty. Presumably the infant Morty in Rick's memory is one of the alternate Mortys Rick met before helping form the Citadel\|\| * Formula for the Unformulable: Rick has worked out mathematical proof that both Morty and Summer are "pieces of shit" and is all too pleased to wheel out the whiteboard to show off his work. * Four-Philosophy Ensemble: With Morty as the Optimist, Rick as the Cynic, Summer as the Realist, Beth as the Apathetic, and Jerry as the Conflicted. * Frankenstein's Monster: One of the parasites in "Total Rickall" takes on the form of Frankenstein's monster. * Freeze-Frame Bonus: + When Rick is flipping through the channels in "Rixty Minutes", one channel has Game of Thrones on, except all the cast members are dwarves. Except for Tyrion who is the sole tall person. - In the same episode, Weekend At Dead Cat Lady's House II is rated G. + "Something Ricked This Way Comes" has an unintentional one where a man is holding a "God hates fags" sign and it changes to "God hates you" for one frame. They changed it to "God hates fags" after the censors approved it, but they accidentally left it in that one frame. + In "M. Night Shaym-Aliens", there's a brief shot of the back of a Plutonian from "Something Ricked This Way Comes" during the anti-gravity sequence. + In "Close Rick-Counters", a notebook, a pen, and a mug with a question mark on it can be seen falling out of one of the portals Rick opened. + "Auto Erotic Assimilation" has the hive-mind Unity create a show just for Rick, which turns out to be Dan Harmon's previous show, Community. Also serves as a Stealth Pun. * Freudian Threat: In "Lawnmower Dog", Snowball threatens to have Jerry neutered. Jerry assumes he's being threatened with a haircut. * Freudian Trio: + Morty, the kid who doesn't want to hurt anyone and if anything cares too much (Id) + Rick, the mad scientist who claims that all love is an illusion (Superego) + Summer, the middle ground between the two (Ego) * From Bad to Worse: + In "Rick Potion #9" Rick tries to cure a virus, which made everyone infected want to have sex with Morty, with a stronger virus mixed with praying mantis DNA. The result turned the infectees into mutated mantis people who still want to have sex with Morty and then bite his head off. And then Rick attempts to make a cure for both of these viruses (composed of the DNA of a myriad of different animals) which, although effective in making everyone stop being madly in love with Morty, Cronenbergs them into hideous, mutated monsters. Rick and Morty end up just abandoning the world to its fate and settling in an Alternate Universe where Rick of that dimension succeeded in fixing everything, only to then accidentally kill himself and his dimension's Morty in a lab accident just as the prime duo arrive to replace them. + The Strawberry Smiggles commercial opens with the cereal's mascot desperately rushing to eat his Smiggles before any kids steal it from him. It doesn't help. Oh, BOY does it not help. + In "The Wedding Squanchers", the wedding ends with the reveal of Tammy being a deep-cover agent for the Galactic Federation, and cops from the Federation storming the building. Birdperson is then killed and the Smith family goes on the run. Eventually, Rick turns himself in to spare his family from this life. * Funny Background Event: + In "Ricksy Business", Morty tosses a bag of crystal narcotics outside into an environment full of giant testicle monsters. A tentacle immediately scoops the bag up, after which the monster can be seen tripping balls in the background. + In The Stinger for "A Rickle in Time", the two four-dimensional testicle-headed beings (played by comedy duo Key & Peele) find each other in the Ice Age, which startles a mammoth. - While the two bicker, a small rodent crawls into the creatures' time displacement bubble and ends up being carried with them through thousands of years of history and meets an unfortunate end when it leaves the time bubble just as it materializes over the sea. + In "Mortynight Run", when Rick and Morty are at Blips and Chitz playing Roy, you can see an Alien playing pinball with a Mr. Meeseeks next to him. After the alien beats the game, Mr. Meeseeks disappears. + The Gaussian Girl introduction below takes place during a rowdy party. A thrown beer bottle can be seen flying in the background and smashing into a wall, also in slow motion. + In "Close Rick-Counters of The Rick Kind", when Rick and Morty arrive in a universe where sentient chairs sit on people using pizzas to order phones, the chairs can be seen staring in utter shock at our equivalent of two talking chairs walking on the street. * Gasoline Dousing: In the episode "Something Ricked This Way Comes", Rick opens up a store called "Curse Purge Plus" which removes the curses put on items by Mr. Needful for a fee. In the end, Rick gets bored and brings out a gas can, dousing the store with gasoline and burning it down. * Gaussian Girl: Parodied in "Ricksy Business". Jessica is introduced this way, only for Rick to scold Slow-Mobius for messing with time to create the effect. * Genius Loci: "Childrick of Mort" shows that sentient planets exist, as Rick gets a call from Gaia that she is pregnant and that the children are his. The end of the episode shows there's an entire pornographic dating website called Planets Only, which Rick enjoys indulging in. * Genius Serum: This is heavily implied to be the case with Mega Seeds, and that they are the main source for Rick's Super-Intelligence. * Giant Spider: In "The Ricks Must be Crazy", the universe Rick, Morty, and Summer are visiting has giant, telepathic spiders. * Girl of the Week: + While Morty's main Love Interest is Jessica, and she's usually the target of his affection in episodes that focus on his love life, he has occasionally shown interest in other girls too. Except for Arthricia in "Look Who's Purging Now" (for whom his crush is unrequited), he actually has managed to score with most of these girls, including Annie in "Anatomy Park", Stacey and Jacqueline in "Rest and Ricklaxation"((albeit as "Healthy Morty", with part of his normal personality removed)), and a mermaid in "The Ricklantis Mixup." (And, depending on whether or not you count it or not, "Gwendolyn" the non-sentient sexbot/breeding chamber in "Raising Gazorpazorp"). + Summer also has a possibly on-again-off-again sometime-boyfriend named Ethan (with their relationship really only shown in two or three episodes), but she gets some of these, as well. She's shown to have a crush on Frank Palicky in the pilot, has a brief relationship of some kind with her boss (the actual Devil) in "Something Ricked This Way Comes", gets together with and even marries Hemorrhage (before divorcing him) in "Rickmancing the Stone", and has a whole slew of these(thanks to a dating app), male and female, in "The Old Man and the Seat". + Rick usually doesn't bother with romance since it distracts him from his work, but he does get Unity, a New Old Flame whom he gets back together with, and who then later leaves him again, in "Auto Erotic Assimilation". * A Glitch in the Matrix: All over the place in "M. Night Shaym-Aliens". The simulation isn't that high-quality to begin with, and Jerry's section is running on 5% processing power. * Godwin's Law: + In the pilot, Morty tells Rick he's worse than Hitler (since even he cared about Germany, "or something") when he shows no empathy over Morty breaking his legs. + At the end of "Rick Potion #9", when Morty is freaking out over having to replace his Dead Alternate Counterpart in another dimension, he asks Rick "What about the reality we left behind?" Rick responds by telling him "What about the reality where Hitler cured cancer, Morty? The point is, don't think about it." + Jessica's boyfriend invokes it on Abradolf Lincler. He probably gets this a lot. Though, to be fair, Lincler played the Lincoln card first. He was asking for a rebuttal. * Gone Horribly Right: In the season 1 finale "Ricksy Business", Beth and Jerry go to a fancy Titanic-themed cruise line, complete with a crash into a prop iceberg that's supposed to result in the ship sinking in a safe, controlled manner to give the passengers a chance to reenact scenes from the movie. The ship misses the iceberg and doesn't sink. This is treated like a disaster. * Gone Horribly Wrong: In "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", Rick sends Beth and Jerry off to an alien couples therapy retreat to fix their marriage. It works by taking the couple's unconscious perception of each other and manifesting it as monsters which they can then observe. Monster!Beth proceeds to use Monster!Jerry's gelatinous form to blend in with the wall and escape her cell. By the time the real Beth and Jerry solve the problem, the entire retreat is destroyed. * Good Girls Avoid Abortion: In "Rixty Minutes", Summer overhears her parents state during an argument that they planned to abort her, and only didn't do so because of a flat tire on the way to the clinic. Summer is so upset about this (and about the fact that her existence made her parents give up on their dreams) that she almost runs away until Morty convinces her not to by explaining that everyone is an accident. At the end of the episode, we learn that the alternate dimension versions of Jerry and Beth are miserable and regretful. > Alternate Dimension Jerry, having a breakdown: "Beth Sanchez, I have been in love with you since high school. I hate acting, I hate cocaine, I hate Kristen Stewart. I wish you hadn't gotten that abortion, and I've never stopped thinking about what might've been." * Gorn: Graphic violence is quite frequent, mostly involving aliens. It reaches its zenith in "Look Who's Purging Now." * Groin Attack: + The Machine of Unspeakable Doom swaps your conscious and unconscious minds, rendering your fantasies pointless while everything you've known becomes impossible to grasp. Also, every ten seconds it stabs your balls. + When Rick is sold out by Gearhead, he kicks Gearhead in the crotch, rips out his "gearsticles", then swaps them for his mouth gears. + Rick and Zeep do this to each other in "The Ricks Must be Crazy", Rick with a kick and Zeep with a punch. Rick, surprisingly, just powers through it. + In "Wedding Squanchers", Rick warns his family that the Galactic Federation will torture them by hooking their testicles/labia up to the alien equivalent of a car battery. * Guilty Until Someone Else Is Guilty: In "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind", the Rick we follow throughout the show (Rick C-137) is arrested by the Citadel of Ricks, accused of murdering other Ricks. His portal gun history seems to corroborate this charge, and in any case, his refusal to have anything to do with the Citadel of Ricks makes him suspect among the others. He's only let off the hook when he escapes and tracks down the actual culprit. * Happy Marriage Charade: Beth and Jerry only got married because Jerry got Beth pregnant after prom. Their fragile marriage is a recurring theme, and they are quite aware of it, but it's usually resolved at the end of the episode, and the marriage seems to improve somewhat over the course of the first season. The first episode of the third season ends with them splitting up, but they end up getting back together (happier and with it no longer being a charade) by the season finale. * Hard Truth Aesop: + "Mortynight Run" drove home the point that the universe doesn't function according to Black-and-White Morality and that if you don't fully know the details of the situation, it's best to not get involved at all because you can make everything a whole lot worse. + "Autoerotic Assimilation" says that just because one has free will, it doesn't mean they will use it to make good decisions and that racism will exist no matter where or who you are. + "Look Who's Purging Now" shows that no matter how much of a good person one claims to be, they can be pushed to becoming as monstrous as the "evil" people they criticize. Also, that people will always be aggressive to each other one way or another and not learn from their mistakes. + The fact that the only Rick in the multiverse that's a Nice Guy is The Ditz, Morty being Book Dumb, and Jerry being a loser gives off the impression that either smart people are assholes or nice people are idiots. Rick even brings this up in his improv wedding speech in "The Wedding Squanchers". > "Look, I'm not the nicest guy around, because I'm the smartest, and being nice is what stupid people do to hedge their bets." + This is elaborated more in "The ABC's of Beth" where Rick's speech seems to outright state there's no difference at all between being intelligent and being a morally bankrupt sociopath. + In "Pickle Rick", Dr. Wong delivers it: attending therapy and getting help is a choice, despite it being a potential help if your relationship with your loved ones is downright toxic and hateful. She can only offer advice, but can't make him or Beth take it. As she puts it, Rick's choices constantly prefer to go for death-defying adrenaline adventures, rather than Boring, but Practical maintenance. \|\|He turned himself into a pickle to get out of therapy, which led to him being covered in rat blood and cockroach limbs and human feces, as well as nearly vegetating.\|\| He may prefer to court death over repairing his family, and ultimately the choice is up to the individual. + "The ABCs of Beth": Sometimes your parents don't know what they're doing, especially if they're trying to rebuild their life after a drastic change. Also, refusing to take responsibility for your actions means that ultimately collateral damage will ensue, whether to loved ones —in Jerry's case — or to strangers — in Beth's case. * Harmless Freezing: As fitting for a sci-fi show, it's Averted overall. While it's shown that the target will be fine if they're unfrozen quickly, such as in "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind" when one of the Ricks freezes Jerry and unfreezes him a moment later, if it lasts for too long or the frozen person is damaged while in that state, they won't fare so well. Examples include: + Frank Palicky in the first episode. Rick had insisted he'd be fine, but the frozen Frank fell over and shattered. + In the Simpsons crossover, Flanders is frozen, then knocked over and shattered when the spaceship takes off. + In the season 3 premiere, SEAL Team Ricks freeze the original Jerry, Beth, and Summer from the "Cronenberged" dimension. \|\|Three seasons later, Jerry—the only survivor—reveals that, despite a mutant creature licking them free from the ice, Summer and Beth both died from it.\|\| * Has a Type: + Morty sure seems to. His main love interest, Jessica, is a redhead, and in "Morty's Mind Blowers", one of the removed memories shows that he used a magnet that can attract anything to pull in a bunch of women, all of whom had red hair. + He might have inherited this from his grandpa; when Rick briefly gets back together with Unity, one of his sexual requests to it is a stadium full of redheaded people that it's possessing (seemingly of both genders) for him to bang. * Hellhole Prison: A few times: + In the Galactic Federation's Prison, the prisoners are chained to slabs and stacked like Jenga blocks. + In Time Prison, the most feared part of prison still happens but it goes on forever. + The G-Fed prison where \|\|Bird Person's and Tammy's daughter\|\| ends up throws in young children together with adults, and the guards have no problem with hurting the kids. * Heroic BSoD: Morty suffers one at the end of "Rick Potion #9" as he tries to cope with his entire world going to hell, and then suddenly finding himself in a world where nothing went wrong except that he just replaced his own self, who had died just moments before. * Heroic Sacrifice: + In the second season premiere, at least one out of 64 versions of Rick was prepared to sacrifice himself (and the other 63 Ricks) to save Morty, though Rick managed to survive anyway through sheer luck. + An invoked example occurs in "Analyze Piss". Rick stages one while masquerading as Piss Master to give the man a more dignified death in the eyes of the public, and his daughter, than his true death by suicide. It's mostly successful, since only Rick's family and the Galactic Orbship find out the truth, while nobody else does. * High-School Dance: In "Rick Potion #9", Morty's school holds a "Flu Season Dance." > Principal Vagina: Please note: if you have the flu, do not attend this dance. It's about awareness, not endorsement. You don't bring dead babies to Passover. * Hilariously Abusive Childhood: The horrors that Rick has put Morty through (not to mention the constant verbal abuse) would be enough to drive any full-grown adult insane, much less a 14-year-old boy. Morty seems to take it most of the time though. * Hobbes Was Right: In the climax of the Season 3 premiere, \|\|the value of the Galactic Federation's centralized fiat currency, whose value is apparently set by its own value, gets set to zero by Rick. Literally moments after learning this, the Federation's president kills himself and the entire Federation collapses into complete anarchy due to disagreements over who gets paid to do what, and abandons Earth.\|\| > Alien: [offscreen] HE WHO CONTROLS THE PANTS CONTROLS THE GALAXY! * Hobos: Reuben from "Anatomy Park" is one. Justified since you don't agree to have a theme park built inside you if your life is going great, though he is a more modern variant. > Robot Reuben Tour Guide: My story begins in the Dot Com Crash of the late '90s... * Hoist by His Own Petard: In Season 3, Rick's constant belligerent attitude to his family results in three things during the finale: + The first is that Morty finally grows a spine \|\|and as a result leaves Rick, and takes his family off to a retreat in the woods. While Rick does find them, Morty is finally able to say no to his grandfather's demands.\|\| + The second is that Beth is told in no uncertain terms that \|\|she is not the clone discussed in the previous episode, but the completely flippant way that Rick disregards her fears only makes it worse, and as a result drives her back to Jerry, who she sees as simple and predictable.\|\| + The third is that Rick's inability to stop his grandiose A God Am I complex \|\|causes a falling-out with the President that results in an all-out battle that results in the first point happening and placing Rick at the bottom of the family hierarchy.\|\| Essentially, Rick's mad rant at the beginning of the season? Completely null by the end. * Holiday Episode: A few: + "Anatomy Park" (Season 1), "Rattlestar Ricklactica" (S4), and "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation" (S6) are Christmas Episodes. All three of them did actually air quite close to Christmas in real life (respectively, 9, 10, and 14 days before, to be exact). + "Rick and Morty's Thanksploitation Spectacular" (S5) and "Bethic Twinstinct" (S6) are Thanksgiving Episodes. Unlike the above-mentioned Christmas instances, both of these were Out Of Holiday Episodes that aired months before Thanksgiving. * Honorary True Companion: As of the end of Season 4, Space Beth (who is either a clone of Beth, or vice versa) is this for the rest of the Smith-Sanchez family. She spends most of her time off-world saving the galaxy and having her own adventures, so the "whole family" adventures usually just consist of the five main characters. However, she gradually becomes an increasingly-recurring character, and whenever she's present, she's treated by all as the sixth member of the family. * How We Got Here: Parodied in "Look Who's Purging Now." Morty listens to a screenplay that begins with a trite scene of danger and then flashes back to "Three weeks earlier." Morty groans. * Huge Holographic Head: The Cromulons are an entire race of partially transparent floating heads. * Humble Goal: When Rick introduces the problem-solving Meeseeks to the family, he tells them to keep their requests simple. Summer asks to be more popular at school, and Beth asks to be a more complete woman. Trying to heed Rick's warning, Jerry just asks to take two strokes off his golf game. Guess which problems are solved easily and which one turns into a huge ordeal. * Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: In "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" this is applied, not to hyperspace, but wormhole travel. During a fight, a shield that protects part of a starship from the crazier aspects of wormhole travel is damaged, meaning everyone in proximity experiences a mind-bending acid trip that, according to the characters, lasted "a thousand lifetimes." * Hypocrite: + The Citadel of Ricks, and the Council that leads it, was formed because of government attempts to control other Ricks, yet they enforce their will on all Ricks regardless of whether or not they have joined. "Our" Rick, C-137, calls them out on this. + In "The Ricks Must Be Crazy" Rick calls Morty gay despite being openly pansexual himself. + "Raising Gazorpazorp"; while it does result in Morty learning that parenting is a thankless job, the attitudes of his parents do little to help the situation. Beth and Jerry both criticize Morty over his attempt at raising Morty Jr. while failing to reflect on their own actions while raising their own kids. Beth drinks, the couple fights, Summer has gotten a black eye (accidentally but due to Beth hitting her with a wine bottle), not to mention they allow their underage son, who has poor attendance in school, being dragged across dimensions with his 60ish alcoholic, sociopathic grandfather... neither of them are Parent of the Year themselves and they're basically acting like spoiled brats because Morty called them out on their own behaviour. * Hypocritical Humor: + In "Total Rickall" the house becomes infested with alien parasites who embed themselves in memories and act like old friends and family. Rick warns his family to "keep an eye out for any zany, wacky characters that pop up". He then accepts help from a strange creature called "Mr. Poopybutthole" we've never seen before. It turns out this isn't so hypocritical, as Mr. Poopybutthole is shown to be real at the end of the episode. + "The Ricks Must be Crazy" has Rick bemoan that the Pocket Dimension powering his car, in turn, invented and then copied his scam. When Morty brings up the hypocrisy, Rick merely realizes that he can use this to convince the one from his creation to switch back to the original power source. Then it goes a layer deeper as instead of the scientist just realizing that he's a hypocrite, he realizes they're both hypocrites, and thus that Rick is probably doing the same thing he is but one universe higher. + "The Ricks Must be Crazy" also has this bit: > Morty: What's wrong, Rick? Is it the quantum carburetor or something? > Rick: "Quantum carburetor"? Jesus, Morty, you can't just add a *\burp\*** sci-fi word to a car word and hope it means something. Huh, looks like there's something wrong with the microverse battery. + "The Wedding Squanchers" has Beth's conversation with Birdperson. While he opens up with secret details about Rick's past, she ignores him and keeps complaining about how Rick was a wayward father. After Birdperson leaves, she mutters that it's "like talking to a brick wall." + In "Morty's Mind Blowers", Morty is shown a memory where he and Rick are on a planet called Venzenulon 9 with the car broken down. Rick panics, saying the night temperature reaches 300 below and they need to find shelter. Morty suggests finding a cave, to which Rick replies "you've seen too many movies". Rick then proceeds to cut open their Animal Companion so they can hide in its warm innards. * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Many episode titles are based on a movie title or common phrase with "Rick" and/or "Morty" inserted into it somewhere. It is even lampshaded by Rick in one of the promos. > Rick: What's [the episode] called? > Morty: "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind"! > Rick: What, really? That's horrible! What kind of formula is that?! Take a movie title and arbitrarily shoehorn my name into it? > Morty: I don't think they put a lot of thought into it, y'know. I think they save their creative energy for the show. * Idiot Ball: Oh boy, do Rick's enemies ever hold it. Among the most noticeable ones, the Federation not using the most recent Brainalyzer to deal with Rick, who they know to be the "smartest mammal in the universe", the Citadel of Ricks for having a system for moving the whole structure around that can be activated easily by a single person (which also raises the question of why would a room full of Rick be needed for it) and without any security measures to avoid it materializing into anything solid or the blue ape aliens from "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" that try to kill Rick before he's out of the immortality field. It's actually surprising when villains dodge it, with some of the only ones so far being Zeep, the memory parasites, and, supposedly, Concerto (who, however, still doesn't outright kill Rick and Morty when he has the chance). + One not from the antagonists is from Krombopulous Michael, an alien Professional Killer who hands out cards that can be used to track him. Fittingly, it ends up being the cause of his demise. * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: + At the climax of "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", Morty and Summer have to do this with Rick who's trapped in a younger clone of himself that's taken over his personality. + Parodied in "Morty's Mind Blowers". One of the removed memories shows that Rick, Summer, and Beth once had to do this with Morty when he got possessed by an alien worm-creature, telling him how much they love him and encouraging him to fight it...except that it takes so long for Morty to barf up the alien worm that they have trouble actually continuing to encourage him and not just start cracking jokes at his expense instead. * I Love the Dead: One alternate version of Jerry wrote and directed a film called "Last Will and Testameow: Weekend at Dead Cat Lady's House II", a film about how nine cats move their owner's putrefying corpse to make her seem alive. The film also features a guy having a romantic relationship and sleeping with the dead woman, thinking she's still alive. * Immediate Sequel: Interestingly played with for the second season relative to the first. This is averted for Rick, Morty, and Summer, for whom six months have passed between the two seasons; however, since they "froze time" for the rest of the world and it's remained frozen during that six months, this is played straight for everybody else once they un-freeze it since from their perspective, no time has passed and they're not even aware that anything happened at all. * Implied Death Threat: When \|\|Evil Morty\|\| becomes president of the Citadel of Ricks, he has a meeting, while having a barber cut his hair, with some of the most important Ricks, who tell him they are going to be The Man Behind the Man and he will not have real power. He kills the most vocal of these Ricks, after which we get this: > Barber: Is... is that enough taken off the top? > \|\|Evil Morty\|\|: I don't know. Is it? > Surviving "top" Ricks: Yes! Yes! Goddamn, yes! * Impossible Pickle Jar: Jerry's inability to open a jar results in Rick giving him the Meeseeks box, sparking the B-plot of "Meeseeks and Destroy". * Improbably High I.Q.: Word of God puts Rick's IQ at 350. * Improbable Infant Survival: Played for Black Comedy in "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" when Rick takes Jerry to an amusement park that has an immortality field that revives anyone who gets killed. Jerry calls bad parenting when a couple of kids run around with the brother repeatedly blasting his sister in the head. When the immortality field is destroyed, later on, the boy shoots his sister again and this time kills her for real. * I'm Standing Right Here: + In "Mortynight Run", Rick suggests to Morty that they kill Fart and go home. Fart is telepathic and says as much, to which Rick retorts that he was being polite. + This is a Running Gag with Summer and Unity, as the latter always points this out to Summer when she tries to complain about it assimilating the planet into a single Hive Mind. * Inexplicable Cultural Ties: "Look Who's Purging Now" and "Rick: A Mort Well Lived" confirms that both The Purge and Die Hard and all of its sequels are all universal constants that are replicated in nearly every major civilization across the universe. It's unavoidable for them to eventually be conceived. * In-Joke: Rick makes a fake one referring to "Redgren Grumbholdt" at Jerry's expense, and calls Morty and Summer out when they laugh along. * Individualism vs. Collectivism: + Rick Sanchez is portrayed as the logical conclusion of Individualism at its most egoistic. While the various collectives he antagonizes (The Galactic Federation, The Council of Ricks, etc.) definitely have it coming, his motives are entirely selfish. While he claims that he acts out of Enlightened Self-Interest, it is very clear that much of his behavior is just schadenfreude born out of an existential ennui brought on by his nihilistic-materalist view of the multiverse and a knee-jerk opposition to any kind of authorty that isn't him (him him, not his infinite alternate universe counterparts). He will routinely convince himself that any sense of morals beyond "It's All About Me" is a spook and should any of his adventures create too much of a mess (as in apocalyptic), he abandons everyone to their grim fates and hops to a different universe to start over. + Unity from the episode "Auto Erotic Assimilation" deconstructs the authoritarian metaphor inherent in the Hive Mind trope. They are a Hive Mind that has assimilated an entire planet and has plans to assimilate the rest of the universe. While Unity robs those it possesses of their individualistic identity and free will, it becomes clear that after some of the people she possessed are freed when they go on a bender, they immediately devolve into a senseless race war over a defining physical trait (in their case, their nipple-shape). This is in direct contrast to how they behave when they are under their control, the people they possess living better lives and the planet joining the Federation. When Rick (who is established as the Individualist to their Collectivist) reenters their lives, his short-sighted, hedonist ways prove detrimental to the stable life they built and she dumps him when she realizes this. * Indy Ploy: + Rick is forced to resort to this occasionally. One particular example is in "The Rickshank Redemption"; his original plan \|\|was to Body Surf his interrogator, get the Level 9 access codes, and bring down the Federation from the inside with that. But then the Citadel of Ricks' SEAL Team Ricks invades the Federation to kill Rick C-137 ("our" Rick) to keep the Federation from finding out what he knows and succeed at killing his original body, forcing him to Body Surf again and improvise from there. It ends with Rick causing severe damage and massive casualties to both the Federation and the Citadel\|\|. + "Rest and Ricklaxation" begins with Rick and Morty going on what Rick intends to be a quick, 20-minute adventure. It then turns into a 6-day epic that results in them becoming heroes for an entire civilization. When they finally leave and get a chance to catch their breath, they freak out from the stress. Rick admits that he had no control over any of it; they were flying by the seat of their pants. * Informed Attribute: The council of Ricks is made of this trope. They are theoretically all versions of Rick and all equally intelligent (as they will tell you repeatedly), and yet in their very first appearance we see Rick able to out-think all of them (and being able to predict how they will move based on the fact that they are all Rick, while not a single other Rick is able to predict his moves the same way). It only gets worse from there, with not only their intelligence, but by "The Ricktlantis Mix-Up" the very fact that they are all versions of Rick becomes informed, with them effectively being a series of entirely different people who just happen to share the same name and face. * Informed Flaw: Morty being an idiot. While he's not on Rick's level, to be sure, Morty seldom does anything that could genuinely be called stupid. In fact, in Season 3 we establish both that he's smart enough NOT to mess around with alien devices when he clearly doesn't know what they do AND has taught himself how to disarm Neutrino bombs that Rick makes while black-out drunk. * Inherently Funny Words: Many alien names and terms used by the show fall under this category, but it reaches critical mass with the entire Plumbus skit in "Interdimensional Cable II" which is made up almost entirely of goofy-sounding nonsense words. * Ink-Suit Actor: When Tricia Helfer and James Callis show up for the Season 2 finale, they're voicing characters who are dead ringers for their most famous previous roles. As a bonus, they turn out to be homicidal cyborgs. Jerry and Beth also strongly resemble their own actors. * In Medias Res: Discussed in "Look Who's Purging Now". A man wrote a screenplay using How We Got Here, a version of this trope, and asks Morty for feedback: > Morty: I feel, you know, we should start our stories where they begin, not start them when they get interesting. * Insane Proprietor: Ants in My Eyes Johnson. Though, his low prices are not due to insanity, but rather due to blindness caused by the ants in his eyes. * Insane Troll Logic: In-Universe. Drunk Rick's second puzzle in "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender" asks the Vindicators to choose a location that they would "never visit"; naturally, they assume he means a place with which they have a dark history. The answer is Israel, and the Vindicators would indeed never go there...because, since they're not from Earth, they don't know what that is. > Morty:It's just something Rick starts talking about when he's blackout drunk. * Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Many aliens see "Ee-arth" and its inhabitants as undeveloped, primitive and simple by comparison. Those who've attended Earth parties note that Earth cultures are built around bad sex jokes. The Federation believes they all eat spaghetti and pray to kangaroos. Tourism to Earth wasn't common until its acquisition by the Federation, amidst the search for Rick. * In Spite of a Nail: Most realities have a Rick, and most Ricks have a Morty. Even some of the really strange realities, like the one where Morty was an anthropomorphic hammer for some reason. Maybe not a perfect example, since there are an infinite number of universes. For the infinite number of universes that have a Rick and a Morty, there are theoretically also an infinite number of identical universes that have no Rick and no Morty, and another set of identical universes with only one or the other. Most of the universes we see have a Rick and a Morty, because most of the alternate universes we see are because of different versions of Rick interacting. * Insufferable Genius: Rick, the smartest man in the universe, is not even remotely modest or shy when it comes to boasting about it. Morty's quote at the top of this page, especially the "all you know is that you know nothing and he knows everything" line, sums it up pretty well. * Insult to Rocks: In the pilot, after Morty breaks both his legs and Rick observes him in a matter-of-fact fashion as he writhes on the ground, Morty accuses him of being "like Hitler, but at least Hitler cared about Germany or something." * Intercontinuity Crossover: With Gravity Falls in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind". After Rick opens multiple portals to distract his pursuers while he and Morty hop between universes, one of the portals spits out a pen, a notebook, and a cup with a question mark◊, the same items sucked into a portal◊ during the stinger of an episode of Gravity Falls that aired over half a year after "Close Rick-Counters". * Intergenerational Friendship: Seemingly not, as Rick often curses at Summer and Morty and treats them like crap, but he does love them deep down and supports them and protects them from other threats(besides himself). He enjoys spending time with them and treats them more like his friends than his grandchildren, and does get a large number of Pet the Dog moments with them. * iPhony: The logo on Rick's laptop◊. * Irony: + The Council of Ricks wanted to escape the government, so they "became a freakin' government" themselves. "Our" Rick lampshades the hypocrisy. + Rick favors Morty over Summer despite genuinely caring for both, but it is shown several times that he actually has more in common with his granddaughter than with his grandson. * Is the Answer to This Question "Yes"?: In "Get Schwifty", the U.S. President, when asked if he can fly a Blackhawk, asks in turn if the Pope's member can fit through a donut in place of answering with "I'm not sure". > Morty: Uh, I don't know? > Mr. President: Exactly. * It Makes Sense in Context: + While flipping through channels in "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate", the entire Smith family sans Jerry stumble upon the following scene: Jerry, in an operating room, with his pants down, keeping the doctors hostage with an alien dildo for a weapon, demanding that they remove his penis. Naturally, their immediate reaction is that it must be an alternate reality where this sort of thing is normal. + Heck, this trope happens a lot, and "alternate reality" or "alternate dimension" explains most of the instances. * It Only Works Once: Rick tells Morty that they can only do the jump into another reality after irreversibly ruining our own thing three more times, four tops. He knows the viewers wouldn't be impressed if they did it more than that across the series. * It's a Wonderful Plot: In "Rixty Minutes", Beth and Jerry use one of Rick's devices to learn about alternate versions of themselves, and find out how their lives might have gone differently if Summer had never been born. * I Work Alone: Rick claims this as a reason he hasn't joined the Citadel of Ricks. * Jerkass Has a Point: + In "Rick Potion #9", Rick calls Morty out for using a love potion to force a girl to fall in love with him, at one point comparing it to roofies. But Morty fires back by noting that Rick still made it for him (and his only initial objection was that it was a waste of his talents), while also noting that Rick wound up turning the whole planet into David Cronenberg-ian monstrosities through his own carelessness and a lot of bizarre assumptions in regards to biology. + Later lampshaded by Rick and then defied by Morty in "Vindicators 3": > Rick: I knew you were sucking the Kool-Aid out of the Vindicators' dick, so the fact that I was right must be pretty hard to admit. > Morty: Yeah, it is. You know why Rick? Because when you're an asshole, it doesn't matter how right you are, nobody wants to give you the satisfaction! + Vance Maximus Renegade Starsoldier in that same episode is an idiot, a coward, and an intentional Shallow Parody of superheroes (specifically Star Lord and Iron Man) that calls Morty the disabled id they drag along for PR. However, Vance is completely right when he points out that Rick needs his claim that good and evil are just social constructs to be true because it how he justifies his actions. + "Look Who's Purging Now" has a rage crazed Morty saying they should just kill a girl that already double crossed them when she beseeches them for help in ending the annual Purge. He's irrationally angry at the time but he and Rick had been betrayed once already so trusting the girl again would be a bad idea. + The President in "The Rickchurian Mortydate" is a control freak who tries to assert some authority over Rick and Morty, sending them on relatively unimportant jobs while brushing off Morty's request for an autograph, and later practically declaring war on them after they abandon their task. However, considering that the pair's reckless actions have caused massive, irreversible destruction before, there's a case to be made that some more accountability and oversight is currently amiss. Additionally, given how Rick and Morty use their power for almost entirely selfish purposes, they can hardly argue that their work is more important or valuable. Not to mention that the President was willing to let them leave peacefully and Rick escalated the situation out of spite. * Jerk Jock: Morty runs into one in "Rick Potion #9" when trying to ask out his crush, Jessica, to the Flu Season Dance. He's actually pretty self-aware: > Brad: Dude, stay in your league! Look at how hot she is! You don't see me going to a bigger school in a wealthier district and hitting on their prettiest girl! > Jessica: Gee, thanks Brad. > Brad: I throw balls far. You want good words, date a languager. * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Decidedly more gravitated toward the "jerk" part of a spectrum, Comedic Sociopath Rick is shown on occasion to have a bit of leftover humanity in him, occasionally reaching out to Morty in a more thoughtful, sympathetic manner than usual (usually with traumatizing results). Although Rick acts like he doesn't care about most things, his actions repeatedly imply that this is at least partially an act. We constantly see hints that he's tried to be involved with his family in the past, for example. (Baby pictures of Morty, mostly.) * Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Though with the season 3 premiere, it seems as though Rick is veering into this, though it's hard to tell because he's such an Unreliable Narrator. \|\|He manipulates everyone to get what he wants, manipulates Summer and Beth into loving him, manipulates Beth into divorcing Jerry when Jerry crosses Rick, and then in a mirror of the first episode's ending, tells Morty that he is going to help Rick get what he wants and if Morty tries to cross him, he will turn Summer and Beth against him as well.\|\| Throughout Season 3, he seems to vacillate between "Heart of Gold" and "Heart of Jerk". * Just a Flesh Wound: Rick gets shot in the liver with his laser pistol and yet seems pretty good to go (even though it's "the hardest working liver in the galaxy"). A few scenes later he puts some science gunk on the wound, which apparently heals it. * Just One Second Out of Sync: + In the second season opener, "A Rickle in Time", the time-screw from the end of the first season causes deviant timelines that involve the characters acting in character, but slightly out of sync; sometimes in times, sometimes in space, sometimes both. + In "Mortynight Run", Rick and Morty go to a "cross-temporal asteroid" which seems to exist in all timelines at once, yet isn't perceptible unless you know where to look. One version of Rick set up a Jerry daycare there in case other Ricks needed somewhere to dump their Jerrys for a while. * Karmic Nod: Mr. Goldenfold's reaction in "Something Ricked This Way Comes" upon learning that the "gift" the Devil gave him that made him irresistible to women also made him impotent. Though it's less of a nod and more of an all-out Scenery Chewing. * Kick Them While They Are Down: Played for Laughs at the end of "Rickmancing The Stone". Summer develops a relationship with the leader of a band of Mad Max-ian post-apocalyptic humans but eventually creates a new civilization when Rick reveals that the MacGuffin that was causing the episode's conflict could be used to power everyone. Summer's relationship with the leader falls out, and she leaves him heartbroken. Before Rick jumps through the portal, he steals the MacGuffin and robs them of electricity just because he can. * Kissing Warm-Up: When Morty falls asleep at the breakfast table after one of Rick's escapades, his mother asks him if he's feeling well, and then asks if he's been kissing the pillow that the dog sleeps on. * Kleptomaniac Hero: + The Adventures of Stealy follows a strange creature who steals from everyone and chloroforms people who get in his way. + Rick has also been known to steal randomly, as seen in "Total Rickall" and The Simpsons crossover. * Knight of Cerebus: + Mr. Jellybean, who very seriously attempts to rape Morty in "Meeseeks and Destroy". + Evil Morty. In his debut episode, "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", it's built up that Evil Rick is the main threat and he's just a lackey. Then, in the end, it turns out that Evil Morty was the mastermind all along. Throughout the episode, he shows little signs of emotion, and only gets two lines, both of which are completely devoid of humor. This clip really sets it in though just how serious the character is compared to the rest of the show, and appears to be hinting at the bigger picture. \|\|This is reinforced by his next appearance two seasons later in "The Ricklantis Mix-up", in which he manipulates the members of the Citadel of Ricks into electing him as their new president, with his first act as the new leader being to have almost the entire Shadow Council murdered, and the bodies of numerous dead Ricks and Mortys (and one Morty who was still alive but knew too much) Thrown Out the Airlock\|\|. * Lack of Empathy: One of Rick's primary character traits; he rarely ever gives a shit about anybody other than himself, to the point where "Just don't think about it" is practically one of his catchphrases. Character Development, however, has shown that not only is this attitude only a little more than skin-deep, but also it didn't occur without provocation. By the end of Season 1, he's officially in Jerk with a Heart of Gold territory. * The Lancer: Morty is decidedly a foil for Rick, described by the latter as "as dumb as [Rick is] smart." This is actually one of his key motivations for bringing Morty along on adventures. * Laser-Guided Amnesia: "Morty's Mind Blowers" flashes back to memories of experiences that Rick erased from Morty's mind. Most of them were too horrific for Morty to live with, but Rick also wasn't above abusing the technology when he made a fool of himself and didn't want Morty to remember. * Laser-Guided Karma: + "Meeseeks and Destroy": King Jellybean attempts to rape Morty and Morty beats the crap out of him, and later Rick kills him. + "Something Ricked This Way Comes": Mr. Needful/Lucifer scams Summer, then Rick and Summer beat the shit out of him. + "Ricksy Business": Lucy almost rapes Jerry at gunpoint and Beth beats the crap out of her, and later she gets run over by a car. * Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: + In the pilot, during the first establishing shot of Interdimensional Customs, Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot (without legs) and Gypsy can be seen as silhouettes in the crowd of aliens. In a later scene, the silhouettes of Oderus Urungus and Beefcake the Mighty can be seen as Rick and Morty escape from the customs agents. + In the episode "Rixty Minutes," the characters in Hamsters in Buttland resemble the 30 Second Movies bunnies. * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: + In "Rick Potion #9," Rick states that they can't replace themselves in another dimension "every week" and should only do it "three or four times, tops." This is an insinuated promise by the writers to not hit the Reset Button too often. + In "Mortynight Run", when Jerry gets frustrated playing poker with other Jerrys at Jerryboree, he says "I can't believe Rick did this. This is the eighth to the last straw!" The episode was the eighth to the last one of the season. + At the beginning of "Interdimensional Cable Part 2," the Sequel Episode to "Rixty Minutes," someone asks Rick what he's doing, and Rick responds, "A sequel." He then mutters about how he doesn't know whether it's really warranted because he "kind of nailed it the first time." The original episode was one of the most popular episodes of the first season. + At the end of "Look Who's Purging Now," Rick mentions the candy bars "that we got in the first act." + The Stinger of "The ABCs of Beth" is a string of messages on Jerry's answering machine, the last of which is a message from an antique phone rental place, saying that they intend to let Jerry off the hook for the $70 late fee and allow him to keep the answering machine because 'nobody really uses those anymore except to provide exposition on TV shows anyways'. * Legacy Character: Season 7 reveals Rick's garage and car A.I.s were deliberately created with voices that sound like \|\|Rick's deceased wife Diane\|\|. * LEGO Genetics: + Played for Laughs in "Rick Potion #9". First Rick tries to use praying mantis DNA to counter-act vole DNA (with the theory that mating once and then killing your mate is the opposite of living only to mate), then he admits genetics is more complicated than that, and so develops another cure: > Rick: It's koala, mixed with rattlesnake, chimpanzee, cactus, shark, golden retriever, and just a smidge of dinosaur. Should add up to normal humanity. > Morty: I don't— that doesn't make any sense, Rick! + Rick also tries it in "Ricksy Business" with Abradolf Lincler: a genetic combination of Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler who was intended to be a morally neutral super-leader. Turns out he's just a jerk who can't deal with his conflicting emotions. * Life-Saving Encouragement: Morty is on trial for murder, and he uses the Death Crystal to determine that the only way to avoid the death penalty is to tell the judge "I will always remember our time in Peru." The judge believes Morty is her reincarnated loved one and releases him. * Like Father, Like Son: Morty and Jerry — both are insecure, neurotic, emotional, and tend to put up with a lot. > Scroopy Noopers: Is everyone in your family an idiot? > Morty: For sure, me and my dad are. * Listing the Forms of Degenerates: Why Pancho released tuberculosis in "Anatomy Park" > "That's right, baby. A lot of people would pay top dollar to decimate the population. I'll take the highest bidder. Al Qaeda, North Korea, Republicans, Shriners, balding men that work out, people on the Internet that are only turned on by cartoons of Japanese teenagers — anything is better than working for you, you pompous, negligent, iTunes-gift-card-as-a-holiday-bonus-giving..." * Literal Metaphor: In "Pilot", the "two plus two" part of Rick's rant about school sounds like it's just a metaphor but then it turns out that Morty's math test really consists of simple calculations like that. * Logic Bomb: + Three regarding golf in "Meeseeks and Destroy". Square your shoulders and keep your head down. Choke up and follow through. Try to relax. + Rick makes the first level of the simulation shut down in "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!" by talking to a crowd of people and making them do increasingly more complex things. * Lotus-Eater Machine: + The parasites in "Total Rickall" can implant happy fake memories in their targets, then assume the identity of the focus of those memories. The parasite can then in turn inspire more memories, allowing its offspring to assume the forms within. The targets never question this because, to them, the parasites are trustworthy friends who have never done them wrong. Morty manages to snap everyone out of it by realizing the flaw in their deception: the parasites are incapable of fabricating negative memories. Because their family has no shortage of personal issues between them, it doesn't take long for them to weed out the parasites. Except for Mr. Poopybutthole; he was, in fact, just that nice of a guy. + Poor Simple Rick is kept in one of these in "The Ricklantis Mixup". He's stuck in a loop of experiencing the same happy memory over and over, and the positive endorphins his brain secretes because of it are used *as flavor for a wafer. \|\|When Factory Worker Rick frees and accidentally kills Simple Rick, the former is given a massive Hope Spot before being shot unconscious and made into the new Simple Rick instead, using said Hope Spot to provide the happy memory.\|\| Louis Cypher: In "Something Ricked This Way Comes" the proprietor of the cursed items shop, who is actually the devil, goes by the name "Lucius" Needful. * Love Potion: In "Rick Potion #9" Morty has Rick make one so Jessica will like him. Unfortunately, due to it being flu season the potion is transmitted through air, quickly causing the school (and eventually the entire world) to be in love with Morty. Rick later points out how Morty essentially asked him to make roofies. Morty answers back by noting that Rick still agreed to make said potion for him regardless, and that the only objection he offered at time was that doing so was a waste of his time and talents, rather than any moral scruples. * Lovecraft Lite: It's only "Lite" for lack of a better word, but mostly the show's science-fiction is highly Lovecraft-inspired. Humanity is a speck in an infinite cosmos and beings which appear godlike are entirely different to our civilization and alien in intelligence, and to the extent they comprehend us, or we comprehend them, it's as a joke (the Cromulons who see Earth as merely a reality-show contestant). * Lower-Deck Episode: "The Ricklantis Mixup" begins with Rick and Morty going off to visit the lost city of Atlantis, but the entire episode focuses on the various lives of the thousands of Ricks and Morties that live at the newly reconstructed Citadel of Ricks.	RickAndMorty	null
MagicTheGathering	# Awesome But Impractical - Magic: The Gathering Magic: The Gathering is the oldest collectible card game on the market, with thousands of unique cards to choose and build a deck from. Naturally, many of them look more effective than they actually are. Note that the Commander/EDH format allows a lot of these cards to be used more practically because it has longer games. A lot of combos are cool, but impractical: they'll win spectacularly, but only if you can play four different cards on the same turn that require three different colors and no counterspells from your opponent. Guess the odds on that actually happening. This is the aim of Timmy/Johnny players, especially those who combine Timmy's love of big flashy effects and Johnny's love of convoluted combos. Even if their combo only works once, they're happy. --- * The entire cycle of Pacts from Future Sight also fall into this: They're very powerful spells for free, but you have to win the game that turn or be certain you'll have the mana available next turn to pay for it, otherwise it's an instant loss. Three of them still see varying amounts of play: Pact of Negation is the most widespread, as it keeps instant-win combos from being interrupted; Summoner's Pact is often played to fetch creature combo pieces, such as Primeval Titan; and Slaughter Pact is used as a surprise kill spell when otherwise out of mana. As for Intervention Pact and Pact of the Titan? They have their small niches, but are usually considered unplayable. * Any spell that requires more than two types of colored mana can become this. Three-color spells like Cruel Ultimatum (mentioned further down) can be worth the hassle, but four- and five-color spells are unlikely to make up the disadvantage of playing with a four- or five-colored deck and hoping that the opponent doesn't just steamroll you as you try to set up your field. * Spawnsire of Ulamog's ability lets you play as many of the humongous Eldrazi cards as you want, right now, for no extra cost, and without even having to have them in your deck... if you can somehow get the whopping twenty mana it takes to activate it. Having one big Eldrazi is often enough to win the game, a dozen is complete overkill. Instead of spending 10 on Spawnsire of Ulamog and another 20 to activate it, you can just cast Ulamog AND another Eldrazi Titan of your choice for less mana and skip the middleman. * The Elder Dragons (Arcades Sabboth, Chromium, Nicol Bolas, Palladia-Mors, and Vaevictis Asmadi), five cards with powerful stats and splashy effects (for their time period) but which were almost impossible to play thanks to their casting costs and requiring a constant influx of mana every turn to keep them in play. * In early Magic, most large creatures qualify. They may have impressive stats and possibly cool effects, but they're expensive and frequently come with upkeep costs and/or other hideous drawbacks. Modern creatures tend to both ditch the drawbacks and be larger and cheaper, even if they may not have as many abilities as the ones from Legends. Magic's early card designers didn't appreciate that giving a big creature a high mana cost was already a drawback. + Any of the legends from Legends: Large creatures with splashy effects, but very expensive and frequently with upkeep costs. + Polar Kraken: an 11/11 trampler for 8UUU that enters the battlefield tapped. Its cumulative upkeep? Sacrificing a land. And it's not just one: Cumulative Upkeep means that the cost goes up by an additional land every turn! + Leviathan: a 10/10 for 5UUUU that forces you to sacrifice two Islands just to attack with it or untap it at the beginning of your upkeep. + Marjhan: 8/8 for 5UU. It only untaps if you're willing to spend UU and sacrifice a creature at the beginning of your upkeep. It's also sacrificed if you don't control an Island, and can't attack if your opponent doesn't control one. * Much like the Elder Dragons, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. His +3 ability destroys a noncreature permanent (in addition to providing an obscene boost to his Loyalty), and his ultimate effectively leaves your opponent topdecking with very little resources. The catch? You need 8 mana, 4 of which need to be split into three different colors. That's never been an unattainable feat, but the same block had Nicol Bolas' signature spell Cruel Ultimatum in the same colors for one less mana that would almost always win the game when it was cast; Nicol Bolas, while still a kitchen table favorite to this day, was left on the sidelines as all the competitive decks opted for the seven-mana sorcery instead. * Planeswalkers' final abilities are either impressive or game-ending, but need multiple turns of constant defense such that you can accumulate enough loyalty counters to pay the cost. Keep in mind that most planeswalkers' loyalty-increasing abilities offer marginal defenses on their own. The few planeswalkers who can use their final ability much sooner typically have a more underwhelming effect. Thus, a planeswalker is often evaluated by their first few abilities which are often available as soon as they enter the battlefield. * Most Instant-Win Condition cards end up being impractical. While it's incredibly satisfying to use these spells and actually have them go off, and Battle of Wits has even seen some high-level tournament play with a top 8 finish at a Grand Prix, it's much more practical to use conventional means. Many of them are so slow that the game will most likely be over long before they finish charging, and if it does go on that long, you can probably win just as easily with, say, a large flying creature. Also, many instant-win cards only activate if their condition is true at the start of your turn, which means your opponent usually has a full turn to either destroy the card, invalidate the condition or finish you off (unless you can somehow create the right condition at instant speed just before the end of their turn). Some specific examples: + Darksteel Reactor and Helix Pinnacle are big, flashy, nigh-unkillable instant-win spells, but take forever to charge. + Oath of the Gatewatch introduced another one with Hedron Alignment: It's very unusual to draw all 4 copies of a card in a normal match, getting cards into exile is tough, and even then one discard spell, or a spell removing cards from exile or graveyard, from your opponent can ruin the entire thing. + Near-Death Experience requires you to be at exactly 1 life at the beginning of your upkeep. Which means that you need to get yourself down to exactly 1 life and survive the opponent's turn (or get yourself down to 1 life during their turn), at which point even the slightest scratch will kill you, while also dumping a hefty 2WWW into a card that does nothing on its own and praying that Near-Death Experience itself also survives the opponent's turn. + Chance Encounter requires winning ten coin flips. Your opponent losing one does not count. + Mayael's Aria gives you an instant win if you manage to pump a creature to 20 power, which will likely win you the game anyway (although the card has other effects that make it slightly more useful) — attacking the opponent directly with a creature with 20 power usually means victory. + Battle of Wits requires you to have 200 or more cards in your library at the beginning of your upkeep. This has the unique disadvantage of giving away your main strategy before the game even starts: you need at least 201 cards in your deck, and preferably a bit more to have a realistic chance. Most players stick to the bare minimum of 60 cards in their deck to maximize their chance of drawing the card(s) they really want. The difference is very visible, and an opponent with the right cards can start planning right away. If you're exceptionally unlucky you could be onto Plan B before your first turn. Another issue unique to Battle of Wits that makes it almost unplayable in tournaments is shuffling, of all things. Sufficiently randomizing a ~300 card deck is exceedingly difficult and time-consuming. Battle of Wits decks are often filled to the brim with tutoring cards and fetchlands to give something resembling consistency to such a huge deck, and the deck must be thoroughly shuffled after each time one is used; playing it in a timely fashion in paper is nearly impossible. + Halo Fountain lets you win the game on the spot, so long as you have five white mana available as well as fifteen creatures to untap. By the time you even have that many creatures to untap (almost certainly through token generators), you're probably about to win the game anyway, plus the WWWWW cost is difficult to pay in a multicolor deck unless you run obscene amounts of mana-fixing. Appropriately, its other two abilities are Boring, but Practical, and most decks that include Halo Fountain do so for those, not the instant game-winner. + Barren Glory wins you the game if you control no permanents other than Barren Glory itself and have no cards in hand at the beginning of your upkeep. What this translates to is getting a 6-mana enchantment (a veritable fortune for a card that doesn't affect the board in any way) into play while getting rid of everything else you have, lands included, thus leaving yourself completely defenseless, which itself takes a concerted effort. If you can somehow pull this off and not get killed on your opponent's turn, chances are you were probably winning anyway even before scrubbing your hand and board. * The rather amusing combo that pairs Battle of Wits with Spawnsire of Ulamog's 20-mana activated ability to bring out 200 copies of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Being a Legendary creature, all but 1 copy of Emrakul would immediately need to be sacrificed to the Graveyard... but due to her triggered ability, all copies would go to the library instead, fulfilling Battle of Wits' condition and winning the game. This victory method is impractical not only due to the aforementioned drawbacks of using Spawnsire of Ulamog's ability, but also because copies of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn retail for roughly $25 each - and as such, would cost roughly $5,000 in cold, hard cash. Getting 200 copies in order to use the combo is something only a bored billionaire would go for. It also wouldn't work in tournament settings, where, in addition to the impracticality of 20 mana, Spawnsire of Ulamog can only summon Eldrazi in your 15-card sideboard and you're limited to 4 copies of a card in your deck + sideboard. A casual setting with more relaxed rules might allow it, if you just wanted to entertain some of your friends by casting 200 Eldrazi. In any case, you wouldn't really need Battle of Wits to win anyway- Emrakul's extra turn effect triggers when you cast it, so even using Spawnsire of Ulamog to cast 200 Emrakuls gives you 200 extra turns. Hell, even just one Emrakul is already a 15/15 Flyer with protection from colored spells and which causes opponents to sacrifice six permanents every time she attacks, meaning she'll likely win you the game by the time you get her out, and why she's banned in Commander; having 200 turns to attack with her is usually enough to kill an opponent many times over. * Triggering the ability of Door to Nothingness can be especially difficult. You have to have two mana of each of the five colors to trigger its ability, which is far from trivial to achieve. You also have to leave it sitting on the table for at least one full turn and hope it doesn't get destroyed. However, if you do succeed in this, the target player loses the game on the spot. It's even more impractical in multiplayer games, as unlike many other alternate win conditions, it only kills off one player, after which the Door is sacrificed... assuming that your opponents haven't teamed up to kill you before you can use the effect. Interestingly, Door to Nothingness actually saw some competitive success with the later addition of Timeless Lotus, which makes the mana cost much more achievable in combo decks that can get both cards out for cheap and untap them to obliterate the opponent. * Epic spells. Printed in Saviors of Kamigawa, the Epic spells are five spells with awesome, flashy, and powerful effects, such as being able to mill out your opponent every turn or steal a permanent from their deck every turn, that repeat themselves at the player's upkeep. However, they come with the cost of the player being unable to cast any more spells for the rest of the game. This is a crippling drawback that resulted in only one of the five cards, Enduring Ideal seeing tournament play in the Modern format, since Enchantment decks can pillow fort and stall out the game long enough to manage to reach the seven mana required to cast Enduring Ideal and lock the opponent out of the game with layers of protection and resource denial (often comboing Dovescape, Overwhelming Splendor, and Form of the Dragon once Enduring Ideal is cast). The other four cards are never played due to taking too long to cast or being too underwhelming to justify their drawback. * The card Chalice of Life/Chalice of Death can make an opponent lose 5 life each turn. However, you have to not only keep it on the field and live long enough to take advantage of it, but also reach ten more than your starting life total just to transform it and get to use this ability. * The B. F. M. (Big Furry Monster) from the joke set Unglued: BBBBBBBBBBBBBBB (that's 15 black mana!) is a huge cost, even for a 99/99; most games would be wrapping up by the time you got that kind of mana. Since each half is useless on its own, most reanimation spells don't work & Victimize is the only way to get it into play via the graveyard. It's not even clear if alternate costs like Fist of Suns would work, since it's unclear if each card is a separate spell and the only source for Un-set "errata" is Mark Rosewater speaking semi-officially on Tumblr. * Phage the Untouchable got a lot of attention when she first debuted due to her abilities; she instantly kills any creature she deals damage to, and any player that takes damage from her loses the game. To counterbalance this, Phage also has an ability where if she isn't cast from her controller's hand, that player loses the game. While there are some combos to circumvent this, there's almost always going to be easier ways of getting better creatures. Opponents will probably have much larger creatures by the time you have 3BBBB to play her or have managed to cheat her into play without instantly losing. She doesn't have indestructible, first strike, or trample, and she's still vulnerable to counterspells, blocking, instant-kill spells, and so on. Abilities in later editions render her deathtouch ability almost moot, and there are so many ways to get rid of her that it's almost not worth the trouble of setting up a combo to summon her. And just to twist the knife further, should you somehow manage to get her into play, your opponent can still "blink" Phage (that is, exile her and then return her to the battlefield, such as with Flicker). The result? Her first ability will trigger, see that you didn't cast her from your hand, and you'll instantly lose the game. She's even worse in Commander, a format where unusual cards and interactions thrive, because casting her from your command zone does not count as casting from your hand... costing you the game on the spot. There are a few ways to avoid that (Any deck with Phage as its commander would be mono-black, leaving only a few options like Torpor Orb, Sundial of the Infinite and Platinum Angel), but it's entirely possible to not draw any of them in a 100-card singleton deck. Fractured Identity can also turn Phage's drawback against everyone else by giving each other player a copy of Phage that wasn't cast from their hand and thus kill them on the spot, but in that case you wouldn't be able to use Phage as your commander and thus need to dig up her and Fractured Identity and get the mana to play them both... and pray your opponents let you drop the 7-mana creature and 5-mana sorcery without interruption. * The Invasion block's 5-color theme resulted in a ton of these: + Draco was a 9/9 for 6 mana.....provided you had all 5 basic land types in play. While the numerous ways to search your library for a given land card make it easier, you still have to build your deck around a Domain strategy for this to work, which has the unfortunate side effect of often leaving the player with too much land and too little of everything else. Since Domain checks for land types and not mana colors, the creature and artifact mana sources prevalent in the block couldn't help; you were also stuck with a nasty upkeep cost if you didn't have all 5 land types. Since then, though, a prevalence of dual-lands with basic land types, and Nylea's Presence have made it easier to cast. + In the same vein, Apocalypse had Last Stand: Each of its 5 effects would have been great on its own(Drawing 1 card for each Island you control would be devastating in the late game, for example), but putting them all on 1 WUBRG card (a card that costs one of each color of mana) results in a spell that really doesn't have a practical use: 5-color decks tend not to have too many of any 1 land type(Some 5-color decks run extra Forests because of green's access to mana acceleration & land tutoring, but that doesn't help when Green's ability is arguably the worst & there are easier ways to get many or infinite tokens), so the spell's tough to cast & generally worse than low-cost cards in each color. + Invasion's cycle of three-colored legendary dragons. 6/6 with flying and a triggered ability for 6 was a good deal at the time & still is in Block Constructed, but the mana cost was 3CDE-even the set's strong multicolor theme couldn't make these viable. * Zurgo Helmsmasher, the leader of the Mardu from Khans of Tarkir, is a devastating hasty beatstick that is almost guaranteed to get at least one attack and gets bigger every time he kills something. Unfortunately for him, a) even in decks that can meet his tri-colour demand he's sharing space with Butcher of the Horde, which is tougher, cheaper, and can be used in multiples, and b) he dies so easily to removal in the enemy turn, even if he kills a chump blocker, that his lack of trample makes him largely useless. (He even dies fairly easily in his own turn if he's coming up against another deck with black in it - black gets a lot of -X/-X instants that do an end-run around his indestructibility.) Ironically, his alternate-timeline self from Dragons of Tarkir, which includes flavor text that he's fallen so far his enemy thinks he's Not Worth Killing, is so Boring Yet Practical (a 2/2 for 1 red, or dashed for a red and a colorless, with the only drawback being it can't chump block) that it became an instant mainstay in red decks. * Platinum Angel, a 4/4 flying creature with the effect "You can't lose the game and your opponent can't win the game". The catch? A mana cost of 7 and no protection against creature and/or artifact destruction/removal. * Savor the Moment from Shadowmoor lets you take an extra turn for only 1 more blue mana than Time Walk.... but at the cost of skipping your untap step. There might be a deck that could abuse this with upkeep or other automatic effects, but in most cases skipping the untap step reduces the extra turn to just drawing a card (or doing things postponed from the last turn). Downplayed because, well, it is still an extra turn, meaning you get to play an extra land, use your Planeswalkers' abilities again, draw a card, and attack with or tap whatever creatures you played on your last turn (effectively giving them Haste), so it's far from useless but also less abusable than other extra turn options. * Yawgmoth's Agenda lets you cast cards from your graveyard, making it a recurring version of the game-breaking Yawgmoth's Will. The catch? You can only cast one card per turn. So few decks can work around this constraint that it's near-useless rather than overpowered. * Lich effectively makes it impossible for you to lose the game while it's in play, provided you have enough permanents to feed to it (which is easily accomplished with a number of different deck types). The problem is that your opponent needs only a single disenchantment, or any other card that destroys enchantments, to instantly end the game. * Cards that remove cards from the battlefield if they're from certain expansions, such as City in a Bottle and Golgothian Sylex. While being able to remove a large portion of your opponent's cards is nice, the sets are so old that most people don't play them and playing these cards is bound to result in bickering about whether your opponent's card is removed. * Double-faced cards and the accompanying transform mechanic are this trope on a more meta level: While double-faced cards allow for some unique mechanics and spectacular art and flavor, they have a lot of unique logistical problems. They require special card-printing tech, you have to either use sleeves or special checklist cards to keep your opponents from seeing them in your hand, and so on. * The meld mechanic, an extension of transformation, takes the impracticality a little further. To meld, you need two very specific cards to initiate the Fusion Dance, which will necessitate tutors and very specific deckbuilding to use effectively. Should the single melded creature leave the battlefield for any reason, both components are lost, turning a simple removal spell into a card advantage surplus. Finally, because double-faced cards are public knowledge in drafting, your opponents in a draft can easily identify if you have half a meld and can take the other half to deny you full value. * A Redditer was able to set up a way to play a game of Uno from within a game of Magic. It only takes 29 cards in a specific order. * You instantly win the game if you can cast Coalition Victory, but doing so requires that you have all 5 basic land types and a creature of each color, a difficult feat even in decks built around a domain strategy. Its enormous mana cost of 3WUBRG doesn't help either. + The land part can be made easier with Nylea's Presence, Prismatic Omen, or multiple activations of Terraformer. As for the creatures, any WUBRG creature by itself, like Chromanticore, would work, but Reaper King and Transguild Courier make it easier. Even if you take the "easy" route, you still need to find a way to cast Coalition Victory itself, and pray that opponent doesn't kill your creature in response (which will cause it to resolve without any effect). All that being said, Coalition Victory can be achieved with as few as 3 cards to fill its requirements thanks to the Triome lands (which count as 3 basic land types apiece), resulting in it being banned for a while in Commander due to the only remaining drawback - the mana cost - being trivial to achieve there. * Dark Depths can get you an indestructible 20/20 flier. The catch? You have to sink 30 mana into removing all of the ice counters on it first. Even if you don't die trying to do that, your opponent will probably be able to deal with such a creature by the time you get it out. It doesn't help that Dark Depths is a land that can't produce mana. Of course, that's how the card was intended to be used - over time it became a subversion of this due to the number of ways to cheat the counters off it. Vampire Hexmage gets rid of the counters for a measly 2 black mana to give you the 20/20 as early as turn 3... and even Hexmage eventually got crept out of relevance by Thespian's Stage, which can turn into a copy of Dark Depths but without the counters (and thus unleashing Marit Lage; for extra fun, you can also use it on the opponent's Dark Depths). Dark Depths combos actually got so fast and consistent that the card was banned from Modern, and in Legacy, where the card is still legal, it's a force to be reckoned with. + The other card capable of summoning Marit Lage, Marit Lage's Slumber, still falls under this category after Dark Depths became just plain Awesome. Having ten Snow permanents in play is a much taller order because removal exists, and Slumber itself is a 2-mana Enchantment and therefore more prone to removal than a Land like Dark Depths, especially since its summoning effect requires you to wait for your next upkeep and hope your opponent doesn't destroy something (though Slumber also has a more Boring, but Practical ability to scry 1 each time you put a Snow permanent into play, including itself, so it's not just dead weight). * If you have an Iona, Shield of Emeria while a Mirror Gallery is on the battlefield, you can cast a kicked Rite of Replication which gives you five extra Ionas for each of the Magic colors, preventing your opponents from casting any colored spells at all. The problem, of course, is that aside from needing those exact three cards, they are all very costly (Mirror Gallery, the cheapest component, costs 5 mana, while Iona and a kicked Rite of Replication each cost 9), plus colorless spells exist that can take them out (such as All is Dust). There are many cheaper ways to prevent your opponent from casting spells, even if they have their own drawbacks such as Rule of Law. Additionally, since there will always be at least a small amount of time where only one Iona is on the field, a single spell of one of the four colors you didn't choose can swat her out of the field before Rite of Replication can resolve. Hopefully you have counters available and are not tapped out due to the ludicrous mana costs. + As of the Kamigawa Neon Dynasty expansion, you can replace the Mirror Gallery for Mirror Box, which is a cheaper artifact that achieves an even better effect and gives a major buff to your non-token Iona. Note, however, that this only a 2 mana discount for the whole combo. You still need about 21 mana worth of very specific resources to pull this off. * Leveler is a colorless 10/10 for just 5 mana. The problem is that it exiles your library when it enters the battlefield, which means that unless you Stifle its ability, have a draw replacement effect or can return cards to your library somehow, you'll lose by decking out the turn after you play it. It doesn't come with haste, so by itself you won't even get to attack with it before you die. And even if you find a way to survive or circumvent the drawback, it's a 10/10 with no protection or evasion, so it's not likely to do much damage. Its main use is probably making gimmicky combos with something like Laboratory Maniac (which wants you to exile your library), The Beamtown Bullies (which makes your opponent summon it, causing Leveler to destroy their library), or Fling (which lets you sacrifice it to deal 10 damage). * Eater of Days is a 9/8 that comes with both flying and trample, so it at least has evasion. Unfortunately, it has the terrible drawback of making you skip your next two turns after you play it, which gives your opponent a lot of time to deal with the creature and set up their own board. It doesn't have haste, so you don't even get to attack with it before you miss two turns. Short of countering its ability, there is no way to get around its drawback, and even if you successfully pull that off, it's still an artifact creature with no protection. * In theory, Tunnel Vision is potentially a very dangerous card in Commander games, as Commander's nature of allowing only one copy of any non-basic land card in any deck allows you to strip an opponent's library of all but one card as long as that one card is at the bottom of the library, something you can manipulate using things like Spin Into Myth and Vessel of Endless Rest. There's just a few problems: One, Tunnel Vision is a sorcery, and even otherwise your opponent still has ways to shuffle their deck before it resolves, ruining your chance to guess correctly; two, as Tunnel Vision still leaves said opponent with that one card, and thus one last turn before they deck out, they can still turn the situation around; three, there are cards that can punish mill strategies such as the original Eldrazi titans; and four, Tunnel Vision is ultimately a single-target spell, so using it on anyone but your last opponent will very likely put a massive "KILL ME" neon sign on you, and this is assuming you have contingency plans that allows you to reuse Tunnel Vision on your other opponents. * From the Universes Beyond Lord of the Rings set, there's Sauron, Lord of the Rings. His on-cast trigger alone is huge, giving you a 5-point amass trigger, some self-mill and a reanimation effect before he even enters the battlefield. When he does get there, he's a huge trampler who triggers the "tempted by the Ring" mechanic every time an opponent's creature dies. Unfortunately, what he doesn't have is any kind of haste or protection effect, making him very vulnerable to removal, and you are paying a hefty 8 mana for each use of that on-cast trigger. In his natural Commander environment, he's further limited by his Grixis colour identity, which means that his deck will be very reliant on artifacts to speed up its mana; the Commander tax putting his price up by 2 each time he dies is likely to swiftly outpace the manabase in all but the best-engineered decks. * Progenitus is a 10/10 creature with Protection from Everything - but it costs two of every mana color to cast and shuffles itself into its owner's library the instant it hits the graveyard, so you can't cheat it out with revival cards. And worse, it is still vulnerable to mass removal effects like Wrath of God or Decree of Annihilation. * Jumbo Cactuar from the Final Fantasy expansion is a 5GG 1/7 creature with a seemingly absurdly powerful effect: If it attacks, it gains +9999 power, which so drastically exceeds the starting 20 life total that it will One-Hit Kill any creature or player it damages. Effectively, it's Phage the Untouchable without the massive drawback of instantly losing the game for you if it enters without being hard cast. However, it seems tailor-made to be a case study in power not being everything. It's still a 7-mana creature with no protection, and is thus easily stopped by any removal or stun card, and if you don't give it trample or make it unblockable, it can be stalled out by any 1/1 chump blocker. The fact that it only gets 10,000 power when it attacks also means it's useless as a defensive card and cheating it out with Ninjutsu won't work. Even from the same set, for the same or comparable mana cost, people tend to play Coliseum Behemoth or Diamond Weapon instead, because despite their lower power, they have more immediate impact and superior defensive utility. ---	AwesomeButImpractical	null
AnimatedFilms	# What Happened To The Mouse - Animated Films --- * The Adventures of Prince Achmed: The horse is left behind in China when the sorcerer flies Achmed to the mountains. * Aladdin (1992, Disney): + Nothing is said about Jafar's horse after he leads Aladdin and Abu to the Cave of Wonders. + Al first rubs the lamp because he thinks he sees writing on it but can't make it out. He's understandably too distracted by the magical genie and elaborate song-and-dance number directly afterward to double-check, but it's not known if there was really writing there, and if so, what it says. + Razoul and the other main royal guards vanish from the movie after throwing Aladdin to the ocean. While it isn't too jarring since they all appear in the sequels and the TV series, it's a little jarring in the context of the first film's self-contained story. * In Ali Baba & The Gold Raiders, Ali Baba's brother disappears from the story once the Gold Raiders come back and find him in their cave. It should be pointed out that in the original story the Forty Thieves killed him, so it seems the writers just couldn't be bothered to think of a way to write him back in aside from Ali Baba returning with a large sack he didn't have when he left, hinting at his collecting his brother's remains. * Disney's Alice in Wonderland: + The Cheshire Cat and White Rabbit are last seen hitting the final nail in Alice's coffin and trumpeting respectively, and evidently do not participate in the grand chase after Alice at the end. + Earlier on in the film, Bill the Lizard is never seen again for the rest of the film after being blasted out of the White Rabbit's chimney and up into the sky while trying to extract the giant Alice from the Rabbit's house (in contrast, the novel specifically mentions him in the trial as a member of the jury). * A literal example: In An American Tail, the young baby of the Mousekewitz family, Yasha, drops out of the film about halfway through — particularly conspicuous in a story about accidental family separation. She does appear in the sequels, however. * Balablok: The opening to the film shows that up in the clouds there are mountains and elaborate castles and airships floating around, things which absolutely do not go with the simple geometric shapes seen at ground level. This is never followed up on. * Barbie: + Barbie in the Nutcracker: After getting Clara and her friends to the Sugarplum Princess's island, Marzipan goes to graze on the island's grass and isn't seen again. + Barbie as Rapunzel: Gothel is introduced riding a horse on her way back to the manor in the beginning. Said horse disappears after that, leaving it uncertain as to what happened to it after Gothel was imprisoned in Rapunzel's tower forever. + Barbie of Swan Lake: The Fairy Queen tells Odette that the elf children she has with her are the only subjects of hers who escaped Rothbart after he enslaved them to make them build his palace, meaning that the others are prisoners off-screen. This is the last that's ever mentioned of them, so one can only hope they weren't in Rothbart's palace when it collapsed. Rothbart's ravens also never appear again after getting knocked out during Odette and her friends' rescue of Erasmus. + Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper: Julian's horse, which he rides while searching for Anneliese in the forest, vanishes completely after he finds the cabin she was being held in and is subsequently captured by Preminger's goons. Preminger's dog, Midas, also goes unseen and unmentioned in the epilogue after his master's arrest. + Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus: Ferris' transformation into a welcome mat at the Evil Sorcerer Wenlock's hands isn't shown being undone in the end. * Beauty and Warrior: Where did Nawang Wulan go? Who was her human husband? Where did Mayang Sari go after Batara left? What happened to the water kingdom? What happened to the plot? Never explained. * Beauty and the Beast: + The bimbettes (those blonde women who crush on Gaston). They constantly accompany Gaston during the first half of the film, but for some reason are completely absent during the last half of the film where the villagers are raiding the Beast's castle. The musical adaptation has them included among the villagers who go to attack the castle. Presumably they are scared away along with everyone else, in the ensuing fight. We never see LeFou's, the bimbettes' or other villagers' reactions to Gaston's death either. + It's shown in two different scenes that Mrs. Potts has twelve children. Despite this, the only one with a talking role is Chip and the only one seen becoming human again is Chip. + The friendly bookseller who gives Belle one of his books for free at the beginning never makes another appearance afterwards. Notably, he isn't present in the mob of villagers at the end. + Creepy asylum owner Monsieur D'Arque vanishes without further mention after Gaston's attempt to force Belle into marriage with the threat of sending her father to the madhouse fails. + The Magic Mirror disappears from Gaston's belt once the mob breaks down the doors and is never shown again. * The BIONICLE films leave many fates uncertain, all of which were explained in later media: + In BIONICLE: Mask of Light, Pewku, the giant pet crab of Takua disappears after her owner gets upgraded into the warrior Takanuva. Odd, considering that they were apparently close friends, and she doesn't even show up in any group shots in the final scenes. Her joyous reuniting with Takanuva at the end was storyboarded (and set up in an earlier scene when she knocks Takua over and licks him like an enthusiastic dog) but the animation neglected to include her. Outside of the movie, Pewku never had any relevance in the later stories, though Word of God mentioned she exchanged owners a couple of times. + The Gukko bird Takua and Jaller ride to follow Lewa onto a snowy mountain crashes into the snow and sends its riders tumbling. Takua and Jaller then keep walking as Lewa bids farewell and soars away but the bird just disappears. + Mask of Light ends with \|\|the fused form of Takanuva and Makuta crushed under a gate. Takanuva is seemingly killed, reduced to his mask, which is then immediately used to revive him. No mention is made of what happened to Makuta. The book series that picked up two years after the film explained he came out on the gate's other side, his armor damaged to the point that his spirit had to leave it behind. Makuta is technically shown returning in the confusing opening scene of the 4th film, The Legend Reborn, but good luck knowing that without reading up on the intervening six years of lore, as he is not named, nor shown in his original body — the narration only calls him "an ever-present evil".\|\| + Turaga Dume in BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui is found comatose inside a pod by the Toa. They say they would return to rescue him later. He is never seen or heard of after that, not even in the following film, Web of Shadows, which is about the Toa returning to their abandoned home — instead of Dume, a new wise, diminutive, elderly, cane-carrying red colored character, Norik is introduced. The writers claimed they had planned to tell Dume's tale in an exclusive online comic, but when plans changed, the said his pod simply malfunctioned between stories, and he got free. Dume would go on to become a very minor recurring character in the following stories. + In The Legend Reborn, Tuma vanishes after being defeated by Mata Nui. He is last seen collapsing, unable to finish his sentence, seemingly dead. The fate of his Skrall army is also left up in the air. The unmade sequel would have shown that Tuma was alive but weakened, controlling a small group of Skrall loyalists, while the rest of his race disowned and abandoned him. Also, possibly an animation goof, but Tuma's green shield that Mata Nui takes as his trophy also disappears — the shield Mata Nui carries for the rest of the film is inexplicably red. + Strakk of in the same movie is last seen walking out of the arena after his defeat — originally, he was to be banished to the desert for breaking the rules of arena combat and trying to kill a downed fighter, which is explained in the novel and comic adaptation but is not mentioned in the movie. So it's unclear whether or not he walks away unpunished. Given his villainous portrayal in the film, this makes him a loose thread. + Before The Legend Reborn's climax, Ackar, Gresh, Tarix and Vastus lead an army of random everyday Agori citizens, who were explicitly said not to be suited for combat, to help Mata Nui, Kiina and Berix fight against the Skrall. The Agori army show up for one more shot and are not seen fighting. We do see thousands of Agori at the end but we never find out the exact fate of those who marched into the battle. + Two unleashed bestial Vorox attack and tip over the traitor \|\|Metus'\|\| chariot during the final battle. As Mata Nui deals with the villain, the Vorox are not seen anymore, despite being shown to be aggressive toward Mata Nui (and practically everyone) earlier. * Bitsy Bears: After Bramble reforms, her goldfish Shirley isn't seen again. * In The Black Cauldron, Princess Eilonwy has a glowing, levitating golden ball that follows her around, but disappears entirely without doing anything of note. It was clearly a nod to Eilonwy's bauble in the books, which plays a significant part in her Character Arc, but was seemingly added to the film for no particular purpose, and soon forgotten about. * Boogie: Sue basically disappears from the movie after the scene with her mother despite being Boogie's apparent girlfriend. * A Bug's Life: Played straight with most of Hopper's minions, as nobody knows where they went into hiding; averted with Molt, who joins P.T. Flea's circus as its new strongman, Tiny. * Care Bears: Journey to Joke-A-Lot: Any Care Bear who isn't Tenderheart, Cheer, Grumpy, Share or Wish is not seen again after they head off in search of Funshine. * Care Bears Nutcracker Suite: It's never explained what happened to the Vizier and the Mice after their defeat. * A Car's Life: Sparky's Big Adventure has not one, but two of these continuity errors. In the first movie, an air pump named “Julia” is one of Fender's employees. In the sequel, she is nowhere to be seen. Not at all. + The sequel had a similar occurrence. In the end of the movie, the gas pump that belonged to Diesel's gas station was placed beside Norbert, because he “doesn't want to spend his life alone”. The second sequel, Cars Life 3: The Royal Heist, has her nonexistent. * Cars 2 is apparently about Lightning McQueen competing in a race taking place in different cities around the world while his friend Mater is recruited as a spy so that he can help British agent Finn McMissile fight an evil organization of villainous, beaten-up cars. However, during the last third of the film, which takes place in London, England, the race McQueen is participating in is mysteriously interrupted by the conflict between Mater and McMissile and the Lemons, and as a result the race in particular is never brought up again after that. It's implied that the big race in \|\|Radiator Springs\|\| is the 'replacement' final round of the Grand Prix. Since the race was originally set up by Sir Miles Axlerod \|\|as part of his plan to discredit biofuels\|\|, it presumably became a moot point after the Lemons were arrested. * A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving opens with the classic "Lucy & The Football" gag. However, after this opening scene, Lucy is never seen again in the entire special, even as her brother Linus joins in on Charlie Brown's celebration. * In the animated adaptation of Charlotte's Web, Wilbur's best friend besides Charlotte is a gosling named Jeffrey who wants to be a pig when he grows up. He is last seen trying to join Wilbur, Charlotte, and Templeton in the crate, but he is spotted and Avery pulls him out. After Charlotte dies and Wilbur returns to the farm, Jeffrey is nowhere to be seen. + There was also a deleted scene, following right after that moment, which shows Jeffery trying and failing to catch up with the truck. In dismay, he sadly joins his siblings at the pond and is comforted by his mother. (For some reason, this scene was removed from subsequent releases of the film on VHS and DVD; however, it was shown on a 1980s Swedish VHS.) * Cinderella (1950): When Cinderella sings "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" among the mice is a chubby female mouse who looks a lot like Gus, after her brief appearance she never shows up with the other mice again. * In Corpse Bride, Victor's parents are last seen on an out-of-control carriage whose driver has just died. They don't show up again. Although they must have lived, as their death would have been revealed to Victor in the same way as the driver's. * Throughout all the Despicable Me movies, Bob and Otto (and that minion-chick whatchamacallit) only ever appear in the Minions duology, and are never seen or spoken of in the main film series. * In Duck And Cover, the monkey with the firecracker seems to be a suicide bomber, since he's nowhere to be seen after the explosion and the tree is destroyed. Either he jumped away at the last minute or there are several monkeys. * A literal example in Dumbo — the last time we see Timothy is a newspaper article saying he's signed a contract for Dumbo, and he's nowhere to be seen when Dumbo reunites with his mother. * In The Emperor's New Groove, Kronk's consciences were last seen advising their host on how to use Yzma's knife just before she booby traps him, and they were never seen again later in the film. They do, however, get to reappear in subsequent media after that, though. * Fantastic Planet: Tiwa completely disappears from the movie after Terr runs away. * FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue: Batty's antenna is mysteriously missing. What makes this one really jarring are the facts that 1. the antenna was a major part of his character and 2. It was implied to be permanently affixed to his head. * Finding Nemo: + After Nemo manages to escape into the sewers, it pans up ominously to show that he's headed into a sewage treatment plant. The plant never actually comes up again in any capacity, and the next you see of Nemo, he pops out of a pipe and ends up safely back in the ocean.(The script originally contained a scene explaining how Nemo survived his trip through the plant, but it was cut.) + Nigel the pelican is last seen sadly returning Marlin and Dory to the ocean, all three believing that Nemo has perished. He gives his condolences and flies away, never learning (on-screen) that Nemo was actually alive and well. * Fire and Ice (1983): There was a blonde woman that was seen captured by the Sub-Humans that appeared in a scene, but after that she wasn't seen or mentioned again. This is probably for the best. * In Franklin and the Green Knight, while on the quest as the Green Knight and his Squire, Franklin and Snail respond to a cry for help from Mr. Gopher, who has gotten his head stuck in the window opening of his home. They manage to rescue him. As they head back off on the quest, Mr. Gopher shouts after Franklin that he likes his costume, sticking his head through the opening again to do so, and then realizing he's stuck once again. If he shouts again for help, Franklin and Snail do not hear it and for all the viewers know, he could still be stuck that way by the end of the film. * Frozen (2013): We never learn what happened to Sitron, the horse that belongs to Prince Hans. Even the tie-in novel, A Frozen Heart, which shows Hans' perspective in the film, completely forgets Sitron even exists. It's possible he's still in Arendelle. * Gandahar: + We don't see most of The Deformed escaping from the future. Maybe the leaders got killed off-screen, but we see some who were nearby that got away. + It's also never shown or explained what happened to present time Metamorphis after everyone returned home, as there's still a looming threat of him going insane and destroying Gandahar in the future. * Globehunters: An Around the World in 80 Days Adventure: Once the animals runaway from the lab and assign Hunter the task to bring them back, Dr. Burke and Dr. Wilkins disappear from the story completely despite having prominent roles in the first act. * In Happily N'Ever After, the two ugly stepsisters accompany their mother Frieda for the first third of the movie, they are last seen at the ball attempting to seduce Prince Humperdink, after Frieda takes over the kingdom using the wizard's staff they just disappear and are never seen again, being her daughters and all you'd think they would've been by her side during her rule. * Subverted in Happy Feet Two. Sven seems to vanish once the Emperor Penguins are freed, \|\|only to reappear in The Stinger\|\|. > "Ja, the Svend!" * Heidi's Song: Aunt Dete, Heidi's aunt, disappears from the rest of the movie after she delivers Heidi to the city. * Heavy Metal: + "Den". After Norl splits up with Den during the attempt to steal the Loc-Nar from the Queen, he is never seen again. Since his master Ard ends up with the Loc-Nar, Norl presumably acquired it and returned it to him. However, he doesn't appear during the final battle between the Queen and Ard. + "So Beautiful, So Dangerous" starts out with government officials discussing mysterious human mutations, and Dr. Anrak seems to be part of a cover-up that is later implied to involve Zeke, Edsel, and the robot. Except the mutation story is completely and utterly forgotten when said aliens abduct Dr. Anrak and Gloria. The behind-the-scenes material on disc implies that this story was heavily edited from the original treatment — apparently to the point where it just stops arbitrarily instead of ending. In fact, much that went wrong with this film (particularly the inconsistent animation style, some poor writing in places, and sections that just stop or don't really make sense or were entirely left out like an intended link between Captain Sternn and B-17) can be seen as a combination of inexperience, poor planning, and just plain not enough time and money being spent on the project. * The Hunchback of Notre Dame: It is unknown what happened to Frollo's soldiers after Frollo falls to his doom in the molten copper while ready to kill Esmeralda and Quasimodo with his sword near the end. * The Incredibles 1: + Mirage is last seen helping the Parrs reach the Omnidroid in time to stop it before disappearing for the rest of the story. In the comic series, Mirage appears to have avoided severe punishment for her role in Syndrome's plans and now works as one of Rick Dicker's NSA agents. She and a reluctant Elastigirl agree to work together to investigate the disappearance of the Eiffel Tower in relation to Xerek. + When the supers are forced into retirement, the existing villains seem to disappear as well, and it's never explained what happened to them. Maybe the government kept some supers under low profile for such occasions, maybe the military took over, maybe the villains just got bored without challenge and quit too...your guess is as good as ours. * In Joseph: King of Dreams, there's the fate of the imprisoned butler and Zuleika. + The butler was presumably pardoned as Joseph predicted, but there's no explanation as to why Joseph remained imprisoned for so many years after asking the freed butler to clear his name (the Bible says that the butler forgot, but it's never mentioned in the movie). The butler is at least seen serving Joseph when he's Grand Vizier.(Or closest equivalent) + The last anyone sees of Zuleika, she has Joseph imprisoned for refusing her advances. She never shows up again, even after Joseph becomes her husband's friend and marries her niece. The last mention of her is when Joseph leaves the dungeon. > Potiphar: How could I have allowed this to happen? My wife— > Joseph: I understand. (puts his hand on Potiphar's shoulder) * Toward the end of The Jungle Book (1967), Bagheera can be seen persuading several elephants to help him and Baloo find Mowgli before Shere Khan does. The elephants then all march off with Bagheera, but even though Bagheera comes back after Mowgli defeats Khan with the help of Baloo and some vultures, the elephants do not. Also, King Louie disappears from the movie after Baloo and Bagheera escape with Mowgli. * KPop Demon Hunters: Celine isn't seen again after Rumi angrily confronts her about making her insecure about and concealing her half-demon heritage before going to face Gwi-Ma, and it's left ambiguous by the end of the film as to whether Huntrix kept in touch with her after the final battle. * Khumba: + So what will become of the Black Eagle now that his steady supply of food (the rock hyraxes) have moved somewhere else? + Skalk's pack disappears from the story after Phango forces him to help him locate Khumba. * The King and the Mockingbird: This happens to everyone that King Charles drops down a hole most notably King Charles himself, who is dropped down a hole by a painting of him who comes to life, assumes his role, and is treated as if he was the king from that point onward. The fact that the button that activates these trapdoors has a skull pawn on it heavily implies the worst. Also, King Charles's dog. * In The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, Vitruvius appears very briefly in the opening when the DUPLO Invaders are attacking... and promptly vanishes never to be seen, heard from, or even so much as mentioned ever again. + Since he was a ghost at the time, he most likely went into the light. * Light of the World: Judas disappears after the betrayal in the garden. Justified, as this is a PG version of the Passion story, so showing Judas hanging himself would likely get the film a stricter rating. * Lilo & Stitch (2002): The film begins with Lilo Pelekai feeding Pudge, a fish she claims controls the weather (You can see Pudge swimming by with a sandwich in Lilo's first scene). He's never mentioned again, outside of two deleted scenes: one where he's killed by seagulls, and one where Stitch accidentally kills him. He does make a proper reappearance in the TV series, though. * The Lion King (1994): + The hyenas. They're never mentioned again after eating Scar. The main trio did reappear in the Spin-Off TV series Timon & Pumbaa though, getting their own segments in said series. + The movie did not mention anything about Timon's backstory at all. However, Timon's backstory was finally resolved in the Timon & Pumbaa episode "Once Upon a Timon" (1996), but later got retconned by the Direct-to-Video prequel/midquel film The Lion King 1 ½ (2004). His backstory was mentioned in a deleted scene. But Pumbaa's has hardly even been explored, although the Timon & Pumbaa episode "Home is Where the Hog is" (1996) did reveal where he came from. + The official comic book adaptation has Timon explain his backstory during the Hakuna Matata scene, while Pumbaa's goes ignored. * The Lion King II: Simba's Pride: + The hyenas. Again, denied any explanation of where they went! Nuka states that the hyenas left the Elephant Graveyard. However, where they went and why is still unknown. + Near the middle of the film as Simba teaches Kiara a lesson, a baby African Pygmy Kingfisher is seen trying to fly from its nest only to be stopped by its mother. It disappears without explanation. * The Little Mermaid (1989): King Triton's seahorse Herald disappears from the movie midway through the second act, with no word on if he found Ariel. * The Magic Pudding: Ginger never appears again after she's hit in the head by falling debris, making it unclear whether she was killed or just knocked out. * Literal example from The Magic Voyage: Throughout the movie a trio of rats become Pico's unwilling companions aboard Columbus' ship. Near the end they crash onto an island while the rats decide to escape by manning a lifeboat; during the crash they collide with the boat causing it to wash up on an island. When the rats are recovered from the wreckage the leader is nowhere to be seen and remains missing for the rest of the film; it can be assumed that he died in the wreck and his absence goes unmentioned by the rest of the cast. + The Evil Chancellor never becomes important to the story and just disappears after Columbus's meeting with the King. * In Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge Kitana makes a couple appearances in the tournament hall, she later appears to fight Liu Kang but decides that their fight is pointless and leaves, she never shows up again, not even during the final battle. Her unresolved story (and Liu Kang's) would resume though in the sequel: Battle of the Realms. * Mulan: During Mushu's introductory scene, he is tasked with awakening the Great Stone Dragon from its statue form, and ends up destroying it instead by hitting it too hard with his gong. This is not brought up again. Not unless some count the first ancestor's reaction and calling for Mushu's name at the end of the film, implying that he found out and is angered by what Mushu did. * My Sweet Monster: Fireball never shows up again after he abandons Barbara in the forest. * In Penguins of Madagascar, Dave's minions are never seen again \|\|after the end of the final battle\|\|. * Peter Pan (1953): What happened to the animals that encounter the Lost Boys? We see a bear looking at Michael's teddy bear with a confused expression, but it doesn't make any further appearances. * Likewise in Pinocchio (1940), no second thought is apparently given to save the boys on Pleasure Island or asking the fairy to restore their humanity. This may be because in the original story, Pinocchio doesn't try to help these boys \|\|even after he meets one of the donkeys that used to be a boy after leaving Pleasure Island.\|\| * In the third Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf movie, Moon Castle: The Space Adventure, \|\|Wolnie's new babies\|\| are involved in a movie-wide arc about \|\|Wolnie's being pregnant with them; they only physically appear at the end of the film after being born\|\|. They are referenced exactly once in Mission Incredible: Adventures on the Dragon's Trail, which succeeds Moon Castle, and never actually appear in it or any of the later films. * The Prince of Egypt: The two comic relief villains, Hotep and Huy, are last seen during the plagues, trying to tend to their boils before Rameses barges in and yells at them to get out. They're never seen again after that, leaving it ambiguous as to whether or not the rest of the plagues killed them. * The Princess and the Frog: + Charlotte's dog, Stella, is heard to speak when she recognizes Tiana just as Naveen and Tiana float away. Although other animals talk throughout the film, the dog is never seen directly interacting with Tiana while she's a frog besides that one line. Apparently, Stella was originally going to part of a sub-plot, but it was dropped as the directors thought that there'd be too many talking animals in the film. + You never find out what happened to the cat Charlotte had in the opening scene either. Is he dead? Is he just old? Where is he if he's still alive? * The Rescuers Down Under: + Wilbur's mouse plot is resolved before the credits, but no second thought is given to saving everybody back at McLeach's hideout. It's possible McLeach's line about "Say goodbye to your friends, 'cause you're never gonna see them again" was Lampshade Hanging. In addition, one of the main plot points was rescuing the golden eagle so she could return to her nest. The film ends with the hapless albatross, who was left egg-sitting, panicking as the eggs begin to hatch. So much for the joyful reunion viewers were expecting... + For that matter, we never get shown a different joyful reunion between parent and off-spring at the end: Cody and his mother. It doesn't help that his mother likely still thinks Cody's dead. * Disney's Robin Hood (1973): + Both Maid Marian and Lady Kluck are active participants in the riot following the archery contest and the following "The Villain Sucks" Song, for which Prince John has the whole town thrown in jail. However, Marian and Kluck are not among the prisoners, nor are they seen during the Jailbreak scene which ends with the castle (her residence) being set on fire. They do however return at the end of the film when Robin Hood and Maid Marian wed. + The original climax would have given Marian more of a role in the ending. \|\|Prince John would have stabbed Robin Hood and chased him into a church, where Marian also was hiding. While Robin Hood is lying on the ground, Prince John proceeds to threaten Marian, until King Richard shows up to save the day.\|\| It's possible that when that ending was cut, there wasn't a chance to give her a proper appearance until the wedding. * Throughout the entire film, the villainous owl from Rock-A-Doodle is constantly accompanied by six henchowls (not counting Hunch, his nephew). But at the end of the film, there are now only five henchowls left (still not counting Hunch)! * Scratch and Crow: The cat is never seen again after it hatches the chicken eggs. * Shrek 1: + What really happened to the Duloc Tournament Knights when Farquaad dies by getting eaten by Dragon near the end? + The movie mentions that Fiona was cursed by a witch to turn into an ogress. We never find out what happened to this witch or why she cursed Fiona in the first place. However, it is implied that Fairy Godmother was the one who cursed her. + For that matter, it's never mentioned what happens to the Kingdom of Duloc after it's left without a ruler. It does appear in the Halloween short Scared Shrekless, but no residents are to be seen. * The plot of The Simpsons Movie is kicked off when Homer gets a pig, Plopper. After the family is driven out of town, he is completely absent for the rest of the movie. He briefly appears in one of the alternate ending sequences on the DVD, but the final cut implies he died when the Simpsons' house was destroyed. He appears, alongside several other movie-exclusive characters, in the Couch Gag of the first episode to air after the movie, "He Loves to Fly and He D'ohs", in which he is described by Homer as his "summer love". He has made very rare appearances in a few episodes since then. * Sing has a literal example. Mike (an animated mouse) is seen driving away with his girlfriend near the end of the movie after thinking he has lost the angry bears who were chasing him for cheating them out of money while gambling. And yet, one was seen still clinging onto the back of his car. No further details are given. To make matters worse he's the only main character who doesn't appear in the final photo. Sing 2 eventually came out and... Made no mention of him. As a matter of fact, he was the only major singer of the original film that didn't return for the sequel, leaving his fate even more up in the air. \|\|He finally returns in the short "Sing: Thriller"\|\| * At the end of Sleeping Beauty (1959), it's never explained what happened to the goons after Maleficent turned into a dragon and was later killed by Prince Phillip and the fairies while she is still in her dragon form. * Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: + While the dwarfs are washing up, Dopey accidentally swallows a bar of soap. This was originally resolved in the very next scene, but that scene was cut during production. + If you pay close attention to the Queen's scenes after learning of the Huntsman's failure to kill Snow White, you'll notice that she doesn't interact with the Huntsman once before she dies, which means the Huntsman lives to see the end of the film. And in case that doesn't make it clear enough, the Screen-to-Stage Adaptation at Radio City Music Hall in 1979 had an original scene where he and the Prince reported to the King that Snow White was still alive. He's extremely lucky that the Queen decided to get rid of Snow White straight away instead of punishing him first. \|\|That does happen in the Perspective Flip novel Fairest of Them All — she stabs him with a knife (and the red blood gives her the idea to use a poisoned apple on Snow White) — but it's unclear whether he dies of this wound or not, so that would qualify as a straight example of this trope.\|\| * In The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, it's never explained what happened to \|\|Karen after the time machine was destroyed, although it's safe to say that Plankton rebuilt her after the events of the movie\|\|. + Also, what happened to the Guardian island skeleton (that punches Burger Beard away back to his ship while stealing the Magic Book in the beginning of the film) when Burger beard gets punched by Plank-Ton (Plankton's Super form) back to the island where he gets the book. * Strange Magic: What happened to the love potion after \|\|Roland is hit by it? Is the imp going to find it and continue his reign of terror/shipping?\|\| * In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, we never see what happens to Kamek after Peach kicks the Super Star from him. * The Tale of Despereaux: What happened to the weird guy made out of fruits and vegetables after Despereaux left him to rescue the princess? Did the rats eat him? Was he just left there to rot? * Happened with the American cut of The Thief and the Cobbler: + While Princess Yum Yum is bathing, the Thief steals her back scratcher. In the American version nothing comes of it. In the original version, the Thief steals two back scratchers and uses them to escape having his hands cut off. + While Tack and Yum Yum are consulting the Witch, the Thief is trying to get a giant ruby on a tower by flying with palm frond wings. He ends up crashing into the Witch. But since the American version eliminates nearly all the footage of the Witch, the Thief's fate is left literally up in the air. + The American Version cuts out the Mighty One-Eye's death and even has him still alive when his machine collapses, because in the background you can hear him say "MY MACHINE!" But Tack later says "King One Eye was defeated for all eternity", which strongly implies that he was dead... so apparently the audience is supposed to assume he was on top of his machine as it burned, and was trapped with no way out and burned to death. + There is also a literal example: Early in the film, Tack is seen feeding a mouse while he's imprisoned, and it's later seen that he's sneaked the mouse out with him when he escaped (these shots are present in all versions of the film). While it's never seen again in the edits, in the original cut he removes the mouse from his pocket and gives it to YumYum before he goes to face One-Eye's army. * In Titanic: The Animated Movie, the ending shows virtually everyone who is named and given a backstory (or as much of a backstory as the characters get) escaping onto lifeboats, except for Molly (the singer), Winnie (the gold digger), and Jeremy McFlannel (the banker). It's later established that Molly drowned while singing with the orchestra as the ship sank (no explanation for that), but nothing is said about Winnie or McFlannel's fates. This is pretty strange, when you consider that the movie goes out of its way to hook all of the characters up in the epilogue, regardless of whether or not they'd met before. The writers may have been going for a kid-friendly way to kill the evil banker that didn't die in the original James Cameron movie. The uncut version heavily implies that they died together on the ship. The last they're seen, Winnie refuses to get on the lifeboats and insists on staying with McFlannel, even though he asks her not to "sacrifice [herself] for [him]". * Tom and Jerry: The Movie: + Tom's owner drives off without him (seemingly unintentional) at the beginning of the film, but never comes back for him at any other point during the adventure. + Dr. Applecheek and Captain Kiddie are last seen floating in the river and hanging on the wrecked bridge respectively due to a collision between the two. It's never revealed what happened to them afterwards. Given that Captain Kiddie merely intended to return a runaway child, it's understandable that he would give up after hearing that Robyn has reunited with her father. But Applecheek's overt villainy makes his lack of punishment more conspicuous. + Figg and Lickboot, despite being the primary antagonists of the film, also lack any defined ending or punishment. They botch their escape and land with Ferdinand in Captain Kiddie's steam boat that starts up and sails out of control. None of them are seen again, nor is it revealed what becomes of them after Robyn's father returns. * In The Transformers: The Movie, Shockwave is last seen alerting the Decepticons about Unicron's attack. He doesn't show up in the post-movie episodes of the cartoon series either. He was meant to be crushed under Unicron's giant hand, but that scene got cut. Oddly, a later incarnation of Shockwave from the film Transformers: Prime: Predacons Rising suffered the opposite fate. He was given what appeared to be a conclusive death scene, only to show up alive anyway a bit later, and then get forgotten. * In Turning Red, while travelling to the concert, Mei casts off her ceremonial robe in mid-air and it is never seen or mentioned again. * Early on in WALL•E, you learn that the Axiom was only one of a large number of ships used to evacuate the Earth. "BnL Starliners leaving each day!" But you never find out what happened to the other ships, or the (presumably) huge number of people that lived on them. At most, the end credits imply that they eventually return to Earth as well. * The Wild Thornberrys Movie: After Eliza and Darwin escape from the boarding school, neither it or Eliza's new classmates are seen or mentioned again. * WinxVerse: Where did Hagen go after Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom? The way he and Faragonda act in that movie indicates that she wouldn't let him go into isolation again, but he never gets mentioned until the 2004 show's sixth season. And that's only a brief cameo! * Zootopia: We never find out what happens to Finnick after Nick gives up a life of being a con artist for being a cop. ---	WhatHappenedToTheMouse	null
Literature	# Good Is Not Soft - Literature --- * Along the Winding Road: Charlotte. While she's optimistic and gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, that doesn't mean you can \|\|try to murder her friend/boyfriend\|\| and get off scot-free. \|\|Or even necessarily live.\|\| * Cassie from Animorphs is kind, the peacemaker of the group, willing to risk herself even for enemies...and once manipulated a guy into being trapped as a rat for the rest of his life, which he considered a Fate Worse than Death. On another occasion, the team made a deal not to harm a Yeerk when they were stalemated against; upon learning that he was a Serial Killer who killed humans and ate other Yeerks, Cassie actually demanded his immediate death. And finally, when faced with the dilemma of what to do about Visser Four changing history in the ruins of an alternate timeline's D-Day, it's Cassie who makes the fateful decision to use the newly reacquired Time Matrix to prevent John Berryman from being born, therefore ensuring he'll never be taken as a host body by Visser Four and never finds the Time Matrix in the first place. Damn. * Ascendance of a Bookworm: Aristocrats Are Evil is the norm in the setting, and the number one Fangirl of one of the nicer ones has the following to say about him: > Elvira: A kind man incapable of plotting or exterminating his enemies is simply no good at all. * Being Able to Edit Skills in Another World, I Gained OP Waifus: Nagi and his waifus are all good, decent, morally upright, and benevolent people, always eager to help others. Antagonize them, or endanger the populace for petty reasons, woe be onto you. * Clockpunk of "Clockpunk and the Vitalizer" goes off on The Vitalizer when \|\|making her escape\|\|. > Dolores: Here's what we're going to do, Vitalizer. I'm going to keep beating you with my binds. It will be agonizing. The only way to lessen it up will be to get this pole from around me. * Main character Jin from Beware of Chicken is a kind, gentle, and affable young man. He fled the cultivator lifestyle and deliberately sought out to start a farm in the most remote village in the weakest province in the empire, in order to avoid the lethal politics of prideful and violent cultivator sects. But threaten him, his farm, friends, or family, and he and his spirit beast farm animals \|\|supported by a province-sized earth spirit\|\| will quickly demonstrate that didn't want to challenge the heavens is not the same thing as couldn't challenge the heavens, if you even live long enough to regret your life decisions. * \* A Certain Magical Index: + Touma Kamijou is compassionate to just about everyone, and many scenes show him helping out complete strangers who he just happened to pass by. He's also fairly upbeat despite his perpetual bad luck. However, threaten or harm someone on his watch, he will kick your ass, whether you're a Physical God, or if the whole itself. + For as long you're not Touma Kamijou, Kuroko Shirai, and Misaki Shokuhou, Misaka Mikoto is a well-meaning and friendly girl with strong sense of justice, who generally wants to live peacefully and have fun with her trio of friends, and yet many people learn the hard way that pissing her off guarantees an electric punishment. + Likewise, Gunha Sogiita. Despite being easily the most friendly and optimistic of the Level 5 espers in Academy City, he doesn't hesitate to use violence at the first given opportunity, like how he mopped the floor with two cheerleader squads who were creating ruckus with their bickering and destroyed the stage behind them by accident. And that was him holding back. * Cradle Series: Most of the main characters. Lindon is quick to bow and apologize whenever he offends anyone regardless of fault, but he will defend himself when attacked. Yerin never starts a fight, but if it looks like one will break out, she attacks swiftly and lethally. And Mercy has a mostly non-lethal combat style and will happily share her treasures with even random idiots, but the entire rest of her generation in the clan is terrified of her because she is a monster in battle. * The Culture is a hedonistic post-scarcity society whose citizens mostly live to entertain, educate and enlighten themselves and their peers and spread their beneficial lifestyle to others, but at the edge of their ethics are apocalyptically powerful starships and agents who will do any kind of dirty business to protect and expand the Culture's interests, and anyone who tries to harm them learns a fatally hard lesson in why it was a bad idea. > "You might call them soft, because they're very reluctant to kill, and they might agree with you, but they're soft the way the ocean is soft, and, well; ask any sea captain how harmless and puny the ocean can be." + Every few books it's mentioned that the key piece of advice among other societies regarding hostility toward the Culture is simply "Don't Fuck With The Culture". Inevitably this is ignored to personally horrific results. * The Felcraft family in Dance of the Butterfly has many members who are cultured, polite, kind, etc., but they are very capable in conflicts ranging from diplomatic to physical violence. Lilja Perhonen is also very nice and polite, and she will hold her own in any fight. * This is a recurring trope in the Deryni novels: + None of the main characters, not even the priest Duncan McLain, hesitates to kill when it's necessary. + Both Alaric Morgan and Kelson Haldane are examples in the climax of High Deryni: after \|\|a double agent secretly gives a slow-acting poison to the enemy mages in a duel arcane, the three poisoned men must be MercyKilled using magic. Kelson demands Morgan tell him how to do it. Morgan tries to refuse, wishing to spare Kelson the task by doing it himself, but Kelson insists, and eventually Morgan does as ordered\|\|. + In The King's Justice: - After Kelson's forces defeat Sicard MacArdry's Mearan rebels, Kelson denies Sicard's request for single combat, orders his archers to surround Sicard and his men, and calls for a bow: > "But you—you can't just cut me down like a dog," Sicard said weakly. > "Indeed?" Kelson said, calmly laying an arrow across the bowstring. "Sicard, I can and shall cut you down precisely like a dog, if I must. For, like a rabid dog, you have ravaged my lands and slain my people. Now, will you and your men surrender, or must I do what I would rather not?" - Kelson goes on to tell Sicard that his surviving son is dead, and when Sicard still refuses to surrender, Kelson puts an arrow through Sicard's eye. - After Kelson Truth-Reads Loris and Gorony, he orders his guards not to converse with them or answer any of their questions, saying "I want them to sweat a little, wondering what I have in store for them." A week later in the great hall at Laas, Archbishop Cardiel and Bishop McLain swiftly pronounce Loris and Gorony guilty of the charges against them and surrender them to secular judgement. Kelson immediately orders them hanged right there in the hall. + In The Quest For Saint Camber, Kelson is reluctant to order the execution of \|\|his traitorous cousin Conall\|\|, but does so because he knows he really has no choice; if left alive, \|\|Conall\|\| will always be a threat to the Crown. + In King Kelson's Bride: - Mátyás learns of his brothers' plan \|\|to kill Liam at his killijálay\|\| and comes up with his own plan: \|\|he has one of the four Moving Wards (magical guardians for the ceremony) murdered\|\|, making it look like a jealous husband was responsible, so Kelson can take his place. - Liam Mind Rips Mahael after the coup d'etat fails, then orders his guards to impale him and the corpse of a dead co-conspirator outside the family burial ground ("that his ancestors may witness his shame"), with the surviving Teymuraz to bear witness in person. Liam specifies that this be done before the ceremony is over and later commands the bodies be left in place the full three days and nights the law requires. * Discworld: + The page quote comes from Men at Arms. Later in the novel (and in other Discworld novels featuring the City Watch), recurring character Carrot Ironfoundersson proves that he fits the trope very well indeed. He's all niceness, idealism, and goodwill towards all, which means that when he has to mete out justice, he simply does it without gloating or qualm. + See also Carrot's boss, Commander Samuel Vimes, who actively and relentlessly seeks to bring justice to a world where everyone is a bit of a bastard. He will also fight trolls, dwarves, vampires, golems, werewolves, and other supernatural monstrosities with nothing more than his bare fists and cunning. + Granny Weatherwax is similar to Vimes, only she has actual magic powers. She defeats vampires by infecting their blood with her own essence but stops short of scattering their ashes into space, thus dooming them to millions of years of undeath before the possibility of reconstitution. * Four from Divergent. From not letting up in his training of Tris to begin with to \|\|shooting Eric\|\|, he's a good guy, but not particularly coddling. * In Dragon Bones, Ward is a genuinely nice guy who loves his siblings and protects everyone in need of protection. However, he has no problem with killing bandits, even if they're younger than he — as his aunt Stala always says, either you kill them, or they'll kill you. Neither does he have qualms about \|\|making his castle collapse over his enemies, by killing his friend Oreg. Oreg's death was a Heroic Sacrifice, but the enemies didn't see it coming, they were misled by the fact that Ward acted very kind towards them, as that's his default. Of course, as he's a good guy, the castle was evacuated before the enemies entered it.\|\| * Dragonriders of Pern: + Masterharper Robinton is one of the nicest people to those he likes. He is also a harsh critic and denounces the corruption and faults of those in power. His strongest example of this trope, though, comes when seeking to stop a corrupt lord, \|\|who is dying from what seems like stomach cancer, from dying without naming an heir. Such an action would plunge the area into civil war. Robinton gets Masterhealer Oldive to leave the chamber and no one is administering pain medication, while Robinton lists off all the heirs. He purposefully omits the one he wants only for another person to remind him. Other lords present continue the ruse, making the one they "forgot" or "dislike most" seem like the best one the dying lord can name to spite them. They continue for some time before the dying lord is tortured into screaming a name to stop them\|\|. With the task done, Robinton permits him to be tended to. + Masterhealer Oldive, a kind and patient man, is complicit in the darker actions Robinton takes in the above situation. Once Robinton is done, Oldive returns quickly to do what he can for the person. * The Dresden Files + The Knights of the Cross are modern-day paladins who will do their best to persuade the Denarians, Demonic Possession collaborators, and victims to escape the thrall of the Fallen Angel inside the human's head. If they do surrender, even if the Knights know the person is insincere, they cannot harm him anymore. If they refuse, though, the Knights have absolutely no compunction against killing them. > Harry: [to a Denarian who just "surrendered"] People like you always mistake compassion for weakness. Michael and Sanya aren't weak. Fortunately for you, they are good men. \|\|Unfortunately for you, I'm not.\|\| + That moment is one of Harry's best Good Is Not Soft moments. He is the all-time champion of Chronic Hero Syndrome, putting his life on the line over and over against dark wizards and Eldritch Abominations. However, he will finish you off if he needs to and won't lose sleep over it. \|\|The leader of the Denarians learns this when Harry is strangling him to death. Michael, a Knight of the Cross, would have stopped the moment the leader is unconscious. Harry just pulls the rope harder\|\|. + Karrin Murphy. She tries to be a By-the-Book Cop, with varying degrees of success, has a strong sense of Justice. If someone or something threatens her friends, her family, or the citizens of Chicago, she does not care if the one doing the threatening is a human, wizard, troll, faerie, or fallen angel, she will utterly wreck their shit. + Thomas Raith is a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire who feeds on the emotional psyche of his victims, namely lust. He tries to be a good person and not destroy humans who he would frequently feed upon. However, once when \|\|a cultist for an ancient dark god tried using Harry to inadvertently spread the god's name, after her plot was stopped, Thomas tracked her down and killed her by feeding on her during sex\|\|. + Ebenezar McCoy is Harry's second mentor. He taught Harry after Harry killed his first evil mentor who was trying to brainwash him. He teaches Harry about life and the Laws of Magic. A good-natured if gruff man of principles. He will do what he believes is the morally right action. \|\|And as the sole Wizard with the power and authority to break the Laws of Magic without going insane from the magical taint, he has killed many with magic. He once took down an enemy fortress by dropping a satellite on top of it, killing about 300 vampires and their servants. With a single spell, he ripped the life force out of one hundred mercenaries, and a second swipe to claim the other hundred who were left\|\|. - When one of Harry's vampire allies starts getting a bit too free with him, Eb very calmly tells her that if she messes with him again, the only thing left for her kin to bury will be her shoes. - For him, the \|\|Colony Drop was actually small scale. Other events he's been responsible for in order to rid the world of dangerous enemies include Tunguska, Krakatoa, and at least one of the New Mexico earthquakes.\|\| + Archangel Uriel and his fellow Angels of the Lord are all Good beings. However, they are not permitted to interfere with Freewill unless the mortal in question is directly interfering with their Duty. - Uriel is personally responsible for the final plague upon Egypt, killing all the firstborns. - In Skin Game Uriel \|\|after choosing to give his Grace of God to a retired Knight who chose to help Harry once again, Uriel is now mortal. He helps defend the Knight's home and kills one of the villain's mortal followers with a kitchen blade to his neck\|\|. - When Harry sees an Angel of Death waiting over a good man who might die, Harry thinks he can beat her into either helping the man or just leaving. The Angel makes it very clear by reciting his full name in the proper enunciation, she can stop any attack of his without trying. She then explains her job isn't to kill the mortal but guard the soul as she would guide it to its final resting place. + Mouse, Harry's dog, is a Temple Dog, a scion of a mortal female dog and a powerful spirit. Standing at over 3ft tall and 200+lbs of mostly muscle, he is truly a Big Friendly Dog, but he will kill to protect his humans. He snapped the neck of one warlock and ripped apart a White Court vampire. This is seen best in the short story "Zoo Day", which is partially narrated from Mouse's point of view. In it, he faces \|\|one of his litter, who was corrupted by evil and is now causing problems. Mouse offers him one chance to leave and never return to Chicago or Mouse will kill him for returning, or Mouse kills him right then and there. Mouse, who is wounded by this point, notes he is weakened, yes. But if his brother goes after a human girl Mouse is fond of, Mouse will go at him with no fear of death. He will kill this threat even if it means he dies too. He would do it out of love for this girl. His evil brother decides to walk away, but not without one final warning from Mouse about the second part of the offer.\|\| * In The Fairy Chronicles, Mother Nature, while a benevolent being, is terrifying in some of her forms, such as quicksand or hurricanes. * Played with in the Father Brown mystery "The Blue Cross", in which the titular priest / detective is not "hard" in the sense that he physically assaults people — he never engages in violence, as would be expected from a lifelong Catholic priest — but nevertheless manages to shock a hardened criminal through his in-depth knowledge of several (in some cases quite brutal) criminal practices, some of which even the criminal has never heard of. Father Brown gently chides him by reminding him that he is a Catholic priest, and one of the duties of a Catholic priest is to hear confession: > "Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?" + His creator, G. K. Chesterton, reportedly based Father Brown on a real priest he knew, and was inspired by overhearing a conversation between two students in which they scornfully claimed that priests had no real understanding of the horrors of the world. Chesterton was amused to realise that his friend had, through the confession box, heard horrors that would make the hair of the students stand on end. * Ferals Series: The ferals who protect Blackstone can be rather brutal towards those they perceive as a threat to the city, particularly in their treatment of Selina in The Swarm Descends, terrorizing her and threatening to murder her in front of her mother. And Selina is only fifteen years old. * Poll from The Finding is a gruff but kind middle-aged woman who takes in runaways and the homeless. Her first action upon being introduced is to punch a hooligan threatening the protagonist. She's also very stern with her lodgers to the point where even the hot-headed and violent Jake won't mess with her. * Harry Potter: + From the last novel; \|\|innocent housewife Molly Weasley's cry of "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" right before she kills the powerful, insane sociopath threatening her daughter is an excellent example.\|\| + Hermione Granger as well. She's a generally nice and helpful girl, but she will not scruple to blackmail an amoral reporter, lure a sadistic teacher into a trap or disfigure (slightly) a traitorous teenage tattle-tale. She might also be quite vicious when scorned. + The desperate circumstances in Deathly Hallows drive several of the heroic characters to, among other things, resort to using the "Unforgivable" Imperius and Cruciatus Curses. + Neville Longbottom. He embodies the best traits of his house, is kind to everyone who will let him be, helps whenever he can, and doesn't seem to have the heart to hold a grudge. During the Battle of Hogwarts, he leads a group of students in throwing Mandrakes at the Death Eaters. Mandrakes, for the record, are plants with a massive "Instant Death" Radius. That's right, tick Neville off and he won't play around or try to punish you, he'll bring out a magic nuke and kill you dead. * A widespread trait in the Heralds of Valdemar series: + Heralds by definition are verified Good People, capable of self-sacrifice to the point of death for the innocent, the Crown, and the Heraldic Circle. They all have some level of Psychic Powers and full authority to do anything they feel is warranted. However, part of what makes a Herald a Herald is that they won't abuse this power. In one example, Herald Talia, one of the most beloved characters in the Circle, commits full-on Mind Rape of a man without an ounce of regret or remorse — but by Valdemaran standards of justice, he deserved it. + Kerowyn spends years as a mercenary, eventually becoming a Captain of her own merc Company, before coming to Valdemar and being Chosen as a Herald. She then becomes Weaponsmaster, placing her in the same position as her predecessor Alberich: she can't be soft with her trainees, because the enemy certainly won't be! + Tarma and Kethry are unequivocally on the side of Good, but both can be very harsh indeed when they think the situation calls for it. As one example, the punishment that Kethry doles out to bandit leader Lastel is the stuff of nightmares: \|\|she casts an illusion on him that shows him as a soft, beautiful woman, then sends him back to his followers' camp. Since his followers are all rough, nasty men who enjoy rape, his fate is ... highly unpleasant to say the least.\|\| + In Owlsight, twelve-year-old Darran eagerly helps the Hawkbrothers plan a vicious campaign of traps, trickery, and murder against the barbarians who attacked his village. In the climax, he doesn't hesitate to \|\|skewer the enemy leader with a pitchfork, then hold it there to make sure the man dies\|\|. * Felicity Chambers of Heretical Edge just wants to stop genocide of non-humans and protect innocents. If you push her into a corner, or she decides you have to die to accomplish that? You die, probably in a very brutal way. Like getting a sandstorm stuffed into your lungs. + Then there's Headmistress Gaia Sinclaire. She wiped a state off the map to stop an otherwise unbeatable invasion. You know that stretch of ocean south of Alabama and west of Florida? It used to be the state of De Soto, then Gaia blew it up to stop the Fomorians. * A common trend throughout the Honor Harrington series. This becomes especially pronounced as the Star Empire of Manticore finds itself in conflict with the Solarian League. The League's the biggest baddest star nation around and has been for centuries. However, their hardware is far behind Manticore and its contemporaries due to active warfare in that area for the past couple decades. The end result is that Manticore has been able to Curb Stomp Solarian forces even when horrifically outnumbered (which is what the League is best at). Nearly every engagement with Solly forces has thus followed a pattern: + When Manticorans and Solarians come into conflict, the Manticorans order the Solarian units to surrender. Solarian officers refuse with varying degrees of arrogance, prompting the Manticorans to recap their past total victories against Solarian forces, and (knowing how easily they can just destroy their enemies) do everything possible to make them surrender. Should the Solarian commander prove Too Dumb to Live, however, the Manticorans don't hesitate to blow the Sollies out of space. After \|\|Manticore and Haven sign a military alliance\|\|, the Havenites, who are no strangers to this trope, \|\|get in on the action\|\|. + Much like the page quote, Sir Aivars Terekhov summarizes this trope simply and concisely when faced with a Solarian gendarme brigadier who tries to use hostages groundside to prevent him from landing. The following quote comes shortly before Terekhov \|\|obliterates the brigadier and her ground base with an orbital kinetic strike\|\|, compliments of the Royal Manticoran Navy. > Why do people like you always assume you're more ruthless than people like me? * Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games is a kind, gentle young man whose signature hobbies are baking and painting. This does not mean he will not kill to protect himself or those he cares about. * Patroclus in The Iliad is this — he's definitely the wiser one of his relationship with Achilles, practical, compassionate enough to comfort Briseis, faithful, skilled at healing, and (at least compared to other warriors) seems to be remarkably well-balanced. He also has plenty of wrath of his own, and is brutally efficient in battle, even vaunting over the occasional fallen enemy. (Most modern readers are likely to see Hector as the most definite good guy in the work, along with maybe Priam, so he might qualify as well.) * Inkmistress: Asra is a kind-hearted healer who most of all wants to help people. Even so, in the story she grows into an Action Girl out of necessity to defend herself or her loved ones from harm. * The Jenkinsverse: A human interrogator tells an alien conspirator that the human race is not interested in killing trillions of sapient aliens in order to safeguard billions of humans. But they can, and they will if they have to. * Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. Sam begins to despair of Frodo's constant mercy toward the (in Sam's eyes) explicitly untrustworthy Gollum — until Frodo explicitly and rather coldly threatens to kill Gollum if he betrays them. It's worth noting that Frodo wasn't even threatening to kill Gollum with his own hands; he was threatening to put the Ring on and use its influence over Gollum to make him kill himself! > Sam looked at his master with approval, but also with surprise: there was a look on his face and a tone in his voice that he had not known before. It had always been a notion of his that the kindness of dear Mr. Frodo was of such a high degree that it must imply a fair measure of blindness. + Also Glórfindel. Originally died taking a balrog down with him. Then came back on a mission from the Valar to defend the Free Peoples. He saves Frodo from the Ringwraiths by dropping a river on them (with a little help from Elrond and Vilya). really. + Another Tolkien example in The Children of Húrin: when Túrin gets hospitality from his mother's kinswoman, the long-suffering Aerin, he tells her that she is a true friend but has a soft heart. Later, when the Easterlings attack her hall for revenge after Túrin has left, Aerin sets fire to the building and perishes with her enemies. + In The Hobbit, Beorn catches a goblin and a warg in the forest and questions them about their goal. After they answer, Beorn beheads the goblin and flays the warg. As the narration states, he is merciless towards his enemies, but none from the Company questions Beorn's action because the latter is a good guy towards all lifeforms that don't threaten him or the world around him while the goblins and wargs are Always Chaotic Evil slavers who would try to kidnap his neighboring woodsmen and invade and violate his land. Interestingly, the movie adaptation The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has a similar scene where Elvenking Thranduil kills a captured orc after interrogation, but this time Legolas does call out his dad for it. + The Silmarillion shows this to be true of Elrond, Galadriel, and Celeborn. Elrond is a kindly and wise healer in The Lord of the Rings. However, he saw combat at the battle of Ost-in-Edhil and the Last Alliance. Galadriel is best known as a generous and kind mentor figure. However, she defended the Teleri from Fëanor and the other Noldor during the First Kinslaying. She also evicted Sauron from Dol Guldur after the events of The Hobbit, using her magic. Celeborn is mostly known as Galadriel's husband, but we learn that he's a brilliant tactician. At Ost-in-Edhil he held off Sauron's forces for three days with a much smaller force of elves. The Silmarillion also contains other examples: such as Galadriel's brothers, Finrod, Angrod, and Aegnor. Fingolfin and Fingon would also qualify. Fingolfin took on the God of Evil himself and managed to maim him. It took TWO balrogs to finish off Fingon. * The Messenger Series: Although Favour's mission is to fight evil, and he symbolises "strength without violence", he was originally bred to be a war charger. He is relentless in his demands of his messengers, and when Rose denies who she is to someone who used to be a messenger, she is knocked off her feet by a powerful gust of wind and feels the sensation of a horse galloping over her body — Favour's punishment for denying him. If a Messenger ever uses their abilities for selfish or evil ends, Favour himself will turn on them. It's implied that if a messenger's relationship with Favour ends badly, the rest of their life will be cursed. * "Okuyyuki": Reilly has a fairly grounded modern military man's attitude as he takes on the Iraqi insurgents, which does not allow for excessive mercy. He is quite restrained, however, compared to his spirit companion Audrey, an ancient Japanese kami (i.e., god/spirit) of war. * Pale Lights: + Totec the Feathered is a kindly old man who travels the world visiting out-of-the-way cultures in order to learn their Gloam arts, and took the orphaned daughter of an Izvorica rebel under his wing. And when Malani slavers came to capture said rebel, he kindly allowed them to retreat after he'd reduced their entire hunting party to weeping terror with a single Sign. + Izel Coyac is described as being almost frighteningly kind-hearted, having fled a life of privilege as a famous general's son because he couldn't stomach the immoral nature of Izcalli's ruling class. Alone among his brigade, he opposed the plan to kidnap Tristan on behalf of the Ivory Library and sabotaged their efforts to do so, albeit quietly in hopes that his teammates would eventually give up the villainous plan with no harm done. \|\|When it became clear that Captain Tozi would choose the evil option even though Tristan had spoiled it and given her a way out, though, Izel killed Tozi without a moment's hesitation.\|\| * Percy Jackson in Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a caring guy. However, he is perfectly capable of doing deeds that scare even Annabeth to protect his friends. * This can be considered the hat of the "ideal" Terran in Perry Rhodan, as usually exemplified by the eponymous protagonist, his more personal friends, and most anybody under his command. Especially earlier in the series when morality is a bit more black-and-white yet, humans as a species are traditionally almost always willing to get along peacefully or even be friends with just about anybody else — but they're also quite aware that they live in a universe where not everybody exactly likes them and so remain ready and willing to deal as decisively as necessary with obvious enemies as well. The Solar Empire didn't have one of the most respected war fleets (and some of the biggest battleships) in the entire galaxy for no reason and wasn't shy about using it in defense of itself and its allies either. * In Elmore Leonard's Pronto, Italian-born mafioso Tommy Bucks considers Americans to be soft and prides himself on being a hard man who can kill someone in cold blood without a second thought. US Marshal Raylan Givens is an honest American police officer and thus Tommy assumes that Raylan is ultimately soft. He holds onto this belief until the very end when he finally realizes that Raylan is quite willing and capable of just shooting Tommy dead in the middle of a crowded restaurant. * The team members of Rainbow Six are pretty decent people. It's noted that all of them are family men (though the video games with the expanded roster subverts this,) get along well with each other, are Reluctant Warriors and love a nonviolent solution if one presents itself. They are also the Foreign Legion, an international special forces Badass Crew who slaughter terrorists when needed, the Friendly Sniper team plan and execute a gut shot on one who murdered a sick girl, John and Ding torture, and get angry enough to threaten not to help the Swiss next time there's an incident when they won't help after the team was threatened. * In A Song of Ice and Fire, basically every character who is good and doesn't die the moment things get tough. + Ser Bonifer the Good, a famously uptight and religious knight, surprises Jaime by being this. After Bonifer rebukes Jaime for Jaime's vengeful urges towards the Brave Companions, (a rogue mercenary group who have been raping and murdering their way across the countryside and who cut off Jaime's sword hand) Jaime mockingly asks if Bonifer would forgive the men instead after catching them. Bonifer replies that if they showed true repentance for their crimes, he would indeed forgive them and pray with them — before sending them to be executed. > Ser Bonifer: Sins may be forgiven. Crimes require punishment. * In Sharon Kay Penman's historical novel The Sunne in Splendour Richard III is this. He's a moralist and an idealist, but he lives in brutal times and is often forced to be harsh and politically ruthless. It's only after his death that he is slandered as evil. * Pretty much a requirement of any Hero in Super Powereds and Corpies. The Training from Hell a prospective Hero must receive weeds out anyone, who lacks the determination to protect everyone else from supervillains. It also weeds out anyone far too aggressive for his or her own good, so only the most stable and worthy get to become Heroes. That said, most Heroes do their best to immobilize foes rather than kill them unless there is no other choice. Even Titan, arguably the (physically) strongest person in the world, only uses a tiny fraction of his true strength during fights. Even then, back in the day, the name "Titan" would send villains running. * Marvin from The Tenets of Futilism. He's usually mild-mannered and friendly. However, when Sasha (the 'protagonist') orders her cult followers to \|\|commit female genital mutilation upon Marvin's sister for no logical reason,\|\| he isn't happy. At all. Marvin tries to get Sasha killed using his resources as a reporter. This actually ends up helping her, but it's the thought that counts. * Tortall Universe + Protector of the Small, Lady Knight: - Keladry orders her men to kill every member of an enemy scouting party because they're in enemy territory, so they can't hold prisoners and absolutely can't let anyone escape to sound the alarm. She's not happy about it, but she does it. - In the same book, Neal bespells an abusive man so that any strike hurts him, not the victim. Neal is normally a wisecracking healer, but as he's just had to heal a bruised and underfed servant of the man's, he wants to make sure it doesn't happen again. + Lady Sabine of Macayhill in Beka Cooper. Friendly and pleasant to Tunstall, Goodwin, and Beka, but she casually suggests that Beka kill Yates Noll, a violent man who beats his sister and tries to hit Beka for making conversation at the Nolls' bake stall. When Beka reminds her that this would be slightly illegal, Sabine's not even slightly abashed. > Sabine: Oh, I forgot – I'm in Corus again. They care about things like that here. + Daine is a kind-hearted if hot-tempered Animal Lover who tries to help as many creatures and people as she can. But when she's told (incorrectly) that Numair has been executed, her response is bringing back dead dinosaurs from the palace museum and rampaging through it with them to get at the Emperor. Then there's Numair's own moment of this trope, deciding to punish Tristan's treason with Transflormation. * Lissa Dragomir from Vampire Academy may be a gentle soul, but she will hurt you if you mess with the ones she loves. \|\|She once got Wade Voda to use a baseball bat to trash his own room and she was going to force him to further hurt himself. All he did was take advantage of a human feeder\|\|. * Vorkosigan Saga: + In Barrayar, Cordelia ends up leading a small team of people into the \|\|capital to save Miles' uterine replacator\|\|. This ends up going not quite to plan, and she winds up confronting \|\|Vidal Vordarian in his rooms. She tells him to stop the war. He declines... so she has him decapitated, carries his head away in a bag, and burns the Imperial residence down behind her\|\|. She explains the expedition to her husband and his would-be allies as "shopping" and offers to show them what she bought. They become very cooperative. + It should be noted that Cordelia had been thought by the natives to be incapable of such a thing ( \|\|the Big Bad's final words are an attempt to say "you can't do this," truncated in midsentence to "you can't."\|\| ), due to her background as being an immigrant from an extremely logical and civilized culture. When she learns that she has earned the respect of Barrayar's ruling elite, she is enraged that her actions should be considered more heroic than the less violent but considerably more difficult, painful, and torturous ordeals that two other women had gone through. Her husband Aral also gets points for repeatedly killing people without hesitation in order to accomplish such goals as ending the sexual and physical abuses of a P.O.W. camp. His virtues are recognized by Emperor Ezar when making Aral the Regent, "you are the one man who I know, by the far-flung ashes of Mad Emperor Yuri, who does not want to be Emperor." * In The War God, several characters have this sort of attitude: + Bahzell Bahnakson is an incurable do-gooder even before he becomes a champion of the War God, violating his hostage bond to save a woman who was being brutally beaten by Prince Harnak and then befriending and protecting Zarantha, a woman who is a target for assassins. After becoming a champion, he deals harshly with knight-trainee Sir Vaijon after Vaijon dares to impugn his honor. Then he takes on the young knight as a follower while he journeys home. Along the way they become fast friends as Bahzell teaches Vaijon the ins and outs of champion-hood. Eventually Bahzell has a family, and proves to be as good a father as he is a fighter. + Leanna Flame-Hair is a sweet, pleasant young woman ... who \|\|runs away to join the war maids, giving up her home, her loving parents, and her noblewoman's life\|\| in order to protect her father from political enemies. In a later book she \|\|executes a traitorous baron without a second thought\|\| and also \|\|seduces Bahzell into marrying her (not that he tries to resist very hard)\|\|. + Wencit of Rum is a cheerful, snarky middle-aged-looking man who happens to be over a thousand years old, the last living wild wizard, and as deadly a swordsman as he is a mage. He kills dark mages without hesitation or regret, and thinks nothing of stripping a dark mage's Gift of magic, which is said to be the cruelest thing that can be done to a wizard. * Dr. Tachyon from Wild Cards is a very good example of this trope. He is a genuinely good and compassionate person, fiercely loyal to his friends, and generally very nice and caring. But was raised as a prince in an aristocratic alien culture with cutthroat politics, and if you happen to be his enemy, don't expect him to fight fair or show any mercy. Even cold-blooded murder is not averse to him if it is necessary and morally justifiable. * The Sunne in Splendour: Richard III is this is the novel, which gives him a Historical Hero Upgrade. He's portrayed as a good man trying to do right in a brutal world, which sometimes causes him to act ruthlessly to protect the people he loves. This later gives his enemies fodder to slander him. ---	GoodIsNotSoft	null
Castle2009	# Actor Allusion - Castle (2009) * The writers of Castle are not shy about appealing to fans of Firefly. On top of the fact that Castle wears brown coats frequently, more direct references include: + In the Halloween episode "Vampire Weekend," Castle dresses as a "space cowboy" (together with musical signature and guns). > Alexis: Didn't you wear that like five years ago? > Castle: So? > Alexis: So, don't you think you should move on? > Castle: I like it. [a reference to his own continuing commitment to the fandom. Real-life Still Wearing the Old Colors] - Towards the end of the episode, Ryan compliments him on throwing such a good "shindig," which is also the name of a Firefly episode. + The “there are no cows in space” line may reference the same episode, as the cargo at the end of the episode is a herd of cattle. + In "Boom!," Castle shoots the baddie's hand to get him to drop his weapon, and Beckett gives him a "Hell of a shot, Castle," Castle replies, "I was aiming for his head." + In "Close Encounters of the Murderous Kind", he speaks Mandarin to a couple of Chinese workers. Beckett asks him "Summer abroad?" and he replied, "No, a TV show I used to love." + Castle describes his first ex-wife as a "special brand of Hell." Note that the Firefly episode this quote is referencing also has a manipulative, sexy redheaded temptress. + Likely unintentional, but the scene in "Punked" where Castle meets Alexis's boyfriend, Ashley, ends with him offhandedly toying with the old-timey gun in his hand, no doubt something he picked up from some other show he did. Shortly thereafter, another slight Firefly reference surfaces when Castle tells Beckett about Ashley, "who has a girl's name, by the way," + "Setup": Talking to him about the "Oasis of Serenity" spa, Martha asks, "You've never heard of the Serenity?" It is followed by a close up on Castle casting an Aside Glance which turns out to be him looking at Alexis. + When posing as a drug buyer, Beckett says she wants to feel "shiny." + In "The Blue Butterfly", a 1940's gun moll is named Vera. + "Headhunters", which reunites Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin, surprisingly has no direct references to Firefly with the exception of Baldwin's character basically being Jayne-as-a-NYPD-detective. However, fans' ears will perk up when they see a scene revolving around a brown coat and Baldwin talking about watching your partner's back. Also, Castle's first scene has him playing with toy dolls à la Wash's introductory scene. And Slaughter says that Castle has a "very fine coat", which could be referencing Badger's "very fine hat". + In "Murder, He Wrote," Castle says that the backyard is his favorite part of his house in the Hamptons because of "the serenity". + Yet another episode has the protagonists donning medical gloves while checking out a crime scene. Castle is visibly amused by the idea of wearing blue gloves — and copies River Tam's 'two by two' gesture. + "The Final Frontier" is absolutely full of Firefly references. There are three in the opening scene alone: When Castle hears they'll be investigating a crime at the sci-fi convention, he says "Shiny," when listing off his favorite sci-fi series...well, the producers can't use the title, but he does mention "that Joss Whedon show," and finally there's a lot of talk about how the fictional show Nebula-9 has a devoted fanbase despite only running for twelve episodes and being cancelled a decade ago (Guess whose ten-year anniversary was coming up that weekend?). There are even more references scattered throughout the episode—on Nebula-9, the captain's name is Max Renard (sounds quite similar to Mal Reynolds), there's an alien race called Kreavers which will eat your face off, and in Beckett and Castle's pool of suspects, one has the last name Frye and another is named Simon. The writers clearly had a field day with this one. + The Nikki Heat Book Series also has several references to Firefly, including a suspect talent manager telling Rook he resembles Malcolm Reynolds, as well as two detective partners named 'Malcolm' and 'Reynolds' in Heat Rises and Frozen Heat, leading to Rook to state in the latter, "I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something I like about Malcolm and Reynolds". * "Vampire Weekend," the episode alone is comprised of lots of Actor Allusions: + Beckett indicate that she's a fan of the works of Frank Miller (Stana Katic had a role in Frank Miller's adaptation of The Spirit). + Castle name-checks Buffy, where Fillion guested as the last Dragon. + The costume party gets actors to dress up in former roles. In particular, Esposito dresses as a US Marine (referencing Jon Huertas as Sgt. Espera in Generation Kill(Incidentally, Huertas is a Desert Storm veteran, but served in the USAF), while Ryan dresses up as a doctor (referencing Seamus Dever's role in General Hospital). + The episode including a vampire coven may also be an allusion to Katic's appearance in one of the Librarian movies where she played a vampire. * In "When the Bough Breaks," Castle gets a chance to write about a certain British spy. Stana Katic was in Quantum of Solace, playing the Canadian woman in the scene in Russia at the end. * In "Deep In Death", Beckett mimics a Russian accent to get past a couple of guards to save Castle. Stana Katic actually speaks four separate Slavic languages fluently, making this a Katic reference as well. * In "Tick, Tick, Tick..." Martha is watching an old episode of The Incredible Hulk (1977). Specifically, she's watching the pilot episode, which features Susan Sullivan... who plays Martha on Castle. Since Martha's an actress, it's explained as her watching her own old stuff. * Castle jokes about his sexless relationship with his last wife to Jordan Shaw. Nathan Fillion and Dana Delaney once played husband and wife on Desperate Housewives. * In "Wrapped Up in Death", Erick Avari plays a superstitious museum curator involved with a Mummy. In the same episode, Castle's pants end up getting ripped, which may be a reference to Captain Mal's nickname "Captain Tightpants." * In "Food to Die For", Castle gets some liquid nitrogen and suggests he build a weapon... to change the weather. The scene is very reminiscent of another thing Nathan Fillion has been in. In the same scene, he also flubs an evil laugh. * Mark Fallon's suit, hair, and American flag lapel pin make him pretty much indistinguishable from Nathan Petrelli. To be fair, politicians and federal agents have more or less the exact same dress code. And hair cut. And flag pin. And chiseled jaw line (they wish). * In "One Life To Lose," there are several mentions of General Hospital, which Seamus Dever used to be on. The title references One Life to Live, which Nathan Fillion used to be on. * In "Eye of the Beholder" an informant calls Castle "Jason Bateman", and Castle says that the resemblance got him out of a traffic ticket one time — which is a story that Fillion has told several times. This also occurs in Best in Show with the paparazzi believing it. * The \|\|killer\|\| in "Demons" is a demon indeed. * Tom Dempsey (and his grandson) is The fallen angel, but he also moonlights as a mysterious island guardian. * An investigator played by Carlos Bernard offhandedly mentions a list of agencies interested in the victim of "The Human Factor," including the New York Police Department Counter-Terrorist Unit. Towards the end of the episode he also mentions coming from Chicago, which he has in common with both Carlos Bernard and Tony Almeida. * On the Halloween 2009 episode references Buffy the Vampire Slayer, on which Nathan Fillion appeared in Season 7. Castle comments upon finding the murder victim du jour with a stake through his heart: > Castle: Looks like Buffy's visited the Big Apple. * "A Deadly Game" guest stars Mitch Pileggi of The X-Files fame as a spy involved in a secret conspiracy \|\|except he's actually just LARP-ing\|\|, and pulls out the old Skinner classic of throwing someone (i.e. Castle) against a wall to menace them into doing what he says. * In "The Squab and the Quail", Ioan Gruffudd plays a genius-level inventor, billionaire and all-round innovator. You might say he's a Mr. Fantastic, even. * In the season 6 episode "In The Belly of the Beast" Beckett \|\|is forced to go undercover as an assassin.\|\| This is rather similar to one of Stana Katic's early acting roles in the movie Stiletto. Though this film is not exactly something she's proud of. * In addition to being filled with Firefly references, "The Final Frontier" was also lousy with Star Trek references, as well. Starting with the fact that the episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes (who makes a cameo in the episode), Captain Max Reynard acting quite a bit like one William Shatner, and a sci-fi replica seller is played by Quark (out of Ferengi makeup, of course). ---	ActorAllusion	null
FanWorks	# Spanner In The Works - Fan Works Spanners in the Works in Fan Works. --- The following works have their own pages: ----------------------------------------- * Scarlet Lady --- Crossovers * Ranma becomes one for not only Minaka and his Sekirei game in Anything Goes Game Changer but Higa as well, the latter without even being aware of the man's existence. Besides Ranma interfering with unfair battles, mostly preventing Sekirei from being forcibly winged, he and Uzume pose for pictures for Nabiki to raise money (to cover his living expenses). Uzume's cut is enough for her to pay off her Ashikabi's hospital bills, which were being used by Higa to blackmail her. * Avatar: The Last Alicorn: Sweetie's plan to take over Fillydelphia and eliminate all the water and fire benders along with the avatar and the great dragon would've gone perfectly, if it wasn't for AJ learning metal-bending, allowing her to escape, and provide Team Avatar an avenue to escape. * Avengers: Infinite Wars: + As the narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that the Avengers are this for Palpatine's plans, as their existence outside the Force makes it hard for him to predict what they will do or their impact on events. + Chapter 44 implies that \|\|the Guardians of the Galaxy are this from Ultron's perspective, at least in the sense that they represent an unknown factor in his plans as he can't explain Quill's obvious Terran origins or Rocket's very existence\|\|. * The Bridge gives a borderline humorous example in an otherwise completely serious situation. Bagan has set up an elaborate Xanatos Gambit that would work out in full to both secure more power for himself as well as kill Harmony. A crux of it was keeping a displaced Monster X separated from his comrades and put into the Equestria Girls world, where he'll be weaker in his human form and thus easier to kill by Bagan's agent, Enjin. One bystander messed it up and they weren't another kaiju nor an Equestrian hero intervening in the fight. EG!Photo Finish happened to be at the scene of a battle between X and Enjin at a hospital and took some pictures, thinking it was a movie stunt being filmed. Days later when an ally of X was in the same realm but dozens of miles away, she bumped into Photo, saw the pictures and recognized X in the images; and was able to alert her allies that she'd found him and he was in trouble. Bagan, the billions year old Physical God got his plans set back by a photographer who didn't even know what she was snapping pictures of. * In Cardcaptor Rad, the Decepticons plan to \|\|invade the Autobot base\|\| actually works. They likely would have succeeded in \|\|attaining the Star Saber\|\| if not for \|\|the humans and mini-cons being there\|\|. * The Choices of Earth: Agent Johnson and the Torchwood team's other government contacts are completely caught off-guard by the Doctor's involvement in the situation. * The Chronicles of Tanya the Holy: Tanya ends up being a massive spanner for not just the Lich King, but for the whole plot of Warcraft III. First is her actions in Stratholme where she \|\|calls upon Being X and purifies all the infected villagers on top of crippling Mal'Ganis\|\|. Then in Northrend, Tanya \|\|stops Arthas from taking up Frostmourne and psychically damages the Lich King\|\|. Besides Arthas never joining the Scourge, the Alliance is reformed, Quel'thalas is never sieged, the Burning Legion doesn't return, and the Horde and Night Elves become trading partners, though the last part doesn't last.(Because Lordaeron never fell, the survivors didn't have to flee to Kalimdor. Without Grom fighting the humans, Thrall never sends him north to Ashenvale, so Grom never incurs the wrath of the Night Elves and Cenarius. Eventually the two factions go to war because the Night Elves refuse to let the Horde harvest enough lumber to support their nation.) In the epilogue, it's revealed that Tanya threw things off so much that the Bronze Dragonflight went insane and had to be put down after they started attacking the Alliance in an attempt to set things back on the "correct path". * Code Fuga: The Melody of Zero: Vanilla and the Children of the Omega Taranis completely ruins the Saitama Skirmish for both Lelouch and Cornelia by getting involved in the battle right before Lelouch (as Zero) and Cornelia could actually pit their forces together. To Lelouch, they wound up evacuating the citizens and the Yamato Alliance members beforehand, giving him no squadron to command, before going after Cornelia against his wishes. To Cornelia, the Omega Taranis absolutely eviscerates her forces with a level of speed and power she refused to prepare for out of Selective Obliviousness to the Omega Taranis' existence, ultimately resulting her getting defeated and Guilford getting KIA'd. C.C. even warns Lelouch that Malt and the Omega Taranis was this by default due to being such an Outside-Context Problem. * Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron: C.C. following the Paladins to the Castle of Lions is this for Charles and Marianne, as this puts her beyond the range where the latter can track her. * Death Note Equestria: Mer ends up going off Twilight's script in order to ruin her in revenge for \|\|Rarity\|\|'s death as a part of one of Twilight's earlier gambits. \|\|Subverted, however, as Twilight had actually anticipated this and factored it into her plans, resulting in Twilight's triumph and Mer's death.\|\| * Defective Puppets sees the Organization from The Cabin in the Woods have their entire operation derailed because of the teenagers they chose to complete the ritual sacrifice with — who ended up being five of the "original six" members of the Team. The Organization is so used to dealing with normal humans that they're completely unprepared to stop the young heroes, who defeat two of their monsters and their security personnel before alerting the Justice League (who promptly take down the Ancient Ones). * In crossover fanfic Displaced (TheMountainJew): Spider-Man's arrival in Gotham City and his meddling with a Joker's heist accidentally causes an unprecedented gang war all across Gotham. * Earth's Alien History: + The Bolshevik Revolution crippled the Illuminati's ability to act in Russia, as its agents there were all members of the bourgeoisie and were thus purged. + The Doctor's interference gives the allied forces enough of an edge that the Mekon War is cut considerably shorter than it would have been otherwise, including preempting the Mekon's planned attack on Earth. It later turns out that this is the Point of Divergence between the main timeline and the Mirror Universe. * Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship: + Zephyr Breeze is this a couple of times. His streaking causes the Rainbooms to discover Timmy's magic, upending the FOP status quo and starting the plot. Later, he tells Sunset about Timmy being at the skate park after she told him not to go, while he had a magical clone to distract her. + Played for Laughs with Dinkleberg. He obliviously has the Rainbooms' van towed away with them in it, preventing them from discovering Cosmo and Wanda's existence. * The Fury of a Storm basically makes Luke Smith (The Sarah Jane Adventures) this to the plans of the 456 (Torchwood: Children of Earth); as Luke is technically two years old despite being physically in his teens, he is able to pick up the signal, which gives Torchwood another means of investigating it. As a result, \|\|Luke's enhanced mind allows him to not only save those poisoned by the 456 (thus saving Ianto's life) but also use the link to "attack" the 456 in turn while surviving the transmission that would have killed a regular child in Luke's position\|\|. * Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters: + During the Battle of Torus Filney, the Rebellion's strategy hits a major stumbling block when Simon shows up, due to not having planned for his presence. But then they're able to turn the tables on Servantis' forces when they reveal that \|\|they have guns\|\|. + Cedric and Wong's plot to betray Phobos and steal the Heart of Meridian from him catches Nerissa completely off guard, throwing her own plans completely Off the Rails. * In Harry Potter and the Alien Reality, Harry represents an unexpected factor to most villains faced by the SGC as none of them are used to facing magic, although SG-1 take care to ensure that Harry doesn't do anything to expose his magic to the Goa'uld even if the NID are aware of his magic. * It happens quite often in Infinity Crisis, considering that the multiverse is now a resource to draw from. + Thanos himself is a spanner to many groups' bigger plans, as his snap ended up derailing, revamping, or changing how villains' plans would develop across the multiverse. + Mephisto himself was the spanner to Thanos's idea of retiring, pushing him to take further action against the heroes and leading to his downfall. + Amora and \|\|Agatha\|\| both had good things going in Storybrooke and could easily use any new outsiders with ease. However, Evie and Mal immediately pick up on the personality incongruities for Regina, and thus begin their journey to find out what's going on and then tear it down. + The "Wild Card" sets herself to be one, observing multiple universes, plucking selected people from them, and hiring them as employees, in order to fulfill ominous goals concerning the entire Multiverse. * Just an Unorthodox Thief: The incarnation of Lupin III that gets summoned into the Fourth Grail War effectively sets out to derail everyone's plans as much as possible. * In Kage, Yua predicts Jade's presence in Meridian will cause Nerissa's plans to go Off the Rails, and any attempts by the elderly sorceress to force Jade to fit in her plans will only cause the schemes to unravel further. Jade is also this to the second season timeline in general, with the changes already starting to add up. * Know Thyself: While Voldemort was a carefully crafted factor in the machine's plans, Harry surviving his encounter with a scar and Voldemort's code being scattered from it was such an anomalous event, agents had been keeping a close an eye on him to ensure that he wasn't a threat up until the point that Trinity found him. Not only that, but the machines didn't even notice his absence at first because he is the only wizard to have been successfully unplugged, all other attempts rendered in a vegetative state. * In the How to Train Your Dragon/Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover series Loki'd, Thor being banished to Earth was this for the plan to replace Laufey on the throne of Jotunhiem with as few casualties as possible. Instead of a nice clean precision strike to take out Laufey's war council using the Bifrost generator, it resulted in Thor's friends bringing Thor back to Asgard only for Thor to interpret Loki's actions as an attempt at genocide and prevent Loki from shutting off it off before there was widespread destruction and mass causalities on Jotunhiem. * In The Man with No Name, during the final confrontation with the Big Bad, \|\|River basically serves as this; after his opponent tries to break through the Doctor's psychic shields, River is able to turn the tables by getting into the other alien's head while his psychic barriers are down so that he can break the Doctor's, the Doctor acknowledging that a disadvantage of psychic combat is that both sides have to let down most of their defences which can leave them open to attack from another angle\|\|. * Metal Gear: Green: + The MSF serves as this for the HPSC. Within the span of nine years, the MSF have dismantled the Los Hermanos Cartel, killed off the Congo Tyrant, erased the Showstoppers, and have been successfully draining the HPSC of power and resources, causing no ends of frustration for Madam President. For bonus insult, the reason the MSF is in the MHA world is because of the HPSC's ambitions. + The GMC, Vityaz and Luiperd forces had set up shop inside an empty cave complex with plans to initiate Operation Hammerhead, only for it to all fail when Izuku and Ochako accidently stumble upon it. * My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator: The Steel Sabers and League of Villains sponsor, Wolfram, had such a perfect plan: Take over I-Island, steal all the support items, then kill everyone there while doing a ransom demand to buy more time. This would devastate Hero society. It all failed because the Sabers stumbled upon the Slayer's hideout by accident and Wolfram felt as if that wasn't important to tell Nine about. As a result, the Slayer's actions resulted in the annihilation of the Steel Sabers. * Daniel Jackson (Stargate SG-1) serves as this to the plans of John Cavil/Number One (Battlestar Galactica (2003)) in Seven, as Daniel is the last of the Number Seven Cylon models and is able to expose the extent of Cavil's insanity and manipulations to the other Cylons. * A Special Kind of Magic: Petra, one of the Queen's Shadows, ally with Naofumi before the heroes are assigned teams. This completely neuters Malty's plans to ingratiate herself to him as "the only adventurer willing to join him" and subsequently break him with the rape accusation, since she's just not that important to him (he even forgets she joined him). Petra then allows him to meet the Queen directly, providing him with a watertight alibi and witness for the trial. From that point on, Malty's plans are completely dead in the water. * "Sphinxes and Astrea Portas" opens with SG-1 finding a world populated by humans and "sphinxes", winged creatures that turn to stone during the day. Some months later, when making plans to introduce alien technology to Earth through other companies, a meeting with David Xanatos and Dominique Destine is disrupted when Dominique turns into a sphinx when she's transported up to the Odyssey, resulting in the discovery that sphinxes were known on Earth as Gargoyles, with the SGC's subsequent contact with the sphinxes offworld disrupting the Illuminati's own efforts to infiltrate Stargate Command for their own agenda. * A Spider in the Works is set in the world of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, featuring Nico Minoru rejoining the other Runaways only to be captured by the Pride. With the Runaways all sealed behind magical barriers maintained by blood wards, Nico manages to summon help by grabbing the Staff of One long enough to summon Peter to help, as the Pride were unprepared for Spider-Man. * A Spider's Evolution starts when the Brotherhood and the X-Men were both attempting to recruit Rogue (X-Men: Evolution, "Rogue Recruit") only for Spider-Man to get involved in the confrontation, which leads to Rogue basically choosing him over the two teams. * In Spidey-Team, Peter Parker of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been part of the Spider-Verse crossover, with the result that he is already aware of the multiverse before he meets Beck and thus knows that Beck can't be a dimensional traveller as he doesn't know anything about the rules (such as how Beck "should" be glitching if he's been in another dimension for two weeks). * Spider-X: Mystique's immediate plan to spend time with Rogue as Risty and her and Magneto's more long-term plan to infiltrate the manor and pose as Xavier are both thwarted just because Peter Parker joins the X-Men, as his spider-sense makes him aware of Mystique's true identity even when she isn't explicitly doing anything dangerous (although she doesn't actually know how he sensed her for some time). * Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K: The Imperium of Man's sudden and violent arrival to the Galaxy Far, Far Away has unknowingly severely disrupted Palpatine's plans. They are a piece on the board that the Sith Lord has no control or influence over. Their presence means he can't move against the Jedi as he needs them to help defeat their forces. In addition, the Imperials have forced Palpatine to redeploy most of the Republic fleet to protect Coruscant. This not only allows General Grievous to effectively defeat the Outer Rim Sieges but also weakens Palpatine's control of the Senate due to the outrage many Senators feel over their planets and systems being abandoned. * When Legends meet: + Earth-447 Freya's love for Baldur ends up being a catalyst in bringing \|\|Earth-199999 Balder back to sanity when she pours her heart out to him as if he was her own son\|\|. + \|\|Diabolico\|\| secretly helps Dante and Ryan Mitchell against Earth-167 Zod, and later, appears when Zod is trying to convince a Universe-displaced and confused Thor into joining him, revealing to Thor that Zod killed Faora, who was pregnant with his child, enraging Thor, who then attacks Zod. Arrowverse * The Flash (2014) series "One Plus One (equals one)" opens with Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein having a more balanced existence as Firestorm from the beginning, waking up after the accelerator explosion already in their later dynamic of Ronnie in control of their shared body with Stein active in their subconscious. Thawne-as-Wells explicitly muses that the mere existence of Firestorm at this point is a problem to his plan to set himself up as a mentor to Barry Allen, anticipating that Barry will be more inclined to regard the fellow metahuman such as Martin Stein as a mentor than the seemingly powerless Wells. Battlestar Galactica (2003) * "Battlestar Galactica What If?" features the Pegasus arriving at Ragnar Anchorage in time to join forces with Galactica and other ships, which leads to them identifying the Cylon infiltrators early on when Adama realises that Gina Inviere is displaying the same "symptoms" of being exposed to the conditions inside the nebula that affected Leoben and Kendra Shaw proposes a plan to identify others in the fleet with similar "allergies". This leads to Simon O'Neill (the Four with a family depicted in The Plan) being spared in exchange for providing the Colonials with information on the other Cylons and protection for his wife and stepdaughter, which also leads to him revealing that Boomer is a sleeper agent and how they can ensure such programming isn't triggered. On another note, Gina killed Helena Cain when her true nature was exposed, allowing Adama to be more quickly promoted to Admiral and take command of a larger Colonial military fleet than in canon. Buffyverse * Harmony acts as one in We're Doomed to Marcie Ross and her plans to murder the popular kids as revenge. Namely, when Cordelia is running from the invisible monster trying to kill her, she runs right in front of Harmony's car who swerves to avoid her, right into Marcie. Harmony also ruins the plans of the organization seeking to recruit Marcie. * Xander in Xendra functions as a spanner on a cosmic scale. Not only can Drusilla the Mad Seer not See him and thus can't counter his plans, but he's shown to be immune to prophecy, leading to him breaking three or four prophecies, including Jasmine's plan to be reborn via Cordelia. Carrie * "all you ever wanted to find" has Sue join Tommy and Carrie at prom, essentially convincing Carrie that she's attending with both of them rather than just going with Tommy alone. While the bucket full of pig's blood was still set up, Sue spots the bucket in time to warn Carrie and allow her to discreetly use her powers to divert the bucket before it can hit her or Tommy, so Carrie's dress is just slightly spattered with blood rather than her being drenched in blood while Tommy is struck on the head. Case Closed * Dominoes has a particularly cruel one during the climax of its first arc. \|\|Kaito steals the Meta-Nullifier from Shinichi. As a result, Shinichi can't use it on Santa, the boy unintentionally causing the Black Hole Crisis. ISHA orders an airstrike on their location; Kaito saves Shinichi at the last second, but Santa is left to die.\|\| Charmed (1998) * Tempus Fugit reveals that Cole unwittingly affected the Triad's plans for the Jenkins sisters when he (apparently) vanquished the Triad's physical bodies. The Triad planned to leave Christy to be abused by other demons and then step in to "rescue" her so that she would regard the Triad as her protectors and become their loyal servant, but when Cole turned on them, their "deaths" meant that Christy was lost in the Underworld all over again. Danganronpa * Danganronpa 2/3 Redux: Return Unto Death: In the third chapter, Monokuma intended to set up a corruption arc for \|\|Akamatsu Kaede\|\|. However, during a confrontation, \|\|Kazuichi accidentally injures her while rejecting her apology\|\|. As a result, \|\|she goes to see Mikan for treatment, only to walk in on a murder scene, forcing Monokuma to make the brainwashed killer murder her as well\|\|. * Danganronpa: Yakuza Arc: In Part 2, Hajime proves to be one for \|\|Hideki\|\|; all of their plans get derailed when Hajime \|\|wins their duel. Being beaten by a high schooler, and only walking away from their fight because Hajime chose to spare him, completely wrecking his reputation and any momentum his intended clan war had built up\|\|. * In Despair Arc: Execution Failed?, Kyoko and Makoto ruin Junko's plan before it even gets off the ground, as Kyoko's investigation leads her and an accompanying Makoto to discover a \|\|still alive Chiaki before she succumbs to her gruesome wounds. This, in turn, leads to not only 77-B being snapped out of Junko's influence, but Izuru returning to being Hajime\|\|. Death Note * Nobody Cares About the Receptionist: Light's plan to dispose of Naomi Misora goes awry when one of the NPA receptionists notifies Aizawa that the chief's son is leaking information about the Kira investigation to a random stranger. Digimon * In Digimon Adventure 02: The Story We Never Told, Ken serves as this for Oikawa; \|\|even after his death, Ken's D3 undid his brainwashing of the other Digidestined's partners\|\|. Fairy Tail * Ironically, Black Wizard Zeref becomes one for one of Grimoire Heart's plans in Fall of the R-System. His arrival to destroy the R-System a cult was making distracted and kept Ultear from brainwashing Jellal with a false ghost of Zeref. * The AU fic Lost Magic is an interesting example. While the deliberate wrench in Jellal's plans is Simon, the one whose mistake actually set his plot derailing was Jellal, himself. By accidentally getting himself pregnant with Erza's child. Fate Series * Chaos Theory opens up with this. It introduces the plots and manipulations of all the antagonists of FSN, and then the narrator calmly declares: > But mostly? The assorted plans at play here would be going very, very wrong due to the actions of a no-name, no-count, utterly talentless Magus by the name of Shirou Emiya. He had no magic worth mentioning, no combat experience of note, and no plan for or knowledge of the War he was about to enter. He did, however, have one trait that had derailed a countless number of such grand, far-reaching schemes throughout history. > You see, he really, really wanted to be a hero. * Fate/Harem Antics: The entire fic is about Irisviel, who is trapped in the Holy Grail but in full control of it, deciding to use the upcoming Holy Grail War to get her son Shirou a harem. All the existing plots and plans promptly get derailed as Iri makes sure all the Masters and Servants besides Shirou are female. Specific examples are: + Iri's father planned to summon Hercules as a Berserker and force his granddaughter Illya to serve as Master. Iri summoned Minamoto no Raikou instead. Likewise, Iri has some limited ability to speak to her daughter through the Grail, so unlike in canon where Illya hated Shirou and their father (because her grandfather lied to her), Illya knows that their father never abandoned her, and is looking forward to meeting Shirou. + Bazett tried to summon Cú Chulainn as Lancer, but Iri gave her Scáthach instead. More importantly, when Kirei tried to murder Bazett for her Command Seals, Iri briefly stopped his artificial heart, distracting him at a critical moment and ruining the opportunity. + Sakura summoned Medusa as Rider, as in canon. Zouken tried to force Sakura to give control over to her brother Shinji, but Iri deliberately made the summoning more explosive than usual, causing the ceiling to fall on Zouken. Sakura and Rider escaped in the confusion. + After Zouken recovered from having a ceiling drop on him, he summoned a Servant himself, deciding an Assassin would fit him best. Iri gave him Hassan of Serenity, a Poisonous Person. Zouken didn't realize that, slapped her for her perceived disobedience, and melted. And since Iri had severed his connection to Sakura (which she could only do after Sakura made her contract with the Grail), he couldn't draw power from her and stayed dead for good. + Iri did this to herself with Assassin: Since the intent is for Shirou to have sex with all the girls, the fact that she can't touch anyone without killing them is a problem. Iri quickly summons Sir Galahad as Shielder, who has the power to resist poisons and can pass this on to her allies. And she makes Caren, Kirei's long-lost illegitimate daughter, her Master just to mess with Kirei. + And Iri again manages to do this to herself. By summoning Shielder and Ruler, she broke the normal limits on number of Servants and left the door open for others to be summoned. Three separate groups start summoning Servants of their own. Iri can't shut them down, but she can make sure the Servants and Masters are all female. She gives the Ainsworth family Jeanne Alter as Avenger, but instead of letting Julian become the Master as they intended, she grabs his sister Angelica. She gives Fiore of the Yggdmillennia clan Oda Nobunaga (who is female in the Nasuverse) as Gunner. And Miyu wasn't trying to summon a Servant at all but didn't understand how the Grail War worked and got Elizabeth Bathory as Temptress. Gargoyles * In Kimberly T's Gargoyles series, \|\|Thailog's plans in "Deadly Moon" are derailed by the unexpected factor of Heinrich, a gargoyle newly-arrived in New York from Germany who saw Thailog tormenting Anne and the children and literally landed on Thailog from above\|\|. Godzilla * Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Godzilla is a secondary character rather than the protagonist of this story, but he kicked off the entire plot when he ripped San's head off of Ghidorah during the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Ghidorah was keeping an Only Mostly Dead Vivienne inside of San's head with plans for her, but Godzilla decapitating San ensured that the version of San's mind in his severed head along with Vivienne survived Ghidorah's destruction during the movie, and, cut off from the influence of Ghidorah's other two heads, San had to hybridize and merge with Vivienne on his own, while the severed head with San and Vivienne inside it fell into the hands of Alan Jonah and his mercenaries. \|\|On the downside, the continued existence of San's old decapitated head has also ensured that Ghidorah itself isn't permanently dead yet\|\|. Harry Potter * In Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past, the reason why \|\|Peter Pettigrew's\|\| plan to cause chaos at Hogwarts (see Western Terrorists) fails is because \|\|the Gryffindor Six and some other students know how to use the Patronus Charm\|\|. How to Train Your Dragon * In A Thing of Vikings, Berk suddenly gaining control over dragons upsets the balance of power in Europe and derails many plans already in motion. Wulfhild notes that Hiccup pretty much changed the rules of the game overnight and forced everyone else to play catchup. The Hunger Games * In The Golden Mean, Finnick sadly laments that many of the victor-tributes who died in the arena, the mentors who died when Peacekeepers came to arrest the rebels, and many people killed in Districts 4 and 12 when the Rebellion broke out might have survived if not for an oblivious Capitol worker spotting the hovercraft meant for the escape and kicking things off early in a desperate scramble, Jackie Chan Adventures * Queen of All Oni: Jade's otherwise flawless Operation: Steel Lightning only fails because of the presence of Agent Wisker, who she didn't know and couldn't plan for. He doesn't stop her but slows her down long enough for Uncle to catch up with her and beat her. Kung Fu Panda * In The Vow, when Po and the Furious Five have been imprisoned in the dungeon of the Tower of the Sacred Flame and Shen prepares to spring his trap for the invited nobility of China, Lianne sends Jade to free the heroes before they can be killed, allowing them to rescue the nobility, setting back Shen's plans of conquest a little. Love Hina * An Alternate Keitaro Urashima repeatedly derails his grandmother's attempts to manipulate him simply by letting others know how manipulative she is. As a result, when she shows up and starts spinning her webs, she winds up proving him right. + Mokoto also runs afoul of this when she threatens Keitaro one time too many. When she draws her katana, she's unaware that \|\|some police officers are passing behind her and witness it\|\|. * For His Own Sake: + Granny Hina and Mutsumi regard Nagisa as this, blaming her for disrupting their plans for Keitaro. + Along similar lines, most of the Hinata Girls see Keitaro as this after he Grew a Spine and left the inn, forcing them to start facing actual consequences for their actions. Part of this is simply by warning others about them, ensuring that they know what they're dealing with. Lyrical Nanoha * Nanoha's presence in Game Theory derails Precia's carefully laid plans. \|\|But this turns out to be a subversion, because the events that disrupted Precia's original strategy actually made it possible for her to come up with a better plan that works flawlessly.\|\| Marvel Cinematic Universe * A Real Chance opens with Uatu witnessing He Who Remains prune over a hundred timelines where at least one of the other Avengers spoke with Wanda before she went to Westview, or at least reached out to her before she "committed" to the idea of using the Darkhold to try and get her family back. Despite Uatu's vow to only observe, after witnessing He Who Remains express such satisfaction at how the TVA have cut Wanda off from so many allies in so many worlds, Uatu sends Wanda a discreet telepathic warning Wanda that she and Peter Parker are about to be attacked in the final timeline the TVA were to prune, featuring the two meeting in London as Wanda followed up a lead on the Darkhold and Peter happened to see her after the battle with Mysterio. With this advance warning, Wanda and Peter are able to fight their attackers off and affirm they'll be alert for the future, creating a new timeline where Wanda not only rejects the Darkhold but also prevents Spider-Man's identity being exposed. * Dream Until Your Dream Comes True has Wanda see a bit more of the world she was dreaming of with Tommy and Billy, resulting in her learning that in that reality her counterpart was almost lobotomised by the Illuminati before Peter Parker stepped in to defend her from their fears that she was going to be another threat. Curious about "her" Peter, Wanda goes to visit him just in time to witness his first meeting with Mysterio, prompting her to read Beck's mind and learn about his own knowledge of the multiverse... which naturally exposes that he's a fraud in time to stop him doing any real damage. Marvel Universe * The Spider-Man fic “A New Day” depicts a world where Doctor Strange learns of Spider-Man's deal with Mephisto and takes steps to prevent it. Unable to go back to undo it himself, he is able to find a loophole that allows him to send someone back to interfere in events prior to the deal, but with the catch that it must be someone close to Peter and Mary Jane who didn't exist in that timeline. The chosen party is Gwen Stacy, who is brought back from the dead, given the power of her alternate counterpart and knowledge of the original timeline, and sent back to a few months after her death, allowing her to ensure that Peter never has a reason to make the deal as well as helping him out at various other points. * In Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams, the Green Goblin kidnapped and planned to publicly murder Gwen Stacy as a way to get revenge on her father, Captain George Stacy of the NYPD. While Spider-Man intervened and tried to rescue Gwen, the Goblin had anticipated that and set things up so he'd be able to kill both Spider-Man and Gwen at the same time. Unfortunately, what he didn't take into account was Sleepwalker following Spider-Man to the top of the bridge a Cascnd distracting him long enough for Spider-Man to rescue Gwen and get her to safety. The Goblin proceeded to have a Villainous Breakdown. The Matrix * In Rescue Run, Captain Dena Reese unknowingly serves as this to the Machines' cycle of control to keep the human population of Earth under their control; not only does she confirm that the Matrix has existed for longer than the two centuries the people of Zion believed, but she also helps them make contact with the human colonies in the rest of the solar system. Through her presence, \|\|the people of Zion are evacuated from Earth and relocated to a new green planet, while the spacefleet destroys the Machine mainframe and the Matrix to prevent the machines from following them into space\|\|. Miraculous Ladybug * The Babysitting Fiasco: An akuma fight taking much longer than usual causes Marinette's phone to run out of power, meaning she can't tell Alya that she can't babysit her sisters, but then she finds Marlena and asks her to warn Alya. Since Marlena had not only asked Alya to do the babysitting but also paid her for it, she checks and finds out Alya's been taking advantage of Marinette's generosity to make her babysit Ella and Etta for free while she uses the money to pay for her dates with Nino. Also, since Alya turns to Lila to replace her, Marlena meets the latter and realizes the type of person she is, which leads to her meeting with Lila's mother to clear things up. End result is Alya and Nino getting punished and getting their allowances docked to pay for Marinette's previous babysitting, while Lila is expelled and forced back to Italy and into a strict institution. * Burning Bridges, Building Confidence: + Cole's entrance into Francoise Dupont makes it significantly harder for Lila to get away with any of her schemes. Since Marinette warned her ahead of time, Cole makes sure to gather plenty of evidence, such as recording her threats and having proof of her own movements. + Cole also makes things much more complicated for Chat Noir. Not only does she call him out on being The Load, she exposes his exploitative behavior to Master Fu, who isn't pleased to learn that Chat Noir is deliberately skipping out on fights to try and Blackmail Ladybug into 'admitting she loves him'. As a new permanent bearer for the Fox, Vexxin proves to be the loyal and trustworthy partner Ladybug needs, proving that she doesn't have to rely on somebody who refuses to take their heroic duties seriously or acts entitled to her. + Adelaide becomes one after \|\|Alya attacks Cole\|\|. Upon learning what kind of abuse Marinette and Cole have been dealing with at school, Adelaide immediately takes action against the district, resulting in \|\|Ms. Bustier potentially losing her job, Alya's reputation going up in flames, and the exposure of Lila and her followers\|\|. * In Cat Out of the Bag, Luka ruins Adrien and Plagg's scheme to guilt-trip and manipulate Ladybug simply by being present. After witnessing Chat Noir's argument with Ladybug and abandoning the Ring, he reveals to Marinette that he already knows both of their secret identities. They then go back to her room so that he can explain how he knows — namely, how Adrien intentionally got hit by another akuma's powers, forcing him to become a Secret Secret-Keeper while using Second Chance to rewind time and prevent the knowledge becoming public. When Plagg shows up, he points out the kwami's attempts to blame Marinette for everything, pointing out how illogical it is to claim that she's somehow "cheating" on Chat Noir by calling upon other heroes... especially when Plagg accidentally reveals that Adrien was deliberately skipping fights because he was too busy jealously sulking about her becoming less reliant upon him. * Coffee Catastrophe features Adrien acting as one when he impulsively swipes Lila's phone after she tries to spill hot coffee all over Marinette and her sketchbook. Plagg then helps him unlock it and send her mother evidence of all her lies before sneaking it back into her bag. Nobody considered him as a possible suspect, and all his friends are astounded when he finally fesses up. * The Dad Villain AU was created by Hawkmoth winning and making a horrifically spiteful Wish: that the magical backlash created from Emelie using the broken Peacock Pin would be redirected towards Ladybug's loved ones, forcing her to watch as she lost them one by one until she was the only one left to suffer the backlash herself. However, he has to contend with a few of these: + While Gabriel Wished that he would be the only person with Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory, the Wish uses Exact Words against him — all of the kwami and sentimonsters still recall the original timeline, since he doesn't consider any of them to be people. This enables \|\|Felix and Kagami\|\| to scheme against him, as well as bring \|\|his son Adrien\|\| in on the loop and reveal to him that \|\|he's a sentimonster as well\|\|. + Nooroo proves to be the biggest living wrench thrown into his plans. Gabriel saw him as nothing more than his helpless victim — not powerless, but only in the sense that his Miraculous granted him plenty of powers to abuse as he saw fit. This underestimation enables Nooroo to steal his own Brooch and escape the Agrestes, making his way to the Dupain-Cheng bakery and empowering Tom instead. And as a further side-effect, Tom having the Butterfly Brooch protects him from suffering any magical backlash from the Peacock Pin. * Feralnette AU: Lila gets hit with two of these at once during the Birds of a Feather arc. Firstly, Principal Damocles defies all expectations by actually listening to Marinette's side of the story rather than letting Lila completely control the narrative. Then when she insists that Marinette should be expelled, Damocles casually reveals that \|\|Chloé has claimed Marinette as her tutor, and made clear to him that if he kicked her out of school, she'd set her father's fury on Francoise Dupont\|\|. * Guilt and Consqueneces has Marinette beaten by her classmates for her "bullying" of Lila. Lila comes to apologize to Marinette and relate that this has all been a Springtime for Hitler style plot. Because her family moves so much, Lila has hated trying to change for new schools and prefers being home-schooled. Thus, at every school she goes to, Lila acts up with lies and playing at being a bitch until she's either expelled or her mother pulls her out. She says she "had it down to a science" by the time she got to Paris and a class with a famous model like Adrien, who'd see through her fast seemed better. When Marinette stood up to her, Lila figured that threatening such a beloved student would have her booted out in no time. Sadly, Lila's "science" failed to account for a few things. First, rather than call her out, Adrien kept quiet and encouraged Marinette to do the same. Long used to tough (or at least competent) teachers, Lila wasn't prepared for Bustier to be so ineffectual that she not only did nothing to curb Lila's behavior but didn't even do the bare minimum of checking with Lila's mother on her supposed "illnesses" and absences. Most importantly, Lila never dreamed she'd have a class so gullible that they'd buy all her stories without question. She even went out of her way to make them more unbelievable and easier to disprove but they kept on believing her without checking anything. Lila at least figured making Marinette out to be a terrible bully would be a red flag to the friends who'd known her for so long, yet sure enough, they accepted it to turn on Marinette. Thus, all of Lila's efforts to get herself expelled instead made her the most popular girl in class. * The Karma of Lies: Gabriel Agreste has a secret emergency fund account which he uses for various purposes. Unfortunately, this is also the only one of the Agrestes' accounts Adrien is able to access — and thanks to Gabriel being such a Control Freak, his son knows very little about money management or basic precautions. Adrien accesses the account in full view of Lila, who memorizes the passwords and secretly cleans him out... making the account effectively useless not just for Adrien but for Gabriel and Nathalie, both of whom intended to use that money to their own ends. * In Karmic Epilogue, Lila ignores the warning Marinette gave her in The Karma of Lies and continues manipulating and stealing from others, including her new boyfriend Felice Nesci, a crime boss. When one of his subordinates gets caught siphoning money away from him, the authorities discover just how much of Nesci's money has been ending up in Lila's bank account, leading to her arrest. * Papa Bear: Tom Dupain becomes this to Gabriel Agreste when the latter demands Marinette to break up with Adrien. Tom prevents his daughter from doing so, and immediately contacts Child Protective Services to investigate Gabriel - and when the man's out of home, Adrien and Marinette get into the Agreste mansion to get some clothes for him, only to accidentally discover Gabriel is Hawkmoth, leading to his arrest. * Their Lament: Adrien betrays Ladybug by summoning Gimmi with the intent of rewriting reality with his Wish... but before he can make his request, he hears someone coming and scrambles to hide the kwami. Turns out Alya, Nino and Lila are trying to figure out why Ladybug was in such a foul mood. Their investigative efforts lead to Adrien making a critical slip of the tongue that Gimmi interprets as a serious request, costing Adrien his chance and flinging him into a Self-Inflicted Hell. * In An Unusual Run-In, Lila's mother decides to treat herself to lunch at a restaurant and finds Adrien there: since Lila has been claiming that he's her boyfriend, she presents herself, only for Adrien to shut that down since Lila's a liar, a thief, and a bully, and he wouldn't date her. This irks her enough that she calls Françoise Dupont to check, only to get surprised when Principal Damocles mentions a trip she had not heard about at all, as well as Lila's "lying disease". Lila's castle of lies soon crumbles as her mother sends her to a very strict reformatory school, and when she finds out Lila's also lied about that to her former classmates, she reveals it was all a pack of lies. * In Yeah, I'm Done, Lila's stranglehold on Miss Bustier's class lasts for nearly two years. What finally brings her down...? She forgets her lunch at home one day, and her mother notices and decides to drop it off for her, swinging by the classroom... and getting confused when Rose asks how her trip to Achu went. Cue Lila's web of lies rapidly unraveling and a lot of very angry students. * your subtleties save (where my lies cave) revolves around Christelle, a New Transfer Student who tricks most of the class into believing that she's Ladybug through careful implications and hint-dropping without ever explictly claiming that she's the superheroine. In addition to this making things more complicated for Lila, Christelle's own deception hits a snag thanks to Adrien, as she's unaware that he's secretly Chat Noir... or that he feels entitled to Ladybug's love, which naturally extends into him deciding that he's going to force her into a relationship. * In this untitled one-shot, Lila leaves her homework binder at home with the intention of framing Marinette for its "theft". Unfortunately for her, her mother notices it and swings by the school to drop it off, only to witness her daughter's plan in action. Mrs. Rossi then angrily calls out her daughter for lying again, then proceeds to ensure that she'll have to repeat the year in order to make up for all her absences, as well as dealing with the fallout of her exposure. * In this series, Adrien tries to paint Marinette as a bully for refusing to let Lila's Malicious Slander go unchallenged. Unfortunately for him, Felix witnessed the tail end of him confronting Marinette, and knows that the only reason she slapped Adrien is because he was gripping her arms hard enough to leave bruises behind. His testimony convinces Alya to check Marinette's arms and find said bruises, exposing Adrien as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. My Hero Academia * Anyone: The police chief's plan to give Endeavor the credit for taking down Stain is ruined by the villain behind the Hosu attack uploading video footage of Anyone fighting the serial killer. * The Best Case Scenario, if you're being "realistic": Katsuki singlehandedly torpedoes any chance All Might and Sir Nighteye might have had to \|\|restore the Hero System after its dissolution\|\| when he goes on a self-serving "vigilante" spree and \|\|murders several people, including innocent bystanders and one of the officers trying to arrest him\|\|. His screeching about how he can't be punished for any of this because "I'm a hero!" cements him in the minds of the public as a living example of all of the Hero System's flaws, and U.A.'s already battered and tattered reputation takes a further hit as they're called out for failing to do anything about his obvious issues until it was far too late. * Conversations with a Cryptid: + Midoriya discusses this with All For One, as he discovers that something must have happened for the murderous supervillain to put his plans on hold. All For One cryptically says that plans can change. \|\|In fact, it was because of his marriage to Inko and Midoriya being born that caused All For One to change his plans so he could stay with them and/or keep them safe.\|\| + Another spanner is \|\|the Sludge Villain\|\| who proceeds to kidnap Midoriya, eventually resulting in \|\|All For One breaking out of prison to rescue his son\|\|. * Juxtapose: Shouto runs into one during the Sports Festival. As in canon, he intended to beat the strongest person in the tournament purely with his ice side in order to spite his father. However, he fixated on \|\|Katsuki\|\| as his target and is thrown off by \|\|Momo beating Katsuki in her fight. This leads him to assume that he can breeze through the remaining competitors, not taking his semi-final opponent seriously... and enabling Hitoshi to take him by surprise and score a victory\|\|. * Mastermind: Rise of Anarchy: Monoma's efforts to tempt more alumni from U.A. into joining Mastermind's side is complicated by \|\|Mustard\|\|, who isn't in on the plan and promptly starts antagonizing his targets the moment he meets them. * The Multiverse's veins of Silver: + The first story in the collection has Kaori Shizuku, a nurse from Aldera. Upon seeing Katsuki win U.A.'s Sports Festival, she angrily decides that she's not going to let Aldera's corruption continue, calling the Musustafu Police Department with evidence of the school's misdeeds, including how they falsified records to cover up Katsuki's Bully Brutality. This leads to Katsuki getting expelled from U.A., his ambitions scuttled by somebody whose existence he hadn't even registered. + To betray those you trust sees Sir Nighteye successfully convincing All Might to Easily Condemn Izuku, stripping One For All away from him to give to the successor Nighteye picked out. But their plans fall through thanks to two spanners: first, Mirio outright refuses to take the Quirk, and Principal Nedzu swipes the vial and ships it off to I-Island. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic * Echoing Silence: When Celestia banished Twilight, she thought that Twilight was on the verge of going Nightmare, and either would fully transform, or be returned to normal by guilt, either of which Celestia had plans to deal with. Unfortunately, the changeling invasion prevented Celestia from looking for Twilight right away; not only did it interfere with that, it also bought Sombra time to return and regain control of the Crystal Empire. By the time she's finally able to track Twilight down, years have passed, and Diadem has put her past far behind her. * The Great Alicorn Hunt proves to have this as a natural side-effect; with more alicorns ascending, they end up unintentionally disrupting a lot of antagonists' schemes. * The Pony POV Series has one that's notable for the exceptionally long time required for the spanner to actually get into the villain's works. \|\|Back in the G3 Universe, which was facing The End of the World as We Know It (actually a Shoot the Dog to avert a Class Z Apocalypse) at the time, Pinkie Pie's best friend Minty just bled to death after their fight with Luna, leaving behind her "spirit" (or at least a piece of herself). Strife, Discord's sister and Spirit of Natural Selection, is fighting the survivors of the doomed world (in order to give them at least the chance to fight for their survival, something she believes is the right of all living things) and sent Heartless-like spirits of "erased" ponies after them. One of these falls into the canyon where Pinkie and Minty's fight took place, wounded in battle. Pinkie, in a split-second choice, fuses the piece of Minty with the shadow, which turns out to be that of the G1 Twilight. The result? Twilight Sparkle!\|\| + During the Dark World Arc, \|\|Discord's little sister Rancor is this. She arrives to get close to Discord and ultimately steal back Destruction's power from him so it can be used for its intended purpose (Destruction's original job as an Anthropomorphic Personification), mortally wounding him in the process. This ends up throwing a gigantic wrench in Nightmare Eclipse/Paradox's plans, allowing Discord to Out Gambit her and alert Twilight to the true nature of the Dark World, forcing Paradox to expose herself to the heroes. The name Rancor chooses after succeeding (Disruption) couldn't be more appropriate. It's this trope especially because, while it's implied she knew Paradox was there, she didn't care one way or the other what happened so long as her own mission was a success\|\|. + Part 6 of Shining Armor's Arc has Sergeant Thunderchild be this General-Admiral Makarov's attempt to kill Shining Armor. Makarov didn't even know his name, yet he shows up just in time to break through Makarov's Anti-Magic field and save Shining. This also buys time for more Shining's forces to show up in a Gunship Rescue and drive Makarov's forces off. + During the Wedding Arc, Prince Blueblood inadvertently foils Queen Chrysalis' plan just because he wanted to take a girl on a date. \|\|He led his date through the caves under Canterlot, and ended up finding the imprisoned Princess Cadance.\|\| * Slice of Velvet and Pear: Princess Celestia expected her student in this timeline, Moondancer, to go on the same journey and discover friendship in Ponyville, as Twilight Sparkle did in canon during the events of Nightmare Moon's return. But there's two problems she didn't count on; Moondancer has even less social grace, tact, and interest in other ponies than Twilight did at the start of the series. Leading to her quickly alienating herself from Ponyville's residents and attempting to go after The Elements of Harmony on her own. And two, Moondancer's old classmate, Twilight Sparkle. Who in this timeline, is already living in Ponyville with her friends and was never Celestia's personal student and there go, not somepony she particularly factored into her plans. Who In Spite of a Nail, winds up going through more or less the same journey with her friends they did in canon after chasing after Moondancer to try and help her. \|\|Resulting in The Element of Magic being split between Twilight and Moondancer. Something Celestia did not expect and does not know what to make of when she arrives.\|\| Naruto * Five Petals diverges dramatically when Sakura shoves Sasuke out of Orochimaru's way and gets bitten instead. Orochimaru didn't intend to give her the Cursed Seal, and while he initially dismisses her as a 'minor' setback whom he expects will prove unable to survive the seal's presence, she proves herself to be a persistent thorn in his side, causing him to spiral through a series of Villainous Breakdowns. * Team 8: In Chapter 17, Kurenai tells Naruto to use his chakra pulse to dispel the genjutsu Kabuto put on the stadium. Naruto overpowers the pulse so much it ends up covering the entire village — causing Orochimaru's plan to fall to pieces twice over, as not only did it dispel the jutsu that were going to summon the giant snakes, it also destroys the barrier he had put to prevent people from interfering with his duel with the Third Hokage. * your move, instigator (draw your weapon and hold your tongue): + Team 14 surviving mission after mission enables them to serve as a set of Morality Pets for the older shinobi of Konoha, as their presence makes it harder for them to ignore how they're using Child Soldiers. Their effectiveness only increases once \|\|they're the Sole Survivors of their respective graduating classes, leaving very few children under ten alive save for the clan heirs\|\|. + Danzo finds one of his plans working against him after \|\|Sai escapes from ROOT\|\|; they promptly take advantage of the Propaganda Machine by \|\|producing new posters and graffiti encouraging Konoha to question the Sandaime, promoting Minato as a potential replacement\|\|. Neon Genesis Evangelion * Advice and Trust: Shinji and Asuka end up ruining Gendo's plans by befriending Rei, although this happens long before his plans are put into action. And everyone is completely unaware of the implication of this, meaning that they spend several chapters trying to figure out how to stop him, and he still thinks that he's in control of the situation, despite the fact that he's already lost. * The Child of Love: + Gendo thought he had planned for any contingency, but he did not foresee his son's involvement. Shinji sleeping with Asuka forced him to modify his plans and it ensured that Yui would want to protect his son's family and Rei would get involved in ways Gendo would not like. > Fuyutsuki: But you said that this project was 100% planned, right? > Gendo: There was only one mistake on my part. I won't let that happen again. > Fuyutsuki: You mean...your son? > Gendo: Yes. I didn't think that the Second Child would use the Third to 'satisfy' her boosted hormones...this was a big mistake, and may result in complications. + In chapter 9 Fuyutsuki warned him that he had not accounted for everyone and someone would stop him, but Gendo did not listen. Cue Rei interfering. And then Yui. > Fuyutsuki: I think you're forgetting about someone. Someone who won't forgive you for this, Rokubungi Gendo... * Doing It Right This Time: Asuka has grand ambitions to being this after realising she's in a Peggy Sue situation, but the one to take the biggest direct step towards derailing the Scenario is Rei... and to a lesser extent, the late Naoko Akagi. Shinji still needs some convincing that they can pull it off. * HERZ: SEELE's attack in 2015 failed because another secret organization accidentally learnt about their plans and interfered with them… something SEELE had not counted on at all. * Higher Learning (Strike-Fiss): Gendos plan started to unravel when \|\|a teacher offered counseling to the Children\|\|. * Rise of the Minisukas: + Not only was the appearance of the Minisukas completely unpredictable, but also they are gradually messing up with Seele's plans by altering the outcome of the battles and hacking their bank accounts. + Aoba is the only potential time-traveller who Gendo has no prepared countermeasures for, due to him being a wildcard. Unfortunately for Gendo, he is too useful to get rid of. + Downplayed with the Minisukas' attempt at helping win the Angel War, which runs for the most part on them being a Peggy Sue to the NGE timeline and runs into the complication of the Angels getting additional powers, running different tactics, and even being from different Alternate Timelines. * In RE-TAKE, SEELE finds all their plans foiled by something they could never have anticipated \|\|Shinji be aided by Ghost-Asuka and "God" which allows him to destroy the Mass Production Evas during the fan-fic's take the events of "End"\|\|. One Piece * This Bites!: + The Unluckies. If the Point of Divergence in Chapter 19 wasn't enough, in Chapter 20, Cross attempts to use Soundbite's powers to stop or stall the Rebel Army outside of Alubarna. Unfortunately, the Unluckies arrive and snatch the snail, scrapping that plan. And even after they're beaten, Miss Friday manages to disable Soundbite's powers until Luffy beats Crocodile. - For a while, it actually became something of a Running Gag that the Straw Hats' plans never worked out as planned, to the point that the characters started making note of it in their planning sessions. This was particularly frustrating and humiliating for Cross, as he is the official tactician for the crew. But starting after Skypiea, things start going much better. + Granny Kokoro proves to be this to Cross's plans. Sloshed out of her mind, she browbeats Iceburg and Franky into feeling the love that the Going Merry has for her crew, and encouraging them, as Tom's apprentices, construct a ship worthy of the Oro Jackson's successor... within earshot of Iceburg's secretary and one of his best shipwrights. + Aokiji. Post-Enies Lobby, when he came across an island hosting a big pirate brawl, he decided to halt the whole thing with an Ice Age... \|\|giving Blackbeard the perfect opportunity to swallow up his now-frozen opponents.\|\| PAW Patrol * Zuma's Fear: \|\|Believe it or not, Zuma ends up screwing Stone's Evil Plan after the death of his family.\|\| Pokémon * In AAML: Diamond and Pearl Version, it is noted that Misty is basically this to Paul's efforts to undermine Ash; during their battle at Lake Acuity, when Paul accuses Ash of bringing in his strongest Pokemon because he knows his training method can't beat Paul's, Misty reminds Ash that he raised his powerhouses to their current level using his traditional training, matching Paul's reliance on force with experience and compassion. * Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Lost Tracks of Time: By befriending Sneasler, Ingo and Emmet \|\|inadvertantly prevented her from getting chained at the same time as the other Nobles, preventing the Big Bad from getting the 18 Plates they needed to usurp Arceus.\|\| Special mention goes to Emmet for \|\|removing the Red Chain from Ingo before it took effect and stealing the Toxic Plate from Sneasler when she is successfully chained.\|\| Puella Magi Madoka Magica * A History of Magic: The Incubators feared that this would happen in the form of an Anomaly, a person who has magical powers not granted by them, for they could awaken the magical powers in all of humanity. It was why they had arranged for \|\|Jesus to be crucified\|\|, after all. Their fear was eventually realized when Billy Kane used Haitian magic to become a Puer Magi, causing a chain reaction that resulted in thousands of teenagers spontaneously becoming Puer and Puella Magi without contracting. RWBY * An Arc for every season: Fria's passing should have led to Winter getting the Winter Maiden powers if it weren't for one crucial mistake: to keep Fria entertained, Winter had left her a tape of one of Weiss's concerts, and Fria had a split-second thought about it just before she died and sent the powers to her instead. * Children of Remnant: Fifteen years of indoctrination by Salem begins to be undone by Yang deciding to throw the Claimed a party. * Coeur Al'Aran: + Arc Corp: Blake meeting and growing close to Jaune unwittingly sabotaged all the Arc family's attempts to keep Jaune emotionally isolated from forming any attachments \|\|to keep his anomalous nature under control\|\|. + In Your Wildest Dreams: Jaune's newly-unlocked Dream Walker Semblance, which rapidly evolves to make him a Reality Warper who can permanently rewrite things in the real world due to eight hours of constant use every day when Jaune's asleep causing the Semblance to overdevelop, throws a huge wrench in Cinder's plans for the Vytal Festival. Jaune presents a major security risk due to the chances he could accidentally discover Cinder's true identity and plans in her dreams, but she lets it go in favor of keeping an eye on him. Unfortunately for her, Jaune has also befriended the comatose Amber inside her dreams and he has a personal stake in rooting out her attacker with his Semblance, \|\|which he eventually succeeds at before Cinder can ever commence her plans\|\|. + Not this time, Fate: At the start of the loop iteration the fic takes place in, Jaune's father just happening to be out on a hunt with Crocea Mors in tow on the day that Jaune's mind goes back in time to for this loop is the only thing that stops Jaune from running away to do the same things he's been doing in every loop for centuries, leading him to choose to instead try and make the current loop a "vacation" where he reconnects with his family, which catalyzes the fic's entire plot. + The Second Choice: Jaune and his Atlas Academy teammates, Team JCKP, are annoyed by Team RWBY because the latter team's rebellious, gung ho approaches to everything keep making JCKP's own planned missions much harder. + Stress Relief: Jaune proves to be far more of an inconvenience to Cinder's plans than she expected, as once their "relationship" begins, ending it would attract too much attention, forcing her to go along with it. A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon * The Guns of Dragonstone: At the Battle of Waxley, Euron plans to summon an old Rhoynish water spell to destroy the combined Reach/Dornish/Sellsword army of Aegon VI Targaryen. To achieve the spell's full potential, Euron uses a captive King Joffrey as a sacrifice since King's Blood is the most potent source of magic. There is only one problem: Joffrey is a bastard born of the incestual affair of Queen Cersei and her brother Ser Jaime and is not a true king at all. While Euron had heard of Stannis's proclamation, he had previously written it off as just a vile lie spread by an Evil Uncle out to steal his nephew's throne and never expected it to be true. While the spell still works, the damage done to Aegon's army is minimal and they manage to escape intact. Euron is naturally less then pleased. > Euron: "How many uncles have lied and killed to cheat their nephews of their due? Thousands! Tens of thousands! And now! Only now! At my moment of triumph does it come to light that for the first time in the history of mankind an uncle told the truth?" * And the Giant Awoke: When Euron and Tywin make their plans for dealing with each other — raid into the other's lands to force the enemy to retreat and fight in their own terms — all of them are for nothing when a storm forces both fleets to change course and they meet in the middle of the sea. * Ned Stark Lives! reveals that Jaqen H'ghar had been hired by \|\|the Great Other\|\| to kill \|\|Jon\|\|. Arya's presence in the Night's Watch caravan completely derailed that plan, though. * Silly Love Songs: Otto Hightower's plan to wed his daughter Alicent to the recently widowed King Viserys is scarpered by a servant who gives Alicent the wrong directions to the king's bedchamber, leading her to strike up a relationship with the king's younger brother Aegon. Star Trek * In the Star Trek: The Next Generation fic "Surviving Offspring", Lal ("The Offspring") proves to be this to Lore's attempt to manipulate Data with negative emotions ("Descent"); while Lal is also susceptible to Lore's attempt to broadcast negative emotions to Data while disrupting his ethical subroutines via Lore's Borg minions, since Lal has her own independent emotions she's able to recognise that her current state is the result of external influence and thus warn the Enterprise crew of Lore's involvement in advance. Star Wars * In Exchange Star Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin being swapped with their younger/older selves acts as this to Palpatine's plans; the older Anakin and Obi-Wan are able to more easily deal with the threat on Naboo while the presence of the younger Obi-Wan and Anakin forces Palpatine to expose his true agenda before he was ready to save his life. * Prior to the events of Execute Order 65, a computer error on Kamino mixed up Order 66 (the order to execute all Jedi) with Order 65 (the order to arrest the Supreme Chancellor and kill them if they resist). Because of this, when Palpatine tries to wipe out the Jedi Order, the clones all abandon the war en masse to hunt him down instead. He lasts a week before getting gunned down in an alley. * The escape sequence in Revan's Story is a series of spanners caught in other spanners. Like in canon, the protagonists anticipate capture by the ship Leviathan, so they each come up with a plan to escape and free the others. Unlike in canon, Darth Bandon throws a wrench in their plans. First, he stops HK and T-3's plans because \|\|he recognizes Revan's personal assassination droid\|\|, and orders his troops to wipe their memories and physically restrain them in case the wipe doesn't go deep enough. Second, he stops Jolee's plan to Jedi Mind Trick the guard into solitary confinement because he knows what the trick looks like. Third, he senses Juhani sneaking through the Force and overpowers her. Canderous's plan of faking his death is eliminated for being risky, and Zaalbar is absent. \|\|Only Mission's plan goes undetected by virtue of not starting until she's away from Bandon, and even then she's almost caught. The party isn't recaptured because Admiral Karath, the last spanner, was also The Mole\|\|. * Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan Kenobi: Senator Ach'ki Mandai, one of many "unimportant" senators that Palpatine ignored for not being politically powerful, calls for a vote of no confidence on Palpatine and suggests Obi-Wan Kenobi as his replacement. The vote succeeds, and all of Palpatine's plans slowly go down the drain. + Palpatine hires an assassin to get rid of Obi-Wan, intending to kill her as part of his usual M.O. to not leave any clues behind. However, the members of her assassins' guild always carry a particular weapon for this type of situation, and manages to shoot him: while the shot isn't lethal, it fills Palpatine with nanomachines that other members of her guild can detect. And one of them decides to work with the Jedi, who realize the Dark Lord of the Sith they're looking for is the one that killed the assassin. Super Mario Bros. * In Clash of the Elements, \|\|Fawful, Alpha and Mario are this to Cackletta's plans. And Bowser too, for freeing the Star Spirits from their imprisonment\|\|. Supergirl * Hellsister Trilogy: During the Apokoliptian War, Darkseid is always at least three steps ahead of his enemies, and he comes very close to win. His plan only fails because of one factor he couldn't have foreseen: Supergirl being near D'reema right when he spoke the Anti-Life Equation. Before succumbing to the Anti-Life Equation, which destroys Free Will, Kara had just enough time to hypnotize D'Reema into speaking the opposite Equation, thus cancelling out its effects. * Kara of Rokyn: Lex Luthor's plan to kidnap his sister Lena and his nephew fails because his enforcers accidentally stumble on Captain Strong, who looks like a regular old guy but is in fact a vicious, super-strong street brawler. Knowing nothing about him, they underestimate him and are brutally beaten up. > Luthor's enforcers had learned to respect superheroes and never take a foe for granted. Chances are, the old guy facing them was tough, a brawler, but they could handle that. They were also three or four to one, depending on how you counted the Siamese twins, Pluto and Plato Statler. > The problem was, nobody had ever briefed them on Captain Strong. Superman * Adventures of a Super Family: Lex Luthor's plan to destroy an upcoming company rival by sabotaging its experimental plane engine during an exhibit gets foiled when an unknown super-hero suddenly shows up and saves the plane. > The plan had been so straightforward as to almost be laughable. Sabotage the plane's engine, making it crash, then blaming it on the new navigation system. Sure, any engineer worth his salt would say that a faulty navigation system would not make an engine explode, but with the plane splattered across half of Metropolis and a few hundred people dead in the crash, no one would have listened. The company would have never recovered from this public relations disaster. > But the plan had not worked. All because some comic book superheroine had chosen that exact moment to step into the limelight. Was this a joke? Was some cosmic deity playing a prank? The world gains a superhero just in time to sabotage his plans? * New Beginnings (Smallville): After being exposed, Clark intends to go back a few days in order to discredit Linda Lake's before she can out him. Linda's interference, though, causes him and Lois to travel all the way back to 2001. Teen Titans * Jewel of Darkness: The only reason Midnight's plan to \|\|torture Robin to insanity\|\| fails is because \|\|Ai betrays her on orders from Trigon\|\|, something she couldn't have possibly anticipated. Ten Little Roosters * In this fancomic series, every one of \|\|Barbara\|\|'s attempts (and traps) to murder their Rooster Teeth colleagues is foiled due to the others' sheer dumb luck (with a few cases of taking a level in intelligence). The result? Everyone ends up surviving: + \|\|Michael's poisoned glass\|\| breaks before they have a chance to \|\|drink from it\|\|. + \|\|Gavin and his clone\|\| manage to catch themselves, preventing them from \|\|falling in the mousetraps\|\|. + None of \|\|the arrows\|\| wind up hitting \|\|Chris\|\|. + When reaching for the extra gun, \|\|Burnie\|\| spots \|\|the scorpion\|\| and shoots it. + \|\|Gus\|\| slams the door on the Killer. + \|\|Adam\|\| trips over a cord just as \|\|the Killer is about to strangle them\|\|. + \|\|The puma\|\| decides they're more interested in being \|\|petted by Lindsay\|\| than \|\|mauling her to death\|\|. + The part of \|\|the treadmill\|\| that \|\|Miles is glued to\|\| breaks off completely. Transformers * Black Crayons; + In A Child's Innocence, \|\|Annabelle tells Megatron that she thinks Dylan Gould and Sentinel Prime are responsible for what is happening in Chicago. This serves as a blow to Megatron's ego as he takes this to mean that the Autobots and their human allies see him as less of a threat and that Dylan and Sentinel have overshadowed him. This leads him to attack Sentinel to reassert his status. Note that Annabelle really does believe that Dylan and Sentinel are the ones responsible for what is happening in Chicago based on what she was told and has no idea that Megatron is actually the one who is behind everything.\|\| + In Not According to Plan, the teenagers' plan to make anti-Cybertronian propaganda would have gone much better if Annabelle hadn't decided to join the other kids that were going to be in the propaganda. - Wheelie also throws a wrench into the works by uploading an unedited video of Annabelle and the other children befriending him all over the Internet. Victorious * Mid-way through Start from Scratch, Jade has been convinced to return to Beck after running away from his drunken abuse to stay with Tori, as Beck's demonstrated that he's genuinely trying to change to the extent that he's able to show her his sixty-days-sober chip. However, when Jade runs into a casting agent she recently had an audition with while out for a walk, the agent mentions that she was told Jade couldn't accept the part as she had to have knee surgery. With this as a catalyst, Jade checks back regarding a couple of other recent rejected auditions to get a similar story, and a talk with a psychiatrist helps her realise that Beck has been sabotaging her auditions with the goal of breaking her spirit so that she won't have the "incentive" to be anything more than his meek, devoted wife. Worm * Atonement: The Slaughterhouse Nine might have gotten a new member in Ruin had Mnemosyne not interfered, turned Burnscar against the rest of the Nine, and freed Hunter. * Quicken: Emma accidentally and inadvertently causes a gang war only because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time wearing the wrong clothes. X-Men * Devil's Diary: Before his first outing, Magneto looked into the then-current cadre of heroes and villains and decided neither of them would want or be able to stop his coup. Yet still he was driven away by five heroes whom nobody had previously seen before... although he KNEW who they were working for. > Damnable adolescent yearlings, every one of them, like the beardless youths Hitler put against the Allies when all his other defenses were cracking. Except these yearlings had power. None of them equal to mine, individually. But they knew how to effectively combine what they had. And they had luck, three times damned three times luck, and NO ONE HAD EVER SEEN THEM BEFORE. > All mutants. > Three males, one female, and one snow-being whose sex is impossible to determine at this point. > An unknown quantity. > An x-factor. > A XAVIER FACTOR. ---	SpannerInTheWorks	null
SpiderMan	# Shadow Archetype - Spider-Man Spider-Man ============ Shadow Archetype in Spider-Man. --- * The classic is Doctor Octopus, whose powers come from the "other" famous eight-legged creature and whose powers also involved an atomic mishap. Like Peter, Otto Octavius was also bullied and also has a gift for science. He is what Spider-Man could have easily become if he let his powers go to his head. + And Superior Spider-Man (2013) takes Ock's role as this up to eleven, as he gets to literally become Spider-Man, and when confronted with the same choices as Peter, proceeds to make the opposite and more ethically dodgy decisions. Jeopardizing the public to spend more time with loved ones, winning public support by being unnecessarily brutal with criminals (even terrorizing JJJ for good publicity), forcing the symbiote to stay bonded with him despite its own wishes... it all comes back to bite him, though. * The Scorpion parallels Spider-Man's arachnid-based powers and costume. Though he is quite different from Spider-Man in personality, being a crazed villain, he still lets one guess what Spider-Man could be like if he cared for number one and didn't consider the consequences of his actions or inaction on others. * The Green Goblin parallels Spider-Man's Halloweenish or creepy style (even going so far as to throw exploding jack-o-lanterns!), has similar strength and agility, and shares Peter's sense of humor and love of adventure. If Parker had more ambition and less sense of responsibility for the well-being of other people, Osborn is what he could be. If Spider-Man allowed himself to have more fun, and care less about doing what is right or beneficial, he'd be like the Goblin. * Venom (Eddie Brock) has many of Peter's powers, sense of humor, and represents what he would have become if he hadn't had the stable, loving upbringing that he had with Ben and May. Even after his transition into an Anti-Hero, Venom is still a Pragmatic Hero who more or less represents what Spider-Man could have been if he were fully willing to kill. * Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) takes Venom's role as this a step further, as they basically had the same backstory, only Eddie didn't have a loving Aunt and Uncle after his parents died to steer him on the right track or even give him a inkling of what not to do. (as with Eddie's abusive dad from 616, Carl). * Kaine is Peter's defective clone, who would later take the mantle of the Scarlet Spider. While bearing the same power set, Kaine is first an Anti-Villain, then a brutal Nominal Hero, and finally an Anti-Hero who claims to pride himself on having all of the power but none of the responsibility that comes with it. Of course, those damned Parker genes won't let him abdicate that responsibility, and he later claims it outright, telling an insane Ben Reilly that Reilly doesn't deserve to be the Scarlet Spider any more. * Both Spider-Man and The Lizard are both people who got their powers by accident because of science, The Lizard show just how wrong his mutation could have gone. * Mysterio reflects Spider-Man's desire for respect and his temptation to use his powers for his own selfish gains instead of helping others. Both were people who felt unappreciated and downtrodden most of their lives and started out using their special gifts for money and fame but while Peter learns with great power comes great responsibility Mysterio stays a selfish jerk. * The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski): Ezekiel Sims, when he was younger, got spider powers from a spider bite and wanted to be a superhero, but he believed that he needed a power base and wealth for his career as a superhero, focusing first on using his powers to found a company and gain wealth and resources. Eventually, Ezekiel gives up his goal of being a superhero and moves towards owning his own company and gaining wealth. Ezekiel Sims is what Peter Parker could've been if he had just continued focusing on only using his powers for himself and using his powers only to help himself and get wealth. Ezekiel himself realizes this when he becomes allies with Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and while battling a supernatural giant spider in a temple. Ezekiel realizes that Peter is a true hero, while he was selfish with his powers his whole life, so he sacrifices himself to save Peter and redeem himself in the end. * The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott): Alpha (Andrew Maguire) is a shadow archetype to Spider-Man (Peter Parker). The two teenagers got power and became superheroes; both initially became superheroes for profit. However, there are a few differences in that Andrew wasn't a nerd; instead, he wasn't part of any social groups and didn't have any specific skills to stand out, and he appeared to come from a neglectful family (it's implied that Andrew's parents don't spend time with him, preferring to focus on their own life to the point of his having to sign his own permission slip to go on a field trip), unlike Peter, a science nerd who was very close to his aunt and uncle who was always there and supportive of their nephew Peter. Like Peter, he doesn't have any close friends at school, but unlike Peter, he isn't unpopular; instead, he is unknown to his classmates. The difference is that Andrew's powers and popularity as a superhero went completely to his head as he started to care more about the money, the fame, and his power than the people around him, going so far as to cheat on his nerdy girlfriend with a popular cheerleader from his school, emancipating himself from his parents, and striking out with the family lawyer for greater fame and profit; in contrast with Peter who at the beginning of his career, even at his worst genuinely cared about his aunt and uncle and wanted to use his powers to support them as thanks for everything they did for him, and he was genuinely loyal to his first girlfriend Betty Brant who was his only friend despite the problems in their relationship because of his secret identity as Spider-Man. Andrew Maguire is what Peter Parker could've been if Peter had been neglected by his parents and let his power and fame go to his head. Their careers as superheroes show that, while Peter learned his lesson and remained supportive of his friends and family while becoming a great superhero, Andrew let money and fame get to his head, pushed his parents and girlfriend away, and became a danger to the point where he was depowered, leaving him with nothing at the end of his story. Eventually, Andrew moved to Pittsburgh and, humbled by the experiences and how he pushed everyone away, started taking being a superhero seriously. * The Amazing Spider-Man (2014): Clayton Cole (Clash) is the shadow archetype of Peter Parker (Spider-Man). Both were geniuses who used their intelligence to help with their superpowered careers. Both were outcasts because of their intelligence. However, the key difference is that Clayton wasn't close to his parents, who homeschooled him to nurture his intelligence. Peter became a superhero to support his family, but eventually, because of a tragedy, he became a superhero to help people. Clayton wanted to be a superhero because he wanted attention and to boost his self-esteem, but he eventually decided to be a supervillain, which would be easier. Eventually, Peter overcame his flaws and became a successful superhero. At the same time, Clayton was defeated early in Peter's career, and he went to juvie while growing up to become a henchman to different villains. He never lived up to his potential as a scientist until recently when Peter decided to help him out after meeting him again. * Spectacular Spider Man 1000: Craig Williams and Noah Talbert served as shadow archetypes for Flash Thompson and Peter Parker, showing what could have happened to Flash and Peter if things happened more differently and negatively. Craig is a jock that worships Spider-Man, while Noah is one of the nerds he bullied. Craig had an abusive father like Flash, which affected Craig negatively. Eventually, because of Craig's hero worship of Spider-Man, he decides to stop being a bully, but unfortunately, at the same time, Noah chose to confront Craig with a gun before he was talked down by Peter Parker, who was a science teacher at the school. Craig lost the respect of his classmates over that incident, and his gym teacher, Flash Thompson, angrily confronted him over his actions before kicking him off the football team. Craig, after confronting his abusive father, ran away and became a criminal. Spider-Man arrested Craig, and he went to jail, where he became a broken man. Craig and Noah are a tragic example of what could've happened to Flash and Peter if things were different and they went down the wrong path. * Spider-Man 3: Eddie Brock (Venom) represents what Peter Parker could have become if the latter gave in to the symbiote's power trip and let his power go to his head. * Spider-Man: No Way Home: Webb-Verse Peter Parker is portrayed as being a rather light one to MCU: Peter Parker. After his Gwen Stacy died, this Peter committed himself fully to being Spider-Man and eventually found himself becoming an Unscrupulous Hero. He sees MCU Peter starting to go down this path as well \|\|after his Aunt May gets killed by the Green Goblin\|\| and tries his best to caution him from doing so. To a lesser degree he is also this to Raimi-Verse Peter, who also struggled with his anger after Ben's death as shown with his desire for revenge against Flint Marko as shown in Spider-Man 3. * Spider-Man: Spider-Verse + Just like the Kingpin, Peter B. Parker drove his wife away from him, and he has difficulty coming to terms with what he did, and instead spends most of the film fixating on an alternate version of her \|\|who when he meets, he tries to beg forgiveness and understanding from, just like Fisk does at the climax\|\|. However, thanks to Miles and Gwen, and his own conscience, he manages to get over this, and finally finds the strength and courage to take responsibility for his own actions. + From what can be hinted about Aaron Davis, he represents what Miles Morales could grow up into if he wasn't pushed towards making better life choices and challenging himself by stepping out of his comfort zone. * Spider-Man (Insomniac): Otto Octavius (Doctor Octopus) is one to Ben Parker. Both are important father figures to Peter Parker but their legacies are very different from each other. Whilst Uncle Ben ultimately dies a good, just man who (most likely) taught Peter that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, Otto is ultimately imprisoned for letting his rage and genius corrupt him and impose his power and intellect onto others, something he emphasizes to Peter before being sent to the Raft. * The Spectacular Spider-Man: Harry Osborn can be seen as a shadow archetype to Peter Parker (Spider-Man). Both are teenagers influenced by their father figures and are unpopular in high school. However, the key difference is that Peter is positively influenced by his father figure, his uncle Ben Parker, and becomes a better person. Harry's father figure, his father, Norman Osborn, negatively influences him for the worse. Despite Peter's flaws, he has shown himself to be a good person even with the strain of being a superhero, his mistakes, and his superhero and personal life. Harry, on the other hand, appears to be a good friend but has shown himself to be completely selfish and would always make choices that would gain him what he wants, like popularity and his father's respect, at the expense of his actual friends. Put simply, Harry is what Peter Parker could've been if he had a negative father figure/mentor and never grew past his selfish attitude upon gaining powers. * Ultimate Spider-Man (2012): Alex O'Hirn (Rhino) is one to Peter Parker (Spider-Man), of all people. Both are \|\|unpopular smart kids from the same school who got mutated by Oscorp Mutagen (though Spidey got luckier); both got bullied by Flash\|\|; And Rhino even admitted that he wanted to be like Spider-Man, hence why he started drinking the mutagen. The difference is that \|\|Peter went on to use his powers as a hero and tried to help Flash be a better person, while Alex took the path of revenge and raised his hatred of Flash to creepily psychotic levels.\|\| * Marvel's Spider-Man: Otto Octavius's basically what Peter Parker would've turned into without the kindness and support of Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Like Peter, he's a promising man of science who was bullied for his intelligence. Without anyone to support him and put him on the right path, however, Otto became obsessed with proving his superiority over those who belittled him, which evolved into a full-blown Inferiority Superiority Complex that would lead him to eventually becoming a supervillain. Upon finding out about his past, Peter notes how they're Mirror Characters. * Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Although the two of them are from different social circles, with Lonnie Lincoln being a jock, and Peter Parker, being a nerd, Lonnie is nevertheless a shadow archetype to Peter, fitting with how he is the Deuteragonist of the first season. Both are gifted students at Rockford T. Bales High School who struggle to juggle their double lives while under the wing of shady mentors, who they eventually come to distrust and become independent of. However, while Peter is a superhero who simply finds a well-meaning but unethical benefactor in the form of Norman Osborn, breaking away from him to continue serving the people of New York as an independent hero, Lonnie is brought into a life of crime under the outright manipulative and corruptive Big Donovan, and remains a gangster even after \|\|Donovan abandons him as he becomes the new leader of the 110th Street Gang\|\|. Furthermore, while Peter, despite everything, remains dedicated to his passion for science and maintains his friendships with Nico and Harry, \|\|Lonnie pretty much abandons his school life and his relationship with Pearl when it becomes clear he cannot live up to their expectations of him anymore as a member of the 110th.\|\| ---	ShadowArchetype	null
Literature	# One Winged Angel - Literature --- * There's something of a sort like this in American Gods, as the deities seem to have a form that shows one of their believers whose faith was strong enough to make them real. Thus, Mr. Nancy/Anasi has this form of an African boy with a distended stomach and infected leg and \|\|Hinzelmann\|\| shows a child pierced by swords, which actually reflects his being created through human sacrifice. Interestingly, The Other Wiki novel for the character indicates that this was actually that character's true form in the original stories. * Animorphs: Viser Three has dozens of these over the course of the series, rarely using the same one twice. Fridge Horror ensues when you realize that there are species of these for him to acquire DNA from. You can only acquire DNA while in your native form, and while Andalites such as the one the Visser possesses have the slashing tail of doom, that'd barely inconvenience some of the nastier beasties the Visser has turned into — some of whom have projectile attacks like fire and venom and spears. A centaur with a pointy tail managed to get close enough to these things to actually touch. (Yeah, acquiring puts 'em into a trance... but you gotta touch 'em first.) One of them is actually a natural predator of his race, evolved to remove Yeerks from their hosts to eat. * The Ashtown Burials has this as a feature of the Odyssean Cloak \|\|a.k.a. Dr. Phoenix's lab coat\|\|, which increases the wearer's mental powers when worn at the price of transforming them into a rampaging Hulk-like monster when it is removed. The climactic battle of The Dragon's Tooth has Nolan attempt to draw out this form intentionally, as \|\|taking and destroying the discarded coat would have killed Phoenix\|\|. * Beren and Lúthien: It happens to Sauron when he faces Lúthien and Huan on the Isle of the Werewolves. Starting off in a fair form, he attempts to defeat Huan by switching to huge scary werewolf mode, then realizes he's in trouble and does a lot of rapid shapeshifting to no avail. When he strikes a bargain with Lúthien, giving her mastery over the island in return for freedom, he shifts into a vampire/bat-thing shape to escape. * In the Blood Angels novel Deus Sanguinius, Arkio starts to metamorphise under the influence of Chaos. Inquisitor Stele can contain it, but \|\|at the climax, fighting Rafen, he starts to bleed black blood, and then to change in form. Rafen shows him himself in a mirror and he breaks it in rage. Then the Spear of Telesto rejects him\|\|. * Coraline: Justified, since \|\|as Coraline collects the children's eyes, Other Mother's power fades it causes Glamour Failure\|\|. * The Crimson Shadow: In the last novel of the trilogym, Greensparrow takes on his shared dragon form, fighting the hero Luthien in this form at the end. * In The Dark Hunters, the leader of the Dark-Hunters, Acheron, is in actuality an Atlantean god. This means that if he's pissed beyond all hope of redemption, he turns blue, gets black horns, nails, and lips, and rips the ever-loving everything out of most everyone. Bonus points for the ability to end the world should he go visit his mother in Atlantean Hell. * The Dark Profit Saga: Orconomics: Called "true forming" in adventurer circles: > “What's true forming?” Niln asked amid the heroes' laughter. > “Oh, you think you've defeated me,” mimicked Kaitha, “but now let me show you my true form! Har har har!” > “For some reason, I let you break my Human body and trash half of my lair before I really started fighting! Bwa ha ha!” said Laruna. “Gods, it's annoying.” > “So what happened?” asked Niln, interrupting the heroes' mirth. > “What?” asked Laruna, wiping a tear from her eye. > “With the warlord in the volcano? What happened when he true formed?” > Laruna looked uncomfortable. “Oh, er, he turned into a two-story-tall demonic slug, ate our rogue and our priestess, and crippled our fighter before we put him down.” * Demon Lord 2099: \|\|Veltol baits Marcus\|\| into nearly killing him, as his real form only activates when defeated normally. \|\|Takahashi putting his stream into public and Veltol reverse-engineering a Familia also helped. Cue Marcus getting pathetically curb-stomped as he can't do anything.\|\| * In Distortionverse, \|\|Bertrand Brillouin\|\| — the villain of Chapter 5, Rumori di Fondo — turns into a three-metres-tall monster with six eyes, six bladed arms, chainsaw teeth, and spike-harpoons-spawning shoulders. * Doctor Who Expanded Universe: + In the Faction Paradox series, the more the Time Lord Expies regenerate, the more like this they become until they're nothing but sentient masses of weaponry and defensive devices. You wouldn't like to meet 'em. + This is rather in-line with aspects of regeneration dating back to the 1980s in the EU. The novelization of "The Twin Dilemma" mentions that Time Lords who (for whatever reason) undertake regeneration multiple times again immediately after regenerating, without seeking rest or medical help, run the risk of becoming, with progressive rapid regenerations, eldritch abominations at best. At worst? Sentient goo lumps. + Later novels revealed that the earliest Time Lords with regenerative capabilities sometimes would merge with any nearby biomass when regenerating. This could be as simple as taking on aspects of the last meal they had eaten, but given the right conditions... * The Dresden Files: + Red Court vampires can either take the form of beautiful young men and women... or hideous black rubbery bat-creatures. The human form is an illusion, which is bad news for anyone who's infected. + Also, this is explicitly the main power of the Knights of the Blackened Denarii. The fallen angels they carry around can change them from human into some horrible form for combat, with a twisted Angelic rune on their forehead and a second set of eyes. So far we have seen: A snake-man, a medusa-haired human/panther thing, a six-legged horned fanged bear, a normal human with a shadow that will strangle you, an obsidian statue, a feathery tentacled thing, a praying mantis with little praying mantises for blood, an emaciated grayish spiny humanoid, and various forms of big and ugly and scaly and hairy. In a subversion, Nicodemus (the head Denarian) explicitly does not have a One-Winged Angel form. He prefers to act as The Chessmaster, and his Fallen Angel Anduriel's skills are far more suited to this as well. * Earthsea: In "The Rule of Names", two sorcerers get into a duel involving shapeshifting; it ends with one back in his human form, and the other a dragon. The human says something like, "I'm tired of this; it ends now; show me your true shape, by the power of your True Name." He speaks the Name. The dragon is unaffected, and replies, "That is my true name; this is my true shape." CHOMP! * Fablehaven: + Tanu's growth potion. + In the finale of book 2, Fablehaven's artifact is guarded by a seemingly harmless cat. When you kill it, it is resurrected as a larger cat. This happens seven more times, until it has become a winged, three-headed, three-tailed monstrosity with snakes sprouting from its back that shoots acid. + \|\|When Gavin (a.k.a. the demon-dragon Navarog) scales up into his dragon form.\|\| * The Finder's Stone Trilogy: + At the end of Azure Bonds, final bad guy Phalse goes from a mostly unassuming Halfling into a big Beholder with teeth stalks instead of eye stalks. + For the final battle of The Wyvern's Spur, the hero polymorphs into a wyvern, and the villain into a dragon. * Mrs. Whitestone, from Hell's Children. * A rare heroic example occurs in the climax of The Magicians, in which \|\|Alice\|\| weaponizes a Magic Misfire to transform herself into a Niffin powerful enough to slay the Beast. It works — at the cost of her humanity. * Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn: Upon being summoned back into the world by Pryrates, the Storm King takes on an Eldritch Abomination-esque form that must have been a lot of fun for the author to write. * Defied in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, in the sense that the Big Bad Kronos is trying to achieve the power of returning to his true form, instead of possessing his follower Luke. But the efforts of Percy, Zeus, and all their allies prevent this effect — and Kronos is so strong even without his true form that we can infer that nothing could have stopped him if he had gone One-Winged Angel. Kronos is never fought in anything but a form which is just as human (not completely human, but definitely not comparable to a the gods and titans like Kronos) as Percy Jackson himself. * During the climax of The Pilo Family Circus, Kurt Pilo slowly starts to lose his cool: the angrier he gets, the more inhuman and reptilian he becomes, growing to an enormous height in the process. It's implied that this form is actually a "benefit" of being the highest-ranking servant of the Things Beneath the Showgrounds... and that shortly after inheriting control over the circus, Kurt decided to demonstrate his newfound gift to his father. * Saintess Summons Skeletons: + Sofia \|\|is faced with an impossible fight within her first filter trial, so she performs a Human Sacrifice ritual with herself as both the victim and target, and turns into an Apostle of Sorrow, granting her a demonic form with immense strength and toughness, and potent magical abilities. Outside the trial, Sorrow decides that she has shown promise, despite not performing the ritual for real, and grants her ongoing access to the form, but only when she has no mana, plus she incurs an XP debt when she uses it, so it's a backup form for serious fights\|\|. + The Incarnation of Victory can turn from an orc into an impossibly thin humanoid figure covered in eyes, which can infest opponents with a touch. However, it must constantly draw in mana to sustain itself. \|\|Sofia slows it down by increasing its regeneration speed, making it drain the area dry and burn out as she jumps clear.\|\| * Inverted in the last volume of The Seventh Tower. Sharrakor, the shapeshifting Big Bad, opens the final battle in his Nigh-Invulnerable dragon form, which the heroes are no match for. Midway through the battle, the sorceress Malen manages to magically force him to take on a much weaker humanoid form, in which he is killable. * In The Silver Chair, Prince Rilian expresses relief that The Vamp who'd kidnapped him turned into a giant serpent when she tried to kill him, because "It would not have suited well either with my heart or with my honor to have slain a woman." (though he probably would have if she forced the issue). * Skulduggery Pleasant: + Lord Vile's armor tends to have this effect \|\|along with Superpowered Evil Side\|\|. + The Torment can turn into a giant black spider. + \|\|Melancholia\|\| has this forced upon her and it also seems to be the case for people who learn their true names (although physically they don't change at all). * All Mazoku in Slayers can look human; the degree of which depends on how powerful they are. Low-ranking Mazoku are easy to spot, as they have monstrous attributes. Mid-ranking Mazoku are a little harder; they look completely human, save for some traits that are off, such as a wrong skin color, but considering that there are talking animals in the series, it's not that big of a deal. Lastly, high-ranking Mazoku look completely human. However, if they're pushed, they can transform into a "beast mode" which turns them into their real forms. * Several villains in Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle take a large dose of the drug Elixir to turn themselves into Nocturnals, beings that are compared by the narration to demons. They get black skin, white hair and massively increased physical abilities. If the transformation extends to their whole body, it will eventually kill them, overlapping with Deadly Upgrade. * Underworlds: In the final book, Loki transforms into an icy dragon to defeat the children and reach Odin's throne. However, Owen returns him to his true form by plunging his sword into his chest. * The sixth Xanth book, Night Mare, has an interesting twist: the protagonist, Mare Imbri, is a "Night Mare". When, in a climactic scene, she confronts a shape-shifting villain, he almost saves himself by shifting from human form into horse form. Imbri does eventually defeat him, but it becomes much, much harder to do so. It isn't just because she can't hurt a fellow horse either, it's because she's in heat at the time. * In Zero Sight, transforming into something stronger one of the abilities of the vampires — they call it "manifesting". \|\|Rei Bathory, the main love interest of the protagonist of the series,\|\| does this at the end of book two. ---	OneWingedAngel	null
Literature	# Spanner In The Works - Literature Examples of Spanner in the Works in Literature. --- ### Examples by creator: * It's impossible to count how many murderers in Agatha Christie novels would have got away scot-free with a nearly The Perfect Crime... if not for Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple just happening to be on the scene. Murder on the Orient Express might be the ultimate example as an otherwise meticulous murder plan is thrown off by A) Poirot suddenly boarding the train at the last minute and B) an avalanche stranding the train on a snowy mountain. * Pick any Clive Cussler novel. The villains have amazing, incredibly and often brilliant ideas that can't possibly fail. Then enters a NUMA oceanographer/adventurer (Dirk Pitt or Kurt Austin), the able crew of a seemingly-run down cargo ship (The Oregon Files) or a treasure-hunting husband and wife (Sam and Remi Fargo) and everything goes completely to pot. + The Mediterranean Caper has Pitt lampshading that had he just stayed in bed one morning rather than go for a jog on the beach, he'd have never gotten involved in the wild drug-smuggling plot. Likewise, much of Iceberg would have been different had Pitt not flown into the heart of a deadly ocean storm. + In Iceberg, Kirsti Fyrie reveals that \|\|she's actually her supposedly "dead" brother Kristjan, having faked her death to undergo gender reassignment surgery and be the woman she's always wanted to be\|\|. She relates how she planned to use the Hermit Limited company for her own means to help the world. But "the totally unexpected and unforeseen coincidence spelled disaster to the new life I had carefully planned": Of all \|\|the plastic surgeons in the world, Kristjan had to pick one who worked for Hermit Limited. The surgeon told boss Oskar Rondheim and thus gave him the perfect material to blackmail Kirsti\|\|. + Night Probe: - Bank robber Kyle Massey had a brilliant plan: \|\|hijack a train with a shipment of gold coins on board, make it look like it fell into a river via a broken bridge, and reroute it to a mine. After sealing off the main entrance with explosives, Massey could force the passengers to help unload the gold which he and his men would take through a tunnel and leave the passengers to get back to civilization\|\|. Pitt comments how "the best laid plans, etc." ruined it: When \|\|Massey set off his explosives, it opened up fissures in the mine rock and allowed water to flood the escape tunnel, condemning everyone in the mine to a slow death by starvation\|\|. - The same book has villain Foss Gly brilliantly impersonate Henri Villion, a man about to become the leader of a newly freed Quebec. Even Villion's own wife and mistress fail to see this is Gly in disguise. He goes to Canadian prime minister Charles Sarveux for a meeting. What Gly doesn't know is that Sarveux knows that at this exact moment, the real Villion is having a liason with Sarveux's wife and thus this has to be a convincing imposter. ### Examples by work title: * Accidental Detectives: The criminal plot driving Madness at Moonshiners Bay would have ended years before Ricky was even born if not for \|\|Mr. Johnson giving his blackmailer a fake treasure map before being forced to leave the country\|\|. * In Angel in the Whirlwind: The Oncoming Storm, Kat Falcone intercepts a ship carrying a princess of the Theocracy who is trying to defect to the Commonwealth. \|\|She alerts Kat to a fleet buildup on the border planning to invade, and Kat goes to check it out and ends up blowing the lid off Admiral Junayd's entire plan, forcing him to launch the invasion right then, before his supply lines have caught up, or risk having the Commonwealth 6th Fleet actually be ready for him.\|\| * Asian Saga: John "Anjin-san" Blackthorne is a rather magnificent one, as circumstances force him into a key role in the Gambit Pileup of choosing Japan's next shogun in the year 1600. And he's based on a real guy, to boot. * Belisarius Series: In The Dance of Time, the final book, there is a side plot of a Malwa assassination team tasked to kill Byzantine Emperor Photius and Empress Tahmina but keeps getting foiled by unexpected changes of plans of their targets. The team follows them for thousands of miles while the plot of the rest of the novel occurs around them. At the end they \|\|run across the fleeing Malwa emperor and the Big Bad (currently inhabiting the body of an eight-year-old girl). They kill him and his guards and wound her, which makes it possible for the good guys to finally achieve complete victory\|\|. They get rewarded by being sent into exile with the series' Manipulative Bastard. * The Berenstain Bears Big Chapter Books: + In The Berenstain Bears Accept No Substitutes, when Brother Bear has learned that Too-Tall is planning a serious prank (to dump water on Ms. Barr's head during class), he plans to arrive at school early and warn her. Unfortunately, Papa turns out to be this trope when he insists Brother take a certain frog back to Frog Pond on the way, which leads to Brother and Freddy getting to class late (not helped by Too-Tall locking the door to the classroom) and unable to alert Ms. Barr before she gets soaked. + In The Berenstain Bears and the Red-Handed Thief, the titular "red-handed thief" turns out to just be trying to teach the cubs a lesson about wrongfully jumping to conclusions, and is planning on returning the stolen items when the time is right. The Bear Detectives, however, end up accidentally disrupting this plan by planting a paint bomb in Brother's locker, the day before the planned event. * The Black Tattoo is an incredibly epic example. Jack Farrel began as an Audience Surrogate who was only there because his best friend Charlie refused to join the secret society dedicated to protecting the world from a demon known as the Scourge without him, and really had no greater purpose in the main plot. Charlie's foolishness and arrogance get Jack accidentally sent to Hell, but Jack's determination and desire to help his friends eventually drive him to help Action Girl Esme stop Charlie and the Scourge, and it's his actions that ultimately wind up saving the world. * In Bystander, the villains run into a very severe example of this, when they have a great plan to capture Lucretia, and are foiled by two details. One, they have a severely incorrect estimation of her power level, and two: \|\|Her feet don't touch the ground\|\|. Fortunately, Lucretia's complete inability to fight helps put their plans back on track. \|\|Almost.\|\| * The Castle in the Attic: William himself, since it is his arrival at court that wins the captain of the guard's loyalty, melts Calendar's heart (or gives her the impetus and moment to finally achieve revenge), and provides the skills to bring down Alastor. Not to mention it's his ability to turn the leaden back into flesh (and then his decision to \|\|shrink Mrs. Phillips\|\|) that enables him to intervene in the first place. * CHERUB Series: + In Class A, James infiltrates the family life of a notorious drug lord named Keith Moore, being taken with them as a plus-one to a vacation in Miami. His mission controllers believe that Keith is using the vacation as a chance to sneak aboard a ship and book it to Brazil as he realizes the law is about to catch up to him. Unbeknownst to everyone else though, Keith's suppliers aren't happy that he's dropping out of the drug trade and try to torture and kidnap the offshore bank account numbers out of him. They only fail because James was there and, by sheer chance, wasn't in the house the night they raided the place, allowing him enough time to kill one of them and call the police, foiling their plan. + Downplayed in Maximum Security. James is given a detailed plan to escape a supermax prison with his target, Curtis Oxford. Everything's going exactly as planned, until the prison's warden arrives several hours earlier than they expected. So now, instead of having a very generous four hours before their escape is detected, they only have about twenty minutes before the warden discovers the guards they incapacitated. They still manage to ultimately succeed, but, due to the unexpectedly rapid police response to their escape, the plan nearly fails at multiple points. + In The Fall, James is assigned to a mission in Russia alongside two M15 agents investigating an oligarch named Denis Obidin. Something goes horribly wrong, with both M15 agents and Obidin killed, and James only barely escaping the country with his life. He discovers from a CIA agent (part of an independent investigation on Obidin) that the two M15 agents were crooked and assassinated Obidin, leaving James for dead while they attempted to escape through a secret passage. They ended up caught because, only a few minutes after they garrotted Obidin, his son came into the room looking for his father after being awoken by a bad dream and discovered his corpse instead, allowing Obidin's brother and the guards to catch the two before they could vacate the premises. * Codex Alera: + Academ's Fury: - \|\|Sarl and the Vord\|\| would have won if it wasn't for one person: \|\|Canim ambassador Varg. He managed to figure out their plan, and because he doesn't like the duplicity involved, goes out of his way to stop it. They did plan for him, but they figure that because he is hated, nothing he says will be believed. And they would have been right, had Varg not ended up skipping diplomacy and outright dragging Tavi to the Vord nest, alerting Tavi to the threat and allowing him to prepare.\|\| - Tavi's aunt Isana was also an unknown factor. She knew about \|\|the Vord\|\| from Calderon, and it was because she \|\|cut a deal with the Aquataines (whom she had hated before) to get support for the legionnaires fighting the Vord in Calderon, and got Invidia Aquitaine to counterattack the Vord, breaking their attack\|\|. + In the next book, Cursor's Fury, Tavi, who was in need of bribe money, steals a purse from an officer who had it out for him and in doing so saves Alera from the Canim. How did he manage that? The purse was part of a plan to let a traitor assume control of the one legion that stood in the Canim's way. \|\|The idea was that Canim ritualists would strike the officers' tent with lightning during a meeting when they were all sure to be inside. The traitor would have a stone that would No-Sell the magic, and allow her to take control of the legion and force them to walk away from the important strategic point they were guarding. The purse that Tavi stole belonged to the traitor and had the stone inside. She was not able to find the stone, and so was forced to flee. The magic lightning struck on schedule, but because the traitor was not there, control was instead handed over to Tavi, who managed to lead the legion to victory. For added Spanner-ness, that very stone was a big part of Tavi's plan to ultimately defeat the Canim.\|\| * Cradle Series: The divine Judge named Suriel decides to show mercy on Lindon by showing him a way to avoid the fated destruction of his homeland in thirty year's time. She is soon called by her peers, who mention that this has had serious consequences for the fate of the planet as a whole. Suriel is shocked — even if Lindon had beaten the million to one odds, saved his homeland, and even ascended from his world entirely, the planet's ultimate fate shouldn't be affected. She is right; her peers find her innocent of making major changes. The problem is that her minor change unexpectedly interacted with a much more major change someone else did: \|\|Ozriel, the missing Judge, had given a memory and a mission to one of his descendants, Eithan Arelius. When Eithan encountered Lindon, he immediately took him under his wing, greatly increasing his chances of growing stronger and affecting the world\|\|, and everything started going off the rails. * The titular assassin of The Day of the Jackal seems well ahead of the international police effort to stop his attempt on Charles de Gaulle until some things come up to derail his plan. Just one of many comes up when his seduction of a baroness to gain a hiding location falls apart when said baroness eavesdrops on a call with his informant, forcing him to kill her and letting the police make him publicly wanted as a common murderer. Ironically, his last spanner was de Gaulle himself, who leaned forward to kiss a recipient on the cheeks instead of shaking his hand like the Jackal expected, therefore making the Jackal's shot miss and giving Lebel enough time to stop him. * "The Dead Past": The historian Potterley, unable to get permission to use the Chronoscope in order to view past events convinces a young physicist to learn enough of the science to make his own. When he learns why the government had been trying to prevent Chronoscope study, it's too late; his fail-safes guaranteed the worldwide publication of a how-to guide on homemade Chronoscope construction, removing all privacy. * The Demon Headmaster: Dinah manages to be both this and an Unwitting Pawn at various points. The Headmaster can easily hypnotize her, and she's very close to being his greatest asset, but she's just intelligent enough to shake it off and bugger it all up at the last minute. For the record: + Book One is the one where they meet. He doesn't know her capabilities. + Book Two has him not knowing her new name. + Book Three has him not even realising she could figure it out. + Book Four has him specifically targeting her for her DNA. + Book Five has \|\|his clone\|\|, who doesn't even know she exists. Dinah stumbles on this one purely by accident. + The final book has him \|\|attempting to demoralize her. He almost wins, and would have had Dinah not had a last-second burst in hearing capability\|\|. * DFZ: Dr. Lyle's accidental death screwed up everyone's plans. It of course screwed up Lyle's plans to lay low until the time was right, but it also screwed up his employer's plans to capture him and torture him for the ritual site. In fact, they spend most of the book under the mistaken impression that he is still alive, screwing themselves over several times as they make decisions based on that assumption. * Leading characters from Discworld have acted as this on occasion: + Witches Abroad has a Batman Gambit based on Narrative Causality fall apart before the sheer onslaught of Nanny Ogg's ordinariness. + Rincewind never wants to get involved in events, being a coward. In Interesting Times, his great ambition is to stay as far away from the villain's Evil Plan as possible. However, he always seems to run away from danger in the direction of even more danger... until he winds up cornered and desperate, at which point he does the right thing in spite of himself. + Some of the more inept members of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, especially Sergeant Colon and Corporal Nobbs, fit this trope. The Watch book Thud! also has Brick the troll, who literally stumbles onto a plot to frame trolls for the death of a well-known dwarf. + Lu Tze is a professional, very intelligent Spanner, and legendary for being so among the History Monks. The secret to his success is that no one pays any attention to the little, wrinkly, smiling old man sweeping the floors. + In the ending of Making Money, protagonist Moist von Lupwig is on trial for the (past) mis-tradings of the bank he is in charge of. Cosmo Lavish and Cribbins are planning to use this opportunity to absolutely discredit him by revealing that before being Chairman of the Bank (and before it, Head Postmaster), Moist was a professional conman and thief and still had a death penalty extant on his nomme de felonie. The first thing Moist does in his witness speech is confess to exactly these crimes, and he remarks internally that he can see the distress in Cosmo and Cribbins' faces immediately. * Being Divergent makes Tris immune to the mind-control serum, which allows her to ultimately stop the attack on Abnegation. * Kender, gully dwarves and gnomes in the Dragonlance series... especially (by their very nature) the kender. While all of the above races have the ability to change events in the past through time travel, due to their origins as races created by the Greygem of Gargath (pure Chaos-in-a-rock), kender have innate fearlessness, insatiable curiosity, guileless but mischievous personalities, and chronic kleptomania as racial traits. Tasselhoff Burrfoot, for example, is both the Unwitting Pawn of Raistlin's evil schemes and the only person unpredictable enough to screw them up. One of the most dreaded sounds on Krynn is the sound of a kender saying 'Oops.' Given the choice between being locked in a room with a hungry dragon or a bored kender, anyone with any sense picks the dragon. Remember, the cruelest thing one can do to a kender is lock him up. The cruelest thing one can do to anyone else is to lock them up with a kender. * The Dresden Files: + Harry in general serves as this for many a grand villainous plan, in much the same fashion as John McClane. (One vampire even weaponized the tendency: upon getting wind of a plot from several other vampires that could also end up with her being removed from power, subtly got Harry involved, knowing that in his investigation of the main plot he would find out who was responsible and taken action of some sort, eliminating the competition. Their plan partially succeeds — it involved killing low-leveled magic users for certain long term results, and a few did die, but that's it.) + In Changes, the heroes are able to narrow down the location of where the sacrifice will occur because even though the records for the first shipment were destroyed, the Red Court still had to transfer another shipment due to the fact that the previous shipment was incomplete due to minion carelessness. As such they needed to keep one copy of the records intact until after the final checkup and they kept the records in the van they needed to use to transport the goods. As such Harry is able to narrow it down and eventually find Chichén Itza, enabling him to blow the Red Court's plan sky high. + The Gatekeeper himself lampshades this in Cold Days. > The Gatekeeper: Unwittingly or not, virtually your every action in the past few years has resulted in a series of well-placed thumbs in the adversary's eye. * In Dune, Duke Leto is this to the Bene Gesserit's millennia-long plan to breed the Kwizatz Haderach. Their plan was, he'd have a daughter, who would marry the scion of their other carefully tended genetic line, and the resulting couple would have a son who would be their chosen one. Then Duke Leto asked his wife for a son instead of a daughter, leading to the Kwizatz Haderach being born a generation early and outside of Bene Gesserit plans or intended controls, which in turn causes all the rest of the events of the series. * The Elenium: + In The Tamuli, it is revealed that the Child-Goddess Aphrael and her priestess Sephrenia were this to The Man Behind the Man without ever realizing it until his plans were exposed. + Protagonist Sparhawk is essentially a personification of this trope. As the "man without destiny", no one can really divine or guess what exactly he's going to do in the future... not even the gods, who are scared shitless of him. * Elsabeth Soesten: In No Good Deed..., Elsabeth and Hieronymus \|\|accidentally foil Cuncz's plans to steal incriminating information about himself from Father Garnerius when Garnerius hires them to recover the reliquary (where the Abbot stashed the documents) stolen by Cuncz's agents. Cuncz just shrugs off the setback and hires them to finish the mission instead.\|\| * Everest (2002): Ethan Zaph decides to quit the expedition in favor of a different climbing trip right after his teammates have been picked, leading to the team being restructured and several main characters who were being sent home to be selected for the climb after all. * In the Dale Brown novel Executive Intent, \|\|Wayne Macomber\|\| would have avoided capture by GRU agents had he not stumbled over a random civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time, who proceeded to inform the police and make the already suspicious GRU agents take action. * The Expanse: Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante. Their ability to screw up the plans of humanity's biggest movers and shakers just by being in the exact right (or wrong, depending on perspective) spot at the right time is so great that eventually some of said movers and shakers decide to make use of it by having them sent into a situation they want screwed up. Of course, Holden promptly derails that plan as well... * The Ferryman Institute: \|\|Charles' Secret Test of Character was originally supposed to only be how he handled Alice's case and then the council would invite him to tell him how he did. What they did not count on was for Inspector Javrouche to arrest him for suspicion of espionage against the Institute's interest. While the Council knew of Inspector Javrouche's vendetta against Dawson and had warned him in the past to lay off, counting on Javrouche being enough of a Consummate Professional not to push it further, Javrouche following through on his suspicions and arresting him anyway was not a part of the plan.\|\| * Foundation Series: + "The Mule": Seldon is unable to foresee the threat posed by the (mutant) Mule — someone capable of rewriting your emotions permanently — so when the Foundation watches Seldon's new message, expecting to hear a prophecy about the war they're fighting against the Mule's expanding Empire, they hear instead a completely wrong prophecy about a Foundation civil war (that never happened, since the factions involved all saw the Mule as a greater threat). Except in the penultimate chapter, Ebling Mis says Seldon did expect it, \|\|and constructed the Second Foundation to defend against the threat\|\|. + Forward the Foundation: Amidst the chaos surrounding high-level plots and counter-plots, Galactic Emperor Cleon I \|\|is assassinated by a totally insignificant palace minion, because he (Cleon) was insisting on promoting said peon, against the peon's fervent wishes, from "gardener" to "chief gardener"\|\|. * Gnome Man's Land: Harpy High might have ended very differently if not for Baba/Bambi Yaga's cat running across her keyboard right as she was typing up a Magically Binding Contract for a Trial by Combat and somehow adding a legible sentence about additional participants. * At the beginning of Good Omens, a ditzy cultist hands the newborn Antichrist off to the wrong unsuspecting parents, thus setting off a plan that \|\|derails Armageddon itself\|\|. Of course, this may have all been a bigger \|\|Gambit Roulette planned out by Powers That Be.\|\| * Harry Potter: + In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Draco Malfoy's act of \|\|disarming Dumbledore\|\| completely derails the gambits that both Dumbledore and Voldemort had in place in regards to the \|\|Elder Wand\|\|. Though with a bit of luck it ends up working out great for Harry himself. + Draco's father, Lucius, also ends up putting a spanner in the works of Voldemort through needlessly petty personal vengeance. \|\|Lucius hijacking Voldemort's teenage diary (which he didn't know was a Soul Jar) for a personal vendetta against Arthur Weasley not only led to the diary being destroyed, but it provided Dumbledore damning intelligence to track down all the rest of Voldemort's horcruxes. Of course, Voldemort can also be blamed for this (it's actually a habit of him to do something that ends being a flaw in his plans), as Dumbledore lampshaded that Lucius could have never used the diary that way if he was aware of its true nature.\|\| + \|\|Severus Snape's love for Lily ends up as the ultimate spanner for Voldemort and as the catalyst for the entire series: his wish for Voldemort to spare Lily leads to Voldemort offering her a choice that enables her sacrifice to protect Harry and destroy Voldemort for the first time, also making Harry a Horcrux. This, along with Voldemort unknowingly losing Snape's loyalty due to Lily's death, enables Dumbledore and Snape to prepare Harry's path to defeating Voldemort once and for all.\|\| + No matter how far it all got, Voldemort could have truly killed Harry and ended it all... if it weren't for \|\|Narcissa Malfoy wondering if Draco was still alive up at Hogwarts and willing to keep Harry's faked death a secret as a result\|\|. * "The Hazing": + Initially, the sophomores plan to leave the freshmen from Earth on the primitive planet for one night, but a stray meteor damaged their ship. After repairs and everything, the sophomores get back to the planet eight days later. + The freshmen decide to turn the tables on the sophomores hazing them, and convince a local tribe that they're gods and the sophomores are devils. Unfortunately, the chief's wife dies around the same time as the sophomores are captured, and unless they can prove their divine power all of the college students are going to die. * Honor Harrington: + The Havenites' plan in the first book relied on the laziness and incompetence of Basilisk Station's CO, Pavel Young. When Honor was assigned to the station, she was supposed to serve under Young. What actually happened was Young immediately left Basilisk for "much needed" repair work on his ship, with the hope that leaving Honor in the lurch would ultimately sink her career. In his pettiness, Young took his own incompetence out of the picture and replaced it with an officer bound and determined to do her duty despite her limited resources and possessing the competence to do so. - She's hardly the only spanner. There's the Medusans who figure out how to make their own rifles (from the ones the Havenites were supplying, which were intentionally crude enough to be plausibly made by natives), and a man who has a massive grudge against the Manticoran navy and thus makes a raid literally blow up in their faces. - Honor not only screws up Haven's plans, she screws up Young's, and he shortly tries to get back and keep Honor from a) making him look bad by comparison, and b) ruining his career by association, because she's ticking off some powerful people.(The Navy decides to find some urgent repairs his ship needs. It's not clear if Young ever realized what they were doing. Or recognized the irony.) + This trope is sort of discussed in the second novel, where the protagonist explains to her subordinate that the best swordsman in the world doesn't fear the second-best one, but the worst swordsman in the world, because he can't predict what the dumb son of a bitch will do. (Apparently, there is some truth in that; an inexperienced swordsman is more likely to do something that gets both combatants killed than an experienced one trying to avoid dying.) + A character in Echoes of Honor is known as "Silver Spanner" Maxwell, after a Noodle Incident involving a dropped spanner produced spectacular (and expensive) results, six years previously. + Aivars Terekhov pulls this in The Shadow of Saganami when his ship happens to encounter the same ship, using two different identities on two different planets, running weapons to terrorists on two different planets. Using evidence found on that ship, Terekhov figures out the antagonists' plan and quickly rushes to put a stop to it. The best part is that they only noticed the discrepancy because Aikawa Kagiyama, the midshipman on watch, was bored, so he ran a detailed analysis on a random freighter. + Arnold Giancola is this on a couple of levels. His actions doctoring diplomatic correspondence led to a resumption of the war when his plan to score a political coup backfired spectacularly. Despite other characters believing he was, he actually was not \|\|part of the Ancient Conspiracy making a power grab but instead acting on his own\|\|. Later, his purely accidental death further derails investigation meant to examine his original actions. + \|\|The Mesan Alignment\|\| has been the victim of more than a couple spanners since becoming the Big Bad of the series: - Near the start of the series, Rob S. Pierre's son is killed in the opening skirmish of the Haven-Manticore war. The anger drives Pierre to organize a coup to overthrow the Alpha Lines known as the Legislaturalists. - The whole reason \|\|the Alignment\|\| resorted to installing the Legislaturalists to rule Haven in the first place was that the pre-PRH Havenites, being sticklers for human rights and a regional superpower to boot, were constantly ruining \|\|the Alignment's\|\| gambits for Galactic domination through genetic manipulation simply through the basic decency of their officers and the power of their Navy. Installing a controlled and inefficient hereditary government that crippled its own economy (that later tried to fix this by conquering their neighbours) allowed \|\|the Alignment\|\| to both shift Haven's interests elsewhere and ruin their previously stellar reputation. It took at least 400 years, the largest war in humanity's history(The Battle for Manticore in the last stages of the Havenite wars, described in At All Costs in all its gory details, was the single largest pitched battle ever fought by humans since the beginning of time.) and two revolutions to fix. - Following the Green Pines incident, they placed the blame on Manticoran agent Anton Zilwicki, as he was confirmed to be there and they Never Found the Body. Coupled with Zilwicki and Victor Cachat's transport breaking down and requiring more time to return home than they would've needed otherwise, they had every reason to think he was dead. Not only are Zilwicki and Cachat alive, they also successfully extracted Dr. Herlander Simões, a defector. So not only do they get caught in a lie, now that Zilwicki can challenge their version of events, but Simões has just enough information to alert Manticore and Haven of \|\|the Mesan Alignment\|\|. - In Shadow of Freedom, \|\|the Alignment's\|\| operatives have been going to worlds on the Solarian League's borders, posing as Manticorans and offering aid to various La Résistance movements. The idea was to damage Manticoran PR by having these movements' failures appear as though Manticore offered aid then left them in the lurch. This plan is Spannered by one world seeking to contact Manticore independently, alerting them of the plan on the one hand, and Manticore being actually all FOR the aid on the other. * The Hunger Games brings us Peeta Mellark, who is an interesting spanner because he's not actually trying to ruin anyone's plans, he just refuses to let himself be changed by the circumstances of his life. Because of this, he's actually a spanner to everyone around him, not just the bad guys. In the first book, his love story with Katniss, and later her playing along with it, causes the greatest upset to the Capitol's power that any tribute has managed in history, forcing them to allow two victors. In the second book, he screws over the rebellion and Katniss by volunteering for the Quarter Quell in Haymitch's place, but then hurts the Capitol's power base even more by claiming that Katniss is pregnant, leading to many Capitolites themselves calling for the Games to be cancelled. And in the third book, \|\|Snow essentially brainwashes him to turn him into an attack dog pointed right at Katniss, and when Coin realizes that Katniss won't be controlled, she basically lets Peeta go hoping for the same result. Peeta responds to this by overcoming the brainwashing through sheer force of will. Before him, it wasn't believed that this form of brainwashing could be overcome\|\|. * Interstellar Patrol: In "The Trojan Hostage", a regrettably off-screen terrorist plot to Kill and Replace the local employees of a prominent security firm hits a snag and turns into a chaotic and bloody Unintentionally Notorious Crime when it turns out that two of the targeted employees are dating local special Forces soldiers who were quick to serve as The Cavalry along with the rest of their unit and some vacationing Interstellar Patrol officers they'd befriended. > Ginette: [I]t was like a nature vacation where you go to shoot the tame rock hen for dinner, and waiting there is a giant constrictor. * Jack Ryan: + In Executive Orders, a pair of domestic terrorists spend most of the book preparing a massive cement truck bomb to kill Jack Ryan, driving it all the way across the country, dodging roadblocks put up as a result of The Virus spread by the other Big Bad of the book, only to be pulled over and arrested by a random Highway Patrolman just doing his job when they panic. + In Rainbow Six, \|\|Eddie Price's pipe-smoking after success missions\|\| is the first in a series of little things that clue The Dragon in to the true nature of Rainbow despite efforts to hide it. Carlos the Jackal's fellow criminals, in carrying out an attack to try and get him freed, gets the team some good publicity that gets them to view the Sydney Olympics for free and puts them in the right place to foil a vital part of the villain's plan. One of the villains' captives manages to get off an email, the investigation into which eventually helps lead the way to them. One of the named minions \|\|tells The Dragon, hitherto ignorant of the truth, about the extent of the plan, prompting a vital Even Evil Has Standards moment that causes him to go to the good guys with the information, allowing the case to be cracked\|\|. * In one of Francoise Rivier and Michel Laponte's Jonathan Cap books, recurrent character and local Plucky Girl Juliette becomes this. \|\|She has her appendix removed in a Parisian private clinic and notices that both her doctor and the nurse in charge of her are acting strange, notifying Jonathan's Kid Sidekicks Alex and Nico about it so they can call Jonathan and investigate.\|\| It turns out that \|\|the doctor is the Big Bad of the book, with a complex plan involving an Arabian prince and his Body Double (the Big Bad's "disciple"), and the nurse is his forced accomplice because he threatened to kill her if she didn't collaborate\|\|. The plan would've gone smoothly, \|\|had the Big Bad not been pretty much forced by the circumstances to be the doctor in charge of Juliette's emergency surgery\|\|... * Jurassic Park (1990): Nedry's plan to steal the dinosaur embryos is foiled by the sudden hurricane that hits Isla Nublar. His panic leads him to make a rash decision that ultimately kills him, and this, in turn, leads to the park's inability to reverse its security shutdown. The narration even lampshades this. > Nedry had thought of everything. Except this damned storm. * One of the short stories in The King in Yellow, "The Repairer of Reputations", has the evil scheme being foiled by \|\|the title character getting his throat torn out by his own Right-Hand Cat\|\|. Then again, since most people involved were insane, the plan might not have worked anyway. * In the Land of Oz, the first spanner was Oscar Diggs. He quite literally lands in the middle of a Succession Crisis (King and Queen dead, only heir is an infant girl, four Witches set to go to open war with each other for control). Magnificent Bastard he is, he uses a combination of bullshit, carnival tricks, technology, and mistaken identity to create an Enforced Cold War and set himself up as a God-Emperor. The peace is fragile, but holding. Years later, a tornado brings the second spanner in the form of Dorothy, who accidentally squishes the East Witch with her house and wrecks the whole balance of power, setting off the chain of events that leaves both West and East Witches dead, Diggs exposed as a fraud and fleeing in terror, and paves the way for now-grown Ozma to escape the slavery Diggs sold her into and reclaim her throne. * In The Last Battle, the villains come pretty close to winning. What ultimately derails their schemes? \|\|Oh, just that the demon lord Tash really exists and turns up to "answer" their prayers.\|\| * Leviathan (Scott Westerfeld): Eddie Malone pretty much has this as his job. He's a very affable man, but he's also a reporter chasing after a story. He likes and helps out the protagonists, but he can't go too long without sending something back to his editors, and he has a knack for research and finding out very important secrets, as well as a genetically engineered frog who can memorize and repeat things said in its presence. For example, in Behemoth, he's responsible for getting an interview with Alek into the papers, and almost would have revealed the Committee for Union and Progress's plan too early, but he's also the only reason it succeeded, as he warned Alek about the giant Tesla Cannon, which would have destroyed the Leviathan and left the C.U.P. vulnerable to the ships Goeben and Breslau. * Mark Twain's short story "Luck" speaks of Lieutenant General Lord Arthur Scoresby, V.C., K.C.B., etc., a complete idiot who got on the fast track to war hero-ism because he got his left and right mixed up in battle and accidentally led his regiment right into where the other side was preparing a surprise attack, and drove the ambushers into full retreat because there was no possible way they would be discovered in time, and so didn't prepare. * Malice Aforethought ends with Dr. Bickleigh's plan to get away with the perfect crime being derailed by \|\|drain pipes\|\| (It Makes Sense in Context). * The Marvellous Land of Snergs: Mother Meldrum's scheme to infiltrate Banrive, abduct Joe and Sylvia and flee to a secret shelter while Golithos murders the king fails because Golithos — who she had instructed to take care of her pets in the meantime — accidentally lets her cat Gubbins run away. Gubbins is found and recognized by Gorbo, who follows Gubbins as the pet looks for Meldrum. * The thriller Maxwell's Train has this going both ways: + Harry Maxwell and friend Daniel comes up with a truly brilliant plan to rob a train of several million dollars as it's en route from New York to Washington D.C. In a truly epic case of bad timing, the very night they pull the robbery, the train is taken over by a pack of terrorists out for both the money and some United Nations diplomats. Their leader has the ultimate plan of setting off anthrax on the train while she and her team make a getaway. + For her part, the terrorist leader had spent two years planning this entire operation down to the smallest detail and prepared for a Special Forces attack and other problems. She's completely unprepared for Harry, Daniel and a small band of ally passengers to work together to undo the entire thing. * Miss Emily Dorothea Seeton, protagonist of the Miss Seaton series of mystery novels by Heron Carvic, is difficult to describe. As far as she's concerned, she's a retired teacher the police use as a sketch artist, not an amateur investigator. So when the bad guys come after her, she usually has no idea why they're doing so. Her reactions usually end up with the villains in custody, the case closed, and quite possibly police trying to write reports that make sense. * In Moonlight Becomes You, Maggie mucks up Malcolm Norton's plan to buy Nuala's house and leave his wife completely by accident. Nuala had been seriously considering moving into Latham Manor, a luxury retirement home, and had agreed to sell her house to her lawyer Malcolm. Unbeknownst to Nuala, the property was about to become extremely valuable due to a change in the Wetlands Act, which would allow for more development on the property. Malcolm had learned of this but didn't tell Nuala so he could buy the house more cheaply. But when Nuala is unexpectedly reunited with her long-lost stepdaughter Maggie, she cancels the sale and drafts a new will leaving the house to Maggie, who decides not to go ahead with the sale, unaware of Malcolm's grand plan. This leads to Malcom being suspected of killing Nuala and ransacking her house, presumably trying to find her new will and destroy it. * Occultic;Nine: By coincidence, Koresuke \|\|adding a Tesla Coil to catch more radio waves turns the Skysensor into a spiritual MacGuffin that lets Yuta undermine the entirety of MMG's plot\|\|. * In One of Us is Lying, \|\|Addy reaching out to Janae after finding her crying makes Janae unwilling to frame her, and allows Addy to get her to open up, ultimately resulting in the truth coming to light\|\|. * In the Past Doctor Adventures novel Corpse Marker, a complicated Batman Gambit is in progress when the Doctor and Leela arrive. Over the course of the book, the plan slowly falls apart thanks to their presence (and another complicating factor the planner didn't know about). * Pirates of the Caribbean: In the first Legends of the Brothers Court novel, Villanueva seriously hampers the Big Bad's efforts by forcibly inducting the man into his crew right before he can infiltrate the Black Pearl and start a mutiny. Instead, the mutiny is on Villanueva's ship, and he spends several weeks in the brig. * Happens at the beginning of The Priory of the Orange Tree. Ead was sent by the Priory to act as Queen Sabran's secret protector (just in case the Inysh are right about their queen's existence keeping a world-ending dragon at bay), and her story opens on her dispatching the latest of several assassins that have gotten into Sabran's residence. It turns out that there was only supposed to be one assassin, whose prescence would jolt Sabran into marrying begetting an heir already. But Ead kept disposing of them all before their presence was even noticed, causing their employer to finally give one of them a key and thus revealing that it was an inside job. * In the fourth Septimus Heap book, Queste, Jenna and Beetle are this to \|\|Tertius Fume's plan to kill Septimus with the Queste\|\|. * A Song of Ice and Fire: + As early as the first book, Bran Stark witnessing Jaime and Cersei Lannister's incest and getting pushed out a window is a huge spanner. It was a complete coincidence and no one — not even chessmasters like Littlefinger or Varys — could have predicted it, yet it directly sparked a chain of events that would eventually lead to the War of the Five Kings, the main conflict of the series. + Joffrey Baratheon can also be a spanner at times. While for the most part he's fairly predictable, his cruelty and insanity occasionally lead him to do things that no one would expect, such as ordering Ned Stark's execution, despite his mother and Varys and Grand Maester Pycelle all telling him to let Stark join the Night's Watch instead. And let's not forget that even before he became king, he was the one who sent an assassin to murder the comatose Bran, just because he'd heard a passing comment by his father about how the boy would be better off dead. + This is Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish's entire MO, in a nutshell: create chaos, often by rooting out other people's plots to aim targeted spanners at and profit! Alternatively, he simply creates some spanners by supporting and/or paying random, minor players (who may or may not grow to become somebodies rather less minor at a later date) to dot themselves about the board, and mostly lets them bumble about getting in the way of major plans pretty much by themselves, for the most part (OK, some rigging of their behaviour through blackmail, intimidation and incidental holding of hostages/wards/debts may be involved when specific favours are called in by him here and there and/or steady pressure applied to make certain actions more likely — but, mostly, they are actually left to their own devices). Then, once the damage hits, he swoops in, trusting in his own ability to seize the opportunities thus created on the fly to see him come out with a gain or two. This all makes him incredibly dangerous and unpredictable, which in turn makes him hard to manipulate and obscures his true intentions. + Edmure Tully combines this with Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! when, on his own initiative, he leads a successful attack on Lannister forces that not only derails Robb Stark's plans to trap said Lannister force in their territory but delays them enough to receive word of Stannis Baratheon's attack on King's Landing. This allows Tywin Lannister and his forces to go be Big Damn Heroes, derailing Stannis's bid for power. + One of the lingering plot points is the state of Robb Stark's successor. Robb's death has lead to a power vacuum in the North. Knowing that this may happen, Robb named his half-brother, Jon Snow, his successor in the North, ahead of his younger and full-blooded younger sister Sansa. Considering that poor Sansa was, at the time, a political prisoner, this will screw over both the Lannister's and Littlefinger's ambitions to take control of North if this comes to light. + Arya Stark embodies this, by virtue of being the complete opposite of what's expected of a sheltered, aristocratic girl. The Lannister's ambush and capture of the Starks is derailed because they didn't expect Ned's nine-year-old daughter (who had been overlooked in favour of her more important sister) to have the skills to escape or a swordsmaster to help her. For the rest of the series, virtually all the nobles assume she couldn't have survived on the run and is long gone. In fact, Arya has been present at multiple crucial events across Westeros disguised as a commoner, including contributing to the Fall of Harrenhal, allying with the world's most infamous assassins, and witnessing the murder of her family at the Red Wedding. Along with her little brothers Bran and Rickon — who are also assumed dead — her survival means House Stark isn't nearly as broken as everyone thinks and its heirs are still out there. + Balon Greyjoy is a big one for the Starks, and the fandom often considers him the worst strategist in Westeros. After receiving a request for an alliance from Robb against the Lannisters, Balon proceeds with his plan to attack the North (and thus the one person offering to ally with him) with a naval force large enough to defeat some strategic points in the North with the element of surprise, but not actually near large enough to hold them. It's the equivalent of Iceland deciding to attack Washington D.C. during the U.S. Civil War. Sure enough, the conquests are overturned over the next few books, and the Lannisters shrug off Balon's request for alliance/rewards because he's already done the work for them before getting them to agree to any reciprocation. He falls under the category of this trope because his military strategy worked only to assist the Lannisters at the Stark's expense, and resulted in little gains and bad consequences for his own people. + Then there's the Khaleesi herself, Daenerys Targaryen, who continues to defy others' expectations by simply existing. Since she has an older brother, Viserys, people naturally believe that he will be the one to restore the Targaryens to glory, but they don't account the fact that Viserys is a self-absorbed jerkass who can never attract respect from people, and he is unceremoniously killed before he can return to Westeros, not from any battle wounds, but after he makes too many demands to Daenerys' husband, Drogo (himself an example). Then Drogo dies, the khalasar disbands, and Daenerys is going to die a broken widow, right? Nope, she instead gains three dragons, a khalasar of her own right, and a newfound determination to get back the Seven Kingdoms. And even after that, people still make assumptions of her. Illyrio Mopatis, realizing the potential of having dragons on their side, intends to create an alliance between her and the Golden Company, who support her long-lost nephew, Aegon, to retake the Seven Kingdoms. Except Daenerys, upon seeing the plight of the slaves in Astapor, extends her stay at the Slaver's Bay to liberate all three cities, then decides to rule Meereen as queen for the time being, delaying her journey to Westeros. Doran Martell has to recalibrate his grand plan to restore the Targaryens to the Iron Throne twice, because he neither foresaw Viserys dying too soon nor Daenerys having little push to return to Westeros beyond claiming her family's right. + Varys is one as of the end of A Dance with Dragons, when he assassinates Kevan Lannister shortly after the latter assumes the position as regent, but before he can stop the chaos of Cersei's regency. The reason? He wants the realm to fall, not for his own profit like Littlefinger, but so Aegon can sweep in and save the day, therefore legitimizing him — and by extension, the Targaryens — to the Iron Throne. + In the backstory, Rebellious Princess Baela Targaryen managed to snatch the rug out from Aegon III's greatest victory in the Dance of Dragons- taking Dragonstone- by escaping from her room and managing to reach her own dragon, Moondancer, so when Aegon swooped down on his dragon Sunfyre, he found himself suddenly challenged to a dragon duel by a thirteen-year-old girl. And while Aegon and Sunfyre technically won and killed Moondancer, Aegon wound up with both legs shattered (Baela survived with some burns) and Sunfyre died of his wounds weeks later, leaving the Greens without any dragons of their own. * Song of the Lioness: + In the first book, Duke Roger's plot to use a healer-draining Mystical Plague to kill his cousin Jon and reclaim the position of direct heir goes off without a hitch. He had no way of knowing that one of Jon's fellow pages would have healing magic, particularly as Alanna was afraid of her magic and actively hid it until Jon's illness forced her to use it. Later, Roger accidentally triggers The Prophecy when he sends both of them off to a cursed city — they end up cleansing it of the demons. After that, Roger goes to great lengths to kill her first so this won't happen again. His final plot to kill the Queen and magically hide himself from any suspicion is derailed by the fact that \|\|his waxwork was of the boy Alan, not the girl Alanna really was. If she hadn't hidden her identity to become a knight, it would definitely have been King Roger\|\|. + On top of that, Alanna wouldn't have confronted Roger if \|\|the Chamber of the Ordeal didn't decide to literally show Alanna her worse fear of Roger killing Jon by allowing her to claw through the bag keeping things obscured from her and the rest.\|\| For even more humiliation \|\|his berserk fury when he accidentally cut Alanna enough to reveal that he is actually a she resulted in Alanna getting the clear upper hand in the duel by being more clear-headed.\|\| + In the final book, \|\|Roger didn't count on Alanna learning to "let go", literally, making the sword he was using magic to call her over to him so he could get her blood instead fly from her hand and stab him, killing him again.\|\| * Space Brat: Early in book 2, when Appus Meko has been teasing Blork (by hitting him in the face with cereal) and is trying to get him to lose his temper, he doesn't count on Lunk coming in and licking the cereal off Blork's face, tickling him and calming him down. * Spells, Swords, & Stealth: + The closer adventurers get to the center of the dungeon at the end of NPCs, the harder it becomes to do anything because of \|\|Aldron using the power of the Bridge to invoke Critical Failures for even the smallest of tasks\|\|. The NPC protagonists, however, are not affected by this since they aren't normal adventurers, but rather native inhabitants of their world. This causes no small amount of surprise when \|\|one of them successfully stabs Aldron. This factor is what allows the NPCs to ultimately defeat him\|\|. + Invoked by Thistle in Noble Roots. Thistle realizes that the dark god Kalzidar's attempts to \|\|convince him to discard his Paladin's mantle\|\| aren't just because of his vendetta against Thistle himself. He wants to make absolutely sure that no Paladin is on hand to interfere in his plot at the Ardranes' Manor. Thistle agrees to \|\|use none of his Paladin-given abilties for the next night, long enough for Kalzidar's plans to run their course, in exchange for his promise that will not under any circumstance harm Thistle's wife Madroria, whose soul Kalzidar has imprisoned and hasn't harmed only because the gradually waning protection of the gnome god Mithingow\|\|. Thistle does this because he knows that Kalzidar \|\|can not see Timuscor among their group because he's a Free Paladin, a special type of Paladin invisible to gods\|\|. Indeed, once everything is underway \|\|Timuscor is instrumental in turning the tide and foiling Kalzidar's plot\|\| and, because gods' promises are a Magically Binding Contract and Thistle kept his end of the deal, Kalzidar is rendered completely unable to \|\|harm Madroria in any way, even by accident, just as Mithingow's protections are beginning to fade\|\| with absolutely no idea of how Thistle pulled it off. * The Stand: The demonic Big Bad, Randall Flagg, recruits Trashcan Man and sends him out into post-apocalypse America to look for stuff with which to destroy the good guys. He brings back a literal \|\|Deus ex Nukina just in time to destroy\|\| the city of Las Vegas while Flagg is distracted trying to tear the remaining heroes limb from limb. * Star Wars Legends: + Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina: In "Nightlily: The Lovers' Tale", a local (decidedly unsavory) bureaucrat named Feltipern Trevagg was planning to turn Order 66 survivor Obi-Wan Kenobi in to the authorities (which would, unbeknownst to him, doom the Galaxy Far Far Away three different ways). Then he saw a gorgeous (by his own people's standards) ingenue named Nightlily, whom he made up his mind to seduce and whose heart or hearts he then meant to break. Unbeknownst to him, it was the custom of her people that on the wedding night, \|\|the bride ritually ate the entrails out of the groom after getting it on\|\|, and she was a major ditz who thought he knew this but was just so head-over-heels he didn't care. So Obi-Wan, Luke, and the two droids got off-planet after all. + The Thrawn Trilogy: As brilliant as Thrawn is, even he can be caught off-guard at a few points. The biggest case is the fact that, like much of the galaxy, Thrawn is unaware Leia is Darth Vader's daughter and sending the Noghri (who had a loyalty to Vader) after her would backfire and \|\|eventually lead to Thrawn's demise.\|\| * The Stormlight Archive: + Kaladin becomes one of several for the plot laid out by the Diagram, a supposedly-omniscient plan to save the world by putting \|\|King Taravangian\|\| in charge by killing all the competing world leaders. It's implied that all Surgebinders are Spanners, but Kaladin is the one we see the Diagram fighting most directly. + Renarin Kholin is called out as a particular example of this trope. Due to his own precognitive abilities, other precognitives such as Odium and the Diagram cannot predict his actions, and his influence is in turn capable of nudging others out of the paths predicted for them. * Teen Power Inc.: In Nowhere to Run, \|\|a band of poachers\|\| only have to worry about witnesses because of \|\|an incompetent camping trip chaperone taking a school class down the wrong trail, refusing to turn back for a long time, and then getting most of them sick with bad food\|\|. * That Hideous Strength: The tramp is a crazy homeless wandering tinsmith who gets kidnapped by the N.I.C.E. and mistaken for Merlin, and his silence combined with his utterly unafraid and uncurious behavior gives them no reason to suspect they have an impersonator on their hands. The N.I.C.E.'s most important plan is to team up with Merlin and use his magic to bolster their own power, so just by telling his captors nothing, not even though nonverbal cues, he manages to stall one of the most powerful conspiracies Great Britain ever faced, without even knowing anything about it! * Timberline Bonanza: The only reason Collier survived the first chapter to continue thwarting the villains is because the wagon he was tied up in the back of passed a stuffed bear that was scared into bolting away and crashing. * Tolkien's Legendarium: + The Lord of the Rings: - In order to destroy the One Ring and defeat Sauron once and for all, Gandalf develops an Indy Ploy/Batman Gambit to sneak the ring right under Sauron's eye into Mordor and Mount Doom, the one place it can actually be destroyed. It almost worked except the One Ring itself spanners the plan by finally corrupting Frodo. Then Gollum anti-spanners the One Ring's spannering by grabbing it and accidentally falling into Mount Doom. Supposedly, Gandalf knew that the Ring would ultimately corrupt Frodo, especially since it would be the most powerful within the Cracks of Doom, and that another Spanner like Gollum would have to occur for the plan to work. - As revealed in Tolkien's other works, it's a little more a question of faith on Gandalf's part; he is literally an angel, a messenger from the divine, and he is certain that there is a god who watches over the people of Middle Earth. His cryptic comments about "the pity of Bilbo deciding the fate of many," and "my heart saying Gollum has a further role to play before the end," coupled with Frodo's growing sensitiveness to these things and his threat to Gollum that he could, "command him to leap off a cliff or throw himself into a fire" certainly hint that the Big Good Eru willed Gollum to be the Spanner. - Merry, Pippin, and Sam are all Spanners to some extent as no one, not even Frodo, wanted them to come along on the quest. Even so, each one of them took actions that enabled Sauron's downfall. - Hobbits in general appeared to be spanners in the setting. They were so beneath Sauron's notice that he never thought about them when making his rings. Men, Dwarves, Elves...they all had weaknesses and desires he could exploit. Hobbits just wanted to farm their land, eat the results, and be left alone. Sauron had little to tempt them with, which left them with a natural resistance to the Ring's power. However, they were far too small and physically weak to pose any kind of threat...and then Gollum gets that ring, setting off a convoluted set of Disaster Dominoes that ends with his downfall. + Several examples also occur in The Silmarillion, both on the heroes' side and on the villain's. - The Noldor show up in Middle Earth and throw a spanner in Morgoth's works as a result of Feanor getting them kicked out of Valinor. In particular, Feanor's son Maedhros is such a clever tactician that he manages to drive back the army of balrogs and orcs all the way to the gates of the Angband. This makes Morgoth decide to trick him, and capture him. But then Fingon shows up out of the blue and throws in another spanner by saving Maedhros. - Humans are also a spanner in the works (set up by Eru), as are the Sun and the Moon. The Sun first rises at the same time as the humans woke up in the East. When they show up, there is a mad scramble for their allegiance because they are very numerous and quite powerful. The elves manage to drop the ball though. - Luthien is a spanner in the works, managing to steal a Silmaril from Morgoth without violence. The (talking) hound Huon then acts as a spanner, by saving her butt after Morgoth wakes up. - Earendil shows up to the War of Wrath with his flying ship Vingilotë and throws a spanner in the works by killing Ancalagon the Black, the biggest of Morgoth's dragons (who crushed an entire mountain range when he died). - Uldor managed to completely screw up the good guy's plans by being a traitor to Maedhros. On the eve of a huge battle against Morgoth, he betrayed Maedhros and switched teams meaning that Maedhros had to start the battle early. This set off the disaster dominoes and well... it's called the "Battle of Unnumbered Tears" for a good reason. - Glaurung was a spanner in the works for Turin, by revealing to Turin that his wife was his sister. Oops. - Nobody predicted the half-elves, so they functioned as a sort of spanner in the works. - Ulmo, one of the Valar acted as a spanner in the works by turning Elwing into a bird so that she and Earendil could get to Valinor, instead of letting her die. - The Silmarils themselves acted as a spanner by burning Maedhros and Maglor (the two remaining Sons of Feanor) when they finally recovered them. Maedhros killed himself and Maglor threw his away: making all the horrible stuff they did to recover the jewels a total waste. - Glorfindel was a spanner in the works during the Siege of Gondolin by being crazy and tackling a balrog. It resulted in his death, but saved Idril, her husband Tuor and their son Earendil. Due to his heroic sacrifice he got reincarnated and given angel powers. He then goes on to be a spanner in the works again, during The Lord of the Rings when he randomly shows up and takes Frodo to Rivendell. During this sequence he uses his powers to terrify the Ringwraiths. Sauron evidently did not realize Glorfindel was back. * Translation State: Enae's new job — to find a Presger Translator who went missing 200 years ago — is explicitly a comfortable sinecure to give Enae some first-class tourism far away from an inheritance dispute. The fact that Enae properly investigates and actually finds the Translator's descendant causes a major diplomatic upheaval for every faction involved. * Universal Monsters: Late in book 3, Herr Frankenstein's Creature decides to become one on purpose — thinking that if it kills the people its creator wants to use for a new monster, it can stop his plans. It proves to be this in the final battle of book 6 as well, \|\|as when Dr. Pretorius and Herr Frankenstein prepare to kill Nina, Joe, Captain Bob and their friends, the Creature shows up at the last minute and breaks Herr Frankenstein's neck before strangling Dr. Pretorius.\|\| * Warhammer 40,000: + Blood Angels: In Deus Sanguinius, Rafen shocks Arkio's forces by \|\|being alive\|\|. \|\|Inquisitor Stele\|\| is quite glad that he will die in single combat, because he had landed in the plans by a fluke and quickly grown to "the most serious nuisance." Of course, he wasn't dead at that point... + Ciaphas Cain: Gunner First Class Ferik Jurgen, assistant to Ciaphas Cain, turns out to be the one who most often saves the day, with his combination of being a "blank" who nullifies psychic powers and the fact that he carries a really, really big gun. + Space Marine Battles: Happens several times: - In Malodrax, Lysander steps in the middle of conflict which would elevate either Shalhadar or Thul as the leader of eponymous planet and begin the next dark crusade. With his meddling, neither Chaos power succeeds. Lysander himself only manages to escape and begin his "spannering" when a scalpel used in his vivisection breaks, giving him a lockpick. - Siege of Castellax is a double whammy: while \|\|techpriest Oriax\|\| sabotages the Iron Warriors throughout the novel, \|\|captain Rhodaan\|\| doesn't submit to Bolivian Army Ending planned for them and ends up being Spanner in the Works for Spanner in the Works. * The War of the Worlds (1898) is essentially one long Curb-Stomp Battle with the invading Martians effortlessly rolling over all of humanity's attempts to stop them. Then a month later they all die of common Earth diseases, germs and therefore antibodies being non-existent on Mars. * Fireheart in Warrior Cats. He completely ruins Tigerclaw's plans by running into the cave where Tigerclaw was during a battle and beating Tigerclaw up. * The Wheel of Time: + Mat Cauthon almost literally personifies this trope. He isn't stupid, but he's rarely clued into just what exactly is going on around him. Despite this he foils many schemes, especially when he's actively trying not to. + Similar to the line mentioned in Honor Harrington above, the White Tower's weapons master tells Galad, Gawyn, and Mat a story about history's greatest swordsman, who was only defeated once in his entire life — by a random farmer with a stick. + Padan Fain also falls under this trope following his merging with Mordeth, frequently upsetting the plans of both the Dark One and the forces of the light. * Wings of Dawn: Thomas, to the Druids. Umar and Hadad, to Sir William. The Mamelukes and the bandit troops, to everybody. * In Wonders of the Invisible World, Jarrod, a completely ordinary teenage boy, becomes this to the protagonist Aidan's mother, a powerful seer. \|\|Aidan's mother has spent years trying to protect her husband and sons from a decades-old curse that causes all males in the Lockwood bloodline to die young by tampering with their memories and the memories of anyone familiar with them so that no one knows they have supernatural powers and the curse thus won't find them. She even erased most of Aidan's memories of his adolescence to accomplish this... however, there was one person she forgot to alter the memories of and that person was Aidan's best friend Jarrod who moved away shortly before she wiped Aidan's memories, only to move back several years later and start telling Aidan things about their adolescent days that Aidan doesn't remember, which causes Aidan to start pulling the thread on why he can't remember these things, which eventually causes his mother's plan to keep him in the dark about his own psychic powers and the family curse to unravel.\|\| ---	SpannerInTheWorks	null
Vehicles	# Awesome But Impractical - Vehicles Examples -------- * Back to Real Life + Military has its own folders for vehicles. --- * "Chopper" motorcycles often fall under this heading. The more extreme the styling, the less practical they are to actually ride. Many prize-winning show bikes don't even have real engines in them, and couldn't be ridden if they did. + One motorcycle builder known for this is the late Arlen Ness, who is best known for being the staple of Discovery Channel reality shows such as Biker Build-Off. While some of his output is rather sedate if not gaudy, his more elaborate showpieces such as the twin-engined "Two Bad" are—despite being otherwise perfectly functional and could be ridden—designed more for show and display than as a daily driver. * The automotive equivalent of the chopper is the lowrider, which is built around eye-catching aesthetics. Of course, the fancier your hydraulics and electronics, the more high-maintenance your ride becomes. Daily driving a lowrider is hell on the various components, especially the suspension. Indeed, many lowriders you see at car shows are just that — showpieces. * The Bosozoku style of vehicle modification gives end results that are flashy, creative and attention-grabbing. Unfortunately, they're horribly troublesome to drive, aerodynamically disastrous, and just too unfeasible to use as anything other than showpieces. Good luck handling speed bumps and on-ramps. * Whistle tips. These are a metal square with a hold drilled in the center and it's welded into your exhaust pipe so that as the exhaust is forced out it makes an ear splitting whistle.Aside from letting everyone within a mile know you're around there's really no point in adding these to your car, never mind of course cities have passed laws making them effectively illegal for violating noise ordinances. * Played for Laughs with the Campervan Challenge on Top Gear. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May build their campervans to their own individual ideals of awesomeness, but they're marred by issues like aerodynamic instability, lack of durability, and poor comfort in general. * Some car fans - particularly those who own coupes and other economy-level cars - like to add what is known by detractors as rice: flashy-looking extra bits that make the car look like it's seriously fast, but that are usually ill-researched and badly designed, so they only end up messing up the aerodynamics and making the car go slower. + Another mod that appears occasionally is nitrous oxide kits that are improperly configured for the car's engine. It may be tempting to go all out with boosting the engine, but this is a good way to end up with a hand grenade engine that comes apart in short order. * The Reliant Robin was an entirely plastic three-wheeled car from the '70s. It was very lightweight, it was legally a motorcycle in its origin nation of the U.K. (meaning a Reliant owner had to pay less on taxes and didn't need a driving license), and was very popular in the Northern parts of Britain. Problem was, the single wheel (used for steering) was in the front, along with the engine, making it both nose-heavy and unstable. It was alarmingly prone to wobbling when going around corners, or making any sudden, sharp turn. However it is not as prone to rollovers as Top Gear would have you believe - the show had to disable several safety features and put excessive weight in the front to make the stunts work. * In Europe, sedans with standard trunks that Americans and mainland Asians (especially the Chinese) like so much. Yes, they look awesome and provide large boot space, but the layout isn't as space-efficient hatchbacks and station wagons that provide greater rear cargo space for roughly the same amount of car, or the same amount of cargo room in a smaller package: a huge deal on a continent where space is often at a premium. * Conversely, this also applies to European-standard hatchbacks in the United States; While it is tempting to assume that Americans could save a ton of space and gas by buying European micro-cars, what makes sense in Europe doesn't necessarily make sense in the United States. This is mostly because, while American fuel economy standards are fairly lax, American emissions standards are some of the toughest in the world(In particular, California, which has the largest economy and population of all the states, has the strictest emissions standards of all: This is the reason why you rarely hear about Los Angeles' once-notorious smog anymore.), which is certainly problematic when you consider the highly polluting diesel engines that power many of these Euro-compacts. Ditto for American crash safety standards; that "wasted" space in the back of a sedan is actually very useful for preventing injury to a car's occupants in the event that a three-ton mall-crawler slams into the back of it, while a hatchback would likely get flattened. (It's often joked that safety-conscious parents in the US will refuse to buy their newly-licensed teenage children anything smaller than a Toyota Camry, precisely for this reason.) Finally, Americans spend much more time in their cars due to suburban sprawl and an inferior rail system to Europe, meaning that their standards for a good daily driver—especially where comfort is concerned—are much higher than those of most Europeans. When you import European compacts to the United States, they become much more expensive but still use relatively cheap engines and construction. The end result is a tiny hatchback that may have high gas mileage, but strains to go much faster than highway speed (which it will meet a lot more often in the US than in Europe), puts out stunningly noxious emissions for something so small, lacks many of the creature comforts that American drivers are accustomed to, and is a Death Trap in the event that it gets into a high-speed tangle with the average American truck. This is the reason why, with the exception of Volkswagen, European cars in the United States are almost exclusively either luxury/performance vehicles like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and the VW-owned Bentley, or niche brands like Mini (owned by BMW) and Fiat (which, in America, only sells its quirky 500X compact crossover as opposed to the rest of its European lineup(Though admittedly, part of this is because other vehicles are sold as Chryslers and Dodges in the US)). The Yugo, for all its flaws, was one of the few European microcars that actually met the American emissions and safety standards of its time. The Smart car also took nearly a decade of intensive redesigns and tweaking, on top of some cost-cutting import deals, to even become street-legal in the US, let alone practical in the American market. The only hatchbacks that do well in the US are 'hot hatches' that also have performance to spare, and even then, they're a niche market that's most popular with urban buyers (who live and drive in conditions closer to those of European cities). * Convertibles are incredibly impractical. In exchange for having an open roof, you get less storage space, less safety, less gas mileage, less speed, and are easier to break into. On top of all this, they're much more expensive than a standard car. They're also structurally weaker than a typical car — a convertible relies on the strength of its lower chassis to hold it all together, while other cars have a stronger unibody frame that is much better at resisting collisions. There have been stories of convertibles based on unibody sedans where the doors were stuck and refused to open when the car stood with one wheel on the curb. + There is a term in Finnish, rälläkkä-cabriolet, ("angle grinder convertible") for a conversion of sedan into a convertible by cutting off its roof with angle grinder. Such conversions are not only impractical but also highly dangerous and illegal to drive on public roads as much of the mechanical stress on the chassis is carried by the cabin roof and roof pillars. * The Hummer H1. It's practically a brick on wheels, which is all it has going for it. It comes with a ton of blind spots, no driver space, flashy and useless aesthetics, and trying to tow it will result in the bumper being ripped off. All this for over $100,000. And even though they were designed and marketed as off-roaders, they're too wide for just about every off-road trail out there. The H2 and H3 that replaced it are more practical, but only marginally so. They're still huge, expensive, and fuel-inefficient. + The US military decided that, instead of scrapping old HMMWVs, they would be sold on the commercial market at auction. Small problem: they were for off-road use only. Several states don't allow military vehicles on road or off road without modifications to make them legal. + Japanese auto giant Toyota tried their hand at a Humvee/Hummer-like with the Mega Cruiser, which bore a heavy resemblance to the Humvee down to the wide footprint. The Mega Cruiser proved to be a costly venture for Toyota, with just 3,000 units produced, and only a hundred of them as civilian models. * Owning surplus military vehicles, sure you have a tank, truck, or jeep. But now you have a vehicle that was designed to be maintained weekly with shelves of spare parts and barrels of oil, lubricants, and fuel. As Regular Car Reviews pointed out in the M35 review - the parts for a military truck can't be bought at the local auto parts store. + Averted in Europe where many military vehicles are pretty much off-the-shelf and are sold after being decommissioned. VW T3 microbuses formerly owned by the German Bundeswehr used to be popular bases for dirt-cheap RVs, and T3 spare parts still abound today. They're rather Boring, but Practical. Similarly, the current-gen (Shin) Mitsubishi Type 73 light truck used by the JSDF is essentially a second-generation Mitsubishi Pajero in militarised form, and many decommissioned examples have found their way in the hands of civilian off-road enthusiasts in the Philippines, owing to spare parts being readily available and interchangeable with the Pajero. + During the War on Terror, the Pentagon gave away surplus MRAP vehicles to police precincts, hoping that they can help law enforcement in combating terrorists and drug cartels. However, the qualities that make MRAPs resistant to IEDs make them impractical for patrolling cities domestically. The top-heavy design that protects them from roadside bombs also makes them difficult to maneuver in urban environments and more prone to rollovers. Furthermore, MRAPs are very expensive and difficult to maintain, making them inefficient for most police work. With Police Brutality and the militarisation of the police both being highly controversial issues, having police departments using military-grade vehicles often adds fuel to the fire. * The Ikarus 293 double articulated bus. While it had a high passenger count, it was too long, slow, and problems with turning making it unable to take corners in Budapest. Only one prototype was made. Later it was sold to Tehran after replacing the engine with a stronger one. Double articulated buses, in general, have seen some use(Hamburg - which has no light rail - uses double articulated buses as double-decker buses would not fit under all bridges and Hamburg has a lot of bridges.), but they are mostly a more expensive and prone to failure way to do what buses towing a trailer, double-decker buses or light rail vehicles can do much more reliably. And with both double-decker buses and light rail there are benefits in terms of tourism (e.g. London double-decker buses) or higher acceptance (many people who'd never take the bus have no problem taking rail-based transit as study after study has shown). * In general, concept cars are this by definition. Meant to be a demonstration of a proof of concept with no real intent to be put into mass production. A good example is the BMW GINA, the fabric car, which has an outer shell of spandex and is as durable as your shirt. * Classic cars, while very cool (at least, to an aficionado), rarely get the sort of treatment that'd make them reliable and safe - that is, a complete rebuild and modernization. Mostly they get partial rebuilds to keep them on the road and modernization is actively discouraged in the vintage market, which prices them higher the more stock they are. A special mention goes to vintage sports cars, which in addition to all this don't benefit from the technological advancements that allow your average hot hatch, which are almost always cheaper, to soundly beat them on a race track. + Extra mentions go to American muscle cars of the old. While they look huge and pack large engines for large power, they have one crippling flaw in form of compromised handling. Being heavy vehicles, they have the handling of a floating yacht, and with excessive torque on rear wheels they can spin out without care. This originates from the era when oval racing predominates in American motorsport: because the emphasis was originally on showing spectators what they could do in a car that they could buy from any dealership (the old slogan being "win on Sunday, sell on Monday"), tracks that played to those cars' strengths predominated, while more technical circuits fell by the wayside. They even lampshade this in Skyfall: Dame Judi Dench's M comments quite unfavorably about the ride quality of the British classic car, the Aston Martin DB5. * Nuclear-powered vehicles in general are this. On the one hand, they can last very long periods of time without any refueling and would emit no carbon dioxide. On the other hand, their operating and investment costs are very high. Most nuclear-powered vessels are only really found in military service, where the cost is (usually) justifiable. + NS Savannah was America's first nuclear-powered surface vessel, and commercial failure despite all construction costs and a good portion of operating costs being covered by the Federal Government. However, using highly experimental technology was actually the least of Savannah's problems. The biggest drawback she had was her status as a cargo liner, a ship type known for not being good at either of its two functions. On top of that, her design prioritized appearance over functionality, most notably making it a long and manually intensive process to load her. + The Soviet NS Sevmorput was another unconventional design — she was built as a LASH carrier when this was thought of as the new black, which didn't pay out, so she was converted to a container vessel. Moreover, her nuclear propulsion made sure that a lot of cautious ports blocked her entry (the problem that NS Savannah suffered as well), which ensured that she was mainly used along the Northern Sea Route after which she was named. And then the USSR collapsed, and the massive Arctic supply runs she was designed for largely stopped — most of the population left the Arctic outposts, and those who remained could be supplied by the much smaller ships, so she sat at the pier for 12 years, as she required a costly overhaul and reactor refueling, for which no funds were available. Only the resumption of Russia's Arctic ambitions and the subsequent restart of the NSR runs allowed the funds to be finally found, so the Sevmorput now remains the only nuclear cargo ship in the world. + Small nuclear-powered vehicles. Every crash or accident would be a potential radiological emergency. It is safer and cheaper to use a stationary reactor to make synthetic gasoline or hydrogen or just electricity, then use that to power a car or a plane. - Ford Nucleon, a nuclear-powered car. Over 5000 miles between refueling stops, but imagine the mess that would result if you let notorious speeders drive it. + The smallest nuclear-powered vehicles ever actually tried were strategic bombers made by the US and USSR in The '60s. While both indeed flew with active reactors, none actually was powered by it (the reactors were idling, and the flights were more to test the shielding). As soon as practical ICBMs arrived, both projects were dropped. * Concorde and other supersonic transport aeroplanes. Supersonic airliner which was cutting-edge at its time and many considered it to be the future of commercial flight. The problem with Concorde and all SST airliners was that they guzzled huge amounts of fuel and to maintain their aerodynamics, their bodies have to be narrow and slender, reducing the available space for passengers and cargo. The body of Concorde had very limited passenger space, which meant carrying a small number of people at high cost, so no wonder Concordes went out of service in the early 2000s. And there are very few airports that could serve as Concorde terminals; you could only ever see a Concorde, let alone fly in one, if you were making a trans-Atlantic flight. Famously, a NASA engineer once said that "putting a man on the moon was easy compared with getting Concorde to work". + Besides, the Concorde has been retired for quite a while now, and supersonic airliners are unlikely to return. Going past the sound barrier is too inefficient for civilian flight, period. Also, these days, if you need a meeting with your partners in NYC, just set up a webcam. It wasn't retired because it was too fast - in the digital age, it was too slow. + Part of what helped kill it was that many countries restricted its use due to concern over the noise it generated (particularly the sonic boom). Noise problems aside, most planes capable of supersonic flight tend to lose all semblance of fuel economy at those speeds, making that capability an example in and of itself except for some specific circumstances. + The Concorde was conceived in a period when talk of the "space age" was all the buzz and optimism about the future was rampant. It hit the market shortly after the first oil crisis taught everyone that unlimited cheap oil was a fantasy. Only two airlines ever bought it (Air France and British Airways, which were at that time both basically state-run) and the Concorde never saw any widespread use outside its London/Paris-New York route. While Air France and British Airways made a small net profit all things told, the development costs never got even close to being paid back. Arguably this failure of a combined Anglo-French effort helped bring about the consolidation of the airplane market into the two giants Airbus and Boeing with other companies like Embraer or Bombardier relegated to small jets at best. + The Soviet Union developed the Tupolev Tu-144 which was remarkably similar to the Concorde(Both sides accused the other of industrial espionage and the Western press took to calling the Tu-144 "Concordski", but nothing was ever conclusively proven.). Needless to say, it was a spectacular failure that was wracked by many unresolved problems such as inefficiency, poor quality materials and components, excessive noise both inside and outside the cabin, and a high accident rate, including a prototype Tu-144 infamously crashing at the 1973 Paris Air Show. One can't help but wonder if this was an ill omen for the Concorde's future. + The United States initially planned to develop the much quicker and larger Boeing 2707, which was to fly at Mach 2.7. To allow for this, it was to have variable-sweep wings and a titanium fuselage so as to ward off heating. Due to its high cost and environmental concerns, the project was shelved in 1971, after Congress refused any funding. * In the same vein, near-sonic airliners like the Convair 990 Coronado. When approaching the speed of sound,(an area known as "trans sonic" flight) funny things begin to happen, and one of them is an immense increase in energy consumption due to compressibility of air and immense stress on the flight control surfaces. To attain such speeds economically, the airliner must have specially-designed wings to dissipate the compressed air and a narrow fuselage body, (The Coronado had a single-aisle and five seats abreast) which means low carrying capability. While it was the fastest non-SST airliner ever, it was phased out in the 1980s due to uneconomical costs. It also sold so poorly that Convair decided to get out of the airliner business for good. * Ultra long-haul flights (usually defined as flights that break the 16-hour mark). It's undoubtedly an engineering marvel that aircraft can fly for that long at all, but similar to the fate of supersonic airliners, they struggle to be anything more than a niche, prestige offering for a few reasons. First, ULH-capable aircraft mostly achieve their range via an increase in fuel capacity, which increases the plane's weight, which in-turn increases the plane's fuel consumption and places the aircraft at the worst place on a fuel efficiency chart◊, overall making them among the most expensive types of services to fly. Second, to save weight in other areas ULH aircraft are configured to have less passenger capacity, typically by offering more premium seating than usual.(For example, Singapore Airlines' regular Airbus A350-900 configuration features 42 Business Class, 24 Premium Economy and 187 Economy seats. Their ULH configuration for the same aircraft features 67 Business Class and 94 Premium Economy seats, cutting Economy entirely.) This not only means that the product is more expensive for passengers, but it also reduces profit margins for the airline and throws a hurdle in the way of fleet management, as ULH-configured aircraft can't be rostered in to shorter routes if needed due to their capacity constraints. And finally, there's the consideration of passenger experience. Paying extra to sit in an airplane for almost 19 hours straight isn't most people's idea of fun, and on a journey that long, budget-concious travellers tend to appreciate a stop or two along the way to break up the monotony. Today, the only airlines who are really serious about the concept are Singapore Airlines and Qantas, where they remain mostly a curiosity outside the business traveller market. * Private/business jets are seen as a symbol of ostentatious wealth and allow passengers to bypass the hassle of commercial air travel. However, most feature about as much cabin space as a van or a small bus with surprisingly little legroom if more than half-filled. You can't even stand up straight in smaller models, making it difficult to use the one small bathroom (if the plane is big enough to feature one in the first place) that everyone has to share. * The Beechcraft Bonanza appeared in 1947 but looks like it was designed much later. The "V" tail, retractable landing gear, and its sleek lines could make its pilot the envy of the flight line. The problem was that "V" tail and its unique landing gear. The aircraft was snapped up by lots of new pilots with money, particularly doctors. Accidents involving the Bonanza gave it the nickname "The Fork Tailed Doctor Killer". While the aircraft didn't have a higher accident rate, that "V" tail was a structural weakness compared to regular "inverted T" tail - improper repairs or simple wear and tear could cause aerostatic flutter. There were issues with the retractable landing gear that stained the aircraft's reputation even after Beechcraft fixed the problem. The plane's narrow center of gravity didn't help matters. Today the original V tailed aircraft is popular, but it needs a lot of inspections and experience to keep it airworthy. + In 1960, Beechcraft began to manufacture the Bonanza with a conventional "inverted T" tail. This proved Boring, but Practical, and a great success; over 17,000 Bonanzas have been built, and the conventional tail rectified all the V-tail problems, turning Bonanza from a failure into an astonishing success. Bonanza is popular not only as a private plane, but as a trainer (Beech T-34 Mentor). Beechcraft also manufactures a conversion kit to convert the early V tail Bonanzas into the new standard model. Its production run - from 1947 to today (2024) is one of the longest of any airplane. * The mythical Flying Car. A staple of science fiction, sure, but all attempts at combining automobile and aircraft have failed because their functional needs are so different, making something that does both only succeeds in making it handle poorly at both, in addition to being expensive and gas-guzzling. Those that do exist are better described as "roadable aircraft", meaning they're airplanes whose wings can be collapsed or detached so they can be driven on the road (say, from the airstrip to private storage); they're not meant to replace your day-to-day car. * Spaceplanes are increasingly seen as this by aerospace engineers. On the one hand, having a vehicle that can take off from a runway like an ordinary airplane and fly straight into space without discarding any booster rockets or fuel tanks is definitely appealing. On the other hand, it means you're hauling around a lot of extra mass that has no use in orbit, like wings, and the extra fuel needed to get that extra mass off the ground means there's less room for cargo and crew than there would be in a traditional rocket. There's also the fact that in order to qualify as a proper Space Plane, a vehicle would have to either have both jet engines and rocket engines (meaning it would be carrying around the dead weight of one whenever it was using the other) or have some yet-to-be-developed engine that can switch between the two. * Self-driving cars, as they currently stand. On paper, an automated personal vehicle means you can relax and not have to worry about controlling the car, leaving your hands—and your whole mind and body, for that matter—to do things like study, conduct work-related activities, eat, and use telecommunication without some sort of hands-free device; to say nothing about the potential usefulness for those who have disabilities that prevent them from driving, especially if they don't live someplace with a robost public transportation system. But automated cars still have a long way to go before they can be safely used on a mass scale, with Artificial Stupidity being a major concern; navigational errors can result in missed turns at best and fatal accidents at worst. + At this point self-driving car technology has evolved to the point where they're extremely good at following traffic laws. In fact, sometimes they're TOO good, causing accidents because other drivers weren't driving properly and the smart car failed to react accordingly. Not to mention the ethical debate of whether or not a self-driving car should be allowed to let its owner/driver crash if doing so would prevent a much larger accident, as well as the legal complications about who's at fault for such an event. + One thing pointed out, however, is that self-driving cars don't have to be perfect - they just have to not be any worse than human drivers (realistically, though, they have to be at least somewhat better before people start putting their faith in them on a mass scale). + There is another problem in that AI, as it is done now, just doesn't perceive things the way beings in the physical world do. Simply putting some rectangles on a stop sign can convince an AI it says 'speed limit 45', and inserting a carefully crafted matrix of pixels into any image can convince an AI it's any other image, and this problem won't be solved until the technology we build AI on is fundamentally different. To cite current examples, Tesla Autopilot, despite the name, is legally a driver-assist software, and turns itself off one second before a crash to absolve all liability, there are many people seeing their so called Full Self-Driving seemingly can't detect things like children on the road, and it can't tell the difference between actual roads and light rail tracks, driving like a skittish teenager that needs constant correction and keeps making mistakes. * In many parts of the world, cars can be this. Sure, they can take you (almost) everywhere at top speed well above 100 km/h, but... + Chances are, most of the time they will not move at all, being parked. And when they move, it is most likely for commuting in suburban or city roads where a car cannot let its speed advantage come into play due to congestion from all the other cars. + Many cities were not built for cars at all and parts of the inner city may even be off-limits to cars entirely. + Add to that the fact that gas, insurance and all the other costs involved with owning a car causes tend to get higher every year and it becomes understandable why Boring, but Practical solutions like bicycles or light rail are gaining ground among young people. + Even regions that were designed with driving in mind have constant problems with congestion. The Greater Los Angeles area freeways can be such major bottlenecks to and from the metropolitan area that public transit like the MetroLink railway and cross-county express bus routes started gaining traction and even special promotional fares to encourage drivers to ride and ease the perpetual congestion issues. Unlike driving, these methods allow you to also safely use your phone, read books, work on documents, and so on, so the travel time can be used to your advantage even. * And speaking of moving cars, breaking the speed limit. Sure it's satisfying to get in the fast lane and zip past everyone, and it feels like it gets you to your destination a lot sooner, but it offers a terrible cost-to-benefit ratio. On the cost side it is more dangerous to yourself and others, puts more wear and tear on your vehicle, burns more fuel per kilometre, and paints a gigantic target on your vehicle for ticket-happy cops which can cost you even more money and even your license. On the "benefit" side, it requires you to consistently go a solid 20 km/h or so over the speed limit to even see a perceptible benefit, and even then you might shave 10% off your commute time if you're lucky enough to be able to speed the entire trip. * The style of transmission a car has can be seen as this, depending on your point of view: + Manual: They provide a lower upfront cost and maintenance, give you more control, and generally provide better gas millage. In addition, all of your limbs full operating the clutch and gear shifter forces you to pay more attention to actually driving your car. However, they require a lot more skill to use effectively, especially if you want to avoid stalling the car or "riding the clutch"(Car slang for keeping your foot on the clutch pedal, essentially keeping the clutch semi-disengaged at all times which is not what was designed for) (which newbies will do) that could burn the clutch out faster. And when you're in stop-and-go traffic or constantly stopping on hills going in the uphill direction, the fun drops off real fast. Lastly, depending on where you are in the world, it can be harder to sell a manual transmission car. + Automatic: The convenience of not having to worry about shifting gears does allow the driver to focus more on the driving part; the higher complexity of automatics means higher initial cost and higher maintenance. In addition, they generally have worse gas millage than manuals, but this can depend on the gearing. For example, the automatic trim of the Mazda3 has higher gas millage than the manual version due to its taller gear ratio in the final drive. Many models support semi-automatic operation by paddle shifters or a sequential-style mode on the gear lever, and many transmissions in the 2020s have six gears or more, but this adds complexity so weighing pros and cons is recommended. + CVT: A continuous range of gears ensures that the car is in the most optimal gear ratio for a wide variety of use cases, which gives it the best efficiency, as well as being less complicated than traditional automatics leading to lower initial cost. However, maintenance includes replacement of expensive components (such as the belt between gears) and may require specialized personnel due to their relative age in the market. In addition, people find the smooth feel of a CVT a turn-off, since most people are used to the interruptions of gear changing. (Many CVT-equipped cars do offer a driving mode that imitates gear changes.) Another thing to beware of is if the CVT was designed to handle the engine it has been paired with, as inexperienced companies have fitted CVTs to engines that are too powerful without adding proper compensations like a proper transmission cooler, leading to premature failures and giving them a bad reputation. * Hood ornaments (or car mascots, as they're known in the UK). Originally introduced to cover radiator caps in early cars, they're nice to look at, often artistically sculpted, and a good way to develop a brand identity (or show off, in the case of custom examples). They're also very easily stolen or broken and can cause impalement injuries in the event of a car-pedestrian accident. Fragility and regulations surrounding their design have prompted most car manufacturers to eliminate them entirely; the lone holdouts are luxury manufacturers, such as Rolls-Royce and Bentley, both of which install them on a spring-loaded mechanism to retract it in the event of collision or when the car is parked. * The Airbus A380, a massive quad-engine passenger airliner with a full-sized upper deck (as opposed to the Boeing 747's upper deck, which is only a fraction of the length of the lower deck) and the capacity for a variety of luxurious services such as bars and showers, or the option to instead seat over 800 passengers in a single-class configuration. Unfortunately, because it is such a huge aircraft, there are stronger regulations involving its separation from other aircraft in the air (as it generates greater wake turbulence), and airports have to make upgrades just to tailor to this specific model of aircraft, such as using multiple jet bridges in order to seat everyone in a reasonable timeframe. + The A380 suffers from a miscalculation on the part of Airbus as to what aviation would develop into. At the time the A380 was developed, most airlines operated under a "hub and spoke" model, flying people into one or a few big airports and from there to their final destinations. While airlines such as Delta (Atlanta), Lufthansa (Frankfurt), and the Gulf carriers (Dubai, Doha, and so on) still do that and indeed the Gulf carriers are among the biggest customers for the plane, most newer entrants on the market and much of the growth is in "point to point" flights with twin-engined planes that seat 200 or fewer flying between secondary airports. Customers get direct flights even if they don't live near a hub, High Speed Rail takes over some feeding flights and the airlines only have to order and maintain one type of aircraft. But the A380 has no place in that picture. + The airports installed special gates for the A380, they sometimes even upgraded the runways, but the one thing they didn't upgrade was the terminal buildings. Now when an almost fully-loaded A380 comes in, the terminal is overcrowded with the masses of passengers exiting the plane. This actually contributed to people being driven away from the big hubs. + In fact, Airbus decided to stop production of it in February 2019, because as noted on the next entry airlines prefer twinjets as the A330 or A350. * The Boeing 747, the original jumbo jet, also known as the "Queen of the Skies", has also been heading in this direction for intercontinental passenger flights for many of the same reasons as the A380. Ever since the advent of ETOPS rules in the 1980s, airlines have opted for more efficient and easier to maintain twin-engined aircraft like the Boeing 767, 777, or 787, and the Airbus A330 and A350 for trans-Atlantic and -Pacific jaunts. The greater fuel efficiency of twin-engined planes would eventually doom other tri- and quad-jet planes like the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and MD-11, Airbus A340, and Boeing 727 as well. The last two U.S. passenger airlines to fly 747s, United and Delta, retired their aging 747-400s in 2017. Many other airlines, including British Airways and Cathay Pacific, retired theirs in 2020 due to the economic effects of COVID-19. That said, the "Queen" still flies for a few large Eurasian airlines such as Lufthansa, primarily on high-demand long-haul routes which command enough passengers to make flying her worthwhile. Meanwhile, her cargo variant retains enduring popularity with airlines worldwide, which makes sense as the plane was originally envisioned as a cargo liner. Finally, Boeing announced that it would end production of the 747 altogether in 2022 due to declining sales. The last Boeing 747 - a cargo plane - was rolled out of the assembly line on 8 December 2022. * The Antonov 225 straddles between this and Cool Plane. It's so huge that it taking off can cause air disturbance that would need to be waited out. Only one was ever completed because there's just not much need for something that big. The awesome part though is that it is (or, more accurately, was; The one completed plane was effectively destroyed during Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The uncompleted airframe is apparently still intact, but for now is essentially impossible to complete) indeed the only plane capable of airlifting oversized cargos such as turbines or even an 'entire locomotive. It's all about need. * A good deal of airport expansion or worse replacement programs. On paper, the first and last thing most people see when they enter a city is its airport, and you want visitors to leave with a good impression. So majorly overhauling or building a nice new big airport from scratch will pay dividends right? As it turns out you can get the same result by just sprucing up your terminals. And these expansion projects have an annoying trend of being followed by a decrease in air traffic as they tend to be made in response to one-time spikes in demand (like Olympics). The former CEO of Southwest Airlines had this to say on the subject: > Herbert Kelleher: I've never once thought, “Wow that airport was great! The rest of the city was awful, but the airport was so nice I want to go back!” And unlike most people, my business revolves around airports. * Discussed in an essay by Douglas Adams, in which he describes growing disillusioned by comedy despite being considered a comedian himself. He describes going to a stand-up routine and listening to the comedian describe how, in a plane crash, the black box would be the only thing to survive intact. The punchline was the comedian smugly asking why they didn't just build the plane out of the same material as the black box, since it would be indestructible. Adams acerbically noted that it's because the black box is made out of titanium which, in addition to being incredibly sturdy, is also incredibly heavy, and a plane made out of the stuff would never be able to get off the ground. * The General Motors EV1. It was the first modern mass-produced purpose-built electric car and set the template for subsequent electric cars. However, battery technology in the 1990s wasn't mature enough to handle the demands for an electric car, and the EV1 was expensive to develop and manufacture. Due to GM wanting to save costs, the cars initially used lead-acid batteries, which significantly increased the car's weight and hampered its maximum range (70 to 80 miles [110 to 130 km]); the "Gen-2" models used nickel–metal hydride batteries, which help improved the car's range. Roughly 1,100 EV1s were produced, and all of them were only available on lease, mostly in California with some of the "Gen-2" models also available in Arizona and Georgia. In 2003, the EV1 program was canceled, and every EV1 was recalled with most of the cars being sent to the crusher. Fewer than 40 examples are known to survive in various states of repair, and most of them were sent to museums and universities for display and research, with the stipulation that the cars could never be reactivated and driven on public roads—except for the one donated to the Smithsonian Institution, which has a strict policy of accepting only fully intact specimens. * The 1983 Steinwinter Supercargo experimental semi-truck. Admit it, there's something snazzy about a super-flat semi-tractor that entirely slips under the trailer, that can carry a 20' container on its back, and that almost looks like a sports car with its sloped windshield (the unloaded tractor is actually pretty fast for a truck) and no visible front grille. In fact, it's so cool that it served as an inspiration for Jetto's truck in The Highwayman (the Highwayman himself drives something Colani-inspired). Besides, it made semi-trailers with doors on both ends possible, and it can carry cargo over the vehicle's entire length. Now let's count up the disadvantages. + For starters, the Steinwinter tractor doesn't work well with conventional semi-trailers, if at all. + In curves, the front of the trailer sways out much, much farther than on a conventional semi-truck. You're bound to knock down signs and traffic lights in tight curves. + Worse yet, the front corners of the trailer are at a dead angle from the driver's POV, especially the one on the passenger's side. The roof windows are of no help. This also means that while it's possible to drive a Steinwinter against a loading bay forward, it requires guesstimating where the trailer might be. + Oh, and you cannot drive the tractor out from underneath a Steinwinter semi-truck that's standing with its front against a loading bay. + No front grille means this thing is seriously difficult to cool. As in prone to overheating, as has been proven during press test drives. + Due to its shape, engine maintenance is rather difficult, too. When the tractor is coupled to a trailer or loaded, it's nigh-impossible. + The long and low front overhang is likely to scrape on the ground when entering an incline. This can be prevented to a certain degree with the adjustable pneumatic suspension, but you as the driver have to remember to do that. Besides, pneumatic suspension is something else that needs to be maintained. + Cab equals crumpling zone, driver included. If you bump into another vehicle and be it a VW Polo, you're toast. This thing is the mother of all vehicular death traps. At least you're dismembered because your feet are only a few inches away from the front end, so your legs will be the first things to crumble. This was the reason why Steinwinter actually had difficulties finding test drivers. + Those who did dare to drive it noticed a whole lot of understeer. That's bad enough already if you're driving a Tatra luxury sedan with a V8 rear engine, but if you're driving a semi-truck of over 30 tons, that's terrible. + This may border on nitpicking, but: The Steinwinter's reclining seats may be cool, but the berth in a backsleep is much more comfortable. Besides, the many windows around the Steinwinter's cab cannot be shut off with curtains. + Even before the Steinwinter was presented, aerodynamics started to become important for trucks in order to save increasingly expensive fuel. The aerodynamics of the tractor alone were great. Those of whatever it would carry on top, well, not so much. And you couldn't hide it behind a spoiler. The Highwayman featured a trailer with a half-sloped front, but that would have made a front door impossible and eliminated one of the Steinwinter's few advantages. By the way, notice how the Highwayman trailer doesn't go all the way to the tractor's front for reasons explained above. + Last but not least, just because your tractor can reach some 100 mph when not loaded, doesn't mean that's legal for a truck. And it isn't, at least not in Germany. * Airless tires and run-flat tires can respectively make all or most of the burden of flat tires a thing of the past, so why haven't they replaced pneumatic tires? To support the weight of the vehicle, the run-flat tires need to be much more durable and be able to hold the vehicle's weight without air, which makes the tire more rigid and massive and thus detracts from handling and ride quality. Airless tires — lacking air in the tires — cause more abuse to be transmitted to the vehicle's suspension and can wear it out sooner if the vehicle wasn't designed for airless tires. These specialty tires also tend to cost noticeably more than pneumatic tires. For a lot of people, the risk of having a flat tire is a small price to pay for superior handling and shock absorption. Like a lot of technologies, this can be subject to change. * Electric vehicle battery swapping has long held a significant allure to many in the market. In theory, it offers an easy solution to what has long been their greatest weakness: long charge times, allowing them to more easily rival traditional gas refueling times. Its big problems are that it requires building a large number of excess EV batteries; an entire mechanism and building to handle, charge and store batteries; and each station can only handle one vehicle at a time. This is all in stark contrast to the comparative ease to set up gas and/or EV charging stations that may handle multiple cars at once. It's for these reasons that Tesla abandoned the concept after trying it and Israeli startup Better Place went bankrupt attempting the same. The only successes so far are Chinese Company Nio(Who comes from mainland China- a nation that has the political will- being an authoritarian centralized system (much like a large corporation) where decisions tend to be top-down- and the resources- their government and/or companies having stakes if not outright owning several large cobalt mines in Africa- to implement and improve swappable batteries) and Taiwanese Electric Scooter company Gogoro(Whose focus on smaller and manually swappable batteries and stations is far more financially sustainable and capable of handling multiple users quickly.), both of which have yet to test their ability to succeed elsewhere. * Fuel cell vehicles were thought to be the future of consumer vehicles when battery technology still lagged behind, there were even talks about micro fuel cells for laptops powered by alcohol, relegating batteries for very small devices. The explosive growth of the laptop and smartphone industry instead provides the scalability for affordable & high-density batteries in cars, which require far less infrastructure investment compared to delivering hydrogen. Some companies and countries still invest in the technology, either to avoid dependency on countries controlling the supply of the required mineral for batteries or to serve a niche where fuel cells make more sense. * From an urban planning perspective, cars are this as a whole. While they may allow unparalleled personal mobility if you can afford them, designing settlements around them causes all kinds of issues: + Roads cannot simultaneously be safe for pedestrians and vehicles going 30+ mph. Especially for disabled people, crossing a busy road is one of the most dangerous things you can do, and in many cities, it's a daily necessity. + With induced demand, Traffic is an inevitability. Induced demand also requires expanding further and further to alleviate and potentially demolish more buildings. It's better to expand public transit to reduce the need for cars. + If you can't afford a car or can't use one due to disability, age, or car troubles, settlements built around cars are pretty much inhospitable to you unless you're lucky enough to live near a transit stop or have someone chaperone you. + Some people, despite being in a position to own and drive a vehicle, just hate the idea of driving due to how dangerous and stressful it can be, not to mention the cost of insurance to maintain that car, as opposed to just hopping on public transit and not having to worry about all of that. + Designing around cars is a financial drain. When stopping for groceries requires parking, you need to make the process of stopping and starting driving worthwhile, making superstores your only real option for your necessities, leading to homogenization of everything. They've also led to many neighborhoods, especially suburbs, without a center people can just be. It's especially awkward for children who can't drive, since they either must be driven to a place to hang out or be stuck playing in their limited yards or houses. + Finally, geometry. Parking requires either expensive parking garages or demolishing more and more buildings for parking lots. * Importing and driving a gray market vehicle. Sure you will have a unique ride that no one else in your neighborhood will be driving but it comes with its own challenges. Insuring and registering the car will be a hassle since no one knows what the hell it is. Likewise, your local mechanic will have no idea how to fix it when something breaks. Auto shops won't have parts for it so you will likely have to ship them from the car's native country. And if the steering wheel is on the opposite side? Drive-thrus will be the least of your worries. You will have bigger problems seeing oncoming traffic and judging lane positioning. Automotive journalist Doug DeMuro points this out in driving his Nissan Skyline GT-R in the United States. * The Rumpler Tropfenwagen from 1921 was not only state-of-the-art back then, it was downright futuristic, having been conceived entirely by the aircraft designer Edmund Rumpler. In times when streamlining usually meant pointy cabs and conical smoke box doors on steam locomotives, the Rumpler Tropfenwagen had actually been tested in a wind tunnel. Even though the open-roof variants looked like a Roaring 20s Batmobile, the Tropfenwagen wasn't to be flashy, it was to be fuel-efficient over half a century before that actually became a thing. It managed to reach 70mph or 110 km/h from a mere 36hp while riding smoothly. So far, so cool. Oh, and it wasn't a Super Prototype. It was an actual production car. Only that "production" meant not more than round about 100 cars. The Tropfenwagen sold poorly mostly because Rumpler didn't think it through. The rear swing axle, itself an invention of Rumpler's, worked fairly well unlike in certain post-war vehicles, but the steering didn't. Worse yet, the air-cooled W6 rear-mid-engine was prone to overheat for a simple reason: Rumpler left the bottom underneath the engine compartment open to let cool air in, but what few louvers especially early specimens had in the surrounding carbody weren't nearly enough to let the heated-up air escape again. While the Tropfenwagen was designed for long-distance travels, this was one factor that made it unfit for this purpose. The other factor was that long-distance trips usually require a fair amount of luggage, but Rumpler must have totally forgotten to give the car any dedicated space for that. Even the two spare wheels were stowed away in the enshrouded undercarriage, making retrieving them difficult. The Tropfenwagen would end up being used as a taxi in Berlin, partly with roof racks for luggage which undid a great deal of its aerodynamic advantage, or set ablaze in Metropolis. Only two have survived to this day. * Some of the higher-end super sport motorcycles tend to fall into this category. Examples include the Suzuki Hayabusa, the Kawasaki H2, and Ducati Panigale. While super sport motorcycles are really fast and can reek of coolness, unless you take it to the track, there's no legal way for the bike to express itself. Not to mention that barreling down any stretch of road at over 100 miles per hour (in some cases, nearly 200 miles per hour) takes a lot of skill to simply not crash and burn. And if that's not enough, the maintenance on these bikes can add up real fast compared to a lesser spec street bike or cruiser. * The Red Bull X2010 and its successors were developed as theoretical prototypes for Gran Turismo series as speculation about how a racing machine might be if it was built without any regulations. The concept exploits ground effect tremendously to enable ridiculous cornering speeds. The vehicle can be built with the available automotive technology of the time, however, the sheer G-forces from driving the car at its full performance would be too dangerous for even a well trained Formula One driver. * This is invoked with Top Fuel dragsters. They can run the 1000-foot (about 0.305 kilometers) in 3.62 seconds, produce around 8500-10000 horsepower, and reach speeds of 335 mph (539 km/h). They also consume around 12 - 22.75 gallons (45.425 - 86.118 liters) of fuel in a single run, require very expensive nitro-methane fuel, produce enough noise to register on a Richter scale, and a single run virtually obligates a complete engine rebuild; in fact, the mechanical stresses are so great that the 1000-foot standard was implemented because of the risk of the cars coming apart running a 1/4 mile (0.402 kilometers). The cars are also under so much stress that there's little to no margin for error in body construction. Additionally, the tires are highly specialized, being so soft to provide the necessary grip that the tires are spent after approximately 8 drag races. The training and conditioning needed to drive a Top Fuel dragster is much higher than a typical street-legal dragster, so you may NOT simply hop into one and give it a try. On the plus side, no gearbox is needed, with the tires' flexibility alone providing the ratios for optimal acceleration, by compressing under acceleration and ballooning at higher speeds. The spectacle can really draw a crowd too. * Invoked with Formula One too. Unlike regular road-going cars, the machines are purpose-built for incredible performance all across the board with specialized components that are unlike what is found on street vehicles in the interest of cutting-edge performance. Naturally, this makes a complete F1 car incredibly costly and can actually make street-legal supercars look economical in comparison. However, the spectacle of a Formula 1 championship draws an enthusiastic crowd worldwide and the research that goes into an F1 car can even be used to improve road-going vehicles. + As with Top Fuel, drivers must have extensive training and conditioning to drive these machines due to the sheer acceleration and g-forces they inflict on the drivers. + F1 engines have a much shorter life expectancy than street engines in the interest of Min-Maxing performance. An engine is expected to last 1931.2 Kilometers or 1200 miles. Meanwhile, a basic, street-legal engine is expected to easily exceed 160934.4 km or 100,000 miles under ideal driving conditions and maintenance. These values are not set in stone but engines are generally only as durable as they need to be to prevent a team from exceeding the maximum number of engines allowed per season. + Just starting an F1 car can be an endeavor, lasting 1.5 to 2 hours due to the need to pre-heat the fluids and thus the engine to proper temperature. (The engine is so precisely built that it is virtually seized up when cold.) + The brakes that F1 cars use are notable, as they don't work correctly at road car speeds requiring the intense braking that F1 cars are under to heat up to the proper temperature. Hence, this why road cars stick with tried an true Boring, but Practical brake systems and why we haven't seen F1 braking systems on street cars. + Wet weather tires are more of a curiosity than a way for F1 cars to race in heavy rain. While a race through pouring rain has the potential to be interesting as drivers struggle on a drenched track and other racing series like NASCAR do allow road races in this weather, the FIA tends to stop races under heavy rain to avert any safety catastrophes, partly because the cars are so highly specialized that heavy rain would likely play havoc with the cars' stability. This leaves the rain tires mostly unused because in intermediate and dry conditions, they wear down alarmingly fast. Intermediate tires are a good compromise when the track is wet without rain and see far more use. * Any and all turbine-powered road vehicles intended for civilian use. + Those that use turboshafts (such as the Y2K motorcycle or this minivan) have massive turbo-lag issues. They guzzle fuel at a prodigious rate measured in minutes rather than miles because they burn as much fuel at idle as at full throttle. Also, they are eye-wateringly expensive. And while they generate a lot of raw horsepower, internal combustion vehicles built for high performance can almost always do the same or even better at a vastly inferior price. + Those that use turbofans or turbojets (such as this jet Beetle) run into the basic problem that relying on pure thrust is not very efficient on-road vehicles. They eventually get to rather prodigious speeds, but acceleration tends to be slow and the noise extreme, and this is on top of the same problems turboshaft-powered vehicles suffer. The result is certainly very exciting, but very unlikely to do better than a vehicle with a powerful tuned internal-combustion engine in it. * Installing an aeroplane engine on a car. True, installing a Rolls-Royce Merlin on '55 Chevy will make the car an earthbound equivalent of Supermarine Spitfire, but it is incredibly impractical in sense of use of space, fuel economy, safety (to both self and others who are on the road) and driveability. Even more astonishing is this Goggomobil equipped with BMW radial engine. There's also The Beast, a Merlin-powered self-made coupé that looks like a normal car except for the long hood. The engine produces so much excess heat that driver and passenger get blisters on their feet. * The point of super/sports cars. They look pretty, they're loud, they have a lot of horsepower, and can travel pretty darn fast, but they have many drawbacks for daily use. + They are very low to the ground and don't always have hydraulics to assist with traveling over speed bumps, meaning an ordinary parking lot can be one of the worst enemies of a super car. Be prepared for bumper repairs or scraping bottom trying to get across uneven surfaces such as a parking garage exit. + Supercars offer little to no room for even an extra kid, a pet, or small luggage, making this an inversion of Bigger on the Inside trope. Even if you do get back seats, chances are they're impractical for everyday comfortable use or the space is taken up instead by the engine. This is one reason why some buyers prefer front-engine supercars as there's more space in the back for storage or even rear seating. + The mid-engine and rear-engine layouts help in the distribution of the vehicle's weight but they have notable tradeoffs. The mid-engine offers the most ideal weight distribution and doesn't have the same potential learning curve as a rear-engine car, but the engine will take up a significant amount of your cargo space and you might not even get a storage compartment at the front end of the car (or its only able to carry a small load of groceries); four-wheel-drive can further reduce the difficulty of a mid-engine car and is great for wet weather safety but adds initial and recurring expenses as well as extra weight. Rear-engines help reduce the impact on your cargo space by even allowed for easier addition of rear seats but if the car is only rear-wheel-drive, then the driver must become well versed in the car's handling to avoid fish-tailing from the weight imbalance; again, 4WD helps keep the car stable but adds both initial and recurring costs to the car. + Some countries don't allow registration of vehicles that have opposite steering columns or impose severe usage restrictions. In Australia for example, the steering wheel must be located on the right-hand side (RHD) for registration on public roads, unless the vehicle is over 15-30 years old depending on what state you are in. So unless you plan on doing a lot of track days or paying thousands of dollars to convert it to RHD (surprisingly, both of which many people still do), the car will sit in a garage for years before it can even be used on public roads. Even worse are countries such as Singapore, which do not allow the import or registration of LHD vehicles to any citizen at all. + Due to the impractically high price of the supercars, it is likely to fall victim to being too awesome to drive, due to fear of being involved in a collision or simply incurring wear, tear, and depreciation with use; these vehicles often stay in owner's garage and are only taken out occasionally due to how costly said depreciation is. A notorious case of this fear being realized is Stefan Eriksson's red Ferrari Enzo (he owned two! the other was black), which was wrecked in Malibu - a theory on the incident was that the car was doing 200mph when it hit a 1-inch bump at an angle, which would have caused the driver to lose control if he wasn't hanging on tight. (This was also a dumb criminal moment for Stefan who owed payments on the Enzo to the Bank of Scotland and smuggled this and other cars overseas to evade repossession due to being overwhelmed with the high costs of the supercars he acquired; to make a long story short, his organized criminal operations awarded him a prison sentence.) + Finally, as noted in a discussion about Ferraris and this trope on the TV show Castle, no matter how cool they look and how fast they can go such cars are ultimately no faster than any other vehicle on the street when they're stuck in rush-hour traffic. Even if you aren't in rush-hour traffic, you can still get pulled over for trying to drive these vehicles at the speeds they're designed for, making these vehicles useless on public roads from both a practical and legal standpoint. Being stuck in traffic with a track car isn't necessarily good for fuel efficiency or even fire safety, as some unfortunate owners found out when their machines caught fire and went up in flames. + Pony cars are a subversion; While not as agile as track-centered cars and lacking the exoticness of low-volume high-price super cars, they are usually much more affordable and still offer exciting engine power for the drag strip and tearing around a race track. Even the V8 models aren't too thirsty for their size as long as you don't go for the ultimate trim level, or an aftermarket engine-tuning package. For drivers who need better economy, V6 and turbocharged straight 4 options are available that still offer enough power for fun acceleration. Similarly, Corvettes are also subversions in that they balance their track focus with daily drivability and achieve surprisingly good fuel efficiency thanks to their multi-purpose engine design along with sleek aerodynamics. + Another subversion is supercars that appreciate in value due to a combination of factors such as desirability and rarity and are thus worth keeping well maintained but very lightly driven to maintain their value. Doing one's homework on the matter, keeping a supercar to appreciate in value can indeed pay off. The 2005/2006 Ford G Ts are examples of cars that have proven to be good investments thanks to their blend of performance, history, and rarity. * The Mercedes-Benz AMG-One was designed around taking a Formula 1 engine and placing it into a road-legal car for F1 enthusiasts to enjoy. It has handing to back it up too, setting a new 2022 record of 6:35.183 minutes at the infamously difficult Nürburgring-Nordschleif. Of course, this feat does come at a price, with an MSRP of $2.72 million and in very limited numbers making it hard to acquire to begin with. That F1 engine can even rev to 11,000 RPM which sounds like a thrill, but that makes it quite loud so one may want to put on some ear plugs. That specialized engine is also only rated for 50,000 km (approximately 31,000 miles) before it must be overhauled. * The Bugatti Veyron.(By extension, its successor the Chiron too, which was designed to surpass the Veyron even further. More on that below.) Designed to be the fastest "production" car ever designed, it can go 252 miles an hour. Assuming you can find a straight road long enough to let you do so (you can't, except on test tracks). And assuming you don't run out of gas (it will go through the entire tank in 12 minutes) or have an catastrophic blowout (the tires will let go after fifteen minutes when they're brand new at top speed). It's also a production car in a very limited sense: only ten were made, and sold with a $1,000,000 price tag. Despite the fact that each one cost Bugatti (aka Volkswagen) $5,000,000 to make (I don't think they have the best accountants). + When the world speed record for production cars was broken by another car, Bugatti responded with the Veyron Supersport, which can reach speeds of 269 miles an hour, but the tires will give out even faster if you do somehow manage to reach that speed, and they're $20,000 a pop. Suffice to say, the Veyron is an amazing amalgamation of technical and engineering genius, but not at all practical for anyone. Due to an engineering oversight, the gears are not usually suited to that kind of power. In a lot of them the gears broke down after just over 12,000 miles. Although, if you have the money to buy a car worth a million, you probably don't have that many problems with overhauling the car every once in a while. + Finally, the Bugatti Veyron isn't even a good track car for the price due to the fact that it is just so heavy. With the Veyron, you get very little bang for your buck as you can honestly drive faster on most racetracks and roads in general with a much lighter and less expensive sports car. For instance, the Lamborghini Huracán, also developed under Volkswagen, costs $320,000 US fully equipped. It beat the Veyron on the Top Gear (UK) test track by 1 second. As it turns out, the Huracán even beat the allegedly higher-tier Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4. + The Veyron's successor, the Chiron, broke 300 MPH, boasting a 304.773 MPH or 490.485 KPH top speed. Again, good luck finding a place to let it rip. As with the Veyron, the tires are bound to be spent after that top speed run. * The SSC Ultimate Aero Twin Turbo, the car that unseated the Veyron as the world's fastest production car (then was unseated yet again by the Veyron Super Sport) has 1,183 horsepower. Unfortunately it is rear wheel drive, meaning all that power and torque is applied only to the rear, resulting in a car that fishtails in corners at the slightest blip of the throttle. There's a reason the Veyron is all-wheel-drive. + Hennesey Performance was also vying to break production car speed records with their purpose-built "Venom GT". The Venom broke the 270 MPH mark, though it isn't an official Guinness World Record because the vehicle didn't meet the criteria that the Bugatti Veyron had to meet, namely 30 cars must be produced and the car must complete two top-speed runs which are then averaged. Hennesey also developed the next generation of their Venom, the Venom F5. The company was advertising 290 MPH as the goal for the vehicle's top speed. The car was planned to see limited production, with 30 units estimated. + Hennesey Performance also specializes in outfitting common vehicles with obscene engine power, which lets you greatly exceed the speed limits on most roads if you feel like risking time in the slammer. Don't Try This at Home. * As mentioned above, Modified Super Cars sold by tuning companies are even more impractical compared with their unmodified counterparts. On top of the costs from the original car, more cost is added from the engine tuning and the additional performance parts. This engine tuning will typically shorten the lifespan of the engine due to extra stress, and likely also reduce fuel efficiency. The added performance can legally only be used on a race track unless you have an autobahn nearby to take the vehicle to its top speed. Also, the insurance on a supercar that has been enhanced by an aftermarket company is bound to be even higher. There are some subversions, however, where the car receives a modest boost in power but the focus is put on improving the car's handling on the track first and foremost with a higher-quality suspension and high-performance brakes for example. * Supercars in police forces. They look like they're designed to chase criminals at high speeds, but most criminals don't themselves use supercars in the first place, so you can perfectly effectively chase them in your average souped-up police cruiser - the maintenance and parts for which are a fraction of the cost of what the city would have to pay to keep that Lambo on the road. As for the occasional criminals who actually do use very fast cars, cameras and helicopters are much safer than initiating a 300 km/h chase on busy highways, even if your department owns a car capable of doing so. Supercars can actually be drafted into a police force if local laws allow illegal, confiscated property or personal vehicles to be used in police operations. * One practical use for the supercars, particularly all-wheel-drive ones, is rushing organs for transplant from donor to recipient when having them in the same facility or using aircraft isn't practical, which is not as infrequent as you'd think. * Motorcycles with colossal engines in the frame; generally, it's overkill to bolt a high-liter engine like a V8 into a bike such as with the Boss Hoss Cycles, and with an engine that heavy, the bike isn't as good at taking the corners, especially with only two wheels of grip. It may sound like a huge thrill to take one for a ride in a straight line, but they are quite expensive brand-new, easily approaching the price of a respectable sports car. * Drifting as a cornering technique: + While it makes the person doing it look badass, it actually makes you corner slower. It has been proved that a 600 HP drift car drifting around a track is slower than a 150 HP van going around the same track without drifting. The MythBusters also showed the same thing with one car, just driven differently in two different runs, and it did better when not drifting. + In the final season of Mythbusters, they revisited the drifting vs regular cornering. While the final result is that both "always drift" and "always normal cornering" have more or less the same time, they noticed on certain corners, normal cornering is faster while some are faster when drifting. Long story short, drifting is situational. + The tires will wear out much more quickly if drifting is performed regularly (as demonstrated by Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear (UK) and Tanner Faust on Top Gear (US)). This can be a money pit with sports tires so don't unless you have the cash to spare. * On land, driving well beyond the speed limit is generally this. It's so cool and rebellious to blaze down a highway like you're playing Need for Speed, and probably a thrill. However: + You're obviously vulnerable to being pulled over by the police, the citation you get can add even more expense by raising your insurance rates, and it's up to the individual cop if they feel like going easy on you. Or in more civilized countries, up to the exact amount of speeding you did. + The physical dangers are what can truly ruin your day. Exceeding the speed limit means that you're more likely to lose control of your vehicle in emergency situations, increases your braking distance and the likelihood of crashing into the back of a vehicle in a sudden traffic jam, and generally reduces your margin for error. Speeding is also not as much of a time-saver as you may think and can create an unhealthy level of stress on the car. + Then there's the increased likelihood that while you might get into an accident that, while not harmful to yourself or your vehicle, could have grave consequences for whoever you struck, such as a wayward pedestrian on non-highway roads, which in turn means severe legal consequences. If you end up killing someone because you went 50 miles per hour in a 25 mph school zone, you can expect a long time in prison and revocation of your driver's license. At best. + Of course, none of this applies if everyone else is also exceeding the speed limit; remember, safety is going at the speed of traffic, not necessarily the posted speed limit. On some roads, the actual speed of traffic may be well above the posted limit. If another car is driving well above even the flow of said traffic - perhaps weaving in and out of traffic - then this very likely qualifies for this trope. + Speeding is just fuel-inefficient regardless of whether it's legal to do so or not and whether the flow of traffic is doing so or not. Past a particular speed (around 55-65 mph or more, depending on car), your engine is putting out so much power to maintain the speed you're at that you'll be burning through your fuel like nobody's business. This is why lower speed limits are set during periods of fuel rationing. The longtime speed limit on U.S. freeways of 55 miles per hour was an artifact of the 1970s oil crisis. + And finally, speeding well above the speed limit is likely to shave maybe 1 or 2 lousy minutes off the trip for every half-hour or so you're going to be in traffic. Yeah it feels like you're getting there faster and, let's be real, it's satisfying as all hell to launch down the road like you're in The Fast And The Furious, but is accepting all the risks and shortcomings listed above to get down the highway with enough extra time that you can watch the Heinz Automato in action really worth it? * So weird that it cries for its own entry, the Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100). While awesomely luxurious and built like a Tiger tank, it had one small fault: not a single part or technology on it was interchangeable with any other Mercedes-Benz model, past or future. None. The custom model to end all custom models. The hydraulic switch driving the 4 windows? Good luck finding it from old factory stock, and even if you can, they ask God-damned $11,200 for it. As of 2011. No figures available for present day. Other switches and valves are thought to be "reasonably priced" if they fall into the $1000-2000 range. It needs a specific hydraulic oil, custom parts that are hand fitted and sometimes incompatible between cars of the same year, a specific toolkit to be able to work on it. It may be sometimes needed to build from scratch the old factory which made it in the 1960s and 1970s only to keep them running. + To give a middle finger on "no interchangeable parts" thing, its enormous-for-Europe, torque-rich engine was shoved into a Mercedes 300SEL, creating a German muscle car that could go hand-to-hand with the American muscle cars of that era. + And then, in 1969, AMG took this land yacht and turned it into something that came in second overall and first in its class at the 24 Hours of Spa in 1971. The "Red Sow" was technically a racecar, but still based on the 300 SEL 6.3, the biggest, heaviest and most luxurious Mercedes-Benz model that didn't have "600" written on the trunk lid. In fact, it was chosen because it had the same engine as the 600 which, due to being a V8 with even more displacement than a Chevy Small Block (not to mention far more high-tech than any contemporary American V8), had tremendous tuning potential. However, even with its weight reduced, the Red Sow still remained a big and heavy car. It was crazy fast which contributed to its success, Red Ones Go Faster indeed, but this also tortured the brakes. In fact, it's a miracle that it was as successful as it was because it needed the most pit-stops of all participating cars: It ran through tires like nobody's business. * Not quite dissimilarly from the Red Sow, Audi entered the DTM with their fairly new V8 in 1990. That was a full-size luxury sedan in direct competition with the Mercedes S-class and the BMW 7-series with their biggest engines respectively. This was legal as per the (fairly lax) DTM regulations. Audi's calculation was easy victories due to having a) a fairly large 32-valve DOHC V8 that could be tuned to kingdom come and b) all-wheel drive. And in fact, on easier tracks, there were races with ended with the finish line being crossed by a number of Audi V8, then nothing, then everything else. But on tighter tracks like the Avus in Berlin with its 180° hairpin turn, the Audis were at a disadvantage because they were big. And unwieldy. And big. Did I mention big? For comparison: Mercedes-Benz and BMW had cars in the DTM that were two classes smaller. * Wankel Rotary Engines have intriguing advantages but were held back by significant drawbacks: + They weigh less than a piston engine for a given power output, are much more compact, can easily rev up to an exciting number of revolutions per minute (The Mazda RX-8 red-lines at 9000 RPM, limited by the durability of the transmission). They are also very smooth with almost no negative vibrations. Mazda even won a 24 Hours of Le Mans with multiple powering the venerable 787B. + Sadly, Wankel engines (Mazda RX-8 and before) have a history of significant drawbacks that made them unattractive for most automakers to develop; only Mazda has a history of significant investment in the design. Wankels tend to suffer from inefficient combustion, leading to lousy fuel economy for such a small engine, as well as emission troubles. The Mazda designs also burn a small dose of motor oil by design, to prevent the apex seals from wearing quickly. Their design typically has trouble with producing torque, making the engine fine for sports cars, but unsuited for trucks and SUVs where a flat and powerful torque band is more desirable than going all out for horsepower. + With emission regulations becoming stricter over time, Mazda Wankel research tends to be low priority. Engineering Explained on YouTube has an explanation of the drawbacks. However, their use as a generator for a hybrid-electric car was considered, where the rotor can be kept at fixed-optimum r.p.m. for maximum efficiency; this setup makes the engine solely used to generate charge for the batteries, much like diesel-generators on most modern railroad trains, known as "diesel-electric" trains. * Typically owning Luxury Cars outright tends to be this trope, due to their prime, finicky technologies: + Many luxury cars have specialized parts such as high-tech shocks to improve the quality of the ride. Sadly, many luxury vehicles are made in small quantities, so the only part builder to buy from may be the vehicle's manufacturer, raising supply costs tremendously. + This is why particularly buying a used high-luxury car may look like a good deal, until it is time to seek out a repair shop and learn what you will be paying on top of that. As a result, leasing can be a more practical solution as depending on where you live, not actually owning the vehicle may carry tax benefits, and actually be less expensive than maintaining and owning it solely by yourself. Top Gear (UK) has repeatedly proven the point with episodes where the presenters bought used luxury cars for a song and discovered, in painful detail, why they were so cheap. Jeremy Clarkson has especially fallen foul of the trope. In one episode, he bought a used Maserati Merak, only for the engine (recently rebuilt at a cost of 10,000 pounds) to literally disintegrate during a race to Slough. In another, he picked up a used Mercedes CL600 for the price of a brand new Nissan Pixo (6,995 pounds) and bet James May that it would still be running perfectly in two weeks. When one of the ignition coils failed less than a week later, Jeremy reluctantly revealed that it was going to cost 1,200 pounds to replace, as opposed to the 138 quid it would cost to replace the same part in a Pixo. In other words, he had to pay almost one-sixth of the car's cost to replace one part. + One major temptation is to splurge on a relatively high tier luxury or sports car which gives the appearance of success, but these vehicles are likely to be major money pits due to having specialized parts, higher insurance rates, and terrible gas millage while requiring premium fuel. Truly wealthy people will more likely be driving Boring, but Practical Toyotas, Hondas, or Fords — just to name a few — while wearing regular clothing to look like any other driver out on the road. The rich person outwardly showing off their riches is limited to the movies, celebrities, etc, but many remain low-key and maintain the appearance of a regular person and thus a low profile. Additionally, many "entry level" luxury brands share a lot of parts and even platforms with mainstream brands, greatly reducing maintenance costs. Examples include but are not limited to Acura (Honda), Audi (VW), Genesis (Hyundai), Lincoln (Ford), and Lexus (Toyota). * Having five valves per cylinder in an engine can theoretically make it breathe better and rev higher to produce more power, but going beyond four valves per cylinder has such relatively small returns for added complexity and cost that the practice was widely discontinued. Instead, performance can be improved with simpler methods like altering the bore and/or stroke of the pistons to achieve similar or better performance gains. * Shooting flames out of an exhaust pipe looks cool and makes a car look like it's using afterburners to go faster, but on the regular roads, it just burns excessive fuel and your emissions test won't be pretty. Additionally, the backfiring sounds may violate noise regulations and lead to traffic citations by the police. * Steam locomotives in general. True, they are simply awesome - it is like the whole iron horse was a living creature, with living sounds and steam. But they have abysmal fuel efficiency (8% is a good achievement, and the highest, 12%, has been attained on a double expansion Mallet engine), and because reciprocating steam engines work on constant force, it means you cannot use a passenger engine to haul freight trains, but each task (passenger, freight, shunter) asks for a different engine with different wheel layout. This bad fuel efficiency and the Crippling Overspecialization spelled the doom for steam once diesels and electrics had become reliable enough. * Another means of getting fuel efficiency was to make the steam generation itself more efficient. But this tended to come with unpleasant side effects, too. + One obvious solution is to use compounding steam engines, where high-pressure steam exhaust is fed into a secondary cylinder or set of cylinders. The biggest snag, however, is how to arrange the cylinders. On regular non-articulated steam locomotives, several combinations are possible but almost always produce asymmetric power distribution (one high-pressure cylinder exhausting into the low-pressure cylinder) or more complicated maintenance (one cylinder or a pair of cylinders under the smoke box, with the valve gear only accessible from directly below). Swiss designer Anatole Mallet sidestepped this issue by having two powertrains on his design (the Mallet locomotive), with the primary expansion and secondary expansion cylinders being on separate wheelsets. However, with the low-pressure cylinders mounted on a swiveling bogie, the snag was making sure that the flexible steam pipes from the high-pressure cylinders were totally steam-tight. + The efficiency of compound locomotives could be increased by also increasing the steam pressure. However, high-pressure boilers were designed for power plants and ships where they could be maintained and repaired anytime and weren't affected by short bumps every few minutes or even seconds. Also, the fuel saving was usually eaten up by the more expensive design and the generally more expensive operation of the complicated machines. Not few designs failed due to experimental locomotives breaking down pretty much on each test run. - Honorable mention for high-pressure steam: The Velox boiler was designed to start up within a short timespan of no more than 20 minutes. The starting process within this "short timespan" involved a diesel-generator set, two electric starting motors for turbines, one gas turbine and two kinds of fuel, sometimes also fuel pre-heating. Not much later, it wouldn't take much more than starting up the oil burners and throwing a burning rag into the firebox to heat up a conventional oil-fired Stephenson boiler from cold in even less time. Oh, and the Velox boiler is designed to stand upright which limits its size in rail vehicles. + The second obvious solution is to use a condenser and heat exchanger and pre-heat the water going from the tender to boiler. The result is condenser locomotive. The additional bonus is that they eliminate the smoke and the steam and the "choo-choo" sound. The water is also effectively recycled in a closed circuit, and none is lost, eliminating the need of jerk waters. The problem is that the condensers and heat exchangers are large and effectively take a place from one goods wagon. They are feasible only when you need to haul really heavy loads extremely long lengths with no chance to replenish the water for boilers. Crossing deserts comes to mind. + The Italian engineer Attilio Franco came up with the idea to pre-heat the water with exhaust smoke. One of his prototypes was the only quadruplex ever made, a twin-boiler, 3,000hp behemoth that was built and tested in Belgium. It operated fairly well, and the combination of the pre-heating and the compound engines helped it save coal. However, its cramped twin-boiler design made two firemen necessary, and the costs of an extra crew member ate up the savings, not to mention that one of the firemen couldn't get into contact with the rest of the crew while the other one had to leave his working-place to see the driver. + In the late 1930s, Franco was joined by Dr. Piero Crosti, and they developed somewhat more conventional locomotives with the same pre-heater system, but with two pre-heaters mounted on the sides of the boiler rather than one in line with the boiler. These machines actually worked pretty well, and yes, they did save coal in comparison with conventional locomotives. The somewhat worsened view ahead due to the chimneys on the sides of the boiler was considered only a minor nuisance and lessened by installing only one pre-heating boiler underneath the main boiler and only one chimney on the fireman's side of the boiler. Firing them up was considerably more difficult, though, until the Germans and Brits were smart enough to reintroduce the "normal" chimney to generate draft while the locomotive was standing. What really killed the Franco-Crosti locomotives, however, was rampant corrosion: After a couple of years, the preheater pipes looked like someone had shot them with a machine gun. Stainless steel pipes would have eliminated this problem, but they weren't worth installing in a time when spreading electrification and dieselization displaced steam locomotives more and more. * German streamlined steam locomotives not only looked cool but actually saved some fuel. The main reason was that the streamlining was a shroud wrapped around the entire locomotive from the top of the boiler almost down to the rails. However, the fully-enclosed running gear lacked ventilation and was prone to overheat, and maintaining it through the small hatches on the sides was difficult. + 05 003 took the cake. The "half-sister" of record-breaking 05 002 was not only a streamliner but also a cab-forward locomotive. It burned coal dust that had to be transported from the tender all the way along the quite long boiler to the firebox. It may have been awesome when it was new, but not so much a few years later in World War Two. Thus, 05 003 was the first of the three class 05 locomotives to be converted into a standard, non-streamlined locomotive. + 05 003 wasn't the first German cab forward. The Prussians had three different prototypes built in 1904. They all had one thing in common: Despite being cab-forward designs, the locomotives weren't rotated. Instead, the driver's cab was mounted in front of the boiler. For one, this design made any communication with the fireman difficult, speaking tube or not (like the noises on a steam locomotive running at speed made the use of a speaking tube feasible, not to mention that the driver had to turn around and look away from the tracks ahead to use it). It also didn't really facilitate boiler maintenance. * American railroads had such stuff, too. + Check out the Pennsylvania Railroad FF1. At the time, 4,000 hp was a lot, the technology was practically space-age. But, the locomotive was simply too powerful for period rolling stock, it had only two speeds to choose from, and so it would regularly rip couplers out of freight cars, or worse, derail the cars. + The Budd Metroliner. An EMU designed by and for the Pennsylvania Railroad to run top-notch high-speed services in the Northeast Corridor. Its maximum speed was beyond 160 mph. Not that the Pennsy had any stretch of track that would have allowed for anything close to that speed. + This seems to be a consistent problem for the Pennsylvania Railroad because they built the 4-4-4-4 T1. The T1 was powerful, fast, and looked cool. It was also a maintenance nightmare, ate coal like nobody's business, and was prone to wheel-slip, which will destroy an engine's running gear in a matter of seconds if not quickly corrected. All 52 were scrapped within ten years of production. - There is some speculation as to how much of this was due to the design, and how much was due to engineers being used to much older conventional engines. The wheel-slip, in particular, was due to engineers not being used to handling a machine of such power and opening the throttle too quickly, while excessive coal consumption was again due to lack of familiarity with these radically-different machines. The real reason they were scrapped within ten years was not because of their flaws, but because of the switch to diesel-electric locomotives. Incidentally, there is a group that is attempting to build another T1 from scratch and they intend to see just how good it could have been when handled properly. + Their predecessor, the sole 6-4-4-6 S1 No. 6100, was even more awesome and more impractical. It was the most powerful express steam locomotive ever built, but it carried only 40% of its weight on two mechanically independent sets of four driving wheels each. These were overwhelmed by the sheer power of the boiler which made wheel-slip almost inevitable at any speed below 50mph, and its very long rigid wheelbase restricted it from lines with sharp curves, such as through the Allegheny Mountains where such power would have been most useful. Its main advantage was that it could theoretically reach speeds way beyond 120mph even with long consists of heavy riveted Pullman coaches. This, however, wasn't very useful as there was very little track on the Pennsylvania system that was straight and flat enough for it to operate at high speed excepting a few places in the Midwest. Also, such high speeds on rails had just been outlawed. This also meant that the Pennsy couldn't even brag about #6100's performance advantage if they couldn't even prove it legally. + But Pennsy's Duplex madness didn't stop there. The next idea was to build Duplexes that could haul freight trains. Spot the mistake. No, seriously, adding a third driver to one of the engines and reducing the diameter of the driving wheels from 80" to 77" in comparison to the T1 was thought to cut it. Thus came the 4-6-4-4 Q1 into existence. It looked somewhat like a T1 with a third driver in the front engine, requiring the rear engine to "run backwards" with the cylinders mounted behind it on both sides of the firebox. And it was semi-streamlined like the T1 because it was intended for passenger and freight trains, but there's no proof it ever hauled a single regular passenger train. Eventually, Pennsy abandoned the idea of dual-use steam locomotives, but they were too proud to abandon Duplexes and build more 2-10-4 J1s (the Canadian Pacific put 2-10-4s in front of the Dominion passenger express train, by the way). Nope, they designed the Q2, this time a freight-only 4-4-6-4 with no streamlining. Did the smaller drivers eliminate the Duplex-inherent problems? Nope, but they made it possible to mount the rear cylinders somewhere else than directly beneath the firebox, namely before the drivers where they belong. Did the 8000hp? As if. No, what actually got this longest non-articulated steamer ever made into serial production was the introduction of — wait for it — traction control. And even then, they could only pull marginally more than a J1 with two-thirds of the Q2s' horsepower. + Triplexes. So how can the tractive effort of a locomotive be increased? More drivers under the tender. The problem was, the boilers simply didn't generate enough steam to feed that many drivers. The Triplexes broke tractive effort world records when they started up and ran out of steam almost immediately afterwards. They were practically useless past walking speed. + Streamlined express engines, especially the 1930s-type steam engines, are fast and pretty, but they are expensive to manufacture, often require specialized crews, and cannot be used on any train except the express. Besides, while streamlining itself was and still is considered a good fuel-saving means, most streamlined steam locomotives actually consumed more coal because the streamlining slapped onto them made them heavier. + The 2-6-6-6 Allegheny-class steam engines of the Chesapeake and Ohio could produce 7000 horsepower on average, but they weighed more than the Big Boy, and the 40-ton axle weight left the monsters restricted to only the heaviest lines. + Speaking of Chesapeake & Ohio, their steam turbine-electrics existed for less than three years between construction and scrapping. The modular construction promised to make repairs easier than on conventional steamers. Unfortunately, they were so complicated that it took a lot longer to find any faults in the first place. That and the brand-new express line they had been built for was canceled, rendering them useless. + The Baldwin 60000, one of the largest locomotives ever made. The designers intended it to be the train of the future, but its sheer size meant that the controls were too complex for most engineers to operate, and the firebox tubes had a nasty habit of bursting. If that weren't bad enough, it was so heavy that the test run damaged the rails it was on, thereby ensuring that the railroad companies would not be interested. It didn't even go faster than any other locomotives. Only one was ever built, and it's been stationary in a museum for the last eighty years. + There was also the Baldwin #6000, the sole specimen of the DR-12-8-750/8 model made in 1943. The goal of this predecessor of Baldwin's "Centipedes" was to put a whopping 6,000hp into a single twelve-axle unit by installing eight combinations of 750hp diesels plus generators. Making this beast was already impractical in the middle of World War Two, especially since it was meant for express passenger trains, so it never got more than four diesels and 3,000hp. It only existed for some two years before it was half-scrapped and rebuilt into another Baldwin #6000, one of the two prototypes of... + ...the "Centipedes" themselves. This time, Baldwin got only 3,000hp out of only two 1,500hp prime movers, but these locomotives were usually run in back-to-back pairs. "Babyfaces" or not, you must admit that they were pretty cool. However, maintenance was a nightmare, partly because not even two of the 56 units were alike, partly because they had 48 brake shoes each. And as cool as they looked, three EMD E units or three ALCo PA/PB units (or three of Baldwin's own DR-6-4-2000 units) remained the better choice for express passenger services in practice. + The Union Pacific Coal Turbine. So you have plenty of coal at hand, enough to feed steam monsters like the Challenger or the Big Boy. But you want to go away from steam with its abysmal efficiency. What do you do with all that cheap coal? Burn it in a turbine — like you would burn liquid fuel in a gas turbine. But wait, you can't simply dump pieces of coal into a turboshaft engine, they'd take too long to burn, so what do you do? Grind the coal to dust in the tender that's been converted to a mobile coal bunker. Why that's a bad idea? Because the coal dust will be accelerated to very high speeds in the turbine whose blades will be under constant bombardment of tiny pieces of solid fuel — which actually don't come out of the grinder in the tender that tiny. Also, the sulfur in the coal will turn into sulfuric acid which will eat away your precious turbine blades. Maintenance of this monster (which still doesn't have enough space for a cab so it has to be MUed from an Alco PA-1 running ahead which eliminates the need of firing up the turbine for marshaling) will be so costly that you could also have burned mineral oil in the first place. + Which the UP did as well. Their first gas turbine engines ran on 16 wheels and had 4,500hp. The prototype had an onboard fuel reservoir and two cabs, but gas turbines are horrendously thirsty, turbines of that size even more so, and the range of that locomotive was so minimal that the production units were built with only one cab because the other end was coupled to a 12-wheel oil tender. The third generation became a massive three-section type with 8,500hp which could be increased to 10,000hp by mounting additional electric motors on the tender axles. All these locomotives ran on Bunker C oil which was pretty much refinery leftover and therefore dirt cheap, but they used such insane amounts that the UP had to keep them on the lines as much as possible because leaving them standing with their turbines running was still too costly, and the already bad wear on the turbines would only increase with constant shutdowns/startups. Besides, Bunker C didn't stay that cheap when new uses were found for it in the plastics industry. Now imagine what would have been, had these locomotives still been around by the time of the 1973 Oil Crisis. + Even the mighty Big Boy had issues. Due to its immense weight, and significant front overhang on tight curves, it had many speed restrictions that no other locomotive needed to worry about. Big boys rarely (if ever) left their home territory between Ogden, Utah, and Cheyenne, Wyoming. A distance of less than 500 miles. Most of the turntables, and indeed the roundhouse stalls they might have used between spins on the turntables were simply too small to fit the behemoths. * Even England, the motherland of railways, isn't safe from this. + In the late 1940s, Oliver W. Bulleid decided to pretty much reinvent the steam locomotive with Southern Railway's Leader class. It was a steam locomotive that didn't look like one at all but rather like an early diesel. Instead of having a set of drivers in a rigid frame coupled by rods and directly powered by steam pistons, it had steam motors in its two six-wheel bogies, and its track view surpassed that of all other British steamers because it had one driver's cab at each end. It actually worked pretty well. Otherwise, it was quite half-baked. It had one lateral aisle through the entire engine room. This, however, required the boiler to be placed out of centre, causing the locomotive to be unbalanced. The countermeasure was to fill scrap metal under the floorboards in the aisle which in turn made the locomotive too heavy. The fireman's room was in the middle of the locomotive and prevented any communication between him and the driver; it was also badly ventilated, and the fireman would have burned his shins on the hot air from the firebox if he hadn't worn protectors; and in the event of the locomotive falling over, he wouldn't have had a chance to get out unlike on conventional steamers whose cabs have an open rear end. The best part: The first Leader, 36001, wasn't a one-off prototype but the first of the actual serial production run. When the Leader project was stopped, 36002 was almost finished, and work on 36003 had commenced. + Britain also experimented with turbine-engined locomotives, building several prototypes, but never got them to work well enough for full service. Not only were they more complex and less reliable than conventional steam or diesel engines but turbine engines have to run at a constant RPM in order to work properly, meaning that the engine couldn't be throttled back when the locomotive was moving at reduced speed or even when not moving at all, negating any savings from its better power-to-weight ratio. It didn't help that the third and last British gas turbine locomotive prototype was built like a semi-streamlined kludge based on an old steamer. The idea was abandoned for good after the 1960s. + On a lesser note, the Great Western Railway "King" Class locomotives. They were powerful express locomotives but were severely restricted on where they could go due to their weight (a whole ten tons more than the more numerous "Castle" class), only being able to travel to Birmingham and Plymouth and being too heavy for the Royal Albert Bridge into Cornwall. * Oliver W. Bulleid of Leader-class infamy was eventually sent to Ireland after World War II where he made quite a career. At that time, Ireland was very short on coal including locomotive coal. Diesels were still far away, so peat was used as locomotive fuel instead, but it suffered from poor efficiency in locomotives designed to burn coal. What Bulleid did to solve this problem was take the Leader, remove most of its shortcomings, simplify it, also to make it cheaper, and design the boiler to specifically use peat as fuel. Thus came the CC1 into existence, also known as the "Turf Burner". It was still an impressive, innovative locomotive. But for one, even after simplification, it was still too complex and expensive for piss-poor Córas Iompair Éireann to operate and maintain, also because it was one of a kind that couldn't use any parts from any other locomotive class. Worse yet: Coal came back to Ireland, and all of a sudden, CIÉ was left with one locomotive that couldn't run on coal and absolutely had to burn peat. * The South African class GM from 1938 and, even more so, its successor class GMA/GMAM from 1953 check almost all marks of why a Garratt locomotive is awesome. Big, thick, powerful, efficient boiler that doesn't have to take the driving wheels below into account because there basically are none. Fully symmetrical running gear that allows the locomotive to operate in both directions like any tank locomotive, and that's actually two steam locomotives in one. Thus, twice as much tractive effort as a normal steam locomotive, and these particular locomotives had two sets of four coupled axles each. The post-war GMA/GMAM was even a fairly modern construction and ended up being built in more examples than any other Garratt. In addition, the GMA for branch lines and the GMAM for mainlines were the self-same locomotives. The only difference were removable plates in the storages to reduce their capacity and the maximum axle load along with it. And this is where we get to the "impractical" part. The "lots of storage for a tank locomotive" mark stays unchecked. Unlike many other Garratts which had water tanks at both ends, both the GM and the GMA/GMAM only carried coal in their rear storages. The front storage was the only water tank on the locomotive. And even the GMAM could only store 2,100 gallons of water which weren't even ten cubic meters. As a GMA, the same locomotive could hold a bit more than three quarters of this. The tank was a glorified jerrican, only sufficient for marshaling. Remember a Garratt has a big boiler and four high-pressure cylinders to feed. The South African Railways had water tenders that were four-axle tank cars used to extend the water storage of steam locomotives. They were originally designed to help steam locomotives traverse arid deserts like the Karoo before Henschel whipped up condenser locomotives. However, the GM and the GMA/GMAM needed them to leave the yard in the first place or even to stay under steam for longer which is why almost all pictures of these locomotives show them with a water tender. These water tenders also partly defeated the symmetry advantage because the locomotives had to run around their tenders at the end of the line. * The German ''Schienenzeppelin'' (Rail Zeppelin). It was basically a propeller-driven aerodynamically designed railcar, which had a pusher propeller and an aicrcraft engine. It could attain speeds up to 230 km/h and was luxuriously fashioned inside. The big problem was that because of the pusher propeller it could not haul additional wagons and the Deadly Rotary Fan in form of the pusher propeller when calling a station. * Early diesel locomotives were cool new high tech in a time when almost all regular trains ran behind steam locomotives. But before diesel-electrics became a thing, most ways thought up to use the diesel power for actual motion were impractical. It didn't help either that Germany had a dislike for larger diesel-electrics for decades. + One idea was to establish a direct drive by using the crankshaft of a very slow diesel engine as a jackshaft to drive wheels from. Borsig and Sulzer built a locomotive in this fashion in 1912◊. In other words, the speed of the engine was the same as the speed of the driving wheels. When the locomotive stopped, the engine itself was shut down. For starting the engine, the whole locomotive and the entire train up, compressed air was blown into the cylinders. Only when the locomotive was in motion, the engine was switched to diesel operation. The air was compressed using a small auxiliary diesel engine. This doesn't sound so bad per se, and in fact, this locomotive was ready to go much more quickly than any contemporary steamer. But the locomotive was designed for local passenger trains with many stopovers. While the train ran between two stopovers, the compressor couldn't catch up with refilling the air reservoirs with enough air to get the locomotive going again, so the stopovers often ended up much longer than scheduled because the locomotive had to stand still with the compressor running for minutes until it had enough compressed air to get going again. And even then, getting the fuel-air mixture to self-ignite was unexpectedly difficult because the compressed air cooled the cylinders down too much. - A bit over two decades later, in 1933, Humboldt-Deutz tried it again◊ with an even more conservative design with three steam-locomotive-like double-acting cylinders. One big advantage of this locomotive was that diesel fuel was pumped into the cylinders and ignited by electrical heating elements as soon as the locomotive started to roll which greatly reduced the amount of air necessary to start it up. It was hoped to have a higher thermal efficiency than both steam and other diesel locomotives, but in reality, the opposite was the case. + The diesel-mechanical locomotive was the next step. Now, a mechanical drivetrain may make sense in smaller, less powerful vehicles like railcars, railbuses (sometimes with entire bus drivetrains) or small shunting engines. In a 1,200-hp locomotive built by Hohenzollern and Krupp in 1926 for the Soviet Union to be used on goods trains, it did not make as much sense. Decades before L.F.R. Fell decided to stuff three differential gearings into one locomotive with six diesel engines, the only way to make this work was with a quite sophisticated automatic 3-speed gearbox which did not cut off the torque while shifting. Still, whenever the locomotive shifted gears, an extreme momentary torque peak occurred that would occasionally break gears and/or even couplers on the train. Even though the locomotive had a remarkable efficiency of up to 31% which added to the awesomeness of this 16-wheel behemoth, something like this was never tried again in a road locomotive for very good reasons. * Soviet 12,000 hp diesel locomotives. Yep, twelve thousand horsepower in what counted as one, single locomotive. The 4TE10S was actually a four-section locomotive developed from two- and eventually three-section types, but still. It took a while for the Soviets to realize they didn't need that much power. The Baikal-Amur Mainline for which the first four-section, 12,000 hp 4TE10S locomotives were built was single-track with sidings too short for anything that justified more than the 9,000 hp that something like a run-of-the-mill 3TE10M could produce. And before goods trains could grow heavy enough for that much power elsewhere, the Soviet Union was dissolved, and the post-Soviet economy didn't generate enough cargo to make trains that heavy. + In 1984, one year after the first 4TE10S was made, the Soviets managed to put 6,000hp into one single, one-section, one-engine diesel locomotive, the TE136—long before EMD produced their own 6,000hp engine, the SD90MAC. In 1985, they made another one, in 1990, they made two single-cab sections and lashed them up to form 2TE136-0001, and that was it. There was also the one-off, double-section 2TE126-0001 which grew too heavy for even 16 axles, so another four idlers had to be fitted. + And speaking of the SD90MAC, that also falls under this category. ElectroMotive essentially got into a dick-waving contest with General Electric, and both rushed a 6000hp locomotive to market (GE produced the AC6000CW). In order to crank out that much power, both companies needed to design new prime movers (the actual diesel engine within the locomotive) as their existing designs simply couldn't be scaled up that much. Railroads are, by nature, leery about unproven new technology, as a single engine failure can block an entire main line and cause tremendous delays of other trains. Both new prime movers had significant teething problems and as a result, most railroads weren't interested in them, and most locomotives of both models were sold as 'convertibles' with lower-powered but service-proven engines with the option to 'upgrade' them later, an option which has never been exercised. In fact, many of the 6000hp models have been either downgraded with existing prime movers in the 4400hp range or simply sold for scrap. With this out of their system, both EMD and GE went right back to building locomotives in the 4400-4600hp range and shifted their efforts from increasing raw power output to improving fuel efficiency, reliability, and emissions levels. + The best thing to ever come from a single-section, single-engine, 6000hp diesel locomotive is the speed record for diesel-powered rolling stock: The Russian TEP80-0002 reached 271kph (168mph) in 1993. As cool as this is, it had no practical purpose as high-speed EMUs are much better at this than a 180-tonne diesel locomotive with the same wheel arrangement as a GE U50 or an ALCo C-855. TEP80-0002, one out of only two ever made (looks like there's a pattern, doesn't it), now resides at the October railway museum in Saint-Petersburg. + The Soviet AA20 was awesome and impractical for one and the same reason: it was a 14-coupled steam locomotive. It produced crazy amounts of tractive effort for a non-articulated steamer, and it was therefore acknowledged by Stalin himself. At the same time, it derailed and ruined tracks whenever it ran and destroyed every switch it went through. + The Swedes seem to have built a somewhat more practical awesome locomotive for hauling ore from Kiruna to Narvik. The Dm3, a 1D+D+D1 articulated electrical locomotive delivers 7600kW (just a tick over 10000hp) through old-fashioned coupling rods and hauls 5200 tons. * Deutsche Bundesbahn built their Class 103◊ single-unit electric locomotives with continuous 7400kW (one-hour peak power output of 7780kW/10,580 hp). Despite being designed to haul 5-to-7-car passenger trains at 200 km/h (125 mph) with high acceleration, they pulled heavy intercity trains with usually 11 and sometimes 12 or 13 cars at the same speed from 1979 on. Yes, they could do that with ease. No, they couldn't withstand that workload without wearing out alarmingly quickly. By 1985 already, they spent so much time at the workshops that keeping the Intercity network running was increasingly difficult, and yet, taking the entire class out of service with nothing even resembling a good replacement at hand was a tempting idea. + To make things even worse, they had a tendency to wear out even quicker when constantly run below 160 km/h (100 mph)(The speed of 160 km/h is significant in Germany as it is the maximum speed legacy signaling allows. In other words, running trains above that speed requires improvements in infrastructure which at the time were not at all common - even in 2016 the Intercity Express (in many ways the Spiritual Successor of the Class 103) has significant stretches of legacy tracks allowing speeds no higher than 160 km/h) due to their long transmission gearing, so using them in less straining long-distance services was pretty much out of question, too. + Romanian Class 47 locomotives◊ are single-unit electric locomotives with continuous 6600kW (almost 9000hp) of power, designed to take on trains loaded with 3000-3600 tonnes on mountain lines. However, most of them are used for passenger trains, which is a waste of potential. * Tilting trains are pretty awesome and practical if done right which means the Italian Pendolino, the Swedish X2000 and a few Japanese types including the N700A-series Shinkansen. As for basically all the other tilting train designs, well... + The French TGV Pendulaire P-01 was seen as a solution for the problem that the expansion of the high-speed TGV network required the construction of new high-speed lines or at least the costly conversion of existing lines for higher speeds: Just build a TGV that tilts in curves! After all, tilting trains were highly successful in Italy where they're called Pendolino, so why not do this with the TGV? Why not take France's flagship train one step further to coolness and make a tilting train out of it? Why not, you may ask? Well, due to the way that the car bodies of the TGV's intermediate sections are mounted, it is impossible to tilt each one of them independently. Alstom didn't realize that before they had actually started building the P-01. The only way to make it work was to tilt all intermediate sections at once. This meant that the first intermediate section would tilt way too late, and the last one would tilt way too early, thus making going through tight curves even less comfortable than without tilting. Thus, the prototype has never been used in revenue service. + Deutsche Bahn had similar negative experiences with tilting technology. While they did not have the problem caused by Jacob's bogies, basically all tilting trains had problems with fatigue cracks or materials aging a lot faster than expected under the added stress which the German designers didn't take into consideration. The best German tilting trains were the class 610 DMUs and these were made by Fiat Ferroviaria in Italy and essentially small diesel Pendolini. Tilting trains these days are mostly run with the tilting mechanism disabled or have been retired early and former Bahnchef Rüdiger Grube is on record as saying that tilting technology has proven a dead end for DB. That said, the main reason why tilting trains failed in Germany was that they were made in a time when every last piece of rolling stock that the DB received had to be "Made in Germany", period. So Germany had to build tilting trains, but Germany couldn't build tilting trains and had to kludge something together including using Leopard II components as the actual tilting mechanism. This was also an era in which the DB rejected the idea of testing prototypes and wanted to put even the first specimen of a brand-new class into revenue service ASAP with precious little to no prior testing. Smarter railroad companies in e.g. Finland, Poland, or the Czech Republic acquired tilting trains by importing Pendolini. + The British APT-P ("APT" standing for "Advanced Passenger Train") was the fastest British train for 23 years and at the same time a semi-failure, but not directly for tilting reasons for a change. The idea behind it was to dramatically increase the average speed on the curvy West Coast Main Line without straightening the tracks. At least it was electrified, so there was no need to use gas turbines like on the one-off, experimental APT-E which would have been too expensive after the Oil Crisis. (Besides, we've already covered British gas turbines.) Nonetheless, the power cars were the main cause of trouble. British Rail wanted two of them, but not at the ends to avoid the coaches being stretched and bunched between two powered vehicles (although the High-Speed Trains ran and still run as "sandwiches" between what's basically two diesel locomotives with no problems). So they both ran in the middle of the train. However, they were so packed with technical components that installing an aisle for passengers to walk through them was out of the question, and the APT-Ps were divided in two (and labeled as two half-trains joined at their power cars). This required two dining cars plus crews for only six coaches each. Eventually, one power car was removed from each train, but this didn't solve the problem of having divided trains. Also, the power cars were unnecessarily complicated. The pantographs had to swivel to the sides to equal the tilting movement. It took the Swedish manufacturer ASEA-Brown-Boveri and until The '90s to realize that power cars with no passenger seats don't have to tilt. Granted, an X2000 entering a curve with everything tilting but the power car looks weird, but so do Volvos. That said, the APT-P became the main precursor for the Pendolino, for the tilting equipment worked quite well. * Japan, anyone? + When the EF200 was built, it was Japan's most powerful locomotive class by far. Not only didn't JR need anything close to this powerful, though, but the Japanese railroad power grid proved too weak to feed an EF200 at full power, so they had to be derated. Even the sixteen-wheeled, two-section EH500 is only rated at two-thirds of the EF200's original power. + In The '90s, the Japanese Railways wanted to increase the coolness factor of the Shinkansen bullet trains with a new generation, the 500 series, the first of its kind to reach 300km/h. In order to also make it look as fast as it was, and to get away from the not-too-pleasant, blocky looks of the previous generations, the 500 series' cross-section was made rather rounded instead of almost square. This, however, came at the cost of a tight and cramped interior. So, the 500 series is about as cool to behold as it's unpleasant to ride. It also turned out very expensive to build and maintain, and since people weren't willing to ride it and chose the older generations instead (which is easy on a line where you have a train every few minutes), it didn't nearly cover its own costs. Only ten were built. * Three-phase AC electrification for railroads was pretty awesome about a dozen years into the 20th century. It didn't require rectifiers, and it allowed for much more powerful locomotives than the DC electrification used on tramways and underground rapid transit. But there were a couple of caveats: + For one, it was still too early to uncouple the motor speed from the AC frequency. This essentially meant that early three-phase electric locomotives had only two speeds to choose from. The same, however, applied to certain early single-phase AC locomotives like the Pennsylvania Railroad FF1 mentioned below. + The electrification absolutely required multiple overhead wires. This may not seem like a problem until you have to install the overhead catenary above your first switch. The experimental Marienfelde-Zossen line in Germany where speeds of up to 130mph were reached as early as 1903 had three wires arranged vertically. Electrifying switches was completely impossible that way, so there was only one electrified stretch of track, and moving the experimental vehicles anywhere else required steam locomotives. The Italians were somewhat smarter. First of all, they put one phase on the rails, thereby reducing the number of necessary overhead wires to two. These could be arranged horizontally. Even though this worked well enough that this system persisted in northern Italy until The '60s, it still required dead wires above switches and therefore above large parts of bigger stations and yards in order to prevent short-circuits. * The Great Western Railway's initial use of broad-gauge tracks made quite a few problems. While the usual British standard gauge railway lines had a loading gauge that was much too small, causing problems to this day with bilevel railcars and when trains cross from continental Europe (the first generation of Eurostar had to be custom-built for a lot of British quirks, including the rather narrow loading gauge), Brunel's broad gauge caused problems in the opposite direction. You see, the main reason for a small loading gauge is that it saves a lot of money. Brunel's trains could only run on broad-gauge lines, and he could not share his tracks with other railroads nor have his trains run along other railroad lines. In addition to that building to his exceeding standards was fine on main lines but prohibitively expensive on branch lines and just like airlines today operate feeder services at a loss to get passengers for their main lines, railways without a feeder service would have much lower passenger numbers. The last broad-gauge lines were converted to standard gauge before the 19th century was over. Unfortunately, Spain made a similar mistake in choosing a non-standard broad gauge, because they thought it would bring advantages. It didn't. The Australian state of Victoria and (initially) parts of Canada followed that example, with the former adding dual gauge tracks to allow out-of-state trains to operate and the latter converting to standard gauge. + That said, many countries had defense in mind when choosing broad gauge. A break of gauge makes it difficult or even downright impossible for an invader's supply and troop trains to use the invaded country's railway tracks, greatly slowing down their supply chains. It isn't a coincidence that Spain, Portugal, and Russia, the three most significant users of broad gauge in Eurasia, had been invaded by France earlier in the 19th century. * The Chinese Vehicle Straddling Bus, admit it; that thing looks all kinds of awesome. The idea, presumably, is to create a bus that is more convenient than its lane-hogging brother. What they have actually done is invent a bus that if it accidentally swerves, to even the smallest degree, it will cause a three-car pile-up - a prospect even more frightening when you add the prospect of many tons of bus landing on your head. Its doors are 9 feet above ground, entailing a complete refit of every bus stop on its route. Oh, and don't think this is just some crazy concept vehicle - the Chinese are fully planning to not only bring this thing into full service by 2011 but also sell it to America. + It's actually a tram and it runs on rails. Still, this vehicle will be unable to get through busy traffic any faster than a regular motorcycle because there might be a car on the rails. It may also have slight issues with bridges and overhead power lines. In the end, it is impractical in cities and unnecessary between cities. Maybe Chinese cities are different? + The company finally tried to test it in 2016, repurposing a stretch of road without even bothering with permissions. When the authorities wanted to have a chat about that, it turned out that the trials had failed and the owners decided to disappear, leaving the "bus" at the improvised test track— where it demonstrated all its failings by blocking the road and creating traffic jams. * High Speed Rail sounds like the wet dream of many a traveler, due to the prospect of being able to travel long distances (e.g. from one side of a country the size of the United States to the other in a matter of hours instead of days), and while it's seen many successes, some projects suffer from this, often due to being excessively ambitious and overestimating the net gains: + There is no technological barrier to making high-speed trains go 400 km/h or even faster than that. In fact, some trains in revenue service today have reached that speed in unmodified test runs. However, due to many factors, including aerodynamics, running trains at those speeds draws way more energy than the increase in speed it produces. Add to that the fact that most trains have to - you know - stop once in a while to load and unload passengers and the difference between a 300 km/h and a 400 km/h train becomes a few minutes of time saved for a few ten thousand euros of money wasted on electricity to accelerate to those speeds. Current Maglev technology is more energy efficient at those high and very high speeds, but it has its own downsides and also fits this trope in many ways. Another problem with extremely high speeds is that tolerances become much smaller and braking distances become longer (reducing capacity of any given line), not to mention the infrastructure that does not always support those speeds. In the high-speed networks of many countries, Boring, but Practical solutions like upgrading a curvy legacy line from 80 km/h to a straighter alignment allowing 200 km/h is much more cost-efficient and saves much more time along the whole run than high top speeds. + The Chuo Shinkansen, once fully completed, is expected to take travelers from Tokyo to Nagoya or back in just 40 minutes compared to about 90 minutes on the existing Tokaido Shinkansen's super-express Nozomi trains, and from Tokyo to Osaka in slightly over an hour versus 2 1/2 hours again on Tokaido Nozomi, using a combination of maglev technology and cutting tunnels through the middle of the country as opposed to taking riders along the eastern coastline. Unfortunately, multiple issues have pushed the scheduled launch back by the order of years every time, including all the existing problems with ultra-fast maglev trains, and prefectural governments demanding that the shiny new maglev new line pass through their territory (to boost their economies) in addition to the pre-existing planned route, and the environmental ramifications of drilling through large swaths of the central Japanese landscape due to the vast majority of the proposed route consisting of tunnels, potentially causing at least one river leak. As it stands, the Tokaido Shinkansen is already a reliable and quick way to cross the country, and many riders of other, lesser-known Shinkansen routes complain that the funds that could go into sprucing up and maintaining those routes are instead going towards yet another way to get between the "big three" cities when several options exist already. * Jet engine powered trains. Nuff said. * Similar to Brunel's broad gauge, San Francisco's BART has also suffered from building its own wide gauge. While the gauge provides a smooth ride and a degree of safety in the earthquake-prone Bay Area, it made repair and replacement of the aging system's equipment extremely difficult, as they can't use any track replacement equipment designed for other railroads. Mechanics resorted to buying parts off of eBay because of the nonstandard gauge before new BART trains started rolling off the assembly line. * There's a reason there aren't a whole lot of monorail-based transit projects. The key problem is that the whole monorail system has to be grade-separated. That is, it has to be completely off the ground, whereas most urban rail systems can be street-level, above, or below as needed. The costs involved in building monorails mean that it's most cost-efficient to build a single track. Switching tracks has been prohibitively expensive and almost impossible until very recently. Pretty much the only plus to them is that they can receive electricity from the rail itself, eliminating the need for unsightly overhead wires. For these reasons, monorails are mostly limited to short loops around theme parks and airports. These issues are discussed in this video by Tom Scott. Monorails are held up along with jetpacks as prime examples of Zeerust rather than practical forms of transportation. * In the town of Grenada, Mississippi, at a particularly dangerous railroad crossing with high-speed trains that had seen one too many crossing accidents, in 1940 inventor Allonzo Billups invented a new type of crossing signal that utilized a very different type of warning◊, involving the words "STOP - DEATH - STOP" flashing in red neon accompanied by an illuminated skull and crossbones and a small air raid siren as the audible warning. Apparently, scaring people into stopping for trains was the most effective way at the time to reduce crossing accidents. Due to the onslaught of World War II and the scarcity of neon that resulted, this ended up being the only one made. The way the signal was designed to work required a very complex system of relays that would be an easy feat to pull off in the 21st century, but a bit too advanced for the 1940s. As a result, over the decades the signal began to deteriorate (sometimes the siren would keep wailing after the signal deactivated and not stop until a railroad worker came to fix it), and in 1970 the "death crossing" signal was removed and replaced with typical crossing flashers and bells that are still there to this day. It also helps that speeding passenger trains don't use the railroad line anymore, which is now mainly used by freight trains. * Pneumatic rail. Imagine those tubes they use to move letters around office buildings but trains instead of letters. These are theoretically incredibly energy efficient as propulsion is entirely provided by stationary external engines and energy normally lost braking is stored as air pressure for later use (or transferred to other parts of the line). More sophisticated designs can even theoretically use passive solar heating (read: getting hot via sunlight) to harness energy for free. But you have to build a giant pipe around your track and constantly maintain it to make it airtight. The second part makes this impractical even on subways. * The concept of the Hyperloop as a whole is almost certainly this. The idea is to make Maglev trains even faster by placing them in an evacuated tube. Some companies claim this will be cheaper than a plain Maglev. Even ignoring the almost certainly astronomical cost, there are many issues. First is passenger turnaround. Either the sides of the train will need to have docking airlocks, or there will need to be a system to pressurize and depressurize a large amount of tube space. Both of these options will slow turnaround considerably, which becomes an even bigger problem when you note that most Hyperloop designs have a series of one car vehicles carrying a handful of passengers instead of long trains carrying hundreds. The next problem is the question of what will be done in an emergency. Getting every passenger to wear a pressurized suit seems unlikely, and without that, any accident that depressurizes the car will be fatal, and even if the car stays pressurized, passengers will have to wait for someone to figure out how to get them out if their car stops. Furthermore, unless the expense is taken to build redundant hyperloop tubes, a single stoppage will cause delays for hundreds of commuters for hours. If anything damages the tube, a large part will have to be shut down, and any cars already in the tube traveling at high speeds who hit the column of 1 atmosphere air will react like they hit a brick wall, and it wouldn't take much to poke a hole in a hyperloop tube. Finally, there's the fact that it took almost five years for Virgin Hyperloop to go from being founded to the first alpha prototype, clearly a long way from completion and the car is fairly obviously thrown together from a decommissioned private jet. + This becomes especially obvious when Elon Musk admitted he hyped up the hyperloop to delay or kill California's high speed rail project, so people would have to keep relying on cars (ideally, his cars). * Supertankers. They have reached their maximal practical size already in the late 1970s, and Seawise Giant, launched 1979, demonstrated with all her 450 m length and 657,000 tonnes displacement that building any larger is impractical. Due to her enormous size, she could not enter neither Panama nor Suez canals nor the English Channel nor the Malacca Strait, and she could enter only in a handful of harbours because of her length, beam and depth. All the supertankers of her size have been scrapped, and the largest supertanker currently in service carries roughly half the tonnage of oil Seawise Giant did. * Isambard Kingdom Brunel's final project, the SS Great Eastern. Being five times larger than the biggest ship that came before it, and remaining the biggest ship in history for 40 years, she was certainly pretty awesome. But 'practical' is not the word to use when such an insanely expensive ship, which has a capacity for 4000 passengers, carries just over forty on her maiden voyage. It didn't help that her entire reason for existing vanished before she was complete. She was supposed to perform long-endurance missions and service Australia, and other colonies with Welsh coal, but coal was discovered in Australia (and a few other colonies) making it rather unneeded. + Jules Verne traveled on the Great Eastern in 1867, and wrote a fictionalized account of it in A Floating City, which is all about this trope. Although Verne was in awe by the engineering and the sheer size of the ship, traveling on it was slow, not even that comfortable and, for much of the staff, dangerous. + The Great Eastern did at least serve one purpose in its lifetime, that being the laying of undersea telegraph cable. The first cables were laid by two ships who met in the middle of the ocean, joined their cables, and then laid them while sailing back to land. The Great Eastern could do the entire job along, since it was able to hold the complete cable in its vast hold. However, even in this case the ship was not ideal; it was far LARGER than required. This usage also did not economically justify the enormous original cost of building the ship. * And talking of huge ships, the Wyoming was the biggest wooden ship ever built, at 140 meters long and having six masts - and at that size, you really shouldn't be building things out of wood. The thing was so long and so heavy that the wood in its construction visibly bent and sagged, which made her so leaky that she needed to have a pump system installed to bail out the water regularly. Unsurprisingly, she foundered and sank in a storm. * Neo Windjammers are experimental modern large cargo ships powered primarily by wind. With a much lower fuel cost (but still some due to requiring engines for still days) they could theoretically save a company millions in fuel bills and be much more environmentally friendly to boot. Unfortunately making gigantic sails and spinnakers has proved to be a huge engineering problem. The proposed rigging is unlike anything built before and it would require teams of specially trained sailors to keep everything pointed in the right directions, which means more paychecks to sign. And of course, these proposals still make normal cargo ships look fast. To top it off, fluctuating oil prices mean that a nautical firm can't be sure how much money they will save with super windjammer if any at all. + Much tamer cargo sailing ships have been proposed that only derive around 20 percent of thrust via wind power. While this is much simpler than the above, it reveals another problem: it doesn't work with container or bulk transport ships. It only works with ships that have a closed containment system like oil tankers. Otherwise, there is no place to mount masts. * A lot of alternative energy-powered trains and ships are rather impractical, simply because they don't really make that much of either a cost or environmental benefit. Both trains and ships are already very highly efficient forms of transportation and are large enough to fit carbon filters. Maritime and rail combined contribute about 1% of global carbon emissions,(And even most of that is from small pleasure vessels) and simply converting more of the power grid to green energy would substantially reduce even that (Ships pull off the power grid in harbor and some trains use electricity from the power grid.)while every little bit helps, efforts to reduce air pollution from these two sources could probably be better spent elsewhere for the foreseeable future or used to make these two forms of transportation more eco-friendly in other ways. * Nuclear powered ships, while they have found relatively widespread use in major militaries (where money is no object) and are used in Russian / Soviet ice-breakers that straddle the line between "civilian" and "not that", are virtually unheard of in civilian applications. While they can run for years without refueling, emit virtually no emissions (an issue is how "clean" the wastewater is - in modern ships it has almost potable water standard, but that was not the case in the 1960s when "nuclear merchant ships" were seriously considered) of any kind and can even be self sufficient in terms of water via desalination. They however need an extremely reliable nuclear reactor that works under space constraints - historically that means a Pressurized Water Reactor - and the commonly employed economy of scale on land (Modern PWRs have electric net outputs well in excess of a Gigawatt - no ship will need more than a few hundred Megawatt of engine power for the foreseeable future) simply doesn't work for ships. Another issue is that while nuclear powers like the U.S. have employed highly enriched fuels to make submarine reactors smaller and reduce the radiation danger to the crew, there is not a snowball's chance in hell that any private company will ever be allowed to sail a ship fueled with weapon's grade material. Boosters of "SMRs" ("small modular reactors") hope to be able to deliver economically viable reactors in the range of engines for the biggest container ships and while their main target market is on land, the sheer amount of container ships would make that market enormously lucrative - if it weren't for onerous insurance requirements and longstanding bans or "shadowbans" (There Ain't No Rule because it wasn't needed in decades, but there will be if it is needed) on serving certain ports... * Every so often you hear about plans to build a modern replica of the RMS Titanic (with modern safety precautions) so that people can experience what it would have been like aboard the legendary ocean liner. However, the most common reaction from anyone with any knowledge of seafaring is, "Why?" Even looking past the ethical dilemmas—ranging from jokes about Tempting Fate to more serious concerns about respecting the memory of the lives lost in the original sinking—the fact remains that a Titanic replica would be a step down from modern cruise ships. Not only are today's ships larger and more fuel efficient than Titanic, but altering the design of a ship from 1912 to meet current safety and environmental regulations while still looking like a ship from 1912 is far more complicated and expensive than building a modern ship planned from the start with those standards in mind.(For instance, those iconic smokestacks would serve no purpose for a modern ship that runs on diesel fuel rather than coal.) Lastly, Titanic lacked many attractions that are common on cruise ships today like theaters, casinos, water slides, etc. In other words, a Titanic replica would cost more than an average modern cruise ship while offering considerably less to passengers beyond novelty, making it no surprise that these endeavors inevitably get stuck in Development Hell. ---	AwesomeButImpractical	null
TheDCU	# Spanner In The Works - The DCU The DCU ======= A fairly common stock superhero plot consists of bad guys managing to finally defeat or capture the heroes, only to have the entire plan foiled by the appearance of an unexpected new recruit. --- Comic Books ----------- * Justice League of America: + Justice League of America (1960) #4: Villain Xandor traps the Justice League in an unbreakable diamond, but is thwarted by the arrival of Green Arrow. + In Justice League International issue #4, the team is attacked by a powerful android who is specifically equipped to deal with each of them. The android is ultimately defeated by Booster Gold, who had only shown up to join the League earlier that very day. + JLA (1997): - In a two-part story, Connor Hawke (the second Green Arrow) is forced to rescue the team after they are ambushed and incapacitated by the Key. - Prometheus's debut involved him taking down each member of the League with remarkable ease, having planned out their encounter to the letter. He hadn't planned that Catwoman would've snuck on board the Watchtower disguised as one of the reporters there for the day, and while he's trying to blackmail Superman into committing suicide on national television, she foils his entire plan by giving him a bullwhip to the nads. + The Other Side of Doomsday: Intending to take revenge on the League, T.O. Morrow took advantage that Flash's wife and Atom's fiancé were giving a public speech to kidnap them, hoping to lure their love interests into a parallel world controlled by himself. However, as kidnapping both women he also kidnapped Linda Danvers, unaware that she is Supergirl and can use her own powers to release his captives. * Batman: + Night of the Owls: For centuries the Court of Owls have used entertainment venues like Haley's Circus to recruit youths and brainwash them into their loyal elite Talons. They had planned to do the same to \|\|Dick Grayson (a descendant of one of their most successful Talons), but the deaths of Dick's parents and his immediate adoption by Bruce Wayne afterwards placed him out of their reach.\|\| + Batman: Hush: The entire plan might have worked except with a major element being \|\|Hush surgically repairing Two-Face's features so he could be a secret weapon. What he never counted on was the surgery also allowing Harvey Dent to reassert control, decide he wasn't going to work for a bad guy and throw the entire plan off-kilter.\|\| + Batman: No Man's Land: With Gotham's No Man Land status lifted, The Joker decides to squash that happy feeling by kidnapping and planning to murder every baby born during NML. In the search for the clown and the children, Sarah Essen-Gordon's radio is smashed, leading to Commissioner Gordon to tell her to head back to GCPD HQ to get a new one. What no one realized until too late was that that's where the Joker was hiding! \|\|By the time they get there, the Joker surrenders... only after shooting Sarah in the head in front of the kids.\|\| * In The DCU, the Challengers of the Unknown are a team of adventure-seekers who miraculously survived a terrible plane crash, and therefore decided that they would willingly face any danger because, as they always put it, they were living on "borrowed time." It was revealed in The Lords Of Luck that this is literally true: because they did not die on their appointed death date, the Challengers are the only people in the world whose fates are not recorded in the Book of Destiny. They can freely disrupt predestined events that would otherwise be literally inevitable, making them the ultimate example of this trope. * Justice: The Legion of Doom come up with an extremely brilliant plan to destroy the Justice League. It almost works, but they ignored a few guys like Captain Marvel, The Phantom Stranger, and The Metal Men. * The Life Story of the Flash: While recounting the events of Barry's murder trial, Iris recalls that Abra Kadabra tried to manipulate the events of the trial so that Flash would be convicted and disgraced for killing Zoom...but Kadabra hadn't expected that Iris herself, having been saved by her birth parents just before Zoom could kill her, would be inhabiting the body of one of the jurors and thereby standing in the way of Kadabra's scheme. * Fables: In the spinoff The Nearly Great Escape, Jack figures out that Goldilocks is working for Revise because she wears the same style of glasses that several of his minions wear. This is a complete coincidence, but it turns out that he was right anyway. * Superman: + In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Batgirl's trap to expose Lex Luthor's crimes worked ironically thanks to The Joker and Emil Hamilton setting their own trap, and Supergirl making the sudden decision to fly to Gotham and help whether Batgirl liked or not. + In Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, Lex Luthor accidentally abducts Mary Jane Watson when he kidnaps Lois Lane, an act that got Spider-Man involved in stopping him. If Peter had not been there to stop Luthor and Doctor Octopus, Superman would have got to choose between stopping the tsunami and let Lex escape. + In Elseworlds story The Death of Superman (1961) Lex Luthor manages to murder Superman. He thinks he's going to get away with it and no one can stop him now, but an unknown girl wearing Superman's costume breaks into his secret lair, reveals that she is Supergirl, Superman's cousin and secret emergency-weapon, and she takes him away, bringing him to Kryptonian Bottle City of Kandor where he is put on trial for murder and sent into the Phantom Zone. + In Who Took the Super out of Superman?, villain Xviar gaslights Superman into believing he can't use his powers as Clark Kent, irradiates him with a device which turns him into a ticking bomb and puts him through a Boss Rush in order to trigger a Super-Power Meltdown. While Xviar was enacting his scheme, though, Clark captured an Intergang boss who attempted to murder him and was subsequently called as a witness at the trial. Being in a hurry to go to the court, Clark picked up a spare suit from his office, which hadn't been tampered with by Xviar, and realized his powers still worked, ergo someone was manipulating him. + In The Unknown Supergirl, Lesla's plan (step one, brainwashing and impersonating Supergirl; step two, helping Luthor kill Superman; step three, disposing of Luthor; step four, taking over the world) could have worked but for Krypto, who figured out she had replaced Kara and forced her to switch places back with the real Supergirl. The next chain of events ensured Lesla had not opportunity to replace Kara again. + In Superman vs. Shazam!, Karmang's plan to trick Superman and Captain Marvel into fighting each other while he activates his world-ending engines fails because he did not count on Mary Marvel following her brother and comparing notes with Supergirl, which leads both heroines to the conclusion that their relatives are being manipulated. + The Girl with the X-Ray Mind, Lesla-Lar heads towards a desert island to break several Kryptonian criminals out of the Phantom Zone and kickstart her world-conquering scheme without the Supers suspecting anyting. However, Lori Lemaris spots Lesla while she is flying over the ocean, and becomes puzzled about that strangely-dressed flying woman. So, Lori secretly spies on Lesla and the Phantom Zoners, and later relays their plans to the heroes. + In The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor, a criminal gang kidnap Supergirl, planning to keep her imprisoned by gaslighting her into believing her cell nullifies her powers by duplicating Krypton's environment. Supergirl is trying to figure out how to get out, but she keeps being distracted by a fly buzzing and flitting around her head. Then Kara realizes that insect would be unable to fly if her cell duplicated Krypton's high gravity, and she uses her powers to break out and hunt her kidnappers down. + In The Phantom Zone, Dru-Zod's ploy to deceive USA and the Soviet Union into nuking each other fails because he had not counted on Supergirl and Wonder Woman intercepting and destroying all missiles. + The Day the Cheering Stopped: King Kosmos spens months planning how to take Superman down, and his plan fails because he did not count on a sentient, empathic weapon showing up and strengthening his enemy. > Superman: (thinking) "There's one factor Kosmos didn't figure into his little equation when he sent the force of his spirit to meet me here and plotted to rule the Earth! And that factor was— THIS!" + The Death of Lightning Lad: Saturn Girl finds out the council of planet Mernl has foretold one member of the Legion of Super-Heroes will die fighting Zaryan the Conqueror. Quickly, Saturn Girl manipulates events so that she is the only Legionnaire on duty when Zaryan strikes. However, her plan to protect her teammates by sacrificing herself fails because she did not think Mon-El would read the Mernl's warning before she destroyed it, or Mon would warn Lightning Lad. + The Legionnaire Who Killed: After being rejected by Dream Girl, Kenz Nuhor vows to hunt down and kill her crush Star Boy. Nuhor finds Star Boy talking to explorer Jan Barth, and murders the latter to prevent him from interfering with his revenge. However, Star Boy is able to kill Nuhor thanks to Jan's gun, which dropped right in front of him. + Brainiac's Blitz: Brainiac sets a death trap to kill Superman, not counting with Supergirl interfering, forcing him to use his trap, and then goading him into destroying it. + Supergirl's Greatest Challenge: The Chameleon Men manage to knock the Legionnaires out and banish Supergirl into a dimensional prison, but their plan fails because Supergirl had previously run into her super-powered cat's descendant Whizzy, who decided to follow her around. After being accidentally dumped into the Zone together with Supergirl, Whizzy telepathically influences a robot-maker into building a Chameleon android who infiltrates the invaders' lair, finds the Projector and releases Supergirl. + "Those Emerald Eyes Are Shining": Emerald Empress' ploy to destroy the United Planets and the Legion fails due to the interference of Supergirl, a Legionnaire who she knew nothing about and was not expecting to meet. + The Origin of the Legion: A crime boss sends a pair of thugs to shoot wealthy businessman R.J. Brande as soon as he disembarks from his flight back to Earth. Their hit fails due to three unknown teenagers who were travelling on the same flight: a telepath who read their minds and raised the alarm, and two boys with elemental powers who disarmed and captured both hitmen. + The Adult Legion: The Legion of Super-villains' plot is ruined by the sudden intervention of the descendant of Lex Luthor and M-Mr. Mzyzptlk. + Superboy (1949) #201 features Molecular Master, an android programmed to infiltrate and poison the Legion and steal the Miracle Machine. His master's plan fails because of the appearance of Wildfire, a Legionnaire who Molecular Master was totally not expecting because Wildfire had been recently declared dead in action. + "The Super-Steed of Steel": Nomed's ploy to overthrow his uncle by paralyzing Endor's pegasus fails when Supergirl suddenly shows up riding her own flying horse which she lends to Endor so that he can lead the royal parade. + "Supergirl's Big Brother": Biff Rigger's ploy to steal Jan Danvers' inheritance meets an unexpected obstacle when he learns the Danvers have an adoptive daughter that he knew nothing about. When he discovers her secret identity, his original plan is abandoned in favour of tricking Supergirl into giving him powers, which leads to his death. + "Superman and Spider-Man": Doctor Doom's plan failed because he did not expect Spider-Man's intervention. Although Doom captured Superman to provide his power to the Parasite, while Spidey used his webbing to remove the Kryptonite dust coating Superman, his stolen Spider-Sense warned Parasite that he should NOT put on the harness which Doom designed for him (Doom claimed that the harness would enhance Parasite's power to permanently absorb the powers of others, but in reality it would convert Parasite into a power source for Doom's new power reactor). + In the Masters of the Universe crossover "Fate is the Killer", Skeletor uses a dimensional gate to Earth to retrieve one half of the Power Sword (which he needs to enter Castle Grayskull and take over his world). However, Superman is drawn into the portal, and realizing that he has been drawn to Eternia to deal with Skeletor again, he heads towards Castle Grayskull, wrenches both Swords away from Skeletor and hurls them far away before the villain can perform the proper merging ritual. * In the DC Infinite Frontier relaunch of Suicide Squad, the Squad ends up getting revealed thanks to their failure to capture Blur of the Teen Titans Academy. During the scuffle, some students took notice that Superboy was part of the group, which really didn't make sense. They told the teachers, leading to them contacting the real Superboy himself to find out what was going. \|\|His investigation not only exposes the Squad, but reveals the Superboy that was part of the team was actually Conner's clone, Match.\|\| Films ----- * Teen Titans Go! To the Movies: \|\|Slade-as-Jade made sure every superhero was distracted by them having their own movie, even The Challengers Of The Unknown. What he didn't count on were the Titans, who had no movie and therefore were the only ones who confronted Slade at S.T.A.R. Labs, and he really didn't count on them being competent enough to grab the MacGuffin away from him, countering his moves. This drives "Jade" to try to distract the Titans by Divide and Conquer while making the Robin movie the main vector for his Mind-Control Device.\|\| * The Dark Knight Trilogy: + In Batman Begins, Batman himself is the Spanner towards \|\|Ra's al Ghul\|\| and the Scarecrow's plan to destroy Gotham. + By refusing to sacrifice each other, the passengers on the two boats end up being this for The Joker in The Dark Knight, in that his social experiment in proving that anyone could be corrupted ends in failure. + And in The Dark Knight Rises, \|\|Catwoman\|\| serves as one when \|\|she saves Batman from Bane\|\| in the climax. Western Animation ----------------- * From the Justice League episode "A Better World": An evil (or rather, corrupted Knight Templar) alternate universe Justice League has captured the "real" League. Their Batman designed inescapable prisons for each Leaguer, because he's Batman. The Flash manages to escape by speeding up his heartbeat so it looked like he flatlined, and when the other Batman unlocked the cell, Flash beats him up at super speed. Lampshaded by our Batman: > Batman: He anticipated everything I would have thought of. But who could anticipate you? + Indeed, Batman is surprised to know Flash could have pulled that trick and Flash admits he's never actually tried it before so it was no wonder the Justice Lord Batman couldn't have seen it coming. * Superman: The Animated Series: In "Knight Time", Roxy Rocket, the villain from the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Ultimate Thrill", inadvertently ruins Brainiac's plan by informing Superman that Batman went missing. She didn't even know Brainiac was involved. ---	SpannerInTheWorks	null
TropesQToZ	# Rick And Morty - Tropes Q to Z Tropes with their own pages: ---------------------------- * The Reason You Suck Speech * Shout Out * Wham Episode * Whole Plot Reference --- * Rain of Blood: The result of Reuben's enlarged corpse exploding in "Anatomy Park". * Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: As mentioned under "Black Comedy Rape," the show has a strict rule regarding this subject, both In-Universe and among the writers: comments about rape can be jokes, but depictions are treated 100% seriously, regardless of gender. Even when the would-be rapist is an anthropomorphic jelly bean. * Raptor Attack: Photography Raptor from "Total Rickall" is your standard oversized Jurassic Park raptor covered in scales instead of feathers. Justified, in that he's an alien parasite in the guise of a velociraptor. * Rated M for Manly: + Alien Invasion Tomato Monster Mexican Armada Brothers Who Are Just Regular Brothers Running In A Van From An Asteroid And All Sorts Of Things: The Movie. (Or, just Two Brothers.) The sequel Three Brothers, though never shown, likely matches or exceeds the manliness level of the original. + Ball Fondlers. * Real Fake Door: The Trope Namer is Rixty Minutes, where one advert is for "Real Fake Doors", doors that just open to a wall. * Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Averted. Characters surprisingly speak realistically, filled with stutters, mumbling, and belching. Some of the alternate-dimension TV especially falls into this, with Harmon and Roiland improvising it on the spot. * Real Trailer, Fake Movie: + One episode had a trailer for "Alien Invasion Tomato Monster Mexican Armada Brothers Who Are Just Regular Brothers Running In A Van From An Asteroid And All Sorts Of Things: The Movie", alternatively titled "Two Brothers." + In that same episode, a trailer for "Weekend at Dead Cat Lady's House II", written and directed by Alternate Universe Jerry. * Recursive Reality: + In "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!", some aliens try to trick Rick into giving away his formula for concentrated dark matter by trapping him in a multi-layered simulation. + In "The Ricks Must Be Crazy" it's revealed that Rick's spaceship is powered by a small universe. It turns out that a scientist in that universe is also developing a smaller universe to use as a power source. Then it turns out that a scientist in that universe is also developing an even smaller universe to use as a power source... * Red and Black Totalitarianism: In "Edge of Tomorty: Rick, Die, Repeat", when Rick dies and Operation Phoenix reroutes him to other universes, those universes turn out to be fascist empires, complete with red and black flags and symbols. * Red Herring: In "Total Rickall" The concept of "mind parasites", creatures that telepathically insert false memories into people to convince them that they know the person, and can therefore trust them, is introduced during the cold open shortly before we meet a never-before-seen character, Mr. Poopybutthole. The intro then shows Mr. Poopybutthole throughout the entire sequence, spliced into every scene as if he was always a main character. Finally, at the end of the episode, Mr. Poopybutthole sits down with the family after they have slaughtered dozens of mind parasites, and Beth, remembering only good memories of the character, fires a blast at his chest...only to have red blood gush out like a gunshot wound instead of dissolving the disguise and causing the "parasite" to explode. The Stinger reveals Mr. Poopybutthole survived and is now undergoing physical therapy, and is not pressing charges, but does not wish to associate himself with the Smiths anymore. * Reed Richards Is Useless: Rick is a mercurial and self-centered alcoholic with a very strange set of priorities. He has the technology to become extremely rich and powerful but doesn't seem to care. The fact that he's technically in hiding from the Galactic Federation might be at least partially responsible. His occasional profit schemes tend to be subverted in some way: + Rick opens a store that removes the curses from magical items that Satan has been giving people. As soon as Satan admits defeat, Rick loses interest in the whole thing, not even caring that the store seemed to be making a good profit. + He gets a bunch of money from an underworld deal so that he can blow all of his profits at Blips and Chitz, an arcade. + He drunkenly rambles about cornering the market on Nintendo 3DS consoles, which never goes anywhere, then turns to the audience and asks Nintendo to send him free stuff. + \|\|Justified in the episode Rickmurai Jack. Rick's every decision for decades was focused on his end goal of avenging his family. He invented portal tech to hunt down Weird Rick, he built weapons, clone backups, energy shields, vehicles, etc all to defend himself and aid his goal. Even waging war on the Gromflamite Federation was a means to an end of recruiting Bird Person to assist him. Then he discovered Weird Rick's home dimension, only to find even there his target was absent. He evidently lost the will and motivation to keep pursuing Weird Rick and opted to settle in the dimension and see if Weird Rick would return\|\| * Remember the New Guy?: + Mr. Nimbus is apparently Rick's arch-enemy, yet he only appears in season 5's "Mort Dinner Rick Andre" and was never mentioned before. Funnily enough, the Smith family didn't know about him either. Out of universe, the writers planned to introduce the character in earlier episodes and give him more backstory, but didn't manage to do so for one reason or another. + The infamous "Rickdependence Spray" introduces the CHUDs, a race of anthropomorphic horses who have been living in a medieval-style society under the Earth's surface for a long time, are violent and apparently a threat to the human race, and Rick even had an affair with a female of their race. Despite this, they were never mentioned before and probably won't be again. Out of universe, the episode had a Troubled Production and CHUDs were not introduced until later versions of the script, and this might explain the inconsistencies. * Replacement Goldfish: Rick and Morty, (along with the other Smiths at times) hop into new dimensions every few seasons thanks to destroying whatever version of Earth they're on at the time… meaning every single reoccurring character that appears after each dimension-hop is actually a different person. Not that it matters in the long run though since they essentially share the same history as their other versions. * Reset Button: An incredibly grim example appears in "Rick Potion #9". When Rick's cure irreversibly turns everyone into monsters, Rick "fixes" the problem by finding a parallel universe where that version of Rick somehow fixed his screw-up, but immediately afterwards, both of he and that version of Morty died in a freak accident. Rick then makes Morty help him dispose of the corpses, allowing them to resume normal life in place of their dead parallel selves, leaving their own universe destroyed. * Ret-Gone: Inverted with the parasites; they retroactively insert themselves into the cast's memory. * The Reveal: A few major ones throughout the series: + From "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind": Evil Rick, the apparent Big Bad of the episode, was actually being controlled by his apparent Dragon, Evil Morty, the episode's true mastermind. + In "The Wedding Squanchers": Tammy was actually The Mole for the Galactic Federation, and only pretended to be in love with Birdperson to get close to him so she could eventually kill or arrest him and his friends (who are so-called terrorists rebelling against the Federation). + "The Ricklantis Mixup": \|\|The newly-elected President Morty, who just had quite a few of his dissenters killed (some of whom were Asshole Victims, others because He Knew Too Much), is actually Evil Morty from the first example.\|\| + Season 6 episode 1 "Solaricks" reveals that \|\|Morty's actual grandpa Rick from his own original dimension, Rick Prime, was the one who killed the main Rick's version of Beth and Diane and sent him down his path of revenge that resulted in him creating the Citadel of Ricks and everything that followed\|\|. + Played for laughs in Mortyplicity, where every family that appears on the episode \|\|until the end at least\|\| is revealed to be a decoy. * Rewatch Bonus: Most episodes contain a line or two that seems like a throwaway but ends up being crucial or really illuminating upon rewatching the episode, and sometimes entire seasons. + In "Meeseeks and Destroy", Rick assures Summer after one Meeseeks dies off that "Trust me, they're cool with it", which really foreshadows later on what happens when a Meeseeks stays around too long. + Throughout the show, Rick is constantly mad at Jerry discounting his Butt-Monkey and makes various swipes at him and Beth sticking together merely for obligation, even (temporarily) \|\|managing to divorce them\|\|. Season 5 finale reveals that \|\|the Council of Ricks manipulated Beth and Jerry through the Central Finite Curve to marry, and the versions of Beth and Jerry we see all throughout the show are heavily likely to be manipulated by them. Rick was most likely trying to break them up so that they don't have to stick together and make their own futures free from the Council of Ricks.\|\| + All throughout season 5, there are numerous throw-away lines, usually once in almost every episode, in direct reference to Beth's mother or Rick's former wife. There's no focus of context on these lines until the season finale, where Morty and the audience learn that \|\|Rick's wife Diane and child Beth actually were killed by a rogue Rick as shown in his memories in "The Rickshank Redemption" from season 3\|\|. + "Rickternal Friendshine of the Rickless Mort" in Season 5 reveals that Rick has actually been in love with his Best Friend Bird Person for decades, who politely responded with a Let's Just Be Friends when Rick essentially admitted his feelings (in not so many words). This offers a lot of new context to many of Bird Person's previous appearances, but especially "Wedding Squanchers", explaining why Rick was in such a foul mood (even by his standards) at BP's wedding to Tammy. + The Council accusing C-137 Rick of killing off the others from different realities in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" \|\|takes a new light when you learn his past in Season 5.\|\| + The big reveal in “Solaricks” that \|\|main Morty is the grandson of the Rick who killed our Rick's family\|\| certainly explains a lot of Rick's actions in the first half of season one, especially \|\|casually fucking up the planet with his Cronenberg serum. After all, why would he give a shit about the timeline of the guy who murdered his wife and kid\|\|? It also sheds new light on his line in “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind” that “the Rickest Rick would have the Mortyest Morty.” * The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: After the Galactic Federation is kicked out of Earth, aliens are drawn-and-quartered in the school courtyard and it is considered patriotism. * Riddle for the Ages: \|\|Which Beth—Earth Beth or Space Beth—is the original one and which is the clone of her that Rick made in "The ABCs of Beth"? It turns out that none of the characters, not even Rick, and not even the writers know.\|\| * Right Through The Ceiling: When Morty is, uh, playing with the sex-bot Rick bought him. * Robot War: The show briefly reveals one called the Robolution is ongoing in a region of the galaxy called the Midland Quasar, and was initially making its Last Stand. Rick arrives to search for a specific robot who has information on the location of one of his enemies and in the process kills so many lizard soldiers that they surrender to the Robots. * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The second half of "The Rickshank Redemption" is one for Rick. \|\|He exploits a device that transfers the user's consciousnes to bring down the Galactic Federation, the Council of Ricks, and Jerry.\|\| * Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: The Gazorpians try to save face by claiming this after realizing that simply crushing Rick with a boulder is too simple. * Rule of Three: + Morty could accept the bun being placed between two hotdogs and the old woman walking her cat on a leash. But the Pop-Tart living in a toaster oven.... ok, something weird is going on. + In "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick-Kind", Rick and Morty run through a dimension where pizzas sit on chairs and use phones to order people, a dimension where phones sit on pizza and use people to order chairs, and a dimension where chairs sit on people and use pizzas to order phones. + Rick actually lampshades this in "The Rickshank Redemption" ("Comedy comes in threes!"), and sure enough, \|\|he Body-Surfs three times throughout the episode\|\|. + Similarly, in "Edge of Tomorty", which involves more \|\|body-surfing\|\| shenanigans, Rick ends up \|\|in fascist dimensions\|\| the first three times he does it before finally getting one \|\|that isn't fascist\|\|. * Running Gag: The writers seem to intentionally make alien names and terms sound like random sounds made up on the fly, leading such creations as Doctor Glip-Glop and planet Gazorpazorp. + A lot of the aliens and otherworldy flora tend to have designs that are incredibly phallic, or testicle-y, or both. + Also recurring are Hope Spots between Morty and Jessica, which usually result at the moment being ruined by Rick's doing. + Every official episode description for Season 4 addresses the reader as "broh". + The series mocks the use of pop culture-referencing episode titles by giving episodes increasingly awkward and forced punny titles, going from "Ricksy Business" and "Total Rickall" to stuff like "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty" and "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort". + There's a semi-recurring gag where Rick and Morty (and sometimes Summer) will make plans to go to a place called Boob World, only for something else to come up and postpone their plans. * Sadistic Choice: In "Morty's Mind Blowers", at one point a villain held Beth, Morty, and Summer hostage, and told Beth it would spare one of her children, but she had to choose. Without even thinking about it, she immediately blurts out Summer with absolute certainty. Rick shows up at the last minute to kill the villain, but apparently, the experience was so traumatizing for Morty that he begged Rick to erase the memory. * Safety in Indifference: This is the main reason Rick is as heartless as he is. Even if you ignore the countless amount of people and creatures that die whenever he's around, having access to The Multiverse makes attaching to people borderline impossible, what with the fact that there's trillions of copies of them out there that are, for the most part, identical. * Sand in My Eyes: When Evil Rick is looking through Rick's memories, seeing memories about Morty makes Rick start to cry. Evil Rick makes fun of him, and Rick says that he isn't crying, he's just allergic to dipshits. * Sarcasm-Blind: Rick, willfully: > Summer: Careful Dad, jealousy turns women off. > Jerry: Well, isn't that convenient. > Rick: Not for the men they cheat on, no. * Sarcastic Clapping: Done by Evil Rick in "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind", and referred to as the "Slow Clap". Lampshaded by Rick, who points out how Cliché the gesture is, though Evil Rick counters that in this alternate dimension, he's the one who invented it. * Scenery Porn: Rick takes Morty to a bizarre dimension in the pilot that's very colorful and bizarre with phallic imagery and hanging sacks. Like actual porn. * School Is for Losers: Rick believes this. He is a very intelligent Mad Scientist who cares about Morty, so there might be some reasons. > Summer: Grandpa, can you help me with my homework? > Rick: Sure....don't do it. * Screw Yourself: Done on-screen by Beth and Space Beth in "Bethic Twinstinct", where Rick also claims to have done similar things with his interdimensional counterparts. * Script-Reading Doors: Rick's portals open and close when it's narratively convenient, in addition to simply appearing whatever surface works for the scene. * Sealed Evil in a Can: Evil Morty reveals, in the fifth season finale, that the Central Finite Curve functions as this, because, \|\|as part of a bargain to stop the war between themselves and "our" Rick, the Citadel and Rick collaborated to seal off a section of the infinite multiverses, so that all the universes containing Ricks were sealed away from the rest of the cosmos. Evil Morty claims this was because they wanted to be guaranteed to be the smartest person in every universe they could travel to. Given Rick's view of himself, though, this trope may be what he intended by it.\|\| * Secret Test of Character: + In the pilot, when Morty stops Rick from going through with his plan to wipe out the human race and start over, Rick unconvincingly claims he was doing this and Morty passed. This confession is immediately followed by a "Sure, why not, I don't know." + One interpretation in "M. Night Shaym-Aliens" suggested says Rick suddenly started acting uncharacteristically playful with important science stuff as a test to see if Morty would notice and say something. Morty didn't and just played along, confirming Rick's suspicion that he too was a simulation. * Seen It All: Rick was already in this territory well before the series started. Over the course of the series, Morty gradually becomes this more and more as well: + When Summer accidentally sort of causes a race war between two groups of aliens (who look exactly alike, nipple shapes aside) in "Auto Erotic Assimilation", she is horrified. Morty, however, just chuckles and says "Oh, Summer. First race war, huh?" + In "Pickle Rick", when Morty sees that Rick has turned himself into a pickle, he isn't particularly impressed or amazed by it (much to Rick's annoyance), and instead is just trying to figure out why Rick would bother with this. + "Vindicators 3" has Morty able to correctly guess the answers to Drunk Rick's questions and disarm his neutrino bombs. In fact, he's apparently disarmed so many of them by this point that he knows that there's a 40% chance of it being a dud anyway. > Rick: Morty, how many of these—? > Morty: TOO MANY, Rick! Too many! + In "The ABCs of Beth", when introduced to \|\|Jerry's new girlfriend Kiara\|\|, Morty is familiar with her culture and able to greet her in her native language. * Self-Deprecation: When Rick reveals the idea of Morty's stored memories in season 3's eighth episode, "Morty's Mind Blowers", he states that they won't be doing an Interdimensional Cable episode this time. The Interdimensional Cable episodes are always situated as the eighth episodes in seasons, and the last installment, "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate" wasn't well received. * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Morty and Rick, respectively. + Summer's crushes and ex-husband(Frank Palicky, Toby Matthews, and Hemorrhage) are all more masculine than her actual \|\|former\|\| boyfriend, Ethan. * Sequel Episode: + "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate" to "Rixty Minutes", with Rick even Breaking the Fourth Wall to lampshade it. + "The Ricklantis Mixup" to "The Rickshank Redemption", showing how \|\|the Citadel of Ricks\|\| is faring after Rick practically destroyed it in the latter episode. \|\|It also turns out to be one to "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" (which was the first episode to feature the Citadel, while "Rickshank" was the second), in that it shows what Evil Morty is doing now after his plans in that episode were thwarted by "our" Morty.\|\| + "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie" to "Get Schwifty" or at least The Stinger to the episode. * Serial Escalation: + The parallel dimensions in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" become increasingly absurd variations on a theme, from a world where slices of pizza order human delivery, to a world where phones sit on pizza and order chair delivery on human phones, to - finally - a world where chairs sit on inanimate humans and order phone take-out on pizza. Rick and Morty even visit an Italian restaurant and purchase some edible phones for themselves. + Arguably the entire show, on a high concept sci-fi scale. The first episode starts with the most ridiculous thing being that Rick has created a flying car from garage junk, and introduces the concept of the multiverse. By episode six of the first season, the titular characters have replaced alternate universe versions of themselves who managed to solve a problem our Rick and Morty couldn't, and also coincidentally died around the same time. The Citadel of Ricks in Episode 10 escalates this even further, and by the beginning of Season 2, we're in full-blown mind-fuck territory if we weren't there already. And it escalates further from there. * Servant Race: Meeseeks, who are created by one of Rick's devices to serve a single purpose and die in a puff of smoke after they're done. However, if they take too long to get a task done then they'll end up going murderously insane until it gets accomplished. * Sex Bot: Rick buys one for Morty in "Raising Gazorpazorp". As it turns out, the robot is actually a Gazorpian breeding chamber that results in a half-human half-Gazorpian baby. * Sex Sells: + In the Fan Art Contest promo, Rick promises bonus points for "scantily clad artwork of Summer!" > Morty: W-what!?! Th-th-that's disgusting, Rick! > Rick: Hey, look, Morty, I agree. But, uh, sex sells, you know? We gotta push product, right? Just don't look at it. + The "Turbulent Juice" commercial in "Rixty Minutes". > Morty: What in the hell?! > Rick: Sex sells. > Morty: Sex sells what?! Is that a movie, or does it clean stuff?! * Sexy Dimorphism: The Gazorpians. Male Gazorpians are large, stupid, brutish beings driven by violence and lust, while females are much more human-looking and are empathetic, intellectual, and telekinetic. * "Shaggy Dog" Story: + In "Mortynight Run", Morty disobeys Rick to save the life of a gaseous creature targeted for assassination. In the process, he endangers himself and Rick and causes the injury or deaths of dozens, if not hundreds, of innocent bystanders. Just before the creature makes it home, however, it reveals that it's going to return with reinforcements to purge all organic life like a disease (including Morty), and Morty has no choice but to kill it himself, so despite his best intentions, he has only succeeded in making things objectively worse. + In "The Ricks Must Be Crazy", Rick claims at the beginning of the episode that the parallel universe they're in has "the best ice cream in the multiverse", but when the family finally gets to the ice cream shop at the end of the episode, all ice cream has been declared to be for all beings, including telepathic spiders, meaning that it has flies in it now. + In "Look Who's Purging Now", Rick and Arthricia kill all of the rich leaders of the planet to stop the Purge, but it's implied it will happen again, regardless of their influence. + In "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat", Morty spends most of the episode following a vision that will lead to him dying old with Jessica declaring her love for him. He learns in The Stinger that, in the vision, Jessica was a hospice worker comforting Morty so he wouldn't die alone, and presumably didn't even remember him personally. * Shaped Like Itself: While reporting a robbery of a Mortymart in Mortytown (which was committed by other Mortys) to Cop Rick and Cop Morty in "The Ricklantis Mixup", the shopkeeper describes the robbers as "about 14 years old, about my height and wearing yellow shirts." This is lampshaded by Cop Morty. > Cop Morty: Yeah, make sure you get THAT one down. * Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: When the President takes a shrinking pill, Morty pokes fun at how his clothes aren't shrinking with him. Rick makes a shirt for him that grows with him when he enlarges again, but intentionally left out pants just to rile him up. * Shoo Out the Clowns: The third season, billed as darker than usual, \|\|sees Jerry divorced from the rest of the family and not appearing at all in several of the episodes, and suffering more than usual on average when we do see him.\|\| \|\|He returns to the family at the end of the season.\|\| * Short Teens, Tall Adults: + Morty is at least a head shorter than the adults in his family, and Summer is slightly shorter than her mother. + Rick's teenage version of himself is a head shorter than his adult version and appropriately dubbed Tiny Rick. * The Show Must Go On: Rick's and Summer's party in "Ricksy Business" hits a few speed bumps, including the entire house being accidentally teleported to an alien planet, but for the most part, everyone just keeps partying. * Shown Their Work: + In "Anatomy Park", the tuberculosis/scar tissue relationship is described correctly. + In "Rick Potion #9", Rick tells Morty that he got his vial of oxytocin from a vole, an animal that mates for life. Not only is the chemical correct - oxytocin is a neurotransmitter that is basically the closest thing there is to love in chemical form - but voles (prairie voles specifically) do indeed mate for life and are well-known for their aid in the study of this chemical. + In "Something Ricked This Way Comes," one of Needful's cursed objects is a beauty cream that makes women beautiful and blinds them. Radium cream and eyeshadow were once prized for making women literally glow before the radiation blinded and killed them. * Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Averted, as Morty is, indeed, missing school to go on adventures with Rick. Rick at least made sure to brainwash Mister Goldenfold into giving Morty an A, but that doesn't really cover all his other classes. * Show Within a Show: + Pregnant Baby + The Life and Times of Mrs. Pancakes (Rick's a fan, but a season behind watching). + There are loads of these in the episode "Rixty Minutes," and again in "Interdimensional Cable 2." * Silence Is Golden: The show utilizes this a couple of times in later seasons, using background music to set the mood but not containing dialogue. + In "The Vat of Acid Episode", while Morty is on a do-over spree with the remote Rick gave him, we see him meet, fall for, and start a relationship with a Bespectacled Cutie, before getting into a harrowing, life-threatening situation with her, and getting out alive...before, unfortunately, Jerry accidentally hits the remote and resets all of it. There being no dialogue also means that we never learn the name of Morty's girlfriend. This montage is one of the primary factors behind this episode winning an Emmy. + In "Rickmurai Jack", Morty uses information downloaded from Rick's brain to learn about his Dark and Troubled Past backstory, \|\|showing how he lost his wife and daughter, killed hundreds of Ricks in a failed effort to avenge them, and eventually spiraled into cynicism and nihilism before going to live with an alternate, grown-up version of Beth and her family (the versions we see at the start of the show) and partnering up with Morty\|\|. The only sounds from the characters come from Rick and Morty laughing at the end during a montage of their adventures together, and the downcast music makes the montage all the more powerful. * Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: + Jerry and Rick toward each other; see Obnoxious In-Laws. Despite this, they actually grow closer in later seasons once Jerry and Beth reconcile, even if Rick is loathe to admit it, overlapping this trope with Vitriolic Best Buds. + Later seasons see Rick and the POTUS, President Curtis, become this as well. They're Friendly Enemies and Worthy Opponents who enjoy their rivalry and one-upping each other, to the point that multiple other characters snark that they should "just fuck and get it over with already". * Sixth Ranger: The first four seasons of the series features the five members of the Smith-Sanchez family—Rick, Morty, Summer, Beth, and Jerry—as the main characters. Then the Season 4 finale confirms that Rick did indeed clone Beth in "The ABCs of Beth" as speculated, and in addition to the one the audience has seen since then (who may be the original or may be the clone, nobody knows), there has been a second version of her traveling through the universe, having left her family to find herself and go on adventures just like her dad did when he was younger. While "Space Beth" is a recurring character, since she spends most of her time off-planet as the Hero of Another Story, when she's present, she's treated as the sixth member of the family, with Rick seeing both of the Beths as his daughters and Summer and Morty addressing both of them as "Mom". * Skewed Priorities: + When Rick is explaining to Summer that he and Morty are stuck on a planet that is currently undergoing a purge and needs her help before they get killed, her first action is to express her opinion of the movie. + Rick's morality results in a lot of gags like this. In "Get Schwifty," he uses his portal gun to get snacks but not to get the rest of the family in case Earth is destroyed because it's "planning for failure." In a flashback in "Total Rickall," aliens are performing experiments on Morty, and Rick runs in to steal their medical equipment. * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Easily the most nihilistic cartoon on television. With that said, the series cannot be described as "cynical" or "idealistic". It subverts both its cynicism moments and overly idealistic ones. Despite all its chaos, the series still present some positive notes and insightful ideas on living a fullfilling life even when it seems like nothing matters. + The show subverts its cynicism this with Jerry and the family as a whole. The creators are quick to point out that Jerry who has had a really tough life and is consistently being dumped on by the universe, is still somewhat content with how his life is going. They point to the scene where Rick is on the verge of suicide while Jerry is happily trimming his lawn. Rick who is an all-powerful omni-scientist, who can create almost anything is left feeling bitter and depressed whether by the burden of his knowledge or his really awful outlook on life, while by contrast, Jerry who has no prospects and has had many many awful situations heaped upon him is still trucking along. Both creators admire Jerry for his tenacity and optimism. + The episode The Rickchurian Mortydate eventually calls out Rick's nihilistic attitude and shows that for all of their negative qualities and despite Rick's rantings about the futility of existence the Smith family finally finds some contentment with their lives. Ultimately they tell Rick either to stay or go and to stop acting like such a nihilistic ass to Jerry all the time. + This is taken to an extreme in A Rickconvenient Mort, where it is shown that all hope for the planet is lost and humans, even the ones who don't want to do harm, are a cancer on the world. The Tina-teers now only care about profit and Planetina begins murdering people when she sees her activism isn't working. However, the very next episode, "Rickdependence Spray" reverses this scathing cynicism with surprisingly genuine idealism given by *RICK* of all people, where he says the human race's purpose is to learn from their mistakes and be better, citing Robert Downey Jr. as an example. * Slow Clap: Done by Evil Rick as Sarcastic Clapping in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind". Apparently, he invented it in that dimension, and no one has ever done it there before him. * Smart People Build Robots: In the pilot, Rick mentions that he builds robots for fun. In "Something Ricked This Way Comes", he built one for the specific reason of passing butter on the table. Note that this robot is advanced enough to be horrified when Rick told him what his only purpose is. > Robot: What-is-my-purpose? > Rick: You pass butter. > Robot: (looks at its hands) Oh-my-god! > Rick: Yeah, welcome to the club, pal. * Smurfing: Discussed and justified, in a rather surprising turn. Squanchy the talking cat uses "squanch" and variations thereof for everything, including auto-erotic asphyxiation; when Beth lampshades that this is "like the Smurfs", Rick explains that Squanchy's language is more contextual than literal. When Beth tries to do it (by saying that she squanches her family) both Rick and Squanchy start cringing in disgust. * Snap Back: Pretty much every episode that has a B-plot about Beth and Jerry ends with them reconciling their marriage. They're back to fighting by the next episode. * Somewhere, an Entomologist Is Crying: In "Rick Potion #9", one of the most serious and dramatic episodes in the series, the show remains very persistent that Praying Mantises cull one another during mating. Even the matching genders. * Space Orcs: Male Gazorpians are large, sex-obsessed primitive brutes who spend their short lives trying to kill each other and impregnating artificial birthing machines distributed to them by the more civilized females. Rick theorizes that the males used to be just as civilized until the invention of birthing machines allowed them to focus more on war and building weapons, eventually causing their society to devolve back to the stone age and become more savage and violent as a result. * Spin-Off Babies: For April Fools 2021, Adult Swim's official YouTube channel posted an opening for Rick and Morty Babies, a Lighter and Softer alternate universe where everyone (except Jerry) are babies. * Split-Personality Takeover: In "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", Rick transfers his mind into a younger clone body. His teenage hormones cause a different personality to develop and take over. The real Rick communicates through Tiny Rick's subconscious, causing him to beg for Morty and Summer to save him from himself through Tiny Rick's artistic endeavors. * Split Screen: + Used extensively in "A Rickle in Time", representing different timelines. + Also occurs during the phone conversations in "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy" and "The Rickchurian Mortydate". * Springtime for Hitler: Heavily implied that "Weekend at Dead Cat Lady's House II" was this for Jerry C-500a, as at the end he has a complete breakdown and admits he hates everything to do with being a celebrity. * Spock Speak: Birdperson speaks in this manner, and veers into The Comically Serious. * Spoof Aesop: In "Raising Gazorpazorp" Summer saves the day with a seemingly heartfelt speech that amounts to "Straight men are terrible, but gay men are alright." It only works because the Gazorpazorpians are brutally sexist against men (understandably so given the ways their sexual dimorphism differs from humans, but still). * Squick: So, so often. Some examples: + Morty and Rick have this reaction in-universe when Summer appears in BDSM gear and acts seductively towards them in Mr. Goldenfold's dream world in "Lawnmower Dog". + Any time Rick appears completely in the nude, doubling as Fan Disservice, such as in "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" and "Rest and Ricklaxation". + In "The Ricklantis Mixup", one of the businesses in "Mortytown" is a strip club called The Creepy Morty. The only denizens of Mortytown are, well, Mortys. So, this is a strip club where Mortys dance...for other Mortys. * Stacy's Mom: Summer's friend Tricia professes an attraction to Jerry in "Promortyus". * Status Quo Is God: + Both averted and played straight at the end of "Rick Potion #9". After infecting the entire planet with a Body Horror virus, Rick ultimately solves the problem by taking himself and Morty to an alternate universe where their counterparts invented a successful cure for the virus and but died on the same day so that he and Morty can take their place. Rick tells Morty not to think too hard about it all, but Morty is visibly traumatized by the events. + The ending of Season 2 resulted in Earth joining the Galactic Federation. The opening of Season 3 \|\|results in Rick escaping from prison through Body Surfing his mind from his body into a GF agent, and then into another Rick who was part of an assault force tasked with killing Rick himself. He surfs from one Rick to another, eventually destroying both the Galactic Federation and the Council of Ricks in succession. Earth restores itself to normal by the end of the episode\|\|. + No matter how many episodes end with Beth and Jerry rebuilding their marriage, expect it to be falling apart again by the next episode. \|\|It's played with at the end of Season 3: while Beth and Jerry do get back together and call off the divorce after spending all of Season 3 separated, seemingly playing this straight, there is also the implication that their marriage will be more solid and less unhappy in the future.\|\| * Stealth Pun: + At the end of "Meeseeks and Destroy", the family comments on how the Meeseeks destroyed the room. All five then proceed to break the fourth wall. + Pluto's society is controlled by the wealthy. In other words, it's a plutocracy. + The Moonmen that Fart sings about in "Mortynight Run" turn into asses. * Steven Ulysses Perhero: "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" has Tiny Rick, Morty and Summer kill the vampire in their school, who turns out to be Coach Feratu. The Stinger lampshades this, with a vampire elder getting really annoyed at how vampires infiltrating human society always like using obvious identity-blowing references as their names rather than regular human names. * The Stinger: Not counting the pilot, every single episode of the series has one after the ending credits. * The Stoic: Subverted in the first episode in which Rick assures Morty that he's seen it all and will keep him safe, only to be interrupted by a fierce alien creature. "Run Morty, I've never seen one of those before! This is bad, we're going to die, Morty!" * Story Arc: Downplayed, which is enforced in-universe by Rick heavily disliking serialized drama and preferring to keep things episodic, but there have been a few: + Rick's past fighting the Galactic Federation with Bird Person, Squanchy, and others, and the ramifications it has in the present day when their past catches up to them. Naturally, the G-Fed as a whole acts as the Big Bad to this story, with \|\|Tammy and, for a while, Phoenix Person\|\| acting as The Heavy. So far, this arc has gotten central focus in "The Wedding Squanchers", "The Rickshank Redemption", "Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri", and "Rickternal Friendshine of the Rickless Mort". + When Rick manipulates Beth and Jerry into divorcing at the beginning of Season 3 so he can become the new patriarch of the family, the season as a whole focuses on how his self-destructive, nihilistic worldview serves as a Toxic Friend Influence and negatively affects the rest of the family, culminating in all of them realizing this by the finale, deciding they don't want to be like that, and choosing to work on bettering themselves, complete with Jerry and Beth getting back together and unseating Rick as head of the family. + The conflict between Rick and Morty and the Citadel of Ricks, and the enormous negative ramifications that the Citadel's actions have had on the Ricks, Mortys, and the rest of the Smith Families of The Multiverse. This plotline has a Big Bad Ensemble consisting of both the Council of Ricks (plus other major leaders of the Citadel) and of \|\|Evil Morty\|\|, and takes center stage in "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", "The Rickshank Redemption", "The Ricklantis Mixup", and "Rickmurai Jack". * Straw Feminist: + The female Gazorpians have a society that's practically built on straw. It's so extreme that they'll automatically kill any male who enters their domain, even if he isn't a threat. Their behavior is actually understandable because female Gazorpians are intelligent and empathetic whereas male Gazorpians are incredibly violent and dangerous, but their hatred spreads to males of all species, which winds up making them pretty intolerant and hypocritical. + Summer showed signs of this as well in the same episode as she refused to objectify herself even though her life and her chastity was threatened. Though that was more of a reaction to Rick being a Jerkass. * String Theory: In one episode we see Rick's bedroom. One wall has notes connected this way. * Stronger Than They Look: + Summer proves to be a pretty good shot with a laser pistol in "Total Rickall." In fact, once she starts going on adventures with Rick, she proves to be a competent fighter anytime they're forced to battle. + Invoked with Beth a few times. She is shown kicking just as much Cronenberg ass as Jerry in "Rick Potion #9" and again in "ABC's of Beth" as she \|\|walks back into the garage liberally soaked with blood.\|\| > Beth: "So.... Tommy gave me his finger." > Rick: "He gave you his finger?" * Stylistic Suck: + The full version of the flu-hatin' rap from "Rick Potion #9", with lyrics that sound like they're made up on the spot. + The Lighthouse Keeper from "Look Who's Purging Now" allows Rick and Morty to use his lighthouse if, in return, the latter listens to him read his screenplay. Said screenplay is a massive invokedCliché Storm, and is made even worse by the stilted, dull monotone the man speaks with when reading it. + The stories Morty tells in "Never Ricking Morty" to break the story barrier, the second of which is purposely designed to pass The Bechdel Test, both featuring the characters talking in flat, dull monotones with little genuine emotion. Many of the other non-canon short story snippets qualify too, bringing back characters and storylines that fans are interested in in the most cliche, generic, corny way possible. * Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Rick is smart enough to analyze magical items from the devil's shop, then remove the curse while still retaining the magical benefits. * Summon Bigger Fish: This happens several times in the "Two Brothers" trailer in "Rixty Minutes". Tornadoes push away cat monsters, a UFO sets aside the tornado, and so on. * Surprising Domestic Discovery: Jerry is furious to discover a secret room that Rick had built beneath the garage where Rick was apparently keeping an alien prisoner. * Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Being a Deconstructor Fleet, a lot of plot points and punchlines are centered around this. + Rick succeeds in besting Satan by opening a new store. Afterwards, faced with the responsibilities of running the shop, he announces he's bored of it and closing, douses it in gasoline and sets it on fire during regular business hours. + After Jerry successfully pacifies the Meeseeks in "Meeseeks and Destroy", he tells the chef that he and Beth will take their dinner to go (presumably, to go home and have sex), but the chef replies that the cops are on their way and will have a ton of questions for him, which makes sense considering that the Meeseeks attacked the restaurant and took people hostage while trying to get to Jerry. Jerry himself even acknowledges this with "Fair enough." + In "Ricksy Business", Summer, seeking to get in with the cool kids, blows off one of her nerdy friends and essentially throws her out of the party to get her out of the way...and then finds out that when you do un-squanchy stuff like that, no one wants to hang out with you. + Rick's alcoholism and Morty's constant brushes with death, which are usually played for laughs and brushed aside, are occasionally shown to weigh on them heavily. + "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate" features the TV show "Man vs. Car", in which a man tries to fight a car. The man is quickly run over, and the chuckling announcer asks, "Wouldn't the cars always win?" + Other ways to destroy the Galactic Federation? \|\|Why not disrupt their credit economy by reducing their spending power to zero?\|\| + At the end of "Rick Potion #9", Beth, Jerry, and Summer of the show's original dimension appear to have found happiness despite being the last humans on a post-apocalyptic Cronenberg earth. Skip ahead 2-3 years to "The Rickshank Rickdemption", and the family has devolved to the level of cavemen due to the brutal realities of living in such a world. Furthermore, in "Rick Potion #9", Beth and Jerry don't seem to mind that Rick and Morty have disappeared. (In fact, they feel as if it has made their lives better.) However, by the "The Rickshank Rickdemption", Jerry smashes the portal gun to keep Morty C-137 from leaving and is ready to kill the current version of Summer because she admires Rick. It stands to reason that the original-version Smith family would come to loathe the man who stole their son and destroyed their world, the Season 1 happy ending notwithstanding. - This universe is re-visited in the Season 6 premiere, where it is revealed that just because your weapon causes Harmless Freezing doesn't mean it's in any way merciful. \|\|Two members of Morty's original family "thawed wrong".\|\| + What happens when you try and outsmart the smartest man in the universe (maybe multiverse?) You lose....badly. \|\|As the Federation agent trying to interrogate Rick finds out when he attempts to get Rick to reveal the secret of the portal gun.\|\| + In the B-plot of "Rixty Minutes", Summer is annoyed that while her parents' alternates are doing amazing things like movies, surgery, cocaine and Kristen Stewart, her alternates all seem to be playing board games with her family. Of course, since time-travel isn't a thing, of course she's not going to see some life-fulfilling self — all her alternates are still teenagers. Generally speaking, one doesn't become a movie star or a surgeon while they're still in high school. + After "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy", Jerry finally realizes that he can't keep using his bad experiences to deflect responsibilities and consequences. However, this isn't an overnight change, as he still has moments where he relapses in his judgement, like when he \|\|uses Morty and Summer to break up with his alien girlfriend in "The ABCs of Beth" rather than just coming clean to her that he's the one who wants to break up\|\|. + When Morty joins a miniverse forest tribe in "The Ricks Must Be Crazy", he's quickly terrified and infuriated by the tribe's rituals. The tribe lacks personal hygiene and one of their rituals includes eating babies to make their fruit grow bigger. Morty is from a time where nature and science have been understood and Morty is well-adjusted to using technology to entertain himself. + It happens in the Rickchurian Mortydate. The President of the United States reveals that the only reason the government doesn't prosecute Rick and Morty for their regular lawbreaking — several thousand violations a day— is that Rick is too valuable as the dimension's only citizen that can handle alien threats. When Rick and Morty blow off helping with an alien under the White House who ate a janitor, the President yells at them for lying to him and terminates their relationship, promising to treat them as foreign enemy agents if they interfere violently in government affairs. \|\|Sure enough, when Rick murders Secret Service agents trying to escort him peacefully out of the White House, he may win the subsequent tech fight with the President but is labelled as a domestic terrorist. Rick eventually realizes he went too far in Bullying a Dragon and has to fake dimension-hopping to ensure he's not arrested and implicitly apologize. Even if he can break out of prison easily, it's too much of a hassle for him and his family, especially Beth\|\|. * Take Our Word for It: + In "Meeseeks and Destroy" Summer's Meeseeks makes her popular by delivering a speech to the entire student body in the auditorium. We only hear the very end of the speech, but it was apparently really convincing. + Despite the episode name, we never actually see Rick's and Morty's Atlantis adventure in "The Ricklantis Mixup", which instead focuses on the Citadel of Ricks, but in The Stinger, they make a point of gushing on and on about how awesome it was and how they plan to go back many more times. + Whatever Rick and Jerry see in the Talking Cat's brain scan from "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty" is not shown to the audience, but it's apparently so terrible that Jerry vomits and is reduced to a Troubled Fetal Position in tears, even Rick almost eats his gun in horror, and Rick erases Jerry's memory of the incident so he won't have to live with it. * Take That!: + Rick says that a chorus of Morties screaming in agony is better to listen to than Mumford & Sons. + In "Lawnmower Dog", Rick tells Morty that entering dreams will be just like Inception, except "it'll make sense." + Rick's big rigged escape area in "Vindicators 3" is very blatantly a Saw reference. When Morty points this out, Rick initially denies it and replies "I'm a drunk, not a hack." Then his drunk self contradicts him. + The Vindicators episode itself is one long, rather mean-spirited "screw you" to the superhero genre in general, peppered with plenty of vitriolic jabs that would make Garth Ennis proud. + According to "Something Ricked This Way Comes", Mark Zuckerberg's name is literally synonymous with betrayal. + "Rest and Ricklaxation" fired off a subtle blink-and-you-miss-it one at the Sbarro pizza restaurant chain. When the Earth is "toxified" (i.e. making everyone act on their worst traits and impulses), patrons of Salad Works leave the restaurant and enter Sbarro instead, and the lone Sbarro patron leaves the store and eats out of the dumpster. + In "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat", Rick complains that Morty has taken all of his normal Meeseeks boxes and left him with only Kirkland-brand boxes. The Meeseeks spawned by the Kirkland boxes are red instead of blue, rude and surly instead of polite and cheerful, and smoke cigarettes. + "Rattlestar Ricklactica" is a scathing and over-the-top satire of the Terminator franchise. Having learned the secrets of time travel, the alien snakes start indiscriminately sending countless assassins and bodyguards into various points in the past, causing chaos in the space-time continuum to the point where the Time Police have to intervene. + In "Rickfending Your Mort", the pair gets busted for murdering their own counterparts. Rick defends the act by saying that the variants in question were the ones who appeared in Space Jam: A New Legacy and that they were begging for death. * Technicolor Science: Many of Rick's inventions and much of the alien tech emit all manner of glowing light and strange energies, but this often just goes with the brightly colored nature of the show. More straight examples of the trope occur when the characters are playing with chemicals. The test tubes seen in "Rick Potion #9" and "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind" are filled with brightly colored liquids, and weirdly, this makes them seem mundane in comparison to the rest of the show's science. * Teen Pregnancy: Beth got pregnant with Summer when she was seventeen, and inwardly resents Jerry for impregnating her and supposedly robbing her of her dream to become a human surgeon rather than operate on horses. * That Came Out Wrong: When Jerry, Beth, and Summer use Rick's goggles to look at alternate timelines of themselves, Summer says that she doesn't see anything. Beth responds and realizes what she said without even pausing to breathe. > "Well, you should select a different timeline. I mean, if your father and I achieved our dreams, there's a chance you were never born — that came out wrong, that came out very wrong." * The Theme Park Version: Played with in "Anatomy Park". The "Pirates of the Pancreas" ride is a ride through a pancreas with pirates, but Rick claims that they don't whitewash it and the pirates are "really rapey". Rick is proud of that ride since it was his own creation. "The Rickchurian Mortydate" later reveals that Rick is afraid of pirates, so it was probably supposed to be his "scary ride." + The Cold Open for The Curicksous Case of Bethjamin Button has the family minus Beth and Space Beth going to an alien amusement park called "Earth World": > Rick: "No, you've gotta come, its an absolute train wreck. This dude, he's never been to Earth, but he loves it, and he sucks at making theme parks." * There Are No Therapists: Played with in "Pickle Rick". It's averted at first when Beth is forced into a mandatory family therapy session by the kids' high school after both Morty and Summer have separate problems at school, and they visit Dr. Wong. She makes several comments about the fact that their issues might come from using intelligence to justify their problems rather than dealing with them directly and notes that building healthy relationships with others is hard work, while also correctly noticing Beth's tendencies to put her father on a pedestal and let him do whatever he wants to her family and house while only ever minimally calling him out on it. However, it's then played straight at the end when, despite both Summer and Morty wanting to return to see Dr. Wong again, Beth and Rick gleefully ignore her advice and the kids' wishes and make it clear that they don't intend to ever come back. Thankfully, though, it becomes subverted as of the "Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri," wherein it is established that the Smiths have started consistently attending sessions with her, which is further confirmed in the next episode, "Mort Dinner Rick Andre." * These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: This is the main reason Rick is so mentally disturbed: humanity was clearly never meant to have access to The Multiverse, encounter the horrors therein, and most importantly, face the existential nightmares it causes. Just look at how Morty reacts to having to find and bury his Dead Alternate Counterpart in "Rick Potion #9" and compare it to Rick. * This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: + Scary Terry can't help but end his sentences with "bitch". > Morty: Wow, he sure says "bitch" a lot! + After screwing over Summer, Mr. Needful declares "I'm the Devil, BIATCH! What-what!" before he busts out a solo on his fiddle. + Near the end of "Close Rick-Counters", our Rick calls one of the Council Ricks to get them to come to his location to arrest the real Rick-murdering culprit, saying, "I caught the real killer, BIIIIITCH!" + In "A Rickle in Time", when Beth is trying to save a deer that Jerry accidentally hit with their car, the hunter who was tracking it spitefully makes it clear that he hopes she's not a good surgeon and fails to save it, and she answers with "In your dreams, bitch." + In "Total Rickall," one of Rick's random catchphrases is "RikkiTikkiTavi, biiieeeaaatch!" + When Jerry is messing with a drugged Rick in "The Whirly-Dirly Conspiracy", he acts like he's about to punch him, and when Rick flinches: "That's what I thought, bitch." + This bit of dialogue in "The ABCs of Beth": > Beth: I was traumatized, Summer! Your generation wouldn't understand that. > Summer: Bitch, my generation gets traumatized for breakfast. * This Was His True Form: The parasites in "Total Rickall" revert to their original appearance when they are killed. * Thousand-Yard Stare: + Morty has this by the end of "Rick Potion #9". Given the events of the episode, you can't blame him. + Summer ends up with this by the end of "The Ricks Must Be Crazy". * Throwing Out the Script: Parodied, and provides the current page image. Rick's "script" for his best man's speech at Birdperson's and Tammy's wedding in "The Wedding Squanchers" consists of two and a half sentences, then some notes telling himself to crumple up the script and start ad-libbing. * Title Drop: Go ahead and count the number of times Rick drops it in the page quote alone. * Title Montage: The series subverts this by updating the title sequence every season, but having several clips that are fake and created solely for the intro. * Toilet Humor: It isn't guaranteed in an episode, but it shows up now and then. The episode "Mortynight Run" features a gaseous alien being that Rick dubs "Fart", and Rick farting loudly is something of a Running Gag. * Training Montage: "Something Ricked This Way Comes" has Rick and Summer working out and taking steroids set to "X Gon' Give It To Ya" by DMX so that they can go beat up Mr. Needful (and after the credits, assorted assholes). * Tranquil Fury: + After putting together what happened between Morty and the Jellybean King, Rick simply wears an expression of silent rage. + Rick and Morty both enter into this at different points in "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy": Rick when he realizes that Jerry betrayed him to assassins who wanted to kill him, and Morty when he's confronting Summer's now-ex-boyfriend Ethan about breaking her heart. * Tricked-Out Shoes: + Rick gives Morty a pair of grappling shoes that will allow him to walk down a cliff. Unfortunately, Morty tries doing this before Rick tells him that they need to be turned on. + Mr. Needful gives one of his customers shoes that offer superhuman speed, but they're also cursed so the user can't stop once they started, which would force them to run until they drop dead. Rick manages to remove the curse. * Troll: Beth refers to a Noodle Incident in which Jerry was trolled online and responded with a flippant "takes one to know one" and spent the rest of the night refreshing the browser while crying. * Unable to Retreat: Rick's Portal Gun is a frequent victim of this. The worst instance is when it becomes entirely inoperable during the climax of season 5, forcing the duo to wait for weeks until rescue. * Undercover Cop Reveal: Summer's friend Tammy reveals herself to be an agent from the Galactic Federation during her wedding with Birdperson in "The Wedding Squanchers". * Underside Ride: Lucy clings to the underside of the Smiths' car while cackling "I'm doing Cape Fear!" right before she loses her grip at the first bump and gets mortally wounded from being run over by the back tires. * Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: The Meeseeks box summons a creature called Mr. Meeseeks, who obeys one command of their summoner before disappearing. If the task is too hard or takes too long (in this case, helping Jerry get better at golf), they start breaking down but still can't disappear until it's done, so they might find alternate solutions like summoning more Meeseeks or killing their summoner. * The Un-Reveal: + \|\|We never find out which Beth is the original and which is the clone, as when Rick cloned her he turned his back when mixing up the stasis vats to not know himself. This is pointed out directly by Morty, Summer, and Jerry where they make it clear that they don't care to know which one is the clone, as both Beths are equally badass and their mother/wife in their own ways. In the end, only Rick is left caring to learn which is which, and once he remembers that he looked away to never know, he mutters to himself about what an asshole he is.\|\| + The talking cat from "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty" apparently hides in its mind something so horrible that almost drives even someone as jaded as Rick to suicide, but we never learn what it is. * Unseen No More: Beth's mother is not seen in the show \|\|until the Season 3 premiere, but since this a fabricated flashback inside of Rick's mind, it's unclear whether or not this is actually her. However, in the season 5 finale it's revealed that the flashback (or at least parts of it) was actually true.\|\| * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: + It seems this extends to the entire show when it comes to human/alien interaction. None of the human characters seem fazed or bothered by having to interact with multiple alien species. + In "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" everyone who learns that Tiny Rick is just Rick having transferred his consciousness to a teenage clone of himself reacts completely casually to it. + From the same episode, Rick arrives naked and covered in blood to pick up Jerry and Beth from marriage counselling. Neither of them comment on it at all, and in fact, don't even seem to notice or care. + At the end of "The Wedding Squanchers", Earth becomes a member of the Galactic Federation. Aliens are integrated with human society, and nobody thinks anything of it. + In "Edge of Tomorty", Gearhead is in the backseat of the ship with Rick and \|\|Fascist\|\| Morty for unexplained reasons. He doesn't say anything, and neither of them gives any indication that they're even aware of his presence. * Unwanted Harem: In "Rick Potion #9", after Morty's love potion backfires and goes airborne, it results in everyone on the planet that isn't related to him biologically desperately wanting to have sex with him. Then Rick adds in some mantis DNA and they want to kill him after the fact. * Uplifted Animal: Snowball and his dog army. * Used to Be a Sweet Kid: If Rick's younger clone can be considered, Rick was cheerful and nice in his younger days. No doubt the horrors he was exposed to later in life made him into what he is as an old man. * Uterine Replicator: Female Gazorpians use a combination Uterine Replicator/Sexbot to go and "mate" with the male Gazorpians and then give birth to babies since the females don't want to do either. * Vast Bureaucracy: In "The Wedding Squanchers", we get a glimpse of both the scope (6,047 other planets) and yet the inefficiency of the Galactic Federation, when Earth is added within a day, and the ensuing news report summarizes humans as a species "who love to eat spaghetti and pray to kangaroos." * Verbal Tic: + Rick continually addresses Morty by his name when talking to him. This is toned down in the second episode but is still present. You could also count the constant belching Rick does in mid-sentence whenever he's drunk, which is most of the time. + In "Lawnmower Dog", Scary Terry constantly ends his sentence with "bitch!" + "Hi, I'm Mr. Meeseeks! Look at me!" + Female Gazorpians are always telling each other "I'm here if you need to talk", to the point that it may just be a casual greeting. + Mr. Poopy Butthole is constantly saying "whoo-wee!" * Villain with Good Publicity: + Frank Palicky in the pilot. Despite being a sadistic bully to Morty, Summer had a crush on him, and after his death, the rest of the school held a memorial in his honor. + As of the end of "The Ricklantis Mixup", \|\|Evil Morty. The members of the Citadel of Ricks (or, at least, those still living) see him as their benevolent newly-elected President who cares about all the Ricks and Mortys living there and plans to make life better for them...unaware that he was once the mastermind of a plot that involved killing a couple of dozen Ricks (and framing another Rick for it) and kidnapping and torturing hundreds of Mortys\|\|. * Violence Is Not an Option: Rick has no problem with just shooting whatever ails him, so typically, he's only not killing things when doing so wouldn't solve his problems. A specific example comes with the Cromulons, giant floating space-heads that force Earth into a musical reality show, where they explicitly state the losers' planets will be destroyed by a plasma ray. Rick plays along, but a nuke-happy General tries to blow up the Cromulons instead...to predictable results. * Viral Transformation: In "Rick Potion #9", Rick's attempt to cure everyone of Morty's love potion turned them into Mantis Men. His attempt to cure everyone of that turned them into "Cronenbergs". * Visual Pun: In "Morty's Mind Blowers", we see Rick owns a device that can magnetically attract whatever is programmed into it. When Morty toys with it, dozens of horrified girls (all redheads) start flying towards the garage: a literal babe magnet. * Was Just Leaving: In "Something Ricked This Way Comes", Rick accompanies Summer to the Devil's shop. There, Summer announces that Rick was "just leaving" in the hope he would get the hint and leave. But Rick decides to stick around. * We Have Forgotten the Phlebotinum: In "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender", Rick/Morty and the Vindicators arrive at Worldender's stronghold, only to find him already dying, and a "Saw" trap left for the Vindicators by Rick himself while blackout drunk the night before. While more-sober Rick would normally be able to resolve the situation with his portal gun, he accidentally leaves it on the Vindicator ship. * We Really DO Care!: In "Ricksy Business", Birdperson questions why Morty cares if he no longer can have adventures with Rick if he thinks Rick is just a huge asshole and notes that, if Morty truly is fed up with Rick's shenanigans, fate has presented him with a way out. Morty realizes that Birdperson is right and that he does still want to go on adventures, and wakes Rick up in time to prevent his parents from seeing the house trashed. * We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: Downplayed in "The Ricklantis Mixup". The assembly line Ricks and construction worker Ricks and plumber Ricks and so forth on the Citadel of Ricks are working-class rather than slaves, and they're technically living in the present, but they're part of a society half composed of super-geniuses. Having robots handle the unpleasant jobs would make more sense, but of course, it would also undercut the citadel being used as a parody of present-day society. * "Well Done, Son" Guy: + Rick is implied to be this, as he wanted a stadium of men who even remotely resembled his father to watch him have sex with Unity. They're heard chanting "Go son go!" + It becomes clearer and clearer as the series goes on that Beth is this as well; a combination of wanting Rick's love and approval and desperately not wanting him to leave her again makes her willing to put up with way too much from him and very reluctant to put her foot down even when she really needs to. Luckily, she seems to grow past this by the end of Season 3. + This mindset is deconstructed thoroughly throughout the series and reaches a head in season five's Gotron episode: Rick is a cynical man with incredibly eccentric interests, which is why his praise is so rare, and people mistake that rarity for value. Conversely, the fact that Jerry is so easy to please is why nobody cares if he is. * Weirdness Censor: This happens quite a bit throughout the series (see Unusually Uninteresting Sight) + None of the people Summer invites to the mutual house party seem at all fazed by the extra-dimensional oddities Rick keeps company with. Nor do they seem to notice the entire house has been suddenly teleported to another world or dimension. (At least one of them is later revealed as an undercover galactic cop, so...) + In "Pickle Rick", Rick finally shows up to family therapy still in his pickle form, while also wearing his Power Armor that's partially made up of the body parts of rats. Naturally, his family doesn't find anything weird about this, but Dr. Wong, the therapist, also doesn't act as if this is anything remotely out of the ordinary.(This could be because she's used to having some pretty "out there" patients, since many of the people that she treats have issues with eating poop, or possibly also because, by this point in the series, Earth was already temporarily part of the Galactic Federation, and after having aliens of all different kinds visiting their planet for months, a guy who's turned himself into a pickle is relatively mundane in comparison.) * Wham Line: + From "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind:" > Morty: Oh, my God, Rick, look! There's a bunch of people strapped all over that building! > Rick: Not people, Morty, *Mortys.* + Some occurs with "Rixty Minutes". - This argument between Jerry and Beth, regarding Summer's birth: > Jerry: All this time, you've been thinking, "What if that loser Jerry hadn't talked me out of the abortion?" - An in-universe one for Summer (but not for the audience, who already knows this): > Morty: (points to the graves in the backyard) That out there? That's my grave! + Tammy's speech at her wedding reception in the season 2 finale: > Tammy: But then I think, y'know, in a lot of ways I'm not a high school senior from the planet Earth. In a lot of ways what I really am is a deep cover agent for the Galactic Federation and you guys are a group of wanted criminals and this entire building is, in a certain sense, surrounded. + Not a spoken line, but a song at the end of "The Ricklantis Mix-up." "For the Damaged Coda" begins playing once the newly-elected President Morty has the shadow cabal of Ricks killed, revealing just who we're really dealing with. + In “Solaricks”, this dialogue between Rick and Morty, which confirms that the series' main Morty \|\|originates from the same Earth as Rick Prime, the one who killed Main Rick's family\|\|. > Morty: Where are we going? > Rick: \|\|To kill your grandpa, little buddy.\|\| > Morty: (...) \|\|My original Rick killed your family?!\|\| * Wham Shot: A giant one for "The Ricklantis Mix-up". At the end of the episode, \|\|Candidate Morty has finally become President of the Citadel, and he has disposed of some Ricks and Mortys who have disagreed with his rule, even his presidential campaign manager. As their bodies are ejected into space, contents of classified documents that Campaign Manager Morty had are shown to the audience while they are drifting in space: pictures of the Candidate Morty with a familiar eyepatch and a robotic Rick. The real Wham? The Rick that gave Campaign Manager Morty the pictures is floating in space too. Nobody left alive on the Citadel knows who Evil Morty actually is.\|\| * What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: A character on Pregnant Baby says this when she decides she doesn't need protection since she's already pregnant. * What Did I Do Last Night?: In "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender", Rick gets so blackout drunk that he single-handedly kills the Worldender character threatening the universe and makes matters worse by creating an even bigger threat. He acknowledges that he officially had too much to drink last night. * What Did You Expect When You Named It \_\_\_\_?: Inverted. One episode featured a Titanic (1997)-themed ship which is designed to hit an iceberg and sink every time it sails. It misses the iceberg completely. * What Happened to the Mouse?: + All the people who had bought cursed items and were waiting to be served when Rick got bored and closed. Enjoy your curses everyone. + Subverted in "A Rickle in Time." The neighbor that Summer forgot to put a mattress under takes a nasty fall off his roof and is then forgotten about, until the very end of the episode, which offhandedly reveals that he survived the incident, but is now in a wheelchair. + In "The Ricklantis Mixup", the ending shows short epilogues for all of the surviving characters except for \|\|Rick J-22, who was last seen still hooked up to a Lotus-Eater Machine so his brain fluid can be used to make wafer cookies. Since President Morty killed the factory owner, it's unknown what's become of J-22 or any of the other Ricks working there.\|\| * What the Hell, Hero?: + Morty sometimes tries to take a stand with his grandpa after the situation inevitably devolves into chaos and horror. In "Rick Potion #9", Rick turns it back on him, rightly comparing Morty's love-potion request to a bid for date rape. + The entire family pretty much calls out Rick in "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri" for \|\|secretly cloning Beth without telling anybody. Even worse, he doesn't even know which Beth is the original or clone, because he deliberately hid that knowledge from himself. Everybody finally accepts what a terrible father figure Rick is.\|\| * What Measure Is a Mook?: + Rick tells Morty in the pilot episode that it's okay to shoot the spaceport security guards because they're "robots". They aren't, but Rick contemptuously refers to them as such because of his hatred for bureaucracy. + The last thing the Zigerian leader mentions before mixing the chemicals that destroy the entire warship in a massive explosion is how all of his staff members have families. * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Constantly abused and exploited for comic effect. Of course, it's not like the series places a great deal of emphasis on human life, either. * What Were They Selling Again?: Discussed in "Rixty Minutes" after a very confusing ad for "Turbulent Juice" featuring hordes of shirtless men. > Morty: What in the hell? > Rick: Sex sells, Morty. > Morty: Sex sells what? Is it a movie? Does it clean stuff? * Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Toxic Rick drops a hint as to the location of the "mid-western town" where the Smith-Sanchez family lives in "Rest and Ricklaxation" when he builds his world-toxifying beam on top of a "moonlight tower". They were built in a few cities across the midwest, but they still exist in one location: Austin, Texas. * A Wild Rapper Appears!: Parodied in "Total Rickall" when Summer goes into a Sugar Bowl music video and suddenly a very aggressive rapper who is incredibly out of place shows up and changes the entire tone of the song. * Wild Teen Party: In "Ricksy Business", Summer immediately plans one of these while Jerry and Beth are away. Rick decides to one-up her party idea by inviting hordes of his own "friends and acquaintances" to his party, and whoever they know. After Morty has a small mishap with one of Rick's inventions while attempting to woo his would-be girlfriend Jessica, the party becomes literally "out of this world", teleporting the house to another universe entirely. Despite the nonsensical and dangerous events therein, one notably involving a human teen getting "lucky" with a bunch of gargantuan creatures lurking outside the house's perimeter after it had been teleported, the odd mixture of guests find the time to mingle with each other, and have fun, regardless. * Wimp Fight: Rick gets into one with the Devil in "Something Ricked This Way Comes". * With Due Respect: "Rick, with all due respect—what am I saying? What respect is due?" * Womb Level: All of Anatomy Park, which exists inside of a homeless man named Reuben. The main attraction of the park happens to be all of Reuben's many diseases. * Women Drivers: Invoked in "A Rickle in Time". Jerry was the one driving when he hit a deer, but insists that Beth say she was at the wheel because he was eating rum-raisin ice cream. * World of Snark: Not every single character introduced on the show is a straight Deadpan Snarker, but they all get their moments. At the very least, the main cast certainly have had at least one good sarcastic comeback. Even Jerry. * Would Hurt a Child: + In the pilot, Rick freezes a teenager threatening Morty with a knife. This ultimately kills him when he tips over and shatters (although in Rick's defense, Rick didn't intend for this to happen... but he didn't appear to care if it did). + All of the adventures he takes Morty on can be counted too. He isn't above risking Morty's life or having him be a mule for him. * Wraparound Background: Jerry drives through this when he's in a simulation running at low capacity. Rick has the same three people passing behind him as he talks on the phone in the same episode. Neither notice, but Rick knew what he was in from the very start, so it's completely beneath him. * Writer on Board: + In one episode parodying Inception, Rick makes a point to mention how overrated that film is, which follows Dan Harmon's comments about it in his podcast Harmontown. + In "Look Who's Purging Now," Morty criticizes screenplay gimmicks like the use of How We Got Here. Dan Harmon often complains about clichés he hates in screenplays. + Played with in "Interdimensional Cable 2". When Summer complains about juvenile violence in the media, Morty becomes enraged and rants that people shouldn't have to communicate through the filter of her comfort. It's immediately undercut by Rick implying that Morty is just sexually frustrated. * Yank the Dog's Chain: + Done with Jerry in "M. Night Shaym-Aliens", where he has the perfect day and wins an award right before Rick comes in and reveals that the whole thing has just been one giant simulation. When Jerry tries starting his next day the same way in real life, it stops as soon as it started in the simulation. > Rick: Don't worry about it, Jerry. Who cares if the greatest day of your life was just a simulation running at minimum capacity? + Also happens to Morty in "Lawnmower Dog" when Rick shows up to reveal the life of luxury he had been living as Snuffles' pet was just part of a dream. > Rick: Right before I incepted you, you crapped yourself. I mean, real bad, Morty. It's a total mess out there, Morty. Of all the things that you thought happened, you crapping yourself is the only real thing. + In "Edge of Tomorty", Morty uses a death crystal to see possible ways he might die, and sees that there's apparently a future that involves him ending up with Jessica and growing old with her. After an entire episode of going way too far in his efforts to make this future happen, he finds out that Jessica wants to be a hospice care worker after leaving school, and the future he saw just had her comforting him when he was old and dying without any kind of special connection to him in particular. * Year Inside, Hour Outside: + The nesting Pocket Dimensions in "The Ricks Must be Crazy" have time which runs progressively faster the further down you go. A period of months spent three dimensions down equates to a few hours outside. The minutes-long final fight lasts a few seconds for Summer. + The same thing happens in "Lawnmower Dog" as a spoof of Inception, where time moves faster the deeper they go in Goldenfold's subconscious. Snuffle's All Just a Dream apocalyptic scenario at the end goes on for a year, despite everyone involved only being asleep for six hours, which Rick chalks up to the dream being measured in dog years: > Rick: "And if that doesn't make any sense, then neither does everyone's favorite movie!" * You All Look Familiar: Both parodied when Jerry fails to notice he keeps passing the same simulated background people and played straight when Rick uses the fact to get large numbers of people to work on the same problem at the same time, thereby freezing the program in "M. Night Shaym-Aliens"! * You Can Run, but You Can't Hide: Parodied in "Lawnmower Dog". Scary Terry keeps saying this as he stalks Rick and Morty. The duo then discusses why they are listening to him, pointing out that since Scary Terry is the villain, he probably wouldn't offer them advice that would actually help them, so they decide to try and hide from him anyway. It turns out to be very effective; Scary Terry spends hours searching for them unsuccessfully before giving up in frustration and going home. * You Do NOT Want to Know: After Rick locks down the house in "Total Rickall": > Beth: Dad, why does our house have blast shields? > Rick: Trust me Beth, you don't wanna know how many answers that question has. * You Monster!: + Morty calls Rick a monster before comparing him to Hitler. He then takes this last part back, saying that at least Hitler cared about Germany. + Zeep Zanflorp calls Rick a monster after the latter destroys his pocket universe. * Your Mom: Morty discusses his feelings for Jessica with Jerry, and Jerry says that he used to feel that way about a lady named "Your mom"—and then specifies that he's speaking literally and not as an urban diss. * Yo-Yo Plot Point: In some episodes, Jerry and Beth's marriage is on the verge of collapse before some event in the episode brings them closer together, rekindling their interest in each other and making them determined to give their marriage another try... until the next episode shoves them back into square one and they have to work through their failing marriage all over again. "Rick Potion No. 9" also justifies the trope by having Rick and Morty jump to another dimension, where Jerry and Beth never repaired their marriage as we saw them do earlier in the episode. "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" lampshades their ever-waffling relationship and explains that they're codependent. Given Rick's presence constantly traumatizes them and destabilizes ... reality... pretty justified. Also, they're not really great people and their marriage has a pretty shitty foundation. * Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Rick occaisionally compliments a member of his family for their ideas or actions. They typically react with entirely appropriate self-hatred.	RickAndMorty	null
VideoGames	# Good Is Not Soft - Video Games Good Is Not Soft in Video Games. --- * ANNO: Mutationem: Ann is well-reserved heroic Action Girl who can be very fierce with her fighting skills towards opponents should they ever get on her bad side. She's willing to directly threaten The Consortium's top staff by telling them she will make them suffer if any of the people she cares about got harmed. \|\|In the bad ending, she enacts her vengeance after Ryan got shot by killing everybody in the room\|\|. * Corruption of Laetitia: On a low-corruption run, Celeste generally takes the most generous and heroic options, but she'll still kill human enemies out of necessity. Though she also has respect for their lives and enacts a requiem for those she kills. * Dyztopia: Post-Human RPG: + Runi, the leader of Pon Pon Village, is polite and only wants the best for her family and people, but she's willing to kill anyone who attacks the village, putting her at odds with Zetacorp. However, \|\|she only killed one Hunter from Zetacorp rather than the two she's accused of, since Kael actually abandoned his mission and went to Vulcanite\|\|. + Although Akira initially wanted to spare \|\|Barbados, he spits on their mercy and destroys Pon Pon Village with the power of Aries. No matter the player's choice in the first bonding segment, Akira decides Barbados is Beyond Redemption and kills him at the end of Chapter 1\|\|. * Knight Bewitched 2: Rae is friendly to others and is open-minded about learning about the world outside the Amazoness community, but when \|\|Hermes betrays the party by giving the Vulcan Stone halves to Lissandra, Rae grabs him by the neck and threatens to throw him to his death if he doesn't explain himself\|\|. * Tekken: Jun Kazama is The Chosen One and pure as the driven snow. This does not mean however she isn't devilishly effective in a fight, possess a series of powerful moves...brutal even, or in no shape to punch out Cthulhu. Or go all Mama Bear. Or as Tag Tournament 2 suggests, go downright demonic in the pursuit of good. + Depending on the Writer, her being asocial can have her descend to Good Is Not Nice, or at least not friendly. + Her niece Asuka is another great example. Nice, friendly, gets along well with the likes of Lei (a cop) and Leo (very moral knight\soldier archetype,) and Bully Hunter extraordinaire aiming to take down her cousin Jin, hard. In fact when they first met she tries to revive him, then punches him into a wall because he was an Accidental Pervert. + Good is not Soft does not even begin to describe Angel. Of all the characters she is the closest to the Big Good, capable of Flight, shoots Frickin' Laser Beams, fights exactly like Kazuya or Devil, and will genuinely mess you up. With most people she's lovely, doesn't matter if they're good, evil, Darker and Edgier, Big Bad, whatever. With something like Ogre, however, she's downright frightening. * Street Fighter: + Chun Li, Guile, and Cammy as a good girl are very caring individuals, justice-minded, Guile's a family man, and they are among the best fighters in the series. For Tekken, see above. In Mortal Kombat, you are expected to murder your opponent after a fight, with Liu Kang turning into a dragon to rip them in half, Raiden electrocuting them until they blow up, Stryker blowing their head clear off, and they can do this to the other good guys. + Ryu is a particularly strong example of this. He's mostly a Martial Pacifist who doesn't have any killing moves like Liu Kang and his fighting style Ansatsuken which was originally designed for murder was adapted into a non-lethal variant. Yet for all his peacefulness, Ryu doesn't turn the other cheek to villains and those have hurt his close friends and loved ones as Seth, Necalli, M. Bison and eventually Akuma all learned the hard way. * Mariko "Spirit" Tanaka of Wing Commander is the nicest, kindest, gentlest creature in the series. Then she goes kamikaze on a Kilrathi held space station her fiancé is on. * Star Wars: Dark Forces Saga has Kyle Katarn, who through the course of the games was with the Empire, became a rebel, then a Jedi, fell to The Dark Side, gave up the Force, became a Jedi again for revenge, then began teaching others. His view of the Force and how to act is it's less about what you do, but how you do it. A good person for example can use bad means to achieve a good end, Good Is Not Soft in action. + Tellingly, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II had a good and bad ending, dependent in part on what Force powers Kyle chooses. In Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Luke will praise Jaden if s\he chooses light side powers or a mix, or become concerned if more dark powers are chosen... but, perhaps because you're Kyle's apprentice, even if you choose entirely dark powers you will be able to choose the light side ending. * Knights of the Old Republic: The backstory of the first game has the Jedi believing that good has to be soft, even with the Mandalorians running rampant. Revan, Malak, the Exile, and others disagreed, believing that Good Is Not Soft and defied the order to save the galaxy. + As far as characters go, Bastila believes that a single misstep no matter how minor will doom a person, yet the likes of Carth or Mission believe Good Is Not Soft and are portrayed as being more light-sided than Bastila. + Between the two games, it turns out that the Jedi Masters take their own stance on Good Is Not Soft. While they are happy to let the galaxy burn, they also Mind Rape Revan and attempt to strip the Exile of her force powers. - The Jedi council's take on Good Is Not Soft also relates to their principles — believing there is a greater danger in jumping feet first into war, the council refuse to bend their resolve and be drawn into a fight with the Mandalorians, no matter how many innocents they slaughter. To the rest of the galaxy, Good Is Not Nice is the most charitable way to view this stance. + If you remain Light Side after defeating Bastila, she will express amazement that the Dark Side did not make her stronger, nor did the Light Side make you weak. This is foreshadowed by Juhani thinking the same thing. Malak will express the same, resigned revelation if you defeat him and offer to turn him back to the Light Side. + Juhani is a soft-spoken Jedi and of all the characters is the most concerned about being light-sided. That's because she did fall before. Quite kind, caring, and helpful, she's also rather vicious and utterly pissed at what's been done to her, to the point of indulging The Dark Side unless talked around, then becoming frightened of what she could have done. + The Jedi Exile in the second game. Canonically light-sided, fought as a General in Revan's army during the Mandalorian Wars and afterwards was the only one to return to the Jedi Council to face the music. Was also responsible for \|\|giving the order to deploy the Mass Shadow Generator on Malachor V, wiping out every single living thing on the surface and in orbit, including most of their own fleet\|\|. Despite their obvious guilt, throughout the game, the Exile can repeatedly argue why it had to be done since it ended the War in one fell swoop. + Queen Talia is the Big Good of the Onderon questline and the light side choice. She also wants to execute her traitorous cousin Vaklu right in the throne room because she knows he's so popular that he won't be imprisoned and remain a threat. And while you can talk her out of it, you don't have to. You can stand by and watch without gaining any dark side points. * Most Republic characters are this way come Star Wars: The Old Republic, dancing on the edge of He Who Fights Monsters. Grandmaster Satele will admit that there are weapons that should never be used. General Garza will likely disagree. Supreme Chancellor Suresh started her life as an Imperial slave and became governor of Taris \|\|only to lose it when the Imperials charge in and sabotage the rebuilding efforts\|\| and the only question there is how much of her policies are fueled by wanting revenge. Yet, all three in-game are reasonable authority figures the Republic players. Likewise, messing with Havoc Squad, the Barsen'thor, the Hero of Tython, or Ace the Smuggler is not the wisest policy if you value your lives. However, when your opponents blow up unarmed farming worlds, enslave all non-humans, kill or subject Force Sensitives to Training from Hell with no choice in the matter, and are led by an Ax-Crazy theocratic cabal surrounding an Eldritch Abomination Emperor who wants to devour all life in the galaxy so he can be a God, then the Republic's less-than-angelic tendencies are pretty damned justified. * From the Kid Icarus: Uprising series, we have Pit. Goofy and cheerful angel he may be, he's still the captain of Palutena's Royal Guard, and a One-Man Army who has no qualms smiting the forces of evil. If Palutena gives him the order to fight, he will fight. * Kasumi of Dead or Alive is the nicest, kindest, gentlest character in the series (notice a trend?) She gets run off from her ninja clan and then succeeds in not only finding her brother but killing the man who attacked him, then destroys the most powerful bio-weapon in human history, all while fending off constant assassination attempts and proclaiming she does not want to fight. * Dishonored has this with Corvo Attano. Even if you spare all of your assassination targets, they all end up wishing you'd just killed them instead. \|\|High Overseer Campbell gets expelled from the Overseers and it becomes illegal to assist him in any way, shape, or form. He ends up a Weeper. The Pendletons have their tongues cut out, their heads shaved, and get forced to work in their own mines. Lady Boyle is taken away in a boat by her Stalker with a Crush, never to be seen again. The Lord Regent gets his confession about causing the plague and having the Empress killed broadcasted all over the city, after which he is arrested and (according to Word of God) executed by Corvo.\|\| * In Myst, Atrus is an archetypal Absent-Minded Professor, creating Portal Books to fantastic worlds and living according to an extremely optimistic worldview, but after being betrayed and imprisoned by his own sons, and his library destroyed, when finally released he takes the books where the sons have been trapped and burns them! Then, in order to save his wife, Atrus goes on to create a trap book for his egomaniacal father. > Atrus: People talk about my sons, and the evil things they did, but still I remain strangely mute. I do not discuss my own actions that day, or the rage I felt when I burned the two Linking Books that had snared them. + The fourth game retcons this, by revealing that the sons were not killed when he burnt the books, but simply trapped in the prison ages for the next 20 years. At the urging of both his wife and youngest daughter, he eventually decided to see whether they had reformed in their exile and could be allowed to be freed, writing a special linking chamber into each Age to visit them in safety. + In one tie-in novel, he agrees to lead a slave revolt in battle, despite his reservations about warfare and his lack of military experience. * Devil May Cry: + While Dante comes off as a carefree thrill seeking wildman most of the time, he's also shown to be a real hero at his core and cares deeply for his friends and later his nephew. Push him too far though, and you'll understand why he's so infamous among the demon world as the Red Eyes, Take Warning kick in and his Devil Trigger activates. Like his father before him, he's slaughtered his way through The Legions of Hell and didn't even show mercy to his brother Vergil when he opened up the Underworld for the sake of gaining power. + V from Devil May Cry 5 unlike Dante or Nero, he's a soft spoken and utterly polite gentleman who reads poetry and shows nothing but compassion to his allies. Yet he's also a deadly Combat Pragmatist who will unleash a Storm of Blades and go for the kill whenever he can. \|\|It's soon revealed V is Vergil's Soul Jar being all of his good i.e “weak” qualities and the human side which he spurned, but even as the embodiment of discarded goodness, V is still a deadly warrior.\|\| * In Baldur's Gate II, many of your Good-aligned party members, particularly Keldorn, Minsc, Mazzy, and (in the Enhanced Edition) Rasaad qualify. \|\|Aerie is also this by Throne of Bhaal.\|\| All are genuinely kind, altruistic people who are nevertheless very proactive in buttkicking for goodness. The PC can play this way too. * Many examples appear in Final Fantasy: + Final Fantasy VII: - Although Aerith Gainsborough is very kind to most people and she can be very understanding, she doesn't hesitate to challenge anyone who gives her a hard time. She's ready to break into Don Corneo's mansion on her own without thinking of her own safety before Cloud stops her. After Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa break into Don Corneo's bedroom, Aerith threatens to "rip them off" if the Don doesn't tell them what they want to know. She isn't afraid to let Cait Sith know what she thinks of him when she learns that he's a spy. And of course, she isn't afraid to head by herself to the Forgotten City to summon Holy even though it's only logical that Sephiroth will most likely try to stop her (which is indeed what happens). - Similar to Aerith, Tifa herself also qualifies. Like Aerith, she's kind and caring to most people she runs into, while also being a master martial artist and anti-Shinra rebel unafraid to get her hands dirty for the sake of others. Bonus points for the aforementioned Corneo scene in which she threatens to "smash them". At one point in the Final Fantasy VII Remake, while seeing seeing her allies in trouble she says: "Don't worry guys we're coming", before turning to the boss and growling: "AND YOU CAN GO TO HELL!" and delivering a megaton kick to him. - Cloud himself, beneath his cocky and jerky mercenary persona, is a genuinely sweet and easygoing nice guy who cherishes his loved ones. But he's still a man who will brutally hack foes apart with his BFS, and even Sephiroth wasn't safe from Cloud's Unstoppable Rage after the former had burned down his hometown, sliced up his best friend and childhood sweetheart and killed his mom. In Remake, Cloud is fiercely loyal and protective to his companions, but is absolutely merciless to anyone who crosses them, attempting to kill Reno after he invaded Aerith's church and even tried to kill Johnny when he ratted Jessie out to Shrina. When the Turks activate a countdown for the Sector 7 plate to fall, Cloud holds the Buster Sword to the beaten Reno's throat and firmly demands to know how they can stop it. - Barret in Remake is a lot more gentle than his original incarnation, being a Father to His Men and Boisterous Bruiser hero of Sector 7. But against Shinra, he's just as much a Scary Black Man as he was in the original, happily gunning down those who've crossed AVALANCHE like a real Blood Knight. + Serah Farron from Final Fantasy XIII-2. She's kind-hearted, friendly, and cute, a stark contrast to her gruff badass Big Sis Lightning. However, like Lightning, she's a hardcore Determinator and Action Girl, and if she's really pushed, she's just as dangerous as her big sis. + Most of the main cast in Final Fantasy X. Of the seven heroes, Auron and Khimari qualify unquestioningly. You could make really strong arguments for Wakka, Tidus, and Lulu, and even Rikku and Yuna have their moments of this. + Final Fantasy XIV: - The the Warrior of Light is a kind, outgoing adventurer with Chronic Hero Syndrome who becomes wrapped up in numerous conflicts to save the world from primals, the Ascians, and the Garlean Empire. But they become so proficient in the arts of war that they're referred to as a "force of nature" and "ferocity incarnate" by those who witness them in battle. They can also learn frightening and horrific powers to deal with their enemies, including two assassination arts as well as forbidden, lost techniques like Mhachi black magic. - The Rogues' Guild of Limsa Lominsa is comprised entirely of affable people who have made it their mission to protect the city by enforcing the Pirate's Code, the oldest code of honor in the nation's history. But all of its members specialize in theft, espionage, intelligence gathering, and assassination, "milling" those who break the code and making an example of the corpses by hanging them from the rafters. + Even after his Character Development leading him to be one of the most genuinely heroic people of his world, Clive Rosfield of Final Fantasy XVI harbors no illusions about how dangerous the world is, and is just as willing to get his hands dirty and kill his enemies as he was earlier. This is most apparent in \|\|his treatment of Hugo Kupka, whom he despises for destroying his hometown, killing the people of the Hideaway, and trying to have Jill executed as Revenge by Proxy on Cid for Benedikta. He has absolutely no sympathy for Hugo's grief about Benedikta because of how low he sank in seeking vengeance for her, and makes no bones about how he wants the man dead\|\|. * Three characters in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift have their first fight in Story Mode against Hazama, and one of them is Jin Kisaragi. The other two sit nicely in this trope. + Litchi Faye-Ling may be a doctor and a former medical officer at Sector Seven, but she still has a strong moral compass and an IQ above room temperature — when Hazama comes a-knockin', she is unafraid to sass at him and, when that doesn't get him to leave, draw Matenbo to evict him by force. \|\|While he does offer her the opportunity to join NOL in exchange for the chance to save Arakune after that fails, she doesn't believe he'll hold his end of the bargain one bit, and only winds up Forced into Evil out of desperation over her own condition. Even when she is under the Librarium banner, she isn't afraid to chew out Relius over his bad parenting (this, sadly, convinces him to set Ignis upon her and Carl). Litchi is not afraid to step into 'evil' territory, do things she didn't like, and stain her already perfectly good image and reputation in order to pursue good deeds, that's how much 'not-so-soft' she is.\|\| + Makoto Nanaya is no different despite being an Intelligence Division Lieutenant (under Captain Hazama himself, at that) — it's sundry that her loyalties are more to her friends than any government. \|\|When Hazama tries to assassinate Jin in Slight Hope, she is swift to call him on it and, when negotiations fail, parry the knife and attempt to beat the shit out of him. When that doesn't succeed and Jin has to freeze Hazama to get them both to safety, this only changes her priorities somewhat — to save her friends from him. In her bad ending, she has the gall to call Relius out on sending a still-injured Jin to what appears to be certain death against Ragna the Bloodedge and, again, demand he step aside lest she knock him on his ass (for all the good that does her), and even in the good ending she has no hesitation in demanding an explanation from Hazama about all the crap he tried to pull.\|\| * In Galactic Civilizations, the humans are seen by most races as very soft, as they are diplomats by nature and will always try to solve their problems peacefully. The resident warrior/bully race, the Drengin, pity humanity particularly, and decide to show the rest of the universe just how pitiful it is. They convince another race, the Xendar, to start a war with the "soft" race. Needless to say, humanity reveals that millennia of internal warfare have grown a very hard shell beneath the soft crust; it promptly mobilizes and curb-stomps the Xendar back to their homeworld. After the Xendar die altogether due to interference by the Drengin, Humanity disbands its army and goes back to being peaceful and polite with everyone as if nothing had happened. The Drengin decide it's a wise idea to leave the "soft" race the hell alone. * Sonic the Hedgehog may be the nicest character alongside with Tails and Cream, but anytime he encounters Dr. Eggman or any other villain, expect him to not only go start kicking their asses but also say some snide and/or cocky remarks about them while doing it. In Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic in his Darkspine form brutally seals Erazor Djinn away for being so irredeemable and then throws his lamp into a pool of molten metal for good measure. + Knuckles the Echidna is shown to be a selfless and caring hero who risks his life to save pretty much anyone in spite of his tough demeanor, but he won't hesitate to deal with a villain with his spiked fists if they aren't willing to listen, or just about anyone who stands in his way. And don't even think about stealing the Master Emerald. + Despite being Good Is Not Nice, Shadow the Hedgehog has shown to care for others, which includes his two teammates Rouge and Omega and his deceased surrogate sister Maria. When he fights against an evil foe, he has shown no second thoughts about using lethal force on them. The Black Arms learned the hard way that this also means no compunctions against genocide when dealing with exceptional evil. He also won't hesitate to fight the heroes if they get in the way of his current goals. + Chaos is a water being who shown to be peaceful and friendly with Tikal and the Chao, but for those who would do any harm on them, he will show no hesitation in going psychotically wrathful in killing them, as the greedy echidna clan had soon suffered dearly. Unfortunately, he was filled with so much anger that he destroyed Station Square, which only took Sonic to purify him with the positive powers of the Chaos Emeralds. * Kei "Edge" Nagase of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War has this strange preoccupation, being a combat pilot, of not wanting to kill anyone and regretting Osea going to war with Yuktobania. Soft-spoken, loyal to her flight lead (Bartlett and Blaze), and well-liked by her team, she also comes across as very much a pacifist who would have much preferred to meet enemy pilots on airshow circuits rather than battlefields. That's the same Nagase who — after being shot down and forced to flee on foot — turns the table on enemy soldiers sent to capture her and ends up holding them at gunpoint, fights like a demon (literally in one case where the enemy pilots claim mythical demons had taken her over after she kills a good number of them \|\|in retaliation to the death of her fellow teammate Chopper\|\|), and punches out a higher-ranking officer whom she finds out to be a traitor. She might not like wars, but if she finds herself in one, she is ready and willing to sweep aside all oppositions in her quest to end it. * Mario, Link, Samus, and Kirby are Nintendo's textbook examples of this trope. Mario is Fun Personified, Link is a Knight in Shining Armor and All-Loving Hero, Samus is a stoic, quiet professional, and Kirby is a strong yet cute Cheerful Child. Every one of them is a One-Man Army capable of taking on the greatest evils of his/her respective universe and their functionally endless hordes of Mooks. Villains underestimate them at their peril. * Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider reboot. She's still an Anti-Hero, but more of the traditional type than the "modern" type, and she's much more pleasant than her previous incarnations. * Sophitia Alexandra may be Purity Personified and one of the most unambiguously good characters in the Soul Series, but her fighting style is quite brutal and she is certainly not afraid to fight dirty, including moves like Groin Attacks and Neck Snaps. And while she is an Apologetic Attacker, she does so with an air of confidence and dignity. She is genuinely sorry she has to hurt her opponents, but she is not going to let anything stop her. * Most of the Vault Hunters from Borderlands and Borderlands 2. Even though a few of them lean towards being Sociopathic Heroes, for the most part, they're doing their level best to protect those on Pandora who can't protect themselves. They're also some of the most unambiguously badass people on the planet, who think nothing of mowing down hordes of bandits, dangerous wildlife, or robots. * The Main Characters of Resident Evil (barring Ada and HUNK) fall under this, they're good people who look out for each other but will go Ash Williams on bioterroism and unleash thousands of bullets on the monsters they face. + Chris Redfield is essentially RE's Captain America, who will do anything to protect the world from evil and cares greatly for his loved ones. Yet as the games go on, he proves how ruthless he can be especially in RE6 and Resident Evil Village where he dips into Good Is Not Nice. While still a good man at heart, he becomes an example of Dark Is Not Evil due his appearance and attitude. + Leon S. Kennedy is a hero rookie turned secret agent who will Always Save the Girl, protect those he cares about and safeguard the world whenever he can. But he's also merciless to his foes, throwing knives into enemy's hands and coldly tells others to shoot the head of their recently zombied-friends. In the RE2make when he learns that sultry FBI lady has been actually been a femme fatale mercenary leading him astray, Leon doesn't waste a moment trying to arrest her. In later titles even when depressed and drunk, Leon still cares about doing the right thing, and is willingly to shoot a man in the spine just save him from turning into a monster. + Jill Valentine is a compassionate person who cares greatly for justice, but also believe in delivering More Dakka to injustice and anyone who's crossed her and her allies. In RE3make Jill leans right into Good Is Not Nice, telling Umbrella mooks in no uncertain terms to go screw themselves whilst trying to save any civilians she can. At the end she's totally willingly to leave the only other survivor besides Carlos and herself to be atomised by a missile due to the survivor in question being a Smug Snake who destroyed the vaccine to the T-Virus. + Claire Redfield is a All-Loving Hero and Friend to All Children and works her heart out trying to make the world she lives in a better place despite not being an agent like her friends and family. Yet at the same time she's totally willingly and able to deliver hot lead to anyone and anything that means her and her allies harm and is even willingly to give a What the Hell, Hero? to even her closest ally when they fall short of doing the right thing. * Xian Mei and John Morgan of Dead Island would make Chris and Jill fall to their knees in reverence. They are committed to helping everyone, very sympathetic to the victims of the outbreak, and caring to those caught up in the outbreak. They are also capable of slaughtering half the population of Banoi and Palanai with ease and turn bloodthirsty when coming across those irredeemably evil. * Sora of the Kingdom Hearts series is this. He travels to different worlds, helping out people in need and befriending them in the process. He is also openly rude to any villain he encounters throughout his journey, and more die at his hands than get arrested or escape. He's also not afraid to fight any women and children who work for or are villains. So, if you piss him off, prepare to die. * The Assassins in Assassin's Creed are this. Their ideology is based around free will and self-determination, and they're generally good guys. However, as you might guess from the name, their Modus Operandi is assassinating the key people on the other side. * In A Witch's Tale, Queen Alice did what needed to be done to stop the Eld Witch, including sacrificing a princess to create the seal and denying the Eld Witch's daughters reincarnations. * Thrall from World of Warcraft probably qualifies. In addition to being a visionary leader who strives for peace among the warring factions, he's also just generally a nice guy. But he's also a fierce warrior who won't hesitate to crack some heads with Doomhammer when occasion requires; most notably, he was seconds away from \|\|executing Garrosh on the spot for his crimes, before Varian Wrynn interrupted.\|\| + Velen is another notable one. Don't let the robes and long white beard fool you: this guy can kick your ass six ways to Sunday and won't hesitate to do so if you're messing with someone. He has been leading the Draenei for thousands of years, battling the Burning Legion the whole time. Unusually among the racial leaders though, he isn't solely concerned about the Draenei: he's very interested in promoting peace and cooperation among the races of Azeroth as well. The Draenei in general are also very much this trope, following Velen's example. They are friendly and hospitable, honest, and always strive to act justly: which means you'd better not do any injustice while they're looking. + Really, this applies to most of the inhabitants of Azeroth. Relatively few of them are straight up baddies, and even anti-heroes are the exception rather than the norm. Most people are generally good and caring...but the entire universe wants to destroy the planet so pretty much everyone has to be good in a fight. Also, people have different definitions of "good", like in the real world: so conflicts between groups of people are common, even though there are genuinely good people on both sides. And, of course, good people can be convinced to do bad things. * The Tenno of Warframe. Millennia old beings who are dedicated to restoring balance and order to the solar system. They are genuinely out to help the civilians who currently suffer under a number of tyrannical regimes and are even known to assist those regimes when dealing with the Infestation. Their standard means of restoring balance is to conduct hit and run attacks, assassinate high profile targets, steal and sabotage their enemies' technology, or brutally slaughter their way through entire battalions of enemy troops. * Joshua Graham AKA The Burned Man in Fallout: New Vegas. He's a Mormon missionary and the former Legate of Caesar's Legion. His in-game karma is good and he's very friendly towards you. The catch? He's sworn to protect the local tribes from the White Legs, a monstrous tribe that massacred his homeplace and has come to Zion Valley to finish the job. Joshua's solution to the problem is massacring the entire tribe, and he's just as brutal as he was in the Legion. Fortunately, he can be talked out of killing the White Legs leader. > Joshua: Make no mistake. This is an extermination. + He makes it clear what will happen if you mention you might "shake some information" out of Daniel. > Joshua: If you harm Daniel or any of the Sorrows or Dead Horses, I will find you. Make no mistake. God willing, you will not leave this valley. + The Courier can be a Messiah and greatest force of good in the Mojave, and an absolute terror to raiders everywhere. The Courier can go from helping The Kings and supplying the Followers of the Apocalypse to blasting the head off of a Fiend or storming Caesar's camp and killing every legionnaire without even a second consideration for the deaths, simply stripping the bodies of useful loot and moving on. * Fire Emblem franchise: The notable sizes of cute/innocent females (Caeda, Nino, Lilina, etc) and the main lords (Marth, Sigurd, Roy, etc) are of the high tier Magikarp Power and/or Game-Breaker. Their personalities are genuinely decent, but they're still soldiers who develop to hurl down the toughest opponent soldiers and monsters and to fight for what is right. + One of the reasons Ike from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is so damn popular is he doesn't mince words. + Chrom from Fire Emblem: Awakening is a kind-hearted and heroic leader of the Shepherds of Ylisse, but he's also not willing to tolerate evil. When Gangrel, king of the rival kingdom of Plegia, threatens Ylisse, Chrom states that he's willing to kill Gangrel to protect his country. + Ferdinand von Aegir from Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a Nice Guy that at worst falls under Innocently Insensitive, but also has no issues with using force (including lethal force) should the situation call for it. He is unfazed by his first kill (a bandit) in Chapter 2, threatens a pushy soldier in his and Mercedes's B-support, and when acting as the Supporting Leader on the \|\|Silver Snow\|\| route, he states that the only way to end the war is to kill \|\|Edelgard\|\|, despite any feelings he may have. + Mercedes from Three Houses is similarly compassionate, but also not averse to using force. She prays for the soul of the first bandit she kills, but has no regrets about killing the bandit, and actually agrees with Rhea's decision to execute the Western Church members responsible for an elaborate plot involving inciting a rebellion and breaking into the Holy Mausoleum. She's even willing to fight against \|\|the Death Knight, after he turns out to be her younger haf-brother Emile, as well as against her best friend Annette and old friend Constance if they end up on opposite sides in Crimson Flower.\|\| + In Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Dimitri does not snap and become a violent revenge-obsessed madman, but he's still willing to kill those responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur. When he learns that the Kingdom is on the brink of civil war because of his uncle Rufus, the regent (who turns out to also have played a role in the Tragedy of Duscur), Dimitri takes Shez and some of their classmates to take back the Kingdom capital of Fhirdiad from Rufus. After Rufus is defeated, Dimitri takes his uncle out in front of the people and personally executes Rufus by beheading him. Shez, a battle-hardened mercenary, is somewhat disturbed by the sight, but Felix replies that executing traitors is part of Dimitri's duties as king. * Ajay Ghale of Far Cry 4 leans towards this characterisation. He's the only Far Cry protagonist so far to have a Karma Meter, which increases if you perform certain Karma side missions, most of which entail rescuing hostages, avenging the abuses of Pagan Min and his forces, and protecting locals from animal attacks. By the end of the game, he'll be something of a saint. He's also a Far Cry protagonist, however, with all that entails as well. * The Sylvari of Guild Wars 2 may be in many senses beautiful, hopelessly idealistic, aligned-to-good, kind, and compassionate folks who are naive to much of the harsh realities of Tyria, and they may very well be more attuned to nature than any other race in the world — but they constantly remind other, tougher races that roses possess thorns, and their trained soldiers are capable of being just as lethal on a battlefield as most other trained soldiers of other races. > Thermain (Sylvari NPC): I am no placid gardener, no gentle guardian. Thorns bite, vines choke — and I kill. * Several characters from Undertale qualify to some extent, due to the cast being something of a Dysfunction Junction, the most clear-cut example is definitely Sans the skeleton. He's among the nicest and friendliest people you'll meet in the game (which is saying a lot), with a laid-back personality, goofy sense of humor, and very close relationship with his younger brother, Papyrus. From the moment he introduces himself onward he treats you like an old pal, despite the fact that humans and monsters have a very ugly history, and he'll pop up throughout the game to give you advice, peddle healing items to you, or just have a nice chat over lunch. However, it becomes clear over time that his Hidden Depths run deep; toward the end of the game, he'll reveal that \|\|he actually had every intention to kill you the moment he laid eyes on you, only not doing so because of a promise he made to somebody else, and he's actually been stalking you throughout the game because he knows about the Video Game Cruelty Potential you could indulge in at any given moment.\|\| This doesn't disqualify his alignment as a good character — practically every character in the game wanted to do the same at some point due to the aforementioned species divide — but it's still telling that he was willing to \|\|stone-cold murder a defenseless child in order to preserve peace among monsters.\|\| It doesn't stop there: while he'll take most of your behavior, however villainous, in stride throughout most of the game, he will not take it well at all if you \|\|kill Papyrus.\|\| And if you kill enough monsters — enough to get him to finally break his resolve and \|\|bar you from the game's ending, knowing you'll destroy the whole world if you reach it — then you'll be faced with far and away the most difficult challenge in the game: a boss battle against him. Combat Pragmatist doesn't even begin to cover what you'll be up against...\|\| * Ghost Recon Wildlands: Nomad and the Ghosts rip on each other, swear like dock workers, use torture and intimidation on civilians and want no part of getting involved in Bolivia's civil war, but their targets are drug cartels and their allies, and Nomad does help the people affected by the conflict anyway. * Persona: + The Phantom Thieves of Hearts in Persona 5. When not on the job, they're a bunch of affable, easygoing high-schoolers trying to live a normal life. When on the job, however, they ruthlessly punish evildoers by the process of Heel–Face Brainwashing, even sending out calling cards to their major targets to let them know they're next. + Persona 5 Strikers: - Zenkichi Hasegawa, being more cynical than the other Phantom Thieves, exemplifies this trope, since he feels less sympathy for the Monarchs of the Jails, who have more tragic backstories than the Palace rulers and are guilty of less severe crimes. Zenkichi believes that the Monarchs' past is no justification for their crimes, and is quick to call out the Phantom Thieves for letting pity hold them back. - Haru is one of the kindest Phantom Thieves, but discusses this trope in the same game. The third Monarch is Mariko Hyodo, a woman Haru knew when she was young, so Haru sympathizes with her and is saddened by how much she's changed. Nevertheless, Haru is determined to change Mariko's heart, recalling a time when the ordinarily kind Mariko sternly ordered Haru to stand up by herself after falling. > "There's more to good character than kindness. Being good means dealing with the bad in front of you." * In The Elder Scrolls series, the Aedra, "original spirit" beings who sacrificed large portions of their divine power during the creation of Mundus, the mortal plane, are seen as uniformly benevolent, highly regarded, and worshiped as the primary religion throughout most of Tamriel. However, several instances in history have seen them get tough. Two of the most prominent: + After they realized that Lorkhan tricked them out of their power in order to create Mundus, they got even. How? They "killed" him, tore out his heart ("divine center"), and tried to destroy it. When it proved indestructible, they cast it down into the world he had them create where his spirit would be forced to wander. + When Alessia and her Nedic people (Precursors to most of the races of Men) were enslaved and tortured by the Daedra worshiping Ayleids, the Aedra sent aid. Not only did mankind win the war, the Ayleids were driven to extinction as a unique race. Whether this counts as "good" or not, is up for debate. Not that the elves are winning any prizes for morality either. * Officer Ooe from Spirit Hunter: NG tries to be genial and offer her help to Akira at first, but as he continues to keep tight-lipped while bodies pile up around him, she stops playing nice and hauls him into the station to demand some actual answers out of him. It works out for her, as he finally lets her in on what's going on. * Doom: Doomguy is, throughout all games in the series (most especially Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal) considered The Dreaded by all residing in Hell, in that he is a relentless One-Man Army who, if you are unfortunate enough to be a demon, won't just kill you or even gun you down - he will eviscerate you, with his bare hands, and savor the sights of your guts. Preferably, huge guts. However, his ire starts and ends strictly with demonkind; he has repeatedly saved Earth from Hell's forces, punched out his commander for ordering him to target civilians, and \|\|in the case of the recent two games, stomped out Samuel Hayden's Argent Energy filters due to the energy basically being fuel for a Soul-Powered Engine.\|\| * About every 'good guy' in The Walking Dead (Telltale) cannot afford to be soft when fending off hordes of the undead. The protagonists also get into their fair share of fights with other groups and individuals. In particular, repeatedly losing everyone around her has turned Clementine into a hardened survivor who, despite being riddled with guilt and insecurity, is more than capable of fighting to the bitter end to protect others. * Rudy Roughnight from Wild ARMs 1. He's a kind hearted kid who will lend a hand to anyone who asks but he doesn't hesitate to step up when the demons threaten Filgaia (even his companions note he's the only one who has nothing to gain by doing so). Also, when some bullies start picking on a lonely Elw girl, he smacks their ringleader hard enough to send him flying backwards. * Witch Hunter Izana: The Knight Caelyn and the Hierophant Cyrano are both nice people who are willing to do anything to save Scier's island from Verand's brainwashing curse, even if that means cutting through hordes of monsters. * Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima and main protagonist of the Like a Dragon series up until Yakuza: Like a Dragon, is a Nice Guy despite his past and stoic attitude who is willing to help anyone in need. That being said, if you harm or threaten him or his friends and family, particularly Haruka Sawamura, be prepared to find yourself on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle and subsequent No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. * In Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, nearly every good character fulfills this as they are crusading against a demonic incursion. However the most explicit statement of this trope comes from Regill, who is evil. He has a possible dialogue where he blows up at Sosiel for making the side of good look weak, pointing out that good people are morally obligated to fight against demons trying to destroy the world no matter what pacifist ideals they have. * Octopath Traveler: + Ophilia is a gentle and kind woman, but she doesn't hesitate to use lethal force on \|\|the men who kidnap (and threaten to kill) Bishop Donovan's daughter\|\|. + Primrose is a very gentle woman to those she considers friends, as well as to her former acquaintances in Noblecourt; but to her enemies... dear God, she will stop at nothing to destroy them. * Leo from Red Earth is a warrior king who has vowed to protect the innocent from Scion's devious plan to slaughter the human race with a new race that which he can call himself God. Leo does so by being The Berserker and mauling his opponents and using his brutal strength to his advantage. He will finish his opponents by cutting them in twain or splitting them in half. * The crew of the Unreliable in The Outer Worlds all qualify to varying degrees. + The Variable can be played as the nicest, most genuine person in the colony. However, they become a wanted criminal in the eyes of the Board for a very good reason, ranging from theft to corporate espionage to murder. + Parvati is the Endearingly Dorky engineer keeping the Unreliable from turning into space scrap, but that doesn't mean she won't bash your head in with an electrified hammer if the time calls for it. + Felix might be the Token Good Teammate (in a comparable sense), but he's still not afraid to get his hands dirty if he needs to. \|\|One sidequest has him put down a friend of his once he learns that friend is a Board loyalist.\|\| + Ellie acts as the Dr. Snark of the Unreliable, but you first meet her as a mercenary who's killed more people than she's saved them. And she's not afraid to remind people of that fact. + SAM is basically a janitor-bot that doesn't do much other than clean. However, he's been customized to spray cleaning agents and acid from his nozzle. \|\|There's also the fact that he immediately calls the Chairman "filth to be incinerated."\|\| * Sword of the Stars: The Liir are pacifist space dolphins with psychic powers and adorable sing-sing voices who wiped out the evil Suul'ka with bioweapons. \|\|Of course, that isn't the full story: the Suul'ka were really Liir Elders who went mad with power and enslaved their own children and press-ganged them through the industrial revolution to build spacesuits so they could violate the Square-Cube Law and live forever in space. The Liir found a sympathetic Elder known as the Black, kitted him out in black armour and turned him into a Hunter of His Own Kind who has so far killed dozens of Suul'ka and can Mind Rape the entire crew of a battlecruiser from light years away.\|\| Don't fuck with the Liir. * Mass Effect: + Commander Shepard, as a Paragon, could be named after the trope. S(he) really is genuinely nice, caring, loving, and willing to Pistol Whip someone who's crossed the Moral Event Horizon or beat down some Jerkass, or help kill a villain in cold blood. And don't EVER hurt his/her crew and friends. It will probably be the last mistake you ever make. + The moment that perhaps cements this more than anything else in many fans' eyes is the ending to Overlord, where a scientist forced \|\|his autistic brother\|\| to communicate with the geth, in the most barbaric way, then pleads with Shepard to allow it to continue. The Renegade option is to allow it but break his jaw and show disgust over his actions. The good one however is for Shepard to refuse, dodge shots fired at him/her, optionally smash the scientist's face in and threaten to kill him. > Shepard: You even think about coming after your brother and this bullet will be waiting for you. Then we'll see who's "valuable". (You can go full Paragon in this ending where Shepard's voice is barely suppressed rage, or take the neutral options where s/he doesn't bother holding back how pissed s/he is and lets him utterly have it.) + Upon meeting Gavin Archer again in 3 as part of a team of ex-Cerberus defectors, Shepard makes it clear that even though they going to save him along with everyone else from the Cerberus forces assaulting the base, they still have nothing but utter contempt for him! Shepard also can mention that David is still safe and been rescued from \|\|Grissom Academy\|\|, but Gavin is still not going to get within a light-year of him! + Another example comes up in I Remember Me. If Shepard has the Colonist background s/he was attacked and nearly taken by Batarian slavers when s/he was sixteen. Because this becomes common knowledge Shepard is asked to talk to a girl who was taken by slavers and is Driven to Suicide. The Paragon ending has Shepard save her, then the officer who asked for help despairs the point in fighting if they can't even keep the little girl safe. > Shepard: To make people who do these things pay. It's not the severity of punishment that deters crime, it's the certainty. + The above is one of the few times that Paragon Shepard is absolutely furious. + A Renegade Shepard, on the other hand, is a good demonstration of the sister trope, Good Is Not Nice, in that Renegade Shepard can be a real Jerkass yet no matter how bad s/he can be Shepard is still trying to save the galaxy. + In Lair of the Shadow Broker, the special Paragon solution to dealing with a hostage situation is to have Shepard do a Badass Boast mentioning either the Paragon or Renegade choices for two of the most extreme actions in the previous game and saying that the hostage-taker had better have a better plan than hoping a hostage will deter you. Although the intent was to intimidate the hostage-taker into letting their guard down so Liara could free the hostage, there's a strong implication that if it had really come to that, Shepard wasn't bluffing. If you don't have the Renegade/Paragon points or just decide not to use those options, you can demonstrate that Shepard is not bluffing by shooting through the hostage to get the villain. To the injured hostage, Shepard says, "You'll live." + A full list for just Shepard showing how Good Is Not Soft would take all day, but here's his/her reaction to criticism for all the human lives lost when Shepard gave the order to save the Council during the Battle of the Citadel. > Shepard: The Alliance lost eight cruisers: Shenyang, Emden, Jakarta, Cairo, Seoul, Cape Town, Warsaw, Madrid. And yes, I remember them all. Everyone in the Fifth Fleet is a hero. The Alliance owes them all medals, the Council owes them a lot more than that. And so do you! + Liara counts as well. A curious, well-meaning archeologist, her time with Shepard meant she Took a Level in Badass. After Shepard supposedly dies, Liara becomes obsessed with getting him\her back. During Redemption, she plays nice with shady characters like The Illusive Man, but fends off rape attempts by killing her attackers. After she hands Shepard over to Cerberus in the hope s\he can be brought Back from the Dead, Liara becomes an information broker where she taps her inner Dark!Willow and threatens to flay people alive. But the Good Is Not Nice facade is a weak mask and when Shepard finds her she all but breaks down over her obsession and feelings of betrayal to him\her. - Her introduction in the third game has her being chased through an air vent by two Cerberus troopers. She drops out of the vent, then uses her biotics to immobilize the troopers in mid-air when they try to follow. And then executes both of them. A Double Tap for each of them. + Turians in general, and Garrus in particular, show that not only are they incredibly polite and friendly, they're exceptionally ruthless and militaristic. Their combat philosophies directly reflect this: they hit the enemy with absolutely overwhelming force to end the fight as soon as possible. + None of Shepard's True Companions are soft, but not all are good. The "good" squad members would qualify for no other reason than anyone who follows Shepard winds unhesitatingly racking up an astronomical kill count, but others qualify for other reasons. An incomplete listing of the characters following this trope includes: - Fan favorite Garrus Vakarian is an incredibly nice guy who genuinely tries to do the right thing. He was essentially a Cowboy Cop in Mass Effect 1 and in Mass Effect 2 killed so many crime lords in a Wretched Hive the population called him Archangel. His actions are game-changing across the Terminus Systems that they are forced to unite just to get his head on the silver platter after Garrus single-handedly cripples their operations (which will go worse as Shepard butts heads against them enough to create a power vaccum around the events of the third game). - Kaiden Alenko and Ashley Williams both are loyal, decent Alliance marines who willingly follow Shepard into hell in the first game and show no compunctions about gunning down minions of the Big Bad and criminals. Despite coming into conflict with Shepard due to being left in the dark about the current situation, they remain firmly on the side of humanity and the Council, doing their best to protect innocent people. And even though they outrank (Kaidan) or on the same rank as (Ashley) Shepard on the third game, they still follow Shepard's command without any problem. - Wrench Wench Tali'Zorah nar Rayya starts the series as a slightly shy, sweet-tempered girl on her Pilgrimage. In her first scene, she kills attackers trying to bring her down with an explosive and spends the rest of the series in the thick of heavy fighting. - Captain David Anderson shows these traits when he serves as a mentor and leader. The Expanded Universe shows he has no problem dealing with the bad guys with force, as he was also the first-ever N7 (human special operations). In the third game, he \|\|not only leads the entire human resistance on Earth as an alien fleet tries to harvest humanity for many months but then leads the ground forces which make the suicide run when The Enemy Gate Is Down\|\|. - Samara is a civil, regal, somewhat distant but unfailingly polite member of a strict monastic order. Her code of honor demands she gun down criminals (or snap their necks) in cold blood. - Mordin Solus. Generally atoning for past acts. Decent person. Introduced as former special operations agent turned scientist turned physician. Runs clinic in Wretched Hive. Has killed many gang members. Leave him alone out of fear. > Mordin: "Lots of ways to help people. Sometimes heal patients; sometimes execute dangerous people. Either way helps." - Jacob Taylor is a decent man working for a questionable organization. When he discovers his \|\|father has spent ten years living in a puerile sexual fantasy by forcing his crew to eat neurotoxic food\|\|, he has no problem seeing to his death or to his incarceration. "[After] what happened here, I should vent his head!" - Thane Krios is attempting to atone for a lifetime as an assassin so despite good intentions, he may not count as "good." He has absolutely no compunction about killing villainous wrongdoers and is introduced when he kills a crime lord and then prays for forgiveness. > Thane: Removing evil from the world is not the same as creating good. - Kasumi Goto is a master thief. That's literally the only negative thing you can say about her. She's nice (very sympathetic to the other characters, particularly Jack), kind (saved a little girl from slavers), friendly, and sociable, with her input on morally ambiguous decisions showing high morals. She's also a devastating Glass Cannon that uses stealth to stab enemies in the back, so skilled that Spectres consider her a Worthy Opponent and when mocked about her dead lover she goes into a quiet rage before taking out a crime king's invincible gunship. And the thieving part? Turns out she's now doing it from casinos and giving the proceeds to war victims. You can stop her, but letting her proceed is the paragon option. - The Expanded Universe anime film Paragon Lost portrays James Vega as a young, idealistic soldier — but a highly effective commando leading his squad against mercenaries and racers. By the events of Mass Effect 3, he has a slightly darker persona, but still remains loyal to the mission of saving humanity and the rest of the galaxy. - Steve Cortez is a nice guy mourning the death of his husband and a competent Alliance pilot. Since he never enters ground combat, many players overlook that he's a complete badass. Not only does he fly into a hot LZ in just about every mission (an act of great courage), but he scores an impressive number of kills in air-to-air combat. \|\|In "Leviathan" he finally did enter ground combat in a limited capacity. But in Citadel, he fights more directly. Maybe not as a squadmate, but he joins one of the other two teams, filled with your badass squadmates and holds his own.\|\| By a similar token, Jeff "Joker" Moreau, pilot of your Cool Starship, is a Deadpan Snarker with Hidden Depths who is quite personable. He seems positively ecstatic when his ship the Normandy delivers killing blows to enemy ships. - \|\|EDI\|\|, as an AI, can literally be inspired to modify her central directives towards what can only be called humanitarian virtues and loyalty. If this happens, she states that her overwhelming priority is no longer her own survival. Other things — people — are worth fighting for to the death. - By Mass Effect 3, Miranda has become this, after breaking free from the extremism of her former employer Cerberus. She is willing to go to any lengths to keep her sister safe from her father and when she finally sees his greatest atrocity, Sanctuary, leaves messages to refugees to stay away from it at all costs. This doesn't stop her from murdering her father the second he lets her sister go. She might be fighting for the survival of the galaxy, but she is still ruthless as ever back at the second game. - Wrex becomes this if he survives the first game and gives reformation another shot, becoming the leader of the krogan race. He knows that if the krogan do not make serious changes, then they are going to die out. He assumes his authority with violence if he has to and if others refuse to go along with the reforms, they're left in the dust. > Wrex: \headbutts a dissenting Clan leader\** Speak when spoken to, Uvenk! I will drag your Clan to glory whether they like it or not! + Let's face it, Mass Effect is a whole world of Good Is Not Soft. There's a reason this crew is able to win a war against an endless horde of cyborg Old Ones. + In Mass Effect: Andromeda, the concept of Paragon vs. Renegade personality changes is abandoned. Now, Ryder is free to be a little of both. He/She is depicted in cutscenes as friendly, charming, humorous, dorky (especially during romance-related portions of the game), and generally a good guy/girl. At the same time, however, many missions require the killing of other humans and intelligent aliens, or standing by as someone else does it, and rarely does Ryder or any of the team show any remorse - even when encountering people expressing grief over the people they've killed. I Did What I Had to Do is the overriding mantra. + Zaeed's Loyalty Mission in 2 is quite possibly Paragon Shepard's defining moment. Zaeed, out of anger and bitterness, intentionally starts a fire in a refinery full of innocent civilians in order to catch Vito faster. The Paragon response is to deck him, and make it clear that if he ever pulls a stunt like this again, Shepard will not tolerate it. If you do Zaeed's loyalty mission after the Suicide Mission, \|\|Paragon Shepard can prove they weren't bluffing by leaving him to die in the fire he started\|\|. * Mortal Kombat 1: Lord Liu Kang is a loving and benevolent God of Good who strives for a universe filled with peace and happiness, and he will not hesitate to turn anyone who threatens it into Ludicrous Gibs. Best demonstrated in the game's announcement trailer: > "You have chosen to defy peace. Then you have chosen war with a god!" > > — Liu Kang, seconds before ripping Shang Tsung in half. > > * Every heroic character in the franchise counts as this, as they all avert Thou Shalt Not Kill hard. They will defend Earth and/or their loved ones from evil, and have no qualms about ripping off heads and more. * The Legend of Zelda CD-i Games: In Zelda:The Wand of Gamelon, where Zelda goes to save Link, Zelda justifies killing Hektan when he calls her out for it with a simple "Good.", given how evil he was. * Wolfenstein: The New Order: As part of it's soft reboot nature, the game characterizes B.J. Blazkowicz as this. He butchers his way through small armies of Nazis in full Ax-Crazy fashion, but he does so because he utterly despises their bigoted views and won't accept anyone suffering under them. * Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. She might be a hero working to save the world, and generally a nice and compassionate person (with somewhat deficient social skills due to being raised as an outcast) but she is also a Nora brave who will end anyone and anything threatening this mission, be they human or machine. If anything, she shows more compassion to the machines she has to kill because she knows that they are only following their programming, while the assorted cultists and bandits opposing her had a choice. ---	GoodIsNotSoft	null
VideoGames	# The Bus Came Back - Video Games * After a massive Time Skip in Ace Attorney series with a game that replaces almost all the old characters with new ones, \|\|Miles Edgeworth and Pearl Fey\|\| unexpectedly show up in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies for the finale. + Happens fairly frequently in the Investigations series as well, with minor supporting characters \|\|such as Missile, Frank Sahwit, Penny Nichols, Will Powers, and Lotta Hart\|\| reappearing since their appearances in the original trilogy. + Maya Fey finally returns in Spirit of Justice after being absent since Trials & Tribulations. And we mean ACTUALLY returns, not just appearing in a crossover. To a lesser extant, Ema Skye returns as well after skipping Dual Destinies. Larry Butz also returns in the game's DLC episode, "Turnabout Time Traveler". * Animal Crossing has done this since Animal Crossing: City Folk. Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer also brought back Louie, Maddie, Claude, and Carrie◊, all of whom previously only appearing in the very first game of the series. Carrie in particular shows up on the seventh day, with a special request for a children's playroom. The rest can only be found in distributions through Nintendo Zones and Spotpass, all with special requests — Louie with a 30th anniversary celebration of Super Mario Bros., Claude with a video game exhibit, and Maddie with special school supplies. There are even more villagers absent since the first game (Plus 2 from the Japan-exclusive update) found in the data, but they haven't been released yet. + These characters plus 46 others (making it 50 in total) were all brought back for the Welcome amiibo update for New Leaf. Unlike other villagers who can appear in the campsite, these villages will camp in the new RV campground when invited via special amiibo cards. All these characters first appeared in the updated version of the first Animal Crossing game and had not been seen since. + The 2.0. update for New Horizons brought back four villagers that only showed up in the original GameCube game, with these being Faith, Ace, Zoe, and Rio, and other four villagers that only appeared in the Japan exclusive Dobustu no Mori e+, these being Shanpan, Nobuo, Petunia, and Pironkon (receiving the localized names of Frett, Chabwick, Azalea, and Roswell respectively). * Scarecrow in the Batman: Arkham Series was one of the highlights of Batman: Arkham Asylum, and then strangely sat out the next two games. He more than made up for his absence when he finally returned as the Big Bad in Batman: Arkham Knight. * Crash Bandicoot: + When Crash: On the Run! soft-launched in 2020, it had three boss villains: Doctor N. Brio, Dingodile, and Scorporilla. While the former two are major recurring villains, the latter is a Titan who was not seen since Crash: Mind Over Mutant back in 2008, 12 years prior. The game then revealed the return of two more villains- the Elementals, previously seen in Wrath of Cortex, and the ghost Mr. Crumb, seen in the Tiger Electronic game Crash 99X. + Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled brought back quite a huge amount of characters of the Crash Bandicoot franchise. - In the base game, you have all the characters introduced in both the console and handheld versions of Crash Nitro Kart, those being Crunch Bandicoot, Geary, Velo(Specifically his Real Velo form — his appearance as Emperor Velo wasn't part of the game until the Gasmoxia Grand Prix), N. Trance, Krunk, Small Norm, Big Norm, Zem and Zam. All of them, with the exception of Crunch who was last present in Crash: Mind Over Mutant released in 2008 (11 years), haven't been seen since 2003. (16 years) - The anouncers from Crash Tag Team Racing, Chick and Stew, haven't been seen since 2005 (14 years). Not only they were brought back to announce each month's Grand Prix, but they were later Promoted to Playable. - The Nitro Tour Grand Prix, the very first Grand Prix of the game, brought back Tawna Bandicoot, who without counting the N. Sane Trilogy remake hasn't appeared in a game since Crash Boom Bang! in 2006 (13 years) - Alongside Tawna, the Trophy Girls from the original Crash Team Racing (Ami, Megumi, Liz and Isabella) also made their comeback and the five of them team up as one racing team known as The Nitro Squad. For your information, the original Crash Team Racing was released in 1999 (no more and no less than 20 years before Nitro-Fueled was released). - Baby T, whose last appearance, unless you count the N. Sane Trilogy remake, was in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped released in 1998 (21 years) was added to the game's roster during the Back N. Time Grand Prix. - The characters added in the Spooky Grand Prix are also worth talking about. Both Nina Cortex and Dr. N. Brio's last appearances were in 2008 in Crash: Mind Over Mutant (11 years). Komodo Moe on the other hand, hasn't been seen since Crash Bash back in 2000 (19 years ago) unless you count the N. Sane Trilogy remake of course. - Moving on to the Neon Circus Grand Prix, we have both Pasadena O'Possum and Ebenezer Von Clutch from Crash Tag Team Racing, marking the first time they have both appeared in a game since 2005 (14 years). Regarding Koala Kong, without counting the remakes his last appearance was a cameo in Crash Twinsanity back in 2004 (15 years). - In the Winter Festival Grand Prix, we have Rilla Roo, whose last appearance was 19 years ago back in 2000 with Crash Bash and Yaya Panda from the obscure mobile game Crash Nitro Kart 2 released in 2010 (9 years). - The Rustland Grand Prix, which is also the first Grand Prix of 2020, marked the return of Megamix, who had its first and last appearance (until the Grand Prix that is) in Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure released in 2002 (18 years ago). * Donkey Kong: + Dixie Kong joins Donkey and Diddy on their quest in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, making her first main game appearance since Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! 18 years prior. + \|\|King K. Rool appears as the Final Boss of Donkey Kong Bananza, 18 years since the previous time he appeared in a Donkey Kong title, 26 years if you only consider the last true platforming installment he was in.\|\| * Fallout: + Fallout: New Vegas sees the return of the New California Republic, stronger and bigger since the audience last saw them in Fallout 2. Doctor Henry, the Enclave scientist has gotten older but is no less of a Mad Scientist pushing the envelope as he was while working at Navarro. Marcus seems to have not changed very much, only moved locations from an old mining town in California to an old ski resort in Nevada, but he's still the hulking Gentle Giant he was in Fallout 2. + Fallout 4 has \|\|Dr. Madison Li from Fallout 3 show up as a key figure in the Institute's high-rankers\|\|. Mayor MacCready pops up, a grown man, former mercenary, and still a crack shot as a potential companion. Siding with the Brotherhood of Steel also sees the return of \|\|LIBERTY MOTHERFUCKING PRIME, REPAIRED AND READY TO DESTROY ANY AND ALL RED CHINESE COMMUNISTS\|\|. The Nuka World add-on understandably attracts the appearance of \|\|kooky Nuka-Cola fangirl Sierra Petrovita\|\|. \|\|The Hubologists\|\| also show up. * Final Fantasy XIV introduces the character \|\|G'raha Tia\|\| during a line of sidequests in A Realm Reborn. At the conclusion of the questline, \|\|he seals himself away for a seemingly indefinite amount of time. After being absent for the entirety of Heavensward and all of Stormblood save the very end, he is promoted to one of the main characters in Shadowbringers\|\|. * Halo Wars left the crew of the Spirit of Fire drifting in space with no FTL drive. It wasn't until eight real-life years later that they finally appeared again in Halo Wars 2, which reveals that they've been drifting for twenty-eight years and have somehow found themselves outside of the galaxy. * Ice Age: + Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Carl and Frank from the first film appear early in the game as something of a mini-boss. + Ice Age Scrats Nutty Adventure: Carl, Frank, Cretaceous, and Maelstrom appear in the game as bosses. While Rudy isn't a boss, he briefly appears near the end of the game. * The King of Fighters: + Eiji Kisaragi, a ninja from the Art of Fighting series, would appear in '95. Then he dropped out of the series until he reappeared in XI, nearly 10 games after his debut. + Geese Howard made his KOF debut in '96, then later in XI as a secret character in the home version and then in XIV, as a canonical, fully playable role again. His original team member Mr. Big also was a secret character in XI, thus fitting this trope. + Chizuru Kagura returned in 2003 after last being playable in '98. Her last canon appearance was in '97, 6 games before. + The dream matches ('98, 2002 and XII) tend to do this. We have the American Sports Team ('94, then '98); Heidern, Takuma Sakazaki and Saisyu Kusanagi (previously in '95); the New Faces Team ('97, '98 and then 2002); the '97 Special Team ('97, '98 and then 2002); Mature and Vice ('96, '98, 2002 and canon returns in XIII and XIV) and Rugal Bernstein ('94, '95, '98 and then 2002) - Of the '97 Special Team, Yamazaki and Billy would return in 2003. Then Billy reappeared as a secret character in the home versions of XIII and is now fully playable in XIV. Yamazaki returns a DLC character for XIV, bringing him back from 2003. - Heidern canonically participated in 2001, after his previous canon role in '95. - Takuma reappeared through the NESTS saga ('99-2002). Then he would participate again in XIII. + Kasumi Todoh also goes in and out frequently. Debuted in '96, returned for '99, 2000 and then XI. + Jhun Hoon debuted in '99, participates in 2000 and then would only return in 2003. + Ramon is now playable in XIV, after his last appearance in XI. His now teammate Angel was last seen in 2002 with her last canonical appearance being her debut in 2001. + Andy Bogard came back in XII after his last time in 2002. Canonically, he went from 2001 to XIII. + Chang Koehan and Choi Bounge return in XIV. Chang was previously in 2003 and Choi in 2002. Canonically, Choi comes back from 2001. + Whip is now a DLC character in XIV, being her first appearance since XI. + Tung Fu Rue plays with this trope. He debuted in XI as secret character and reappears in XIV, making that his canon debut. + Although it is through the Paper-Thin Disguise of Krohnen, none other than K9999 makes his grand return in XV, having not been seen since 2002. What makes it even more surprising was that he was widely presumed to have been Exiled from Continuity over his heavy resemblance to AKIRA's Tetsuo Shima. + Shingo Yabuki was sidelined after XI thanks to being almost killed by a feral Iori, but returned as a DLC character in XV. + Hinako Shijo also returns in XV's DLC lineup, after not having been playable since 2003. * Many newer Kirby games have had a habit of bringing back old characters that were either one-offs or abandoned as the series evolved: + After her initial appearance in the very first game, Kabula became relegated to spin-off appearances before being dropped from the franchise. That is, until the remake of Kirby Super Star, when she was reintroduced in Revenge of the King and has made more appearances since then. + Blocky, a mini-boss from Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3, finally reappeared in Kirby: Triple Deluxe with an updated design. Recurring Boss Kracko also reappeared in the same game after being mysteriously absent from Kirby's Return to Dream Land, and \|\|Dark Meta Knight from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror appears as a secret boss and is hinted to have a large role in the backstory\|\|. + \|\|Masked Dedede\|\| makes a return in Kirby: Triple Deluxe as a boss and he brings his theme tune back with him! + The Kirby Fighters sub-game from Kirby: Triple Deluxe brought back Lololo and Lalala, Rick, Coo, Kine, the factory robots from Kirby 64, and Ghost Kirby. + The sub-games of Kirby Mass Attack bring back a lot of previous one-off villains as final bosses, including Nightmare, Dark Matter, and Marx. + Kirby: Planet Robobot either brings back tons of characters or at least gives them a major nod, some who have never been seen in a platformer for decades: - After not making a platforming appearance since Kirby Super Star, the Meta-Knights (Axe Knight, Mace Knight, Trident Knight, and Javelin Knight) reappear as part of Meta Knight's special move, officially called Meta Knightmares. - The second boss, Holo Defense API, sends out a copy of the Ice Dragon from Kirby's Dream Land 2. - Kabula, after only cameoing since Super Star Ultra, is back as a special boss in Gigabyte Grounds. - \|\|Star Dream, the Final Boss, is a clockwork star like Nova from Super Star, and its Soul form recolors it to look just like Nova\|\|. - Two of the three final bosses for Meta Knight are \|\|Dark Matter from Dream Land 2 and Galacta Knight from Super Star Ultra and Return to Dream Land\|\|. - The last two battles of Team Kirby Clash are against Landia from Kirby's Return to Dream Land and their EX form. + Team Kirby Clash Deluxe features \|\|a fusion of Shadow Dedede from Triple Deluxe and Dark Mind from Amazing Mirror\|\| as its Final Boss. + Kirby Star Allies brings back a whole host of enemy/helper characters not seen in years, among them Plugg's first appearance since his debut in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards from 2000; Bio Spark, Gim, Burning Leo, whose last appearances were in Kirby Super Star Ultra back in 2008; Marx, who was last seen as a pinball boss in 2011's Kirby Mass Attack, Nago, Chuchu, and Pitch, who last appeared as cameos in Kirby 64; Pon and Con, a throwaway Dual Boss from Kirby's Dream Land 3 who previously held the distinction of being the only boss character(s) from that game to not reappear in any other installment; Gooey, whose only prior appearances are Kirby's Dream Land 2 (in an bit role) and 3 (as the co-op character), an extremely obscure friend of Kirby's thought long forgotten; Adeleine and Ribbon, supporting characters in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards who have not appeared since; Dark Meta Knight, a major antagonist in both Kirby & The Amazing Mirror and Kirby: Triple Deluxe; and Daroach and the other Squeaks, who were major antagonists in Kirby: Squeak Squad and minor characters in Kirby Mass Attack. + Super Kirby Clash brings back Nightmare of all enemies with a variation of his boss moveset from Kirby's Adventure. Sure, it's an alternate universe version called Parallel Nightmare, but it's still the same general design, attacks, and even uses the voice actor from the Hoshi no Kaabii japanese anime dub. * The lore for the champions Kassadin and Malzahar in League of Legends involves Malzahar sending Kassadin's daughter to the void. As of 2018, she's grown up and is a champion in her own right- Kai'Sa, the Daughter of the Void. * The Legend of Zelda: + Hyrule Warriors, a Hack and Slash Spin-Off, features the return of several characters and enemies by nature of it being an Intra-Franchise Crossover. The original Wii U release, sans DLC, included Sheik, Darunia, Ruto, Midna, and even Agitha as playable characters. + The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild marks the return of both the Rito and Korok races, who hadn't been seen since 2003's The Wind Waker. This game also brings back the Gerudo, who hadn't been seen since 2004's Four Swords Adventures, barring the various appearances of Ganon(dorf). + Cadence of Hyrule, a Spin-Off roguelike entry, brings back enemies that hadn't been seen in decades: these being Dairas, Toppos, Iron Knuckles, Wolfos, Shrouded Stalfos, boomerang-throwing Goriyas, Zols, Armos Knights (as a boss fight), Puffstools, Kargaroks, Darknuts (using their "Toon" designs last seen in The Minish Cap), Gels, the boss Gleeok, Baris, Peahats, Pengators, and enemy Zoras. * Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem brings back many forgotten Looney Tunes characters that hasn't made any appearances in several decades, such as Giovanni Jones, Casper Caveman, Michigan J. Frog and Melissa Duck. * Love & Pies: On Day 12, Joe leaves for the two-day baker's retreat, but comes back the following day earlier than expected because he didn't like it. \|\|The trope gets double-subverted because while it was actually his twin brother Sam masquerading as him, the real Joe returns as scheduled, just in time to see Sam about to kiss the former's Love Interest, Amelia.\|\| * In Melody, \|\|the High School Sweetheart Ending pairs the protagonist with Isabella, who hasn't been in the story since Week 5.\|\| * Metroid: Other M brought back Adam, \|\|Nightmare, the Metroid Queen, Mother Brain (to an extent), and Phantoon.\|\| * Monster Hunter. Due to the series' enormous bestiary, some monsters are omitted in one or more installments in a row, but are eventually brought back: + Monster Hunter Freedom Unite: After having debuted in Monster Hunter 2 (dos) but not appearing in the original Freedom 2, Yama Tsukami makes a return in the expansion, being now one of the Urgent Quest monsters in G Rank. + Monster Hunter Portable 3rd: Anteka, Bulldrome, Tigrex, Nargacuga, Gold Rathian, Silver Rathalos, Ukanlos and Akantor all return after being absent in Tri. Tigrex and Nargacuga even receive subspecies. The Palico class of Felynes returns from Freedom Unite as well. + Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate: - Plesioth and its subspecies, Green Plesioth return after their abscense following Freedom Unite. - Epioth, Fish, Gobul, Lagiacrus and Ceadeus all return as well after being absent in Portable 3rd due to the return of underwater combat. - The subspecies Azure Rathalos and Pink Rathian also return, being absent in Tri and Portable 3rd (despite the latter having their respective Rare Species). + Monster Hunter 4: - A lot of first and second generation monsters that sat out during the third generation come back, such as the Dromes (except Giadrome), Yian Kut-Ku, Gypceros, Gravios, Congalala, Kushala Daora, Teostra, etc. Along with their weapons and armor, of course. Also, one of the monsters that debuted in the third generation but had missed out the final installment (Brute Tigrex) also returns, thanks to the return of the standard Tigrex (and both are also accompained by a brand-new Rare Species, Molten Tigrex). - The Updated Re-release 4 Ultimate brings back the monsters Cephadrome, Daimyo Hermitaur and its Plum subspecies, Monoblos and its White subspecies, Diablos and its Black subspecies, Rusted Kushala Daora, Ukanlos, Chameleos, and White Fatalis. + Monster Hunter Generations: Being a Megamix Game, the game brings back a wide array of monsters from all previous games in the series, including monsters that hadn't been seen for a while until then (such as Shogun Ceanataur and Blangonga from the second generation of games, or Amatsu from the third). The Updated Re-release Generatons Ultimate brings more old monsters to the mix, including the first-generation Lao-Shan Lung (who hadn't appeared in a MonHun game in 9 years, namely since Freedom Unite). + Monster Hunter: World, released in 2018 worldwide, not only brings back Lunastra, who also had been absent since Freedom Unite while her mate Teostra would appear in all fourth-generation games, but also gives her a big dose of differentiation from Teostra to give her a reason to come back. + Monster Hunter: Rise: Two of the monsters added to the game via post-release updates are Chameleos (which was absent in World and Iceborne despite them featuring fellow second-generation Elder Dragons Teostra, Lunastra and Kushala Daora) and Valstrax (which had only appeared in Generations Ultimate until then). * MonsterVerse video game Kong: Survivor Instinct: Alan Jonah, who originally debuted in the MonsterVerse's Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). After being completely absent from the two movies and associated graphic novels which came after his debut, Jonah finally returns here in 2024, now leading a group of Titan black marketeers called the Hyenas, shortly after the events of Godzilla vs. Kong. * Ammon Jerro from Neverwinter Nights 2 joins you for one mission in the expansion Mask of the Betrayer. He is one of the only party member from the original game to appear in the expansion, with the other being Bishop. \|\|Although, considering how Bishop comes back...\|\| * Samanosuke Akechi, the Player Character from the first Onimusha game Warlords, was totally MIA from Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny, which featured a different lead character and an entirely new supporting cast. He made his triumphant return for Onimusha 3: Demon Siege as 1 of 2 Player Characters. Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams once again appears to lack his presence, but \|\|it's heavily implied, then fully revealed during the end credits, that the key supporting character Tenkai Nankobo is in fact a very old Samanosuke.\|\| * In Onmyōji's story mode, the bus that Ibaraki-dōji and Shuten-dōji are on (debut in ep. 10 and also appear in ep. 11) returns in ep. 17 (6 episodes later). The one Kappa and Koi-no-sei (appear once in ep. 7) are on returns in the same episode (10 episodes later), while the one Ame-onna and Jiki-gaeru (appear once in ep. 4) are on also comes back for this episode (13 episodes later). The longest bus trip belongs to Hōōka (appears once in ep. 3) which also comes back in this episode (14 episodes later). Episode 17 should have been titled The Returning Buses. Oguna and Dōjo are Put on a Bus after episode 12, their debut episode, and return very briefly in episode 21 (9 episodes later). * Due to the number of contractors available in PAYDAY 2, some of them could be considered 'on the bus'. So far, the two that have made it back off the bus are The Elephant (due to The Biker Heist) and The Butcher (due to the Scarface Mansion heist). * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth marks the triumphant return to the franchise of the female protagonist of Persona 3 Portable, who hadn't been seen since 2009. * Pokémon: + Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon has a special post-game event where not only does Team Rocket return, but also every villainous team leader (Giovanni, Maxie, Archie, Cyrus, Ghetsis, and Lysandre) from previous generations. + After having not appeared in the series since Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Shadow Pokémon make a return in Pokémon GO as part of the Team GO Rocket update. * Power Bomberman features playable appearances from a ton of characters from previous installments – regardless of how obscure they were, whether they'd been playable before or not, or how many years it's been since the last time they showed up. * Rayman series: + Rayman Origins marked the first time in over 15 years that several characters from the first game, such as Betilla, the Electoons, the Lividstones and the Stone Men had last appeared in the series after seemingly being retconned out in Rayman 2: The Great Escape, as well as Polokus/The Bubble Dreamer, whose last appearance in the series was in Rayman 2, 12 years earlier. + Mr Dark returned to the series in Rayman Mini in the game's 1.4.0 update after a 25 year long absence from the series after his last appearance in the Game Boy Color version of Rayman 1. * Quite common among the Resident Evil franchise for any characters not named Chris, Leon, Jill, Claire, Ada and Wesker: + Rebecca Chambers has been absent since the first game and her fate after Raccoon City is not revealed until the fifth game mentioning that she had escaped the city prior to its destruction. While she still appears in side games such as Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and non-canon Mercenaries mode, it is not until Resident Evil: Vendetta that she makes her first actual appearance in 20 years. + Like Rebecca, Barry Burton has been missing for almost 19 years before returning in Resident Evil: Revelations 2. Likewise, the game also marks the first time Claire is playable since Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (although she stars alongside Leon in the first CGI film). + Fans were quite surprised to learn that Sherry Birkin would be returning in Resident Evil 6, having taken a level or two in badass in her downtime. Prior to that, she was only mentioned being under the government's care and secretly monitored by Wesker. + Resident Evil: Death Island to the shock and joy of fans finally brings Jill Valentine back into the story. While she did appear in Resident Evil 3 (Remake) (reimagining of a 1999 game) three years prior, Jill actually hasn't been in a new RE title since 2012's Resident Evil: Revelations a whole decade and year ago. * Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell: Saints Row 2 villain Dane Vogel returns after his death in that game, as one of Hell's many residents. * Sam & Max: Freelance Police: + Bluster Blaster, who left to Vegas with Bosco between Beyond Time and Space and The Devil's Playhouse, returns in the fourth episode to deliver a note about how Bosco is stuck in Vegas paying off a debt. + And then Sybil comes back from her honeymoon one episode later. * Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse brings back many characters that haven't been seen in over a decade: + \|\|YHVH hasn't had a prominent role in a game since II. He finally returns as a Final Boss in this game\|\|. + \|\|The penultimate boss of the game is Satan, who also hasn't been seen in the main series since II\|\|. + \|\|En no Ozuno, an ally from I and II and a boss from if... appears as the strongest Fiend in the game\|\|. + \|\|The Hero, Aleph, and the Demi-fiend all appear in DLC as allies in an awesome Previous Player-Character Cameo. This is particularly notable in Aleph's case, as unlike the Hero or the Demi-fiend, he only ever appeared in his original game and its remakes\|\|. * Shrek Smash N'Crash Racing + Little Red from Shrek 2 is a playable racer. + Humpty Dumpty from Shrek SuperSlam is a playable racer. + After being absent from the Shrek 2 film and the previous games, Thelonious appears as a playable racer here. * SNK: + The majority of the cast from 1991's Fatal Fury: King of Fighters would make reoccurring appearances in later titles. These appearances vary between characters, such as the popularity of both Terry Bogard and Geese Howard allowing them to appear in numerous games since their debut, along with characters like Duck King and Tung Fu Rue who are sprinkled into a couple of games, enough that it's clear SNK hasn't forgotten about them. However, Hwa Jai was one of FFKOF's CPU-only characters and outside a few cameos in later games, he wouldn't make his first playable debut until 2010's The King of Fighters XIII. However, he's been Put on a Bus ever since. + The Last Blade series gives us Hibiki Takane, who debuted in the aforementioned series' second installment in 1998. She'd become playable again in 2000's The Last Blade - Beyond the Destiny (for the Neo Geo Pocket Color) and 2001's Capcom vs. SNK 2, the latter of which is one of her most well-known appearances. Since then, Hibiki would only make a number of cameos and wouldn't have a new playable appearance until 20 years later, where she was included as a DLC Guest Fighter in 2019's Samurai Shodown(Although said game was released in 2019, Hibiki became available through DLC on April 28, 2021). + 2025's Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is the long-awaited installment of the Fatal Fury series, being the sequel of 1999's Garou: Mark of the Wolves after 26 years. Thanks to Crossovers such as The King of Fighters series and 2005's NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, some characters that debuted in Garou had a number of playable appearances within that 26 year timeframe, such as Rock Howard, Hotaru Futaba, Tizoc, among others. However, CotW is the first time in awhile where Marco Rodrigues, Kevin Rian, Kim Dong Hwan, Kain R. Heinlein, and Hokutomaru were once again placed in the playable spotlight. * Sonic the Hedgehog: + The unexpected return of Espio, Charmy, and Vector in Sonic Heroes, having been previously featured in only one game that had come out almost a decade ago.(Although Espio had appeared in Sonic the Fighters in 1996 as well.) + Sonic Generations brought back most of the supporting cast (Big, Omega, Jet, and Chip have hidden trophies depicting them, but are otherwise still MIA) from the mid-2000's era, who had been absent from Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors(Except for the DS version) due to Sonic Team's attempts to shove them aside to appease those who didn't like the series' large cast. - Its Updated Re-release Sonic X Shadow Generations has Black Doom show up for the first time since Shadow the Hedgehog as the antagonist of the new Shadow campaign. - Also in Sonic X Shadow Generations, multiple types of Chao who have been absent from the games and supporting material appear as part of the new Chao Rescue mode, with Sonic's birthday party even including a few of them (specifically a normal Hero Chao, a normal Dark Chao, a neutral Chaos Chao, a neutral Fly-type Chao, a neutral Swim-type Chao, and a Dark Swim/Fly-type Chao). Most notably, among these Chao are the obscure Tails, Amy, and Knuckles Chao, which were only available in the Sonic Adventure games through limited-time promotions. + Sonic Runners saw the return of Tikal and Mephiles the Dark, the former having not made a physical appearance since Sonic Adventure 2's battle mode, and the latter having never reappeared since his debut game at all(Outside of a blink-and-you'll-miss it screenshot of him during the credits of Sonic Generations). Chaos, an orca whale, the Tornado 2, King Boom Boo, a Chao walker, a Gold Cameron, Erazor Djinn, Shahra, Caliburn, Merlina, King Arthur's Ghost, the Dark Queen, Chip, some Gaia minions, and the Mother Wisp all reappear as Buddy characters after a long absence from the series as well. + The Updated Re-release of Sonic Mania, Sonic Mania Plus brings back Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Mighty last appeared in Knuckles' Chaotix. Ray? All the way back in SegaSonic the Hedgehog. + Sonic Superstars features the return of Fang the Sniper, a character almost as obscure as Mighty and Ray, whose only appearances before disappearing were in Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic Drift 2, and Sonic the Fighters(though he put in a few small cameos in the meantime, most notably as one of Heavy Magician's disguises in Sonic Mania). + Shadow Generations: - Professor Gerald and Maria Robotnik make their first in-person appearances since Shadow the Hedgehog. - Several types of enemies make their first non-cameo appearances in years: Artificial Chaos (last appeared in Shadow the Hedgehog), Egg Flappers (last appeared in the 3DS version of Sonic Generations), Needle Flappers and Rhinoliners (last appeared in Sonic Heroes), Laser Flappers (last appeared in Sonic Rush), and Egg Gunners, Egg Guardians, Egg Flyers, and Egg Stingers (last appeared in Sonic '06). Many of these enemies appeared as card cameos in Sonic Rivals and its sequel, as well as Sega Superstars Tennis for the Gunners, but that still leaves a gap of 17 years. - The Biolizard's return as a boss marks its first appearance in any form since the 3DS version of Sonic Generations. - Metal Overlord, who has only made cameos in the games since his debut in Sonic Heroes, makes a surprise return as a boss fight against Shadow. While Metal Sonic is a consistently recurring threat, his Neo Metal Sonic form and Metal Madness/Overlord transformations were limited to Heroes. This also means Metal Sonic is voiced for the first time since Heroes, as he can only speak while in Neo Metal form. - Mephiles—who was erased from the main timeline thanks to Elise's actions in Sonic '06 and only appeared as non-canon cameos in games like Sonic Runners since then—returns as a boss. In addition, his Shadow minions make their first appearance since Sonic Forces: Speed Battle. - While they've been busy in side materials like the IDW comics and Sonic Prime (and they were briefly mentioned in Sonic Frontiers), this marks Orbot and Cubot's first appearance in the games since Sonic Forces. Notably, they were not present in the original Sonic Generations outside of a cameo. * Soul Series characters \|\|Sophitia\|\| and Taki make their return in Soulcalibur: Lost Swords. + Edge Master debuted in SC and would only appear again in V, being the only Ditto Fighter of the series to be playable in more than one game. + Hwang makes his return as the final Season 2 DLC character in VI, being mostly absent from the series since SC (not counting his not-so-canon appearance as an extra character in III). * In Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! game, Elora was an important character. She's missing for most of the third game due to plot reasons, but appears in a cutscene toward the end. However, she doesn't appear in any other games outside of the original trilogy, though the Spyro Reignited Trilogy brings her and everyone else back due to said games being remade. * Star Trek Online had two of its faction captains, Va'Kel Shon of the Enterprise-F and Koren of the Bortasqu', MIA throughout the entirety of the Delta Rising expansion and most of the "Iconian War" season, which worried players after the revelation of Cryptic becoming a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Thankfully, the "Iconian War" finale, "Midnight", brought the two back along with their voice actors. * It seems that one of the goals of Street Fighter V is to bring back as many characters from the Street Fighter lore as possible: + Nash (AKA Charlie), Birdie, R. Mika, and Karin haven't been seen in the series since Street Fighter Alpha 3, but all 4 have returned to the roster in SFV. + Alex and Urien have returned to the series as playable characters since Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Several SFIII characters who weren't in any version of SFIV show up as NPCs as well, such as Oro, Sean, and Gill. Later on as a part of Season 4 DLC, Gill became playable once more since his appearance in 3rd Strike. Oro will also return as an upcoming playable character for Season 5. + Season 2 DLC released 4 characters for the roster that were originally minor NPCs. Ed(the little boy seen in Balrog and Rose's Street Fighter IV endings and the former's Super SFIV ending, who is now a grown man) may have not been too surprising, but Kolin (AKA Helen, Gill's assistant) was very unexpected, mainly because she had such a minor role in the SFIII games. Abigail, the 5th boss of the original Final Fight, comes across as a throwaway character, yet here he is. And then, there's Zeku, Guy's former master as seen in the latter's Street Fighter Alpha 2 ending. Having been gone for so long, who would ever think he'd show up again? + To help promote SFV, Capcom developed the Shadaloo C.R.I. website. The Character Guides section for the Activity Reports page goes out of its way to release character bios for nearly every single character that has ever been seen in the series. This extends to characters from the original Street Fighter, Street Fighter EX, and of all games, Street Fighter 2010. Even the 2 guys from the original intro of Street Fighter II have bios! + The Season 4 DLC revealed a Final Fight character that no one ever thought would come back in any Capcom game, let alone a SF entry: Lucia, the heroine of Final Fight 3. + While some Rival Schools characters already appeared as NPCs, Akira was brought back as an actual playable character for Season 5, making this the first time in decades that her series had any direct relevance to Street Fighter. * The Super Mario Bros. franchise seems to love this trope. + Pauline, the damsel in distress in Mario and Donkey Kong's first game, Donkey Kong (1981), disappeared for a decade after 1984 NES game Pinball. She would show back up with a new look in Donkey Kong (1994) ten years later, before becoming MIA for another 12 years until Mario vs. Donkey Kong: March of the Minis in 2006, where she became a recurring character in those titles. However, she wouldn't appear in a mainline Super Mario game until Super Mario Odyssey in 2017 (after which she became a frequently appearing player character in various Mario spin-offs), and wouldn't return to the mainline Donkey Kong games until Donkey Kong Bananza in 2025. + Princess Daisy first appeared in 1989 in Super Mario Land for the Gameboy. She made an appearance as Luigi's caddy in NES Open Tournament Golf in 1991, and then disappeared for 9 years until Mario Tennis in 2000. Also, she returned to the main Mario series in Super Mario Run in the December 2017 update. + Super Mario Galaxy was this for Urchin and Torpedo Ted. + New Super Mario Bros. Wii was this for the Koopalings, and they are now the main bosses of the New Super Mario Bros. series. Before that, they had returned in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, though that was a spin-off game. + Super Mario 3D Land was this for Boom Boom. + New Super Mario Bros. 2 was this for Reznor. + New Super Mario Bros. U was this for Sumo Bro and Bony Beetle (though the latter appeared in Paper Mario: Sticker Star, released around the same time). + Mario & Luigi: Dream Team sees the return of Popple as well as Beanish and Hoohooligan civilians, who hadn't been seen in a Mario & Luigi game since Superstar Saga. + Super Mario 3D World brings back the Chargin' Chucks from Super Mario World after about 20 years of them not being in new Mario games. Also, the round Goombas from the same game returns alongside the traditional ones(albeit, renamed to the Galoombas to distinguish the former from the latter), complete with behaving the same as other Goombas, but being flipped over instead of defeated when they're jumped on (as in their original game). + Super Mario Run brought back Ninjis as enemies, who hadn't appeared in this capacity since Super Mario World as well. The game also brought back Fishing Boo, who'd last appeared in a major Mario platformer back in Super Mario World (and whose previous appearance was in Super Princess Peach). + Super Mario Odyssey brings back Klepto and Dorrie, neither of whom had appeared in a Mario platformer since Super Mario 64 (and its remake) and New Super Mario Bros. respectively. + Dr. Mario World featured plenty of regular enemies (And King Bob-Omb) as Assistants at launch. One of these enemies was Crowber, who hadn't been in a Mario game since New Super Mario Bros. 2 seven years prior. As a Dr. Mario title, an update of World also brought back Wario who was last playable in Dr. Mario 64, with his Dr Wario outfit from WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! getting a new design. Then it brought the forgotten about Baby Wario back, previously a Yoshi's Island DS-exclusive character (for those keeping track, that's 14 years prior!). + Super Mario Maker is chock-full of these. - The famous Goomba's Shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3, an absence of 25 years. - Several references to Mario Paint, including the Undodog, Mr. Eraser, Robot, and even the Gnat Attack minigame. + Super Mario Maker 2 brings back the Superball Flower and the Superball ability after 30 whole years. + Mario Party Superstars: Birdo returns to the Mario Party series as a playable character for the first time since Mario Party 9. * Super Robot Wars: + Super Robot Wars BX brought back Martian Successor Nadesico and GaoGaiGar after both had a 8 year absence since W. + Super Robot Wars V brings back Crossbone Gundam after a 13-year absence since Alpha 2. Oh, and it brings back Gundam ZZ and Nadesico: Prince of Darkness as well. Even further, this game marks the first time that both the Huckebein and the Grungust are featured in a licensed SRW game since Alpha 1. + Super Robot Wars X brings back Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack: Beltorchika's Children (crediting the series for the first time), Gundam F91, and the original Mazinkaiser after they were last featured in the Alpha saga. It also marks the return of Aura Battler Dunbine, not only from BX but also back to a console SRW since SRW 64. + Super Robot Wars T brings back GaoGaiGar from BX, GUN×SWORD from K (for its second playable appearance), and Mobile Fighter G Gundam from OE. + Super Robot Wars 30 marks the return of Heavy Metal L-Gaim and Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, which had not been featured since OE and D respectively. It also marks the return of the original RX-78-2 Gundam as a playable unit, as previous installments had focused on Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack and thus only gave Amuro the Nu Gundam. In addition, with the debut of King of Kings: GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman, the game marks the return of the Betterman cast to a mainline SRW since Compact 3 in 2003 for their second playable appearance. + When the franchise began pushing towards releasing outside of Japan starting in 2015, this forced the omission of the Macross franchise due to the infamous legal battle concerning the franchise's international rights that was still in contention at the time. The Macross franchise would not return to mainline SRW until 2025 (four years after the resolution of said legal battle which finally allowed the Macross franchise to be released internationally) with the release of Super Robot Wars Y, which features the mainline debut of Macross Delta (whose entire run - TV series, movie duology, and concert tour - SRW had to skip over due to the legal battle outside of being featured in the mobile Spin-Off X-Ω). - Y also marks the returns of The Big O, Mazinkaiser vs. the Great General of Darkness, Braiger, the original Kotetsu Jeeg, and Raideen, returning from Z3, L, Alpha 3, and Compact 2 respectively (absences of 10, 15, 15, 20, and 25 years respectively). * Super Smash Bros.: + Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U brought back Dr. Mario, who appeared in Melee but was cut from Brawl. Joining him in this regard are fellow Melee veterans Mewtwo and Roy, though they are only availiable as Downloadable Content. Roy's return in particular is shocking after being considered all but permanently gone from the cast. + Lucas, a veteran from Brawl, also rejoined the series as DLC after being cut from 3DS/Wii U's main roster. + Super Smash Bros. Ultimate advertised itself with the words "Everyone is Here!" by bringing back every character from previous installments. This includes Pichu and Young Link (haven't appeared since Melee) as well as the Ice Climbers, the Pokémon Trainer (along with Squirtle and Ivysaur), Wolf, and Snake (haven't appeared since Brawl). This trope is even lampshaded with these characters as Wolf's Classic Mode simply has you fight every one of these returners as Wolf, and the Route's title is even called "Reunited Roster". + Ultimate also introduces King K. Rool as a playable fighter: his first non-cameo appearance in any game since Mario Super Sluggers over a decade ago. As well, one of the DLC fighters are Banjo and Kazooie, who haven't appeared on a Nintendo platform since Banjo-Pilot in 2005, and marking their first physical appearence since the Xbox 360 version of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. * Tekken: + Tekken 4 sees the return of Kazuya Mishima and Lee Chaolan, who are absent in Tekken 3. Kazuya's return is especially a surprise, since 3 establishes that he is dead, having been thrown into a volcano by Heihachi. Also, while there is a Law character in 3, it's Forest Law, not his father, Marshall Law, who makes his return in 4 (while Forest just sort of disappears from the plot afterward). + Tekken 5 brings back characters missing in 4, including Anna Williams, Baek Doo San, Bruce Irvin, Ganryu, Mokujin, and Wang Jinrei, while Ogre returns as a non-playable boss in Devil Within. Other absent characters return in spirit; there is Jack-5 (the robots' fifth iteration), Jun Kazama's fighting style is inherited by her relative Asuka Kazama, and Roger's wife and son take over his stint as fighter. Even Jin Kazama's old fighting style makes a return; since Jin is effectively a new character in 4, the old one is instead repurposed by Devil Jin. The Dark Resurrection update adds Armor King, though the following game reveals that he is actually the original's younger brother. + Tekken 8 is notable for bringing back Jun Kazama, who hasn't been seen in the main games for nearly thirty years (the last one was her debut game, Tekken 2). Azazel and Raven also return after having been absent in Tekken 7. * World of Warcraft: + Alleria Windrunner and Turalyon were announced to be returning in the Legion expansion. This is one of the more egregious examples, as their last appearance was Warcraft II: Beyond The Dark Portal, which came out in 1996. Nineteen years, and the only Word of God on them was that they were still alive. To say the fans were pleased by this would be an understatement. - Even when Legion launched the duo still did not appear immediately. They only returned a year after the expansion launched, resulting in a total of twenty-one years between their appearances. + Koltira Deathweaver, the Horde's most prominent Death Knight, was imprisoned during a low level quest chain in the Cataclysm expansion. He was not seen for another three expansions and six years until Death Knights freed him as part of their campaign. + Neptulon was kidnapped by the naga early in the Cataclysm expansion and the raid following up on this was cancelled. As a result his fate was unknown for six years when Legion revealed he freed himself and went back to business as usual. + The kingdom of Kul Tiras, last seen in the "Founding of Durotar" campaign in WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne was almost completely absent from World of Warcraft since day one; the only hints of their presence came from an outpost in Durotar and a few of Theramore's guards, before Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria respectively wiped those remnants out. Finally, Battle for Azeroth further examined Kul Tiras' absence and isolation during that time: After their Lord Admiral Daelin was defeated at Theramore (largely because Jaina refused to aid him against the Horde), and the rest of the Alliance refused to pursue revenge against either Jaina or the Horde for Daelin's death, Kul Tiras left the Alliance. + The Dragonflight expansion continues the tradition by bringing the black dragon Sabellian - who hadn't been seen since Burning Crusade fifteen real-world years previously - back to centre stage. A few other characters who hadn't been seen for a few expansions also reappeared, such as Senegos and his brood from Legion, but Sabellian is definitely the stand-out for length of absence. * The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: The third and final entry in the trilogy sees a lot of characters from the first game and the books make an appearance after their conspicuous absence from Assassin of Kings, including Ciri, Yennefer, Lambert, Eskel, Vesimir, Keira, Emperor Emhyr and Dijkstra. The Hearts of Stone expansion also sees Love Interest Shani making a comeback. ---	TheBusCameBack	null
Film	# Channel Hop - Film * COVID-19 Pandemic Related Examples Production Company examples =========================== * A huge example: every Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film made before 1986 is now owned by Warner Bros. because Turner Entertainment purchased MGM that year and immediately sold it, while keeping its film library. Time Warner's purchase of Turner in 1996 resulted in the films ending up with Warner, where they remain today. + The pre-1948 Warner Bros. library (which included all of the features and the color short subjects) had been sold (through Associated Artists Productions) to United Artists in 1958, and then to MGM in 1981 following their merger with UA. It was also included in Turner's purchase of the MGM library, and returned to Warner in 1996. + Warner Bros. also acquired the rights to the Popeye theatrical shorts, originally distributed by Paramount, as per the deal above. Unlike the WB shorts, however, all Paramount references were removed at the film studio's insistence. When it finally came time to start releasing the shorts to DVD (they never had a VHS release thanks to legal wranglings between MGM/Turner/WB and King Features Syndicate), animation historian Jerry Beck insisted the original Paramount logos be restored, even though they had nothing to do with the DVD release. So WB and Paramount made a deal which allowed this to happen, as well as let Paramount use the WB logo for John Wayne films they acquired that were originally WB's. + Warner's black-and-white shorts (which included a large chunk of the Looney Tunes library) made their way back to WB via another, particularly long route. WB sold the TV rights to this library to syndicator Guild Films in the 1950s; Guild went bankrupt in 1961, and Eliot Hyman's Seven Arts Productions bought the company at auction. This is the same Seven Arts that would later buy WB itself in 1967. Once they did, the combined Warner Bros.-Seven Arts promptly had the B&W Looney Tunes poorly redrawn in color for syndication. + United Artists also purchased the distribution rights to the entire RKO Pictures library, which also ended up in the Turner deal, and now belongs to Warner, at least in North America (various entities distribute much of the RKO library overseas, and they're all in the Public Domain in Japan). Exceptions include It's a Wonderful Life, which is owned by Paramount because it was produced by Liberty Films(Paramount bought Liberty from Frank Capra originally, then sold its library to a precursor of National Telefilm Associates, which became Republic Pictures in 1985 and was brought back into the fold when Viacom merged with Blockbuster Video and Spelling Entertainment in 1994. That sale is also why It's a Wonderful Life isn't with Universal.) and RKO was only the distributor. Howard Hughes also retained the rights to two films he was personally involved in as head of RKO, The Conqueror and Jet Pilot; those two ended up at Universal. Several other RKO films were acquired by other studios when they purchased the remake rights; the 1933 version of Little Women was bought by David O. Selznick (who previously worked at RKO) and later MGM, and is now owned outright by Warner. + The 1931 version of ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' was purchased by MGM from Paramount; MGM then recalled every print they could find in order to avoid competition with their upcoming 1941 remake. They are now both owned by Warner Bros., and are sometimes packaged together. + The 1936 version of Show Boat was likewise purchased by MGM from Universal, who recalled that film's prints in anticipation of their 1951 remake. Warner Bros. therefore owns both of the films. + The only UA-produced asset Turner kept was Gilligan's Island and its spinoffs, shared with the estate of Phil Silvers and distributed today by WB's television unit. This probably had something to do with the show being a staple of Turner's Superstation WTBS and a major money spinner in syndicated reruns, so Turner had a lot of incentive to keep it. * Similarly, almost every feature film from Paramount made between 1929 and 1949 now belongs to Universal. Paramount saw little value in its film library, and in 1958 sold these films to MCA, who planned on licensing them for television broadcast. MCA merged with Universal in 1962. * Perhaps because of their severe lack of back catalog (aside from UA's own stuff), MGM spent much of the 1990s (following the Giancarlo Parretti fiasco that saw a merger with The Cannon Group) buying up other companies and/or film libraries. This included Orion Pictures (whose pre-1982 films are still with Warner Bros.) and some of their predecessor companies (namely Filmways and American International Pictures), The Samuel Goldwyn Company, and the pre-1996 library of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (post-1996 films are still with Universal), which in turn included the Epic library, a hodge-podge of film libraries taken from clients of the French bank Credit Lyonnais (who had been involved in the aforementioned Parretti mess) including films from Hemdale, Nelson (including pre-1994 Castle Rock Entertainment films and video rights to the Embassy Pictures catalog), Atlantic Releasing, Sherwood Productions/Gladden Entertainment and others. * George A. Romero and John A. Russo's Living Dead Series, in part due to their unwillingness to trim gore and violence from the films. + The original Night of the Living Dead (1968) was released independently by the Walter Reade Organization, but because they accidentally forgot to put a copyright notice on the film prints (as per US copyright law at the time), the film immediately entered the public domain, and Romero refused to ever work with them again. It has been released to home video by a number of different studios, but "officially" from Anchor Bay, Elite Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox (in a colorized edition), Dimension Films, and The Criterion Collection. + Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) was released by United Film Distribution Company, but the film itself remains the property of producer Richard P. Rubinstein's New Amsterdam Entertainment, and has been licensed to various home video companies over the years. It was last released to DVD and Blu-ray from Anchor Bay, but remains out-of-print in the US because Rubinstein funded a million-dollar 3D conversion, and nobody can afford the film's asking price. Second Sight Entertainment is releasing it on 4K UHD and Blu-ray in the UK (where it was previously released by Arrow Video). Day of the Dead (1985) was also originally released to theaters by United, but they kept the rights, and it's now owned by successor Blairwood Entertainment (formerly Taurus Ent). Both Anchor Bay and Scream Factory have released the film to DVD/Blu-ray. + Tom Savini's remake of Night of the Living Dead (1990) was released by Columbia Pictures, and is now owned by Sony. It had a rare (but controversial) US Blu-ray from Twilight Time (a region-free Australian disc from Umbrella Entertainment was more easily available) before Sony released it themselves. Zack Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004) was Universal (with a Blu-ray from Scream Factory), and Steve Miner's remake of Day of the Dead (2008) was First Look Studios (later Alchemy). + Romero's recent films in the series have gone from Universal (Land of the Dead), Dimension/Weinstein (Diary of the Dead), and Entertainment One/Magnolia Pictures (Survival of the Dead). Land also has a Blu-ray from Scream Factory. + The Return of the Living Dead films from Russo have this too. The first film was funded by Hemdale, and released by Orion Pictures. It's now owned by MGM (home video formerly by Fox, now by Warner), and has a Blu-ray from Scream Factory. The second film was Lorimar, and now owned by Warner Bros, who also licensed the film to Scream Factory for a Blu-ray. The third film was Trimark, but now owned by Lionsgate, who released it to Blu-ray as a part of their newly revived Vestron Video label. Two recent sequels premiered directly on the SyFy Channel (DVD from Lionsgate). * The Chronicles of Narnia started out being produced by Walden Media and released by Walt Disney Pictures. After the second film underperformed, Walden jumped ship to 20th Century Fox for the third film, (Disney would later gain ownership of the third film after their acquisition of 21st Century Fox). After that underperformed, Walden chose not to renew their contract with C.S. Lewis' estate, and production on a fourth film fell into Development Hell. After this did not materialize, Netflix ultimately acquired the rights to the franchise through C.S. Lewis' estate. * Chronic with the Terminator films. Every. single. movie. Actual distribution is even worse. First one: Orion theatrically, currently MGM; Second: TriStar Pictures theatrically and some video releases, currently StudioCanal(who purchased the library of production company Carolco Pictures); Third/Fourth: Warner domestically, Sony overseas; Fifth: Paramount; Sixth: Paramount domestically, Disney/Fox overseas. + To elaborate why: The first was made by Hemdale Film Corporation, who ended up going under(Their library passed into the hands of Consortium dé Realisation, a French state entity that existed to bail out the Crédit Lyonnais bank, who'd gotten wrapped up in financing a bunch of B-list Hollywood studios like Hemdale, then this library was sold to PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, then the pre-1996 PolyGram library was sold to MGM), and the rights were eventually bought by Mario Kassar, who ran Carolco Pictures, which later went bankrupt (destroying chances of James Cameron's Terminator 3 and Spider-Man 1) and had their film library bought by StudioCanal, who sold the rights to C2 Pictures (also ran by Kassar and his partner Andrew G. Vajna) and Intermedia, and the possibility of any more Terminator sequels became the subject of a legal deadlock (thanks to a feud between Kassar and Vajna), eventually culminating in the rights going to The Halcyon Company. Who sold the rights after going bankrupt. - Interestingly, Hemdale was the only production company among them to hang around long enough to see the sequel to its movie premiere in theatres; in fact, Hemdale was still around for a few more years after Terminator 2: Judgment Day (and Bruno Mattei's own unofficial sequel with a similar name, released in the United States under the name Shocking Dark due to trademark issues) was released. + Hannover House, a company formed by a former Hemdale employee, even tried to make a new animated movie, but was blocked by Pacificor, the hedge fund who purchased the rights from Halcyon (because they helped them purchase said rights in the first place). + In 2012, Pacificor sold the rights to Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures. Her brother David joined afterwards, and given his Skydance Productions have a deal with Paramount, they got a distributor. Annapurna eventually left, though Megan remained as executive producer. The failure of Terminator Genisys led Skydance to seek James Cameron (after all, the rights would revert to him at the 35th anniversary) for help on Terminator: Dark Fate. Thanks to that film flopping, it's unclear if Skydance will hold onto the rights after 2020, when they're set to revert fully back to Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, the latter of whom co-created the franchise with Cameron. + Home video is complicated too for the first two movies. MGM has the first film and has licensed it to Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Paramount for various home video releases. It was also sublicensed in the '90s by Live Entertainment, which had the home video rights to the Carolco library, including the sequel, and its successor Artisan released Judgement Day DVDs until they were bought by Lionsgate; but internationally, StudioCanal licenses the T2 DVDs and Blu-rays to multiple distributors * The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise: + The first film was produced and released independently by Bryanston Pictures, and was later reissued theatrically by New Line Cinema. The rights are currently with Vortex/Heron Communications, who has licensed the home video rights to MPI Media Group, under their Dark Sky Films banner. It was previously licensed to Media Home Entertainment and Wizard Video for VHS, Elite Entertainment for Laserdisc, and most notably Pioneer Home Entertainment (better known for their anime releases) for VHS and DVD back in the 90s/early 2000s. In the UK, Second Sight has released the film on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD. + The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was released by The Cannon Group. Along with the rest of the Cannon library, it's currently owned by MGM, except for the broadcast/streaming rights, which are held by Paramount, and home video, which were handled by 20th Century Fox before switching to Warner Bros. Shout! Factory licensed the film for a Blu-ray while Vinegar Syndrome licensed it for a 4K release. Arrow Video has released the film in the UK. + Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III was released by New Line Cinema, and is now owned by Warner Bros. Warner Archive released the film on Blu-ray. + Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation was produced independently, but later picked up by Columbia Pictures. The film sat on the shelf for a long time before Columbia finally partnered up with Cinepix Film Properties for a theatrical release. Sony released it on DVD in 2003, and the disc is now out-of-print. According to Amazon, the film is (as of March 2018) distributed digitally by Lionsgate. Scream Factory released the film on Blu-ray, under license from Sony. Mediumrare released the film on Blu-ray in the UK. + The remake was produced by Platinum Dunes, and released once again by New Line Cinema. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning was also released under this arrangement. Both films are now owned by Warner Bros. + Lionsgate now has the franchise, and has released Texas Chainsaw 3D and Leatherface (a sequel and prequel respectively to the original film), with the latter being dumped on video-on-demand. + Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) was produced by Legendary Pictures and released worldwide by Netflix. * The Halloween franchise has a history of this: + The original film was produced independently through Irwin Yablan's Compass International, who also distributed the film themselves through Falcon International because the major studios were uninterested, though the prints were struck through MGM. Warner-Columbia released the film in some international territories. Today the film is owned by Compass's successor Trancas International (under the "Compass International" label for legal reasons). On home video, the film was originally released by Media Home Entertainment and later Blockbuster Video (VHS) and The Criterion Collection (LaserDisc). Anchor Bay also released the film numerous times through VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray for almost twenty years before Lionsgate took over the home video rights, and released the film on 4K UHD. Their license expired after a few years, and Shout! Factory's Scream Factory branch took over home video rights, and released the film on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD in 2021. + Halloween II (1981) and Halloween III: Season of the Witch were co-produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Universal, who also distributed. Universal has released both films to various home video formats themselves, but has also licensed both to GoodTimes Home Entertainment (VHS and DVD) and Scream Factory (DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD). Lionsgate owns these films overseas, and has also licensed to various distributors for home video (including Via Vision in Australia). Universal would later return to the franchise in 2018, with Blumhouse producing the second reboot series. + After III disappointed critically and commercially, Moustapha Akkad, who executive produced the first three films, leased out John Carpenter and Debra Hill's share of the rights, and produced Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, and released both independently through his Galaxy International Pictures (Warner Bros. in some overseas territories). The films are owned directly by Trancas International, and both were released to VHS by CBS/Fox, and later to VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray by Anchor Bay. Lionsgate briefly held home video rights before Scream Factory licensed them in 2021 for Blu-ray and 4K UHD releases. + After 5 underperformed, the series was sent back into development hell, and Miramax bought the rights to the series (beating out New Line) after Akkad's exclusive rights expired, and released Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, and Halloween: Resurrection through their Dimension Films label, with distribution by Disney/Buena Vista. They were released to VHS and DVD by Buena Vista, and later on Blu-ray through Echo Bridge Home Entertainment and later Lionsgate in the US, and Alliance Atlantis in Canada. Paramount now distributes the films in the US, due to their minority stake in Miramax, and they licensed all three to Scream Factory in 2022 for a 4K UHD/Blu-ray triple feature boxset. eOne has Canadian rights to these. + The Weinsteins took Dimension Films and the sequel rights with them to The Weinstein Company, who released the first Rob Zombie-directed film through MGM and the sequel themselves. Genius Products and later Cinedigm released the first film to DVD/Blu-ray and Sony Pictures released the second. Alliance Atlantis released both in Canada. The rights to both films, along with the rest of the TWC catalog, was purchased by Lantern Entertainment (later Spyglass Media Group), who sold them to Lionsgate in 2021. + After the Weinsteins failed to put a new film into production on time, the rights reverted back to Miramax, Trancas, and John Carpenter, who all worked with Blumhouse to produce the new direct sequel to the original film. The film was distributed again by Universal, through their first look deal with Blumhouse. The two sequels to that film, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends are also distributed by Universal, who joined in to co-produce the latter film. + With the release of Ends the franchise will once again revert back to Miramax (now partially under Paramount) and Trancas since Blumhouse had a 3-film deal, and producer Jason Blum says he has no plans on producing any more films in the series. In 2023, it was announced that Miramax had also won television rights to the series, with plans to produce a crossover media franchise. + It should be noted that producer Moustapha Akkad and/or his son Malek Akkad have been involved with all the films in some capacity, with their production company Trancas International, who owns the original film (under the name "Falcoln International Pictures") and 4 and 5 outright. + In 2014, Anchor Bay teamed up with Scream Factory to release a then-complete collection of the franchise, licensing Curse, H20, and Resurrection from Miramax, and securing the Rob Zombie films through Anchor Bay's deal with the Weinsteins. * Rambo from Carolco Pictures to Lionsgate/The Weinstein Company. Lionsgate owns the North American home video rights to the first three films in the series through their deal with StudioCanal. The first film was distributed by Orion Pictures, while the next two were distributed by TriStar Pictures. * Friday the 13th from Paramount (Warner Bros. overseas for the first film) to New Line Cinema after the first 8 films. This allowed them to Crossover with their franchise. + Then Warner became New Line's parent company and teamed up with Paramount to produce the 2009 reboot with Platinum Dunes. Warner distributed domestically while Paramount handled overseas. + Warner Bros. then sold their rights to the series back to Paramount so both could produce Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. Platinum Dunes was attached to a possible new Friday the 13th movie under Paramount, which had lingered in and out of Development Hell. Poor box office numbers for Rings resulted in Paramount canning the movie completely, and the rights reverted back to New Line once again in 2018. The franchise is now in legal hell since writer of the first film, Victor Miller, sued producer Sean S. Cunningham to reclaim his share of the rights to participate in future films. + Warner Bros. also licensed domestic home video rights to most of Paramount's catalog in 2012, and released the whole Friday the 13th franchise in one Blu-ray boxset, along with individual releases. The license expired in 2015, and Paramount reissued the first 8 films to Blu-ray themselves, while both Paramount and Warner licensed their films in the series to Scream Factory for a another complete collector's boxset. + Also, Columbia TriStar (then in the middle of transitioning from their old RCA/Columbia identity) and Turner had both released Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday on VHS back in the 90s (the result of New Line's purchase by Turner in 1993 and distribution subsequently switching to Turner Home Entertainment). * Hellboy from Revolution Studios/Columbia to Universal Pictures/Relativity Media. The reboot was from Millennium Films/Lionsgate. + Universal did it again, taking Kick-Ass from Lionsgate (though they did distribute the original internationally). * Home Alone 1 was initially a Warner Bros. production until the film went over budget, resulting in Twentieth Century Fox taking over production and the rights to the franchise. * The first four Scream films were released by Dimension Films, but they switched from being under Miramax (distribution by Disney) to The Weinstein Company between the third and fourth films. Lionsgate released the first three films to Blu-ray, and Anchor Bay released the fourth (before they were bought out by Lionsgate). Today, Paramount now distributes the first three films after buying a minority stake in Miramax. After The Weinstein Company shut down in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, their assets were purchased by Lantern Entertainment, who were eventually merged into Spyglass Media Group, who sold TWC's films, including Scream 4, to Lionsgate in 2021. Scream (2022) was co-produced by Spyglass and Paramount, who also distributed. Scream VI was also released under Paramount. + The same goes for the Spy Kids and Scary Movie franchises, as the first three films of their respective series were also distributed by Miramax under the Dimension Films label and their subsequent films were released by The Weinstein Company under the Dimension Films label, with the initial films now owned by Paramount, and later ones by Lionsgate. - Sin City, on the other hand, has an interesting subversion of this. The first film was initially distributed by Miramax, as with the other aforementioned franchises, while its sequel was distributed by The Weinstein Company, but Miramax co-produced it. The rights eventually reverted back to Frank Miller, who later licensed the rights to Legendary Pictures for a potential TV series adaptation. - And Spy Kids has hopped again, this time to Netflix (produced by Spyglass and Skydance, the current rights holders). Though this move is not without precedent, as another family-oriented series by Robert Rodriguez did the same. The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl was a Dimension release through Miramax, and then subsequently passed on to Disney, Lionsgate, and currently Paramount (but only in North America, Columbia owns the international rights); its sequel We Can Be Heroes (2020) was released on Netflix. + Speaking of The Weinstein Company, its home video division had several distributors through the years: Genius Products from 2006 to 2009, Vivendi Entertainment from 2009 to 2010, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment from 2010 to 2011, Anchor Bay from 2011 to 2017 (due to TWC buying a share of their parent company, Starz), and then Lionsgate at the very end of their run (due to Lionsgate purchasing Starz). * Walter Lantz, who made Woody Woodpecker, jumped ship from Universal Pictures to United Artists in 1947 over disputes. Lantz then briefly shut down his studio in 1949 due to Financial Issues with United Artists. The studio reopened in 1950 and went back to Universal as his distributor until closing for good in 1972. * The Hustler (1961) was released by 20th Century Fox, but Touchstone Pictures took care of its sequel, The Color of Money. Both films are now with Touchstone owner Disney as of March 2019 due to the Fox buyout. * Hellraiser from New World to Dimension. * Death Wish from Paramount to Filmways to Cannon to Trimark. To go even further, MGM holds the remake rights and Columbia Pictures held foreign rights to the first two films which have since passed to StudioCanal. Paramount also owns the US TV rights to the sequels made under Cannon. * Ever since Marvel Comics opened their own film studio: + After lauching the Marvel Cinematic Universe with whoever characters weren't in another studio, Marvel started to get back the rights to their characters. (The exception has been X-Men/Fantastic Four, which Fox managed to keep through continuous movie production; Sony/Columbia tried the same with The Amazing Spider-Man Series, but their diminishing returns plus the leaked info debacle led them to give Spidey back to Marvel, though Columbia will still distribute solo movies, such as Venom and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). Marvel has gotten back Blade (New Line, set to get a movie in the 2020s), Daredevil, (Fox, became star of his own Netflix series), Ghost Rider, The Punisher (Columbia and Lionsgate, respectively; the former appeared on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the latter on Daredevil and a solo show), and The Incredible Hulk (Universal; most famous/successful of the bunch, earned his own movie and became part of The Avengers). And with the failure of Fantastic Four, fans are hoping that even the Four may soon return to Marvel. Speaking of which... + The MCU was originally distributed by Paramount Pictures for Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger, while Universal had The Incredible Hulk. After Paramount's contract with Marvel Studios ended, Disney took over all future films, however The Avengers and Iron Man 3 still featured Paramount's logo, even on home video, due to Executive Meddling (Walt Disney Studios was listed at the end, however). Disney also purchased the rights to the previous Paramount films (though still with Paramount's logo). Later, Sony Pictures released the MCU Spider-Man Series through their deal with Marvel Studios. + And now with Disney buying Fox, distribution of the final two X-Men movies Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants fell squarely on Disney. After those two, the X-Men, alongside the Fantastic Four, will eventually be integrated into the MCU. (their movies are even on Disney+ alongside the MCU) + The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the first Fantastic Four movie to be distributed by Marvel Studios after Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox, the distributor of the previous Fantastic Four adaptations. Like with Deadpool & Wolverine, 20th Century is listed as the copyright holder alongside Marvel. * The first Child's Play movie was made by United Artists, who dropped it because the studio was about to be bought by an Australian company (which never happened) who didn't want to make horror movies. The six sequels have been produced by Universal or by Universal-owned companies. The remake of the original film was released by the MGM-owned United Artists under their genre label, Orion Pictures. * Amazingly enough, United Artists picked up the third House film, The Horror Show, from New World and released it not long after Child's Play. New Line ended up releasing the fourth one. * This can happen to singular movies as well. When Miramax was sold by Disney, the studio signed new distribution deals with Lionsgate, Echo Bridge and StudioCanal for home video. Echo Bridge's license has since expired. In 2020, Paramount owns a 49% stake in Miramax and distributes the studio's catalogue worldwide. + Miramax's unreleased movies ended up going to different distributors. Gnomeo & Juliet and The Tempest stayed with Disney and were released by Touchstone, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark went to FilmDistrict (releasing through TriStar Pictures domestically), Last Night went to Tribeca (and returned to Miramax through Platinum Disc/Echo Bridge for DVD) and The Debt went to Universal's Focus division. An older Miramax release, Princess Mononoke, briefly went to Lionsgate along with most of the catalog, but Lionsgate never got to release it, as Disney instead renegotiated the rights and re-released the film on DVD themselves in 2012. + Gnomeo and Juliet was released by Touchstone, but its sequel Sherlock Gnomes was released by Paramount with MGM co-producing. * Fright Night (1985) was backed by Columbia Pictures and a production of Vista Films; for the sequel was done by Vista and distributed by Columbia's sister studio Tristar internationally — and the remake came from DreamWorks SKG and was distributed by Touchstone Pictures. Fright Night 2: New Blood is distributed by 20th Century Fox. * Arlington Road was to have been originally released by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment but after a delay (due to Columbine) and Polygram merging with October Films, to become USA Films and later Focus Features), the film was sold to Screen Gems, though PFE retained international rights (now owned by Universal). * The Lone Ranger movies. + The first film, released in 1956 and simply titled The Lone Ranger, was distributed by Warner Bros. + The second film, The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, was released two years later by United Artists. Both this movie and the previous one eventually reverted to producer Jack Wrather. + The third one wouldn't come until 1981, and this time it was a complete reboot, The Legend of the Lone Ranger, released by ITC/Universal and co-produced by Wrather. This film is now owned by ITV (Universal still holds theatrical rights). + The most recent version, released in 2013, is also a reboot and produced by Disney. Since then, DreamWorks Animation (a unit of Universal as of 2016) now owns the Lone Ranger franchise and all film rights pertaining to it, including the first two films and half the copyright to the third one (through Wrather Productions). * Mulholland Drive was originally shot for the ABC network and financed by Touchstone Pictures. After ABC passed on it, director David Lynch decided to rework it and got production company Studio Canal to buy the film and finance the shooting of new footage. Universal ended up releasing the film as part of their relationship with Studio Canal. * The Emmanuelle films released theatrically went from Columbia to Paramount to Miramax to Cannon. Four films, four distributors. * The Muppets films have gone from ITC/Associated Film Distribution with the first film to ITC/Universal Pictures with the second to TriStar Pictures (you can blame the lawsuit over The Lone Ranger's mask for that one) with the third to Walt Disney Pictures with the fourth and fifth to TriStar's sister studio Columbia (this time under parent Sony Pictures) with the sixth and back to Disney from the seventh onward. Disney now owns the franchise and the home media rights to most of the films with the exceptions of Take Manhattan and From Space, which are owned by Sony. + Other Jim Henson works have hopped too. The Dark Crystal was a ITC/Universal Pictures release that originally was released by Thorn EMI Video in The '80s, then reissued by HBO later in the decade, followed by Buena Vista Home Video (via Jim Henson Video) in The '90s, all on behalf of Henson. At the end of that decade, Columbia/TriStar Home Entertainment picked it up. (and yet the prequel show was a solo endeavor by The Jim Henson Company distributed by Netflix. In 2024, video and TV rights were acquired by Shout! Studios. Universal still owns the theatrical rights to the film. + Labyrinth was originally released by TriStar Pictures but the initial video release was through Embassy (later Nelson) Home Entertainment, then New Line acquired the video rights in the early '90s and licensed it to Image for a deluxe laserdisc release. Again, Columbia/TriStar (re)claimed it at the end of The '90s, and retains theatrical rights. In 2024, the video/TV rights were acquired by Shout! Studios along with The Dark Crystal. + For the 40th anniversary of The Muppet Movie, Universal (who has owned the theatrical rights to ITC productions since 1980, including said film and The Great Muppet Caper) partnered up with The Jim Henson Company for a limited re-release run that July. The same situation occurred roughly five years later for the 45th anniversary. * The Studio Ghibli films have a history of this in English-speaking teritories: + If you count it, The Castle of Cagliostro (Miyazaki's first directoral film) was originally distributed in the US by Streamline Pictures before their rights expired and Manga Entertainment picked up the rights and redubbed the film with Animaze (with David Hayter as Lupin III). Their rights later expired, and the film was rescued for a DVD/Blu-ray re-release from Discotek Media with both dubs (along with a toned-down version of the latter dub). Discotek later sub-licensed the film to Disney so they could include it in their complete Miyazaki Blu-ray set. GKIDS currently distributes the film theatrically. + The original US release of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1985 was under New World Pictures with video distribution from Vestron Video and later First Independent Video featuring a heavily edited dub that Miyazaki despised so much, he put forth a no editing clause into his future contracts. + Streamline Pictures released Castle in the Sky theatrically in North America in 1987, but never on home video. Contrary to popular belief, they did not produce the dub used for this release (which was from a company called Magnum Video Tape and Dubbing). + My Neighbor Totoro was dubbed very faithfully by Streamline themselves in 1989 and picked up for North American distribution by, of all companies, Troma, who released the film to VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD through their deal with Twentieth Century Fox, which was the largest release of a Ghibli film before Disney. To this day, many older anime fans have fond memories of the original Streamline dub. + Streamline also dubbed Kiki's Delivery Service in 1990, but this dub was never released in North America (instead being used for Japan Airlines flights). A dub for Porco Rosso was also produced with English-speaking actors in Japan that was also never released in North America (and was also used for Japan Airlines flights). + The Walt Disney Company picked up North American distribution rights to most of the Ghibli catalog beginning in 1998, and was their exclusive distributor theatrically until 2011 and on VHS, DVD, and/or Blu-ray until 2017, featuring dubs produced in-house by them. However, there were exceptions. + Because Grave of the Fireflies isn't distributed by Ghibli overseas, it wasn't included in Disney's deal. Central Park Media distributed it on video and DVD (with a dub from Skypilot Entertainment in 1998) before they went under and ADV Films rescued it. When they went under, Sentai Filmworks picked up the rights and released a remastered DVD in 2011 with a Blu-ray release in 2012 containing a new dub from Seraphim Digital. GKIDS distributes the film theatrically, and they finally obtained home media for the film in 2025, a couple of years after Sentai's release went out of print. + Princess Mononoke was distributed by Miramax because of its intense content. After selling off Miramax, Disney reacquired the rights and released it under their own name after they renewed their contract with Ghibli, as Disney has not been afraid of releasing PG-13 movies under its own name since the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003. + The Wind Rises was originally distributed theatrically and on video by Disney's Touchstone Pictures label due to its content. + Only Yesterday was never released by Disney due to its mature content, and it wouldn't see a North American release until 2016 by GKIDS. They also never released the television film Ocean Waves, which was finally released in 2017 by GKIDS (subtitled-only). + Disney passed on From Up on Poppy Hill, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, and When Marnie Was There, which were instead released by GKIDS from the beginning. + In 2011, GKIDS picked up the theatrical distribution rights to the Ghibli catalog, and the exclusive home video rights in 2017 after Disney's license expired (in all cases, they recycled Disney's dubs though). They also gave My Neighbors the Yamadas its first Blu-ray release since Disney never released it due to poor DVD sales. GKIDS later picked up The Wind Rises in 2020 after Disney's license expired. Until 2025, the only Ghibli film not with GKIDS on home video was Grave of the Fireflies, which was still with Sentai beforehand (although they worked with GKIDS to produce a matching steelbook to go with their collection). - Even here, GKIDS' home video distribution has shifted from Cinedigm (before 2014), Universal (2014-2017), and Shout! Factory (2017-present). Poppy Hill went out through both Cinedigm and Shout!, while Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves, Princess Kaguya, and Marnie have releases from both Universal and Shout!. + Averted in the UK, where the Studio Ghibli catalog has always been handled by Optimum Releasing, who were rebranded as StudioCanal UK in 2011 after StudioCanal purchased them. Additionally, Madman Entertainment has been the exclusive distributor for the entire catalog in Australia. * Outside of home country Japan, where Toho exclusively handles distribution, the Pokémon films have gone through many distributors: + In the US, the first three films were distributed by Warner Bros., until their rights expired a decade after each film's respective release. Films 4-7 were distributed by Miramax, who are now owned by current Miramax owner beIN Media Group, with home video transferring to Echo Bridge, and later to Lionsgate and Paramount. Films 8 onward have been with TPCi with domestic video distribution handled by Viz Media (who distributes through Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and they also have the domestic home video rights to the anime), with the strange exception of the 11th film, which was released by Universal at first, though Viz released it themselves in 2015. Also, Cinedigm distributed the 14th film in select theaters in the US (the "White" version), otherwise, starting with the sixth movie, the films have all been straight-to-video or TV in the US. The first three films also got a new release in 2016, courtesy of Viz. However, TPCI did briefly get the digital distribution rights to the fourth movie,, before being pulled again for reasons unknown over a year later before TPCi gained digital distribution rights to all the prior films in 2018. It took until 2023 and 2024 for TPCI to regain full rights to the four movies Miramax released. + In the UK, the Pokémon films were also Warner Bros. for #1-3. StudioCanal handles #4, 5, and 7, while Paramount has #6 (all under Miramax). Network released #10, and Universal has #11-15. None of the other films have been released to DVD in the UK, and only #1-3 were in theaters. In 2016, similar to how the rights in North America had reverted to Viz the year before, the first three movies were picked up for distribution by Manga Entertainment, which also picked up the rights to Hoopa and the Clash of Ages and will be releasing all four on Blu-ray. + Similarly in Australia, the first three films were released to theaters by Warner Bros. The fourth and fifth films went direct to video from Miramax/Disney, and films eight onward have been released by Beyond Home Entertainment (formerly Magna Pacific), which, similar to Viz in North America and Manga in the UK, picked up the first three films after the original distributor lost the rights in a dispute with Toho and Nintendo. Six and seven have never been released in Australia. Hoyts also released the fourteenth film to select cinemas. + Warner Bros. returned to distributing Pokémon movies with Pokémon Detective Pikachu. However, unlike previous films, this movie was actively co-produced by WB and is not set in the same continuity as the anime (Toho still distributes in Japan, though and Legendary has full rights in China), it is in fact a live-action film, the first based on a Nintendo property since Super Mario Bros. (1993) 26 years earlier (and was much more successful than that film). * Aardman Animations's first three films were distributed by DreamWorks Animation, but was later split due to creative differences and the underperformance of Flushed Away, the next two films were instead by Sony Pictures Animation but was also split due to both of their films underperforming, the studio's next three films were by StudioCanal followed by another split due to Early Man and Farmageddon: A Shaun the Sheep Movie both flopping, the studio currently has their new films instead distributed by Netflix. * AKIRA has gone from Streamline Pictures to Orion Pictures/MGM to Pioneer/Geneon to Bandai Visual/Bandai Entertainment to Funimation. * The Noveltoons produced from October 1950 to 1962 were originally from Paramount, then were sold to Harvey Comics along with the Noveltoons intellectual property. Harvey Comics was then bought by Classic Media, then by DreamWorks Animation, then finally by Universal. Paramount sold the pre-1950 cartoons to National Telefilm Associates, which was then renamed Republic Pictures before being bought by Viacom, parent of Paramount. Paramount now owns the cartoons made prior to October 1950 and from 1962 onwards (though a substantial amount of these are in the public domain), while Universal owns the rest (in a twist of irony, Universal also owns almost every sound film from Paramount from 1929-1949, as stated above, along with five Alfred Hitchcock films originally from Paramount and the 1957 Elvis Presley film Loving You via sister company and copyright holder NBC. Coincidentally, DWA distributed its features through Paramount from 2006-12). * The Miley Cyrus film So Undercover was financed by The Weinstein Company but was sold to Open Road Films (a joint venture of the AMC and Regal theatre chains) for its theatrical release. Then the North American theatrical run got canceled and Millennium Films ended up distributing the film for home video (the failure of LOL at the box office obviously didn't help matters). * Haywire was to have initially been released by Lionsgate, but the film's producers (Relativity Media) backed out of their deal with them and chose to distribute themselves. The film went back to Lionsgate for its DVD and Blu-ray releases. * Starting with The Force Awakens, the Star Wars franchise would be distributed by Walt Disney Studios under the Lucasfilm banner after Disney's buyout of said company, displacing Twentieth Century Fox. However, under the terms of the deal, Fox was to retain the distribution rights to the first six films until May 2020, and would own A New Hope in perpetuity. Ultimately, Disney would acquire Fox in March 2019, bringing all Star Wars movies under one roof permanently. On digital platforms, Fox, as a separate unit of Disney, is still listed as the distributor of A New Hope. + The Clone Wars pilot movie was distributed by Warner Bros., but their rights seemingly lapsed, as the DVD and Blu-ray are out-of-print, and the film is currently available on Disney+, along with the rest of the series. * The home video distribution of the Peanuts TV specials moved from Media Home Entertainment and sometimes its children's sublabel Hi-Tops Video (or otherwise Kartes Video Communications in a few cases) to Paramount in 1994, then to Warner Bros. in 2008, primarily due to longtime specials producer Bill Melendez being a former Looney Tunes animator. + The first two Peanuts theatrical features were produced by Cinema Center Films, the former theatrical arm of CBS, and distributed by National General Pictures. The next two were made by Paramount. Thirty-five years would pass until The Peanuts Movie, which was animated by Blue Sky Studios and accordingly released by Fox. * Most films that Media Home Entertainment had originally released on home video saw their rights transfer as well to other distributors, principally Anchor Bay, but the assets of the company when it folded in 1993 following the conviction of Gerald Ronson, CEO of parent company Heron Communications, were sold to 20th Century Fox, which co-distributed some of the very last releases by Media Home Entertainment. For example, Media originally released the first VHS releases of the first five Nightmare on Elm Street films. After Media Home Entertainment ceased to exist, New Line, which originally theatrically distributed the five films became the rights holder for their home video releases, eventually being transferred to corporate parent Warner Bros. * Little Monsters and Blue Steel were financed by Vestron Pictures but ended up being distributed by MGM/UA due to Vestron's financial issues. MGM's rights to both have since lapsed and have reverted to Vestron's successor, Lionsgate, which released the former on Blu-Ray in September 2020 and will release the latter in November 2023 - both as part of its Vestron Collector's Series line. * My Fair Lady transferred from Warner Bros. to CBS during the 1970s, since CBS sponsored the Broadway musical that the movie was based on. Since then, the film has been released by MGM/CBS Home Video, CBS/Fox Video, Warner Home Video, and Paramount Home Entertainment at various times, mainly due to joint ventures and output deals made by CBS. + As of 2020, My Fair Lady, like other films previously owned by CBS (such as films they produced through three separate film production units and films they inherited in their purchase of King World Productions, including the Leo A. Gutman Inc. library (which in turn includes the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films, among others) and TV rights to The Little Rascals, which the latter was the foundation piece for King World in the early 1960s before Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and Oprah came along), has been fully integrated into the Paramount Pictures library, newer prints end with the 2020 Paramount logo. * DreamWorks SKG and DreamWorks Animation: + DreamWorks started out as an independent studio (with Universal handling home video) that was bought out by Paramount in 2006. Beginning in 2008, the studio broke off from Paramount and its films from 2009 until 2016 were distributed by Disney, under their Touchstone Pictures banner (with 20th Century Fox handling some of them overseas). After negotiations between the two broke down and DreamWorks became part of the newly-formed Amblin Partners, future releases will be from multiple studios, but primarily Universal, who owns a minority stake. For the most part, their back-catalog remains split between Paramount (every live-action release from 1997-2010, as well as sequel rights to these films), Universal (the animated films, see below), and Disney (the releases from 2011-2016). + DreamWorks Animation was under DreamWorks' wing until 2004, when they spilt into a separate entity. Their former parent still distributed for DWA until 2006, when the former was acquired by Viacom, leading to Paramount distributing for them until 2012. The studio was with 20th Century Fox from 2013-2017. However, with DWA's acquisition by NBCUniversal in 2016, once their deal with Fox ended in 2017 with Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Universal took over distribution permanently (starting with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World), bringing both DreamWorks and DWA under the same roof once again (On a lesser note, Chicken Run was co-produced with French studio Pathé who distributed the film in several European territories, making Chicken Run technically not count as a DWA film over there). * Alfred Hitchcock: + Psycho was originally released through Paramount, but the rights to re-release the movie transferred to Universal (on whose lot Hitchcock filmed Psycho) eight years later. Universal eventually gained the rights to four more movies Hitchcock directed for Paramount: Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo. + Hitchcock's adaptation of Rope was released by Warner Bros. domestically, but MGM overseas. Universal later acquired the worldwide rights to the film along with the Paramount films. + To Catch a Thief is the only Hitchcock film that stayed with Paramount, although Warner Bros. issued it on Blu-ray when they briefly handled Paramount's catalog. North by Northwest shifted from MGM to Turner to Warner Bros, but Warner did license it to Universal for their US Hitchcock Blu-ray boxset (overseas sets don't include the film). + Rebecca and Spellbound, The Paradine Case, and Notorious were all produced by Selznick International Pictures, but the first two were distributed theatrically by United Artists and the latter by RKO Radio Pictures, while Paradine was released independently by Selznick, who retained ownership to all four. However, the rights later ended up with ABC/Disney, who licensed the films to several companies for home video, including Anchor Bay, MGM (with distribution through Fox), Kino Lorber (Paradine only), and Criterion (the other three). + The rest of the Psycho series was released under Universal, although Psycho II-IV have been sub-licensed to GoodTimes and Shout! Factory/Scream Factory for home video at different points. Shout! also released the 1998 remake on Blu-ray. * Two victims of The Shelf of Movie Languishment after MGM's bankrupcy: The Cabin in the Woods (rescued by Lionsgate) and Red Dawn (2012) (minor studio Film District). + The bankrupcy lead to a variant: Spyglass Entertainment, who was installed atop MGM by the creditors who had bought the studio, had co-produced G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but decided to plaster Leo the Lion in G.I. Joe: Retaliation instead of their own logo. * The Seventh Son started out as a Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures feature, but when Legendary announced that they were breaking up with WB, the latter decided to cancel its planned January 2014 release date and ditch the film entirely. Distribution rights would be passed on to Legendary's new partner, Universal. + Universal also got the domestic distribution rights to Pacific Rim: Uprising from Warner Bros. under the new deal (WB still handled international distribution in some territories), as well as the rights to Straight Outta Compton from Warner sister studio New Line Cinema (New Line is still credited as co-producer). * After losing creative control of Universal-produced Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney turned to Celebrity Productions to distribute his new Mickey Mouse cartoons. He released the Silly Symphonies through Columbia Pictures in 1929, and they took over distribution of the Mickey series in 1930. Disney then turned to United Artists from 1932 to 1937, after which RKO Radio Pictures took over. RKO started releasing Disney's shorts and features in 1937; Disney formed their own distribution company in 1953 after RKO refused to distribute The Living Desert. Despite this, RKO released one last Disney feature in 1955 (a compilation film named Music Land) and continued to release the bulk of Disney's animated shorts until 1956. + Years later, The Walt Disney Company acquired the Walt Disney-produced Oswald the Lucky Rabbit films from Universal in exchange for letting Al Michaels transfer from ESPN to NBC's Sunday Night Football. * In a case of films switching from one brand to another within the same parent company, Touchstone Pictures release The Nightmare Before Christmas received the Disney logo for its 3D re-release. * Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was co-produced by the Quaker Oats Company (as a promotion for a failed line of chocolate bars) and David L. Wolper's production company (who later produced Roots (1977) for ABC)), and distributed by Paramount during its theatrical premiere. After it flopped, they decided not to renew distribution rights. Wolper's company was purchased by Warner Communications in 1976, and Warner Bros. then added the movie to their library, where it belongs to this day. * The Our Gang / The Little Rascals unit at Hal Roach Studios was sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1938. MGM already distributed and owned the copyrights to the films for a decade before inheriting the unit. The 1990s movie was co-produced by Universal and the company that now owns the franchise, then known as King World, now CBS. * Godzilla has always been owned by Toho. But American distribution is quite complicated. Most are now held by Sony, who produced the 1998 American movie through TriStar. After their rights to a new movie lapsed, Legendary Pictures bought them and their then-partner Warner released the 2014 movie. Even after Legendary moved to Universal, Warner will continue to make future Godzilla films in association with Legendary. * The history of Power Rangers distributors is something that requires branching out along different areas of distribution. On television, it was self-distributed by Saban at first before Fox purchased the company. Then Disney purchased the Saban library from Fox and later sold the franchise rights back to Haim Saban himself, with his new company, Saban Brands, co-distributing new installments in association with MarVista Entertainment until selling the property again to Hasbro in 2018. The theatrical films were first handled by Fox, with Lionsgate (itself distributed on home video by Fox) taking over the film series starting with the third film. On video, PolyGram and Warner Music Group, the latter then owned by Warner Bros., were the first to distribute the franchise, followed by Fox (which had already issued the first film on video), then Disney, and presently Shout! Factory and Lionsgate. Ironically, Disney would end up owning the first two movies, and other Saban properties still owned by Fox, years after unloading the franchise itself thanks to their acquisition of Fox's film and television assets in March 2019. * Dumb and Dumber and its 2003 prequel Dumb and Dumberer were both distributed by New Line, but its 2014 sequel Dumb and Dumber To was picked up by Universal (though New Line stayed on as producer). * Earth to Echo was originally produced by Disney. After seeing the final cut, the studio lost faith in the project and they sold the distribution rights to Relativity Media. * Ninja Scroll went from Manga Entertainment to Sentai Filmworks * Vampire Hunter D went from Streamline Pictures to Orion Pictures to Urban Vision to Sentai Filmworks. + It's sequel Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust went from Urban Vision to Discotek Media. * Universal Pictures' new deal with Blumhouse Productions led to a peculiar case of this for the latest installments in the Insidious and Sinister franchises. They were originally distributed by Film District and Summit Entertainment, respectively. Universal subsidiary Focus Features got the rights to both franchises through their acquisition of Film District (in the case of Insidious) and Blumhouse's deal (in the case of Sinister). Then, in the wake of other genre films in the pipeline for that Universal division, including Self/Less, London Has Fallen (its predecessor Olympus Has Fallen being distributed by Film District as well), The Forest (2016), and the Ratchet & Clank movie, Focus briefly revived Gramercy Pictures, one of the company's predecessors, as a label for films like these that would not normally go under the Focus banner, similar to Rogue before it was sold to Relativity Media. + This deal also covered The Green Inferno. It was going to be distributed by Open Road in 2014, but they backed out over a bad deal by one of the film's financiers. Luckily, Blumhouse, under its BH Tilt label, was able to forge a deal with Universal and High Top Releasing, a label that Focus inherited from Film District, to get it released. (Oddly enough, Universal distributes Open Road's films on home video.) + And it happened again with the Fallen series, as Angel Has Fallen was distributed by Lionsgate. Three films, same production companies, three distributors. + And it happened again with Insidious. Sony Pictures has always been involved with the franchise through its Stage 6 subsidiary (which coproduced all of them and distributed them internationally) and its deal with Film District (which had them retain video and digital rights to the first two films even after Focus' acquisition). However, the latest installment, The Red Door, hopped from Focus to Sony subsidiary Screen Gems. Five films, three distributors. * For Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, FUNimation partnered up with Screen Vision to release the film into US and Canadian cinemas. When it came time to release Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' and Dragon Ball Super: Broly, they had their own theatrical distribution arm, (FUNimation Films), and released them into theaters themselves in partnership with 20th Century Fox. Following Sony's purchase of both Funimation and Crunchyroll, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero went out under the Crunchyroll label. + In Japan, the original 13 Dragon Ball Z films were released by Toei Company themselves. For Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, and Broly, they partnered up with 20th Century Fox, who had inherited the rights to distribute future Dragon Ball films through their contract for Dragonball Evolution. Following Disney's purchase of Fox, their Japanese arm was shut down, and the rights reverted back to Toei, who released Super Hero themselves. * Paramount handled True Grit, but Universal took care of the sequel Rooster Cogburn. * The Vacation franchise has always been with Warner Bros, but the 2015 sequel/reboot was instead distributed by Warner-owned New Line. * The Ghost in the Shell live-action movie was originally set to be distributed by Walt Disney Pictures (Through their Touchstone Pictures label), with Paramount only handling international release, but after Disney and DreamWorks opted not to renew their distribution deal set to expire on August 2016, the domestic rights were transferred to Paramount wholesale, meaning that they will release the movie both domestically and internationally. Though Ghost in the Shell was not the first DreamWorks Pictures film released by Paramount since 2012, that honor goes to Office Christmas Party. + The two anime films were both produced by Production I.G., but they have different distributors. The original film was released by Shochiku in Japan, and Manga Entertainment (at the time, owned by PolyGram) outside Asia. Unlike most anime properties, Manga outright owns some distribution rights to the film permanently since they co-funded its production. Manga was sold to Anchor Bay in 2004, who was bought by Starz in 2006, who themselves were bought by Lionsgate in 2016. The second film, Innocence, was released by Toho in Japan and DreamWorks' GoFish Pictures overseas (though Manga reached a deal to release it in the UK and Australia). After Paramount inherited their back catalog, they licensed it to Bandai. When DreamWorks' deal expired, the film was out of print for years until FUNimation licensed it in 2016. * The Lobster was bought for US distribution by indie film company Alchemy, and was due for release in March 2016. However, due to Alchemy's financial troubles, the film was sold to fellow indie studio A24 and the planned March release date was bumped back to May of the same year. * Suffragette was bought for US and Canadian distribution by Relativity Media, However, due to Relativity's financial troubles and due to poor box office returns from their films, the film's US and Canadian distribution rights was sold to Focus Features as a result of Relativity's financial troubles at the time. * Ex Machina was released by Universal internationally, in North America the film's distribution is handled by A24 due to Universal's US arm rejecting it. + In a similar case, The Disaster Artist, which was produced by New Line Cinema, had its domestic rights acquired by A24 amid doubts within New Line's parent studio Warner Bros. about its commercial potential. Warner Bros. is still distributing it in most international territories except for Canada, where distribution is being held by frequent A24 collaborator Elevation Pictures. * Castle Rock Entertainment started out as an independent production company, with their films distributed by Columbia Pictures theatrically and by New Line on home video. They were purchased by Turner Entertainment in 1994 (who merged with Time Warner in 1996), though Columbia still continued to be their theatrical distributor until the early 2000s, with Warner taking over home video. Today, the home video and digital download rights to Castle Rock's pre-1994 films are owned by MGM (who owns the PolyGram library, which the same Castle Rock films became a part of shortly after Turner's merger with Time Warner, due to having been acquired by Epic Productions) and the post-1994 films are owned by Warner Bros. WB also owns the streaming VOD and TV rights to the pre-1994 films. Several films that Columbia financially backed (A Few Good Men, In the Line of Fire and North) remain with Columbia parent Sony. * The first Mad Max 1 film was released by Roadshow Entertainment in Australia, American International Pictures in the US, and Warner Bros in the rest of the world. The three other films in the series, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, and Mad Max: Fury Road were released by Warner Bros worldwide. Today, MGM has the North American rights to the first Mad Max film (they own the AIP library), and frequently license it to Warner for franchise boxsets. Scream Factory also has a Blu-ray edition. * Amidst a complicated legal battle, all the major King Kong movies were by different studios: the 1933 original and it's sequel by RKO (now distributed by Warner domestically), the 1976 remake and its 1986 sequel by the De Laurentiis Corporation (the first distributed by Paramount), the 2005 version by Universal (who owns the rights to the King Kong name), and Universal licensed 2017's Kong: Skull Island to Warner so they could make a crossover with their Godzilla. In 2022, James Wan's Atomic Monster production company arranged their own deal with Merian C. Cooper's estate to develop a King Kong TV series for Disney+. * Blade Runner was released by Warner Bros, but its sequel was released internationally by Sony Pictures, with Warner handling North America only. + Because of the way the first film was originally financed, the distribution rights varied from territory to territory. Warner Bros. now owns the distribution rights of Blade Runner worldwide, but up until the 1990s, the video and TV rights changed hands several times, because Jerry Perenchio and Bud Yorkin controlled the ownership of the film through a holding company, which is still the case today (though in Yorkin's case, his estate owns his share since he died in 2015). It originally came out on video through Embassy Home Entertainment, which was bought out by Nelson Entertainment in 1986, which in turn was bought out by New Line in 1991, before Warner Home Video acquired the video rights in time for the Director's Cut. The Criterion Collection also released it on laserdisc. * Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series. All of them were produced by Rob Tapert's Renaissance Pictures, but the distributor has changed with each and every film: + The original film was released theatrically by New Line Cinema and on home video by Thorn EMI simultaneously in the US, and by numerous other distributors internationally (notably Palace Video in the UK, where it ended up as a notorious "Video Nasty"). In the US, the film has since been released on home video by HBO/Cannon Video (VHS), Congress Video (VHS), Elite Entertainment (Laserdisc), and for over 20 years by Anchor Bay (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray). Lionsgate inherited the US rights after folding AB into their company, and they released the film on 4K UHD in 2018. Their rights expired in 2023, and the film reverted to Sony, who has been the film's distributor overseas since 2009. + Evil Dead 2 was produced by Dino De Laurentiis, and released independently by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group under the name Rosebud Releasing for legal reasons. The film was denied an R rating by the MPAA, and this was the only way the film could go out unrated. The film is now in StudioCanal's catalog internationally, and has been released on home video in the US by Vestron Video (VHS), Elite Entertainment (Laserdisc), Anchor Bay (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray), and Lionsgate (Blu-ray, 4K UHD). + Army of Darkness was produced by Dino De Laurentiis Communications and released by Universal domestically. On home video, the film has also been licensed to Anchor Bay (VHS, DVD) and Shout Factory's Scream Factory branch (Blu-ray, 4K UHD). + The reboot was Sony's TriStar Pictures in most territories and StudioCanal in France and the UK. It has also been licensed by Scream Factory for a 4K UHD. + Ash vs. Evil Dead was made directly by Starz, who was purchased by Lionsgate during production. On Blu-ray, the first two seasons originally went out under Anchor Bay (they were owned by Starz) and Season 3 was under Lionsgate. The series could not legally reference events from Army of Darkness in its first season, but were able to some in the second season after reaching an agreement with Universal. + Evil Dead Rise is once again back with New Line, with Warner Bros. distributing in the US (the film was originally supposed to go straight to HBO Max). The film was released by StudioCanal in the UK. * The Man Called Flintstone and Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! were both released to theaters by Columbia Pictures, and the former even featured a studio logo gag with Wilma Flintstone drawn in place of the Columbia girl. At the time, all Hanna-Barbara shows were released to TV by Columbia-owned Screen Gems. However, HB, and their library, was bought by Turner in 1991, who merged with Time Warner in 1996. Legal complications between Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures kept these two films off of DVD until 2008, when Warner was finally able to release them. Their DVD of Flintstone removes Columbia's vanity plate gag. * From 1991 to 1999, Arnon Milchan's New Regency had a distribution deal with Warner Bros. In 1997, Milchan cut a deal with 20th Century Fox to distribute its films and the deal is still in effect. In 2015, the video rights for all of New Regency's Warner releases (with the exception of films Warner co-financed) reverted back to Milchan, who subsequently cut a deal with Fox for distribution. Fox then re-released these films on Blu-Ray & DVD that same year, using the same masters as the previous WB discs with slightly altered packaging. This includes films such as Heat, which was remastered 2 years later in 4k, and L.A. Confidential, which is getting a 20th Anniversary release...with no new transfer or extras. The rights to Once Upon a Time in America, originally released by The Ladd Company through Warner Bros., ended up being folded into the New Regency library since Milchan financed the film, and is now distributed by Disney (as a result of the Disney/Fox merger). * Sicario: Day of the Soldado, the sequel to Sicario, jumped ship to Sony/Columbia Pictures after the series' financier backed out of a new deal with Lionsgate, distributor of the first film. Lionsgate still has overseas rights though. * Apple, the corporate company of The Beatles, now owns all four of the band's feature-length films. The United Artists tags at the start has been removed from them, replaced with the Apple logo (except for Let It Be, which has yet to see a DVD or Blu-Ray release). The end tag of "Released through United Artists" has been taken off all together from the end of Yellow Submarine on its 2012 home video re-release, showing just a blank screen during the end of the song before transitioning to credits of the restoration team. + Previously, A Hard Day's Night was released to home video by Miramax (distributed through Buena Vista Entertainment), and likewise, all references—start or finish—to United Artists were excised. Help! saw its first home video release in 1987 through MPI and Criterion, preserving the UA vanity plates. Apple now owns the film in conjunction with EMI and Capitol, with UA plates removed. * In the case of The Exorcist franchise, the first two films were produced and released by Warner Bros. In the late-1980s, the rights to the franchise were transferred to Morgan Creek, who has co-produced every entry in the franchise since. The third film was released theatrically and on VHS by 20th Century Fox, on DVD and Blu-ray by Warner Home Video, and on collector's edition Blu-Ray by Scream Factory under license from Morgan Creek. Warner Bros. released the prequels theatrically and initially on home video, but recently those films were reissued on DVD and Blu-ray by Sony, through Morgan Creek's deal with them.(Warner released a Complete Anthology boxset during the brief period when they distributed the whole series.) Morgan Creek also co-produced the TV series with 20th Century Fox television for the Fox network. In September 2018 Scream Factory released a special edition Blu-Ray of Exorcist II under license from Warner Bros. In 2022, Morgan Creek teamed up with Blumhouse to produce a new Exorcist trilogy with David Gordon Green directing, and Universal distributing. * Sonic The Hedgehog movie was originally set up at Sony, but after producer Neal H. Moritz decided not to renew his first-look deal with Sony and move to Paramount, and Sony deciding to place the film in turnaround after being unable to find financing for it, the Sonic movie rights were transferred to Paramount as well. This turned out to be a fitting move because Paramount and Sonic owners Sega were once sister companies under Gulf and Western Industries. * The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films started out as an independent production by Hong Kong-based Golden Harvest, with New Line Cinema purchasing distribution rights during production, an arrangement that stuck for two sequels. The animated film TMNT was co-produced by The Weinstein Company and New Line's future parent company, Warner Bros. After Viacom bought the TMNT property in 2009, the 2014 film and its sequel were produced by Paramount and Nickelodeon. * StudioCanal cancelled The Weinstein Company's North American distribution of Paddington 2 in the wake of the sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, saying they didn't want a family film to be associated with those events. Warner Bros., who already distributed the first film in Spain, acquired the North American rights to the sequel for $32 million. The upcoming third film, Paddington in Peru, will be released by Sony Pictures stateside. + Because of the Weinstein scandal, three other films (The War With Grandpa, In the Heights, and Wind River) reverted to their producers. Wind River was later sold to Lionsgate, while In the Heights was also sold to Warner Bros. * Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and its sequel were made by Paramount, yet the 2018 reboot is by Warner and MGM. Warner also released the original films on DVD and Blu-ray during their home video deal with Paramount. MGM is still aboard the reboot's upcoming sequel, but Warner isn't. * The classic Hammer Horror films have an infamously complicated distribution history. Hammer Film Productions struck deals with distributors on a film-by-film basis for much of its history, resulting in the films within its Frankenstein and Dracula series bearing many different studio logos, especially in the United States. + The Frankenstein films— The Curse of Frankenstein - Warner Bros. The Revenge of Frankenstein - Columbia. The Evil of Frankenstein - Universal. Frankenstein Created Woman - 20th Century Fox theatrically, currently Millennium. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed - Warner Bros. The Horror of Frankenstein - MGM. Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell - Paramount. + The Dracula films- Horror of Dracula - Universal theatrically, currently Warner Bros. The Brides of Dracula - Universal. Dracula: Prince of Darkness - 20th Century Fox theatrically, Millennium currently. Dracula Has Risen from the Grave - Warner Bros. Taste the Blood of Dracula - Warner Bros. Scars of Dracula - 20th Century Fox theatrically, Lionsgate currently. Dracula A.D. 1972 - Columbia and Warner Bros theatrically, Warner Bros currently. The Satanic Rites of Dracula - Warner Bros. theatrically, public domain currently. The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires - Dynamite Entertainment theatrically, Millennium currently. * xXx and its sequel xXx: State of the Union were both released by Sony/Columbia. When State of the Union flopped, Sony was hesitant on doing a third xXx movie. The eventual third film, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, came out 12 years after the sequel's release at Paramount as a result. This also meant that franchise co-producer Neal Mortiz, who was locked under a first-look contract at Sony, could not return for the third film, having to wait until the end of 2017 to sign a new contract at Paramount. In 2018, Vin Diesel and independent company H Collective bought the xXx franchise from former owner Revolution Studios and plans to make another sequel without Paramount's involvement. * Pokémon Detective Pikachu was a Legendary Pictures/Universal co-production until contract renewal negotiations between the two broke down. Former Legendary partner Warner Bros., who had poached Kong: Skull Island from Universal several years prior, distributed the film worldwide (except Japan, where Toho has the rights), allowing Warner Bros. to return to the Pokémon franchise for the first time since Pokémon 3(Ironically, Warner Bros. initially bid for the live-action movie rights before losing out to Legendary). * The film adaptation for Five Nights at Freddy's 1 was first set up at New Line/Warner Bros. before Executive Meddling and budget problems led to Warner Bros. putting the film in turnaround, effectively cancelling the project. Blumhouse quickly bought the rights from Warner, with Universal accordingly distributing. * Similarly, Warner Bros. was supposed to produce Death Note (2017) before WB sent the film into turnaround due to a change in release strategy following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice's disappointing box office numbers. Netflix then picked the project up, with the crew still attached. * Another movie Warner Bros. dropped (at least in the United States) was Planet 51, which was inherited from New Line after WB took over that studio. Things went south when the producers demanded it take the slot reserved for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Warner didn't comply with the demands, and distribution was instead taken up by TriStar Pictures. * Merry Little Batman was orignally planned to air on Max and Cartoon Network's Acme Night block, but was ultimately sold to Prime Video and released through Amazon MGM Studios, resulting in the inclusion of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer(a company you normally wouldn't expect to produce a Batman film, let alone anything DC-related in general) logo at the beginning and end. * Andy Serkis' Mowgli was in development as early as 2013 from Warner Bros, but after a serious case of The Shelf of Movie Languishment (and competition from Disney's The Jungle Book (2016)), they dumped it on Netflix, for a streaming-only release in 2019. This was a last-minute decision, after Warner had already released a trailer and sent posters to cinemas. * The Blob franchise. The original 1958 film was produced independently, but picked up for distribution by Paramount Pictures. It's been released to home video by GoodTimes (VHS) and The Criterion Collection (LaserDisc, DVD, and Blu-ray). The 1972 sequel Beware! The Blob was financed and released independently by Jack H. Harris productions, and released to home video by Image Entertainment and Kino Lorber. The 1988 remake was released by TriStar Pictures, and is now owned by Sony. Twilight Time released a limited edition Blu-ray before Scream Factory licensed the film. * The Prom Night franchise. The original four films were all produced by Peter Simpson's Simcom Productions/Norstar Releasing, but have been handled by numerous companies. The original 1980 film was picked up for distribution by AVCO Embassey, and later released to video by MCA/Universal (LaserDisc), New Line and Virgin Video (VHS) and Anchor Bay (DVD). The in-name-only sequel was picked up by The Samuel Goldwyn Company, and later ended up with MGM with home video by Virgin Video (VHS) and 20th Century Fox (DVD). That film's sequel and the fourth entry were released direct-to-video by Live! Entertainment (LaserDisc by Image), and later released to DVD by Artisan (later bought by Lionsgate). The 2008 reboot was released by Sony Pictures under their Screen Gems label. The rights to the original four films later reverted to Alliance Atlantis (who owns Peter Simpson's catalog), with home video by Echo Bridge. Synapse later licensed the first film for Blu-ray. Entertainment One later purchased Alliance, and sold some of their catalog (including the original Prom Night films) to FilmRise. The rights to the third film aren't quite certain, as it is completely unavailable on DVD or streaming, unlike the others. Some are worried that the rights may have reverted to the same hands as the notorious Fright Night Part 2, which had the same producer. * My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) was distributed by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group in its original release. The unrelated 2017 movie, meanwhile, was released by Lionsgate(Originally, that film was a co-production between Hasbro and Sony Pictures, until failed negotiations and executive reshuffling at Sony resulted in the latter pulling out, causing Hasbro to handle the film alone). After that film did mediocre box office business, Hasbro decided to make the next film a Continuity Reboot, to be released in 2021 and co-produced and released by Paramount as part of their production pact with Hasbro. Paramount's involvement with what became My Little Pony: A New Generation was ultimately canceled when Hasbro (through Entertainment One) decided to forgo a theatrical release in favor of putting it on Netflix. * The original Scarface was produced by Howard Hughes and distributed by United Artists. After Hughes' death, the rights to the movie along with several of Hughes' works were bought by Universal, who would go on to produce the more notable 1983 remake. * Titanic (1997) started out as a 20th Century Fox production entirely. As the production budget soared, however, Fox decided to sell the domestic rights to Paramount to hold off potential losses (they still released the movie internationally). The potential losses never occurred, as Titanic became the highest-grossing film of all time until 2010. * In a similar vein, The Prestige was initially just a Warner Bros. production before WB agreed to sell the North American rights to Touchstone Pictures to avoid cost overruns. * A twofer involving co-productions with Warner Bros. and Paramount: Watchmen and Interstellar were solely Paramount productions initially, but both ended up under Warner's wing as well (WB handled Watchmen domestically, Interstellar internationally). The former was a result of Paramount placing it in turnaround whilst keeping a stake in the film rights, while the latter was due to Warner Bros. wanting to be involved in the film so much (due to it being directed by Christopher Nolan, who has released most of his films through the studio) that they gave up their portion of the South Park movie rights and the Friday the 13th franchise just to get Paramount to relent (though the latter rights ended up going back to WB years later). * The 1978-1987 Superman Film Series with Christopher Reeve is a rather convoluted case. Warner Bros., which owns the rights to the character via DC Comics, did not produce these films. Instead, DC sold the film rights to Alexander and Ilya Salkind; they produced the first three films and contracted WB to distribute the films in North America, and in the case of the first two, domestic TV rights and most foreign rights. The Salkinds later sold the Superman rights to The Cannon Group, which produced Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. WB had recently bailed out the financially-struggling Cannon and bought the domestic theatrical/video rights to that film as part of that plan. Supergirl was originally going to be a WB release but the studio and the Salkinds disagreed over the intended release date and TriStar Pictures took over distribution. In 2006, WB managed to acquire all rights to these films (with the exception of some foreign distribution contracts still in effect). * The two film adaptations of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" both involved members of the Goldwyn family, but were produced by different studios. + The 1947 adaptation was produced by Samuel Goldwyn's production studio and distributed by RKO Pictures theatrically. It's now owned by his estate, with Warner Bros. currently licensed to distribute on home video and Miramax on digital distribution, respectively. + The 2013 adaptation started out as a Samuel Goldwyn Jr./New Line co-production, but Creative Differences between Goldwyn Jr. and New Line resulted in the latter parting ways with him. After an unsuccessful pitch to Paramount, Goldwyn Jr. eventually sold the rights to 20th Century Fox, who gave both New Line and Goldwyn Jr. credit in the final product. * The Grindhouse franchise has a bit of a messy history. The original double feature of Planet Terror and Death Proof were produced by Troublemaker Studios and distributed theatrically by Dimension Films, and on video by the Weinstein Company (separate extended cuts) and Vivendi Entertainment (as a double feature). The spinoff film Machete was distributed by 20th Century Fox in the United States and Sony internationally, and its sequel Machete Kills was theatrically distributed by Open Road Films and on video by Universal. Both were still produced by Troublemaker. The other spinoff film, Hobo with a Shotgun, was produced in Canada by Rhombus Media and distributed by Alliance Films in Canada and Magnet Releasing in the United States. And yet another spinoff film, Thanksgiving, is produced by Spyglass Media Group and will be distributed worldwide by TriStar and Sony. * The live-action Super Mario Bros. (1993) movie was produced by Cinergi Pictures and Allied Filmmakers, and released by Disney via Hollywood Pictures. When Nintendo decided to give the franchise a second go in movies, they contracted Illumination Entertainment to produce an all-CGI Continuity Reboot, to be released by Universal. Disney notably had a long-standing relationship with Nintendo that predated the latter's entrance into video games, though Universal has a stronger relationship nowadays as the latter's theme parks are opening Nintendo-themed areas (ironically, Nintendo and Universal were not on good terms to start their relationship when the latter sued the former in the 1980s because Donkey Kong allegedly infringed on Universal's rights to King Kong). * Thumbelina and A Troll in Central Park were produced by Don Bluth's studio and released by Warner Bros. When 20th Century Fox hired him to run their now-defunct feature animation division, both movies were part of the deal and thus transferred to Fox a few years later. * The Swan Princess was originally pitched by Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1992. When Disney was unable to reach Richard Rich for the project, it ended up being pitched to NEST and New Line Cinema. The home video rights to it, and its many sequels, would end up in the hands of Sony Pictures after the fact. * Laika had their first four movies released through Universal's Focus Features unit. For Missing Link, they broke off with Universal/Focus and sold the US distribution rights to Annapurna Pictures (who, in turn, transferred them to MGM's United Artists unit when they set up a distribution joint venture with them) and the international rights to Lionsgate. As part of the terms of Laika's original distribution deal with Focus, the rights would revert to them within a period of time. When this happened, Laika quickly inked a new deal with Shout Factory for their first four films. * The merger of 20th Century Fox with Disney led to many projects in early development at the time being cancelled, brought over to other Disney labels, or in these cases switched studios: + The film adaptation for The Hate U Give was produced and distributed by Fox. Its follow-up, On the Come Up, is being handled by Paramount due to Fox's then-new owner Disney shutting down Fox 2000, which produced the former film. + News of the World (2020), co-produced by and starring Tom Hanks, moved to Universal after Fox 2000's shuttering. (Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, international rights were later sold to Netflix.) + The film adaptation of Mouse Guard which was shut down by the new owners just two weeks before production was to begin. The producers were allowed to shop it elsewhere, but no one was willing to take it up, resulting in its outright cancellation. + Richard Jewell, produced by Clint Eastwood, was almost given the thumbs-up to go ahead before Eastwood and Disney agreed the project was better off at Warner Bros., who was a frequent Eastwood collaborator by then, than with Fox. + A film adaptation of Magic: The Gathering, which had been shelved for quite some time, was scrapped, and the rights ended up reverting back to Hasbro. The toy company then partnered with Netflix for an animated series, with The Russo Brothers producing. + Zig-zagged and later played straight with a Fox 2000 holdover, Children of Blood and Bone. It ended up staying at Disney after the label's shuttering, but Disney-owned Lucasfilm ended up joining as a production partner after it caught the attention of Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy. However, a protracted development period and Lucasfilm choosing to focus on Star Wars and other established IPs led to Disney losing the rights to Paramount, which has a strong relationship with Hasbro. + The Woman in the Window would've been distributed by Disney...had negative test screenings, lack of faith from studio executives and the COVID-19 pandemic not affect its release date. In August 2020, Disney sold the rights to Netflix just to clean their hands of the movie and finally finish off the Fox 2000 slate. + The Fear Street film trilogy was supposed to be released by Disney theatrically, but they instead handed the movies over to Netflix when studio Chernin Entertainment's production deal with Fox lapsed. Other Chernin projects such as the live-action Mega Man movie moved to Netflix as well. + A proposed film adaptation of Spamalot languished in development hell at Fox for years, and was ultimately shelved when Disney took over. Thankfully, Disney allowed Eric Idle to shop the film elsewhere, and it ended up at Paramount, in large part because that studio was run by the same executive who picked it up at Fox. + An adaptation of NIMONA was in mid-production at Blue Sky Studios when Disney shuttered the company in 2021 as a cost-cutting measure, cancelling the film in the process (though several Blue Sky staffers have said that Disney higher-ups already had issues with certain elements of the film beforehand). The project was later acquired by Netflix and Annapurna Pictures, with DNEG Animation picking up where Blue Sky left off. * The James Bond series is one of the few examples where the same company (Eon Productions) has been involved since the very beginning. That being said, they always have to partner with bigger studios to co-finance and distribute the films, and changes happened on this side. + The series was originally handled by United Artists, and continued to be released under the label even after MGM bought the studio. Starting with The World Is Not Enough, MGM distributed the series under their name after the unit was retooled as an indie division for a short time, before other changes. + Die Another Day was the only Bond film released outside the United States by 20th Century Fox, as MGM had parted ways with United International a few years prior. + Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and Spectre were all co-produced and released by Columbia Pictures in partnership with MGM and EON Productions. For No Time to Die, MGM and EON partnered with Universal, who handled distribution internationally while MGM handled distribution stateside through their newly-revived United Artists unit. + Two films that aren't part of the official Bond chronology, Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again, were distributed by different studios (Columbia for the former; Warner Bros. for the latter) originally, but both ended up under MGM's ownership in the late '90s through different means (for the former, MGM got the rights to Casino Royale from Sony as part of a trade that saw Sony get the Spider-Man movie rights, while the latter was bought from producer Jack Schwartzman's estate). * In a case of a film series switching sister studios, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum went from Summit to Lionsgate proper (although Summit still retains a production credit), and switched some international territories as well - the first two films were distributed by Warner Bros. in the UK and Ireland, for example. * Lake Placid was a production of 20th Century Fox originally. In 2006, Fox sold the Lake Placid IP to the film's co-producers Phoenix Pictures, who then partnered up with Sony Pictures to produce the television film sequel with Fox the following year. All subsequent films released since then are exclusively from Sony, though Fox owner Disney still owns the prior two films (and currently licenses the digital rights to Sony as of 2018). * As with John Wick above, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was released by Columbia Pictures (as was its sequel), an upgrade within Sony from TriStar's release of the first film. + This isn't the first time Sony "upgraded" labels for sequels. The Mask of Zorro was released through TriStar, while its sequel seven years later, The Legend of Zorro, was released through Columbia. * The 1961 film version of West Side Story was co-produced between Mirisch Films and Seven Arts Productions and released through United Artists (now with MGM). The 2020 adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, is produced through his company and 20th Century Studios, and released by 20th owner Disney. * Every film in the Fallen film series has been produced by Millennium Films, but they've all gone out through different distributors. Olympus Has Fallen was released by FilmDistrict before their shutdown, and released to home video by Sony Pictures. London Has Fallen was released by Comcast-owned Focus Features (who absorbed FilmDistrict), with home video by Universal. Angel Has Fallen was released by Lionsgate. * Every version of Black Christmas has been released by a different studio. The original 1974 Canadian film was released in its native country by Ambassador Film Distributors, and in the US by Warner Bros. It's now owned by Sommerville House, with home video formerly by Anchor Bay (Canada) and Critical Mass (US) and now by Shout! Factory. The 2006 remake was produced by The Weinstein Company's Dimension Films label, and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and on home video by Genius Products. It's now owned by Lionsgate, who bought most of TWC's catalog from Lantern and Spyglass. The 2019 remake was produced by Blumhouse and released by Universal. * Daddy Day Care was released by Columbia, while its sequel Daddy Day Camp was released by Tristar. Due to a deal with Universal and Revolution Studios, the third installment Grand Daddy Day-Care was released by Universal. Similarly, The Benchwarmers was released by Columbia, while Benchwarmers 2 was released by Universal. * Throughout its history, Morgan Creek jumped from 20th Century Fox, to Warner Bros., to Universal for distribution, while retaining the copyright to their library (The first Major League film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Last of the Mohicans being exceptions; all three were co-produced by and stayed with their distributors). Recently, their titles were acquired by Revolution Studios, with Sony Pictures, Shout! Factory, and Mill Creek currently handling home video distribution for the majority of these films. Relativity Media also handles digital distribution for a select few, like Diabolique and The King And I. * Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was released by Lionsgate on behalf of CBS Films. Due to the merger between Viacom and CBS, its sequel will be released by Paramount. * Red Notice was originally going to be released theatrically by Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures. Netflix acquired the distribution rights on July 8, 2019. * Orphan was released by Warner Bros, but prequel Orphan: First Kill had Paramount domestically and a bevy of distributors worldwide. * Impatient about Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment putting off making a sequel to Casper, franchise owners Harvey Comics made a deal with Saban Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment to produce Direct-to-Video follow-ups Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy. The reason they went straight-to-video was thanks to Loophole Abuse: Harvey sold the film rights to Universal, as in theatrical films; movies produced for video didn't count.(The same loophole was exploited by Saban for the direct-to-video Addams Family Reunion (the sequel to Paramount's Addams Family movies) and Richie Rich's Christmas Wish (a sequel to Warner Bros.' Richie Rich).) Funnily enough, through a series of acquisitions, the Casper character would become outright owned by Universal, including the rights to some of the DTV films, and they released a DVD set including the 1995 film and A Spirited Beginning in 2019. Casper Meets Wendy appears to have been retained by Fox and Saban's successor, Disney, however. * Denis Villeneuve's Dune was originally supposed to be distributed by Universal like the 1984 film, but due to producer Legendary Pictures switching allegiances in mid-2018 it is now distributed by Warner Bros.. Ironically, Universal will co-distribute the home media release as part of a joint venture with Warner. * The Butterfly Effect and its sequel was distributed by New Line. The third installment was distributed by Lionsgate. * Van Wilder was distributed by Artisan Entertainment, now owned by Lionsgate. Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj was distributed by MGM. Van Wilder: Freshman Year was distributed by Paramount under its Paramount Famous Productions banner. * Poltergeist: To an extent. MGM produced the trilogy and the remake. However, the first movie is currently owned by Warner Bros., due to Turner Entertainment's ownership of MGM's pre-May 1986 library, and WB's ownership of Turner Entertainment. The sequels remained with MGM, and for a while, were handled on home video by 20th Century Fox, who also distributed the remake. WB took over distribution duties of MGM's post-1986 library from Fox in 2020 (you can thank Disney buying Fox for that one), giving them rights to the whole trilogy. Later, ShoutFactory got the rights to release deluxe editions of the second and third films as well. * The VeggieTales movies. Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie was originally released by Artisan Pictures via the film unit of Family Home Entertainment, before Artisan was bought by Lionsgate. The follow-up film six years later, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, was released by Universal Pictures, Big Idea's future parent company. Universal would subsequently get the rights to Jonah once Lionsgate's 15-year contract expired. * The Phantasm franchise. First film: AVCO Embassy Pictures. Second film: Universal. Third film: Starway International Inc. Fourth film: Orion Pictures. Fifth film: Well Go Entertainment. Scream Factory released the second on Blu-ray before Well Go was able to release the rest of the series, as well as a complete boxset with all the films. * Rebuild of Evangelion: From Klork Worx for the first and second movie to Toei Company for the third and fourth films. The fourth movie adds Toho as a distributor. * Tales from the Hood was released by independent film company Savoy Pictures, with its sequels Tales from the Hood 2 and Tales from the Hood 3 distributed by Universal due to that company acquiring the rights to the first film through their subsidiary Focus Features' acquisition of Savoy Pictures' film library after Savoy Pictures went defunct. * The Heartbreak Kid (1972) was released by Fox, the 2007 remake by Paramount. * Taft Entertainment's library (which includes Stephen King's Cujo and The Running Man) was sold to Spelling Entertainment in 1988 as part of the overall purchase of Taft's programming assets (outside of Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears). Warner Bros. originally distributed Cujo while TriStar handled The Running Man and The Monster Squad. Spelling purchased Repulic Pictures in 1994, and Republic took in the theatrical film library of Spelling under its wing. Viacom, which purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994, acquired Spelling in 1999, and thus the Republic libary, including films originally produced by Taft, were incorporated into Paramount's library, but still under the Republic label. Paramount/Viacom honored a home video output agreement Spelling made with Artisan Entertainment in 1998 until 2006 for both films and TV series in the Spelling library under the Republic label, though before the output deal ended, Artisan was acquired by Lionsgate. After the 2006 split of Viacom and CBS Corporation, the former kept the Spelling Entertainment film library under Melange Pictures, and the latter took the TV library under Spelling Television. Paramount/Viacom licensed the home video rights to the Melange Pictures library (except It's a Wonderful Life, which Paramount/Viacom now handled in-house) to Lionsgate for another 6 years, then Olive Films starting in 2012. + One film in the Melange Pictures library, Freeway, ultimately had the rights revert to its producers, The Kushner-Locke Company. Both Freeway and its In Name Only sequel Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby (itself an example, having been distributed by Full Moon Features) were out of print for years and unavailable on any HD format until Kushner-Locke licensed them to Vinegar Syndrome for a 4K restoration. * Watership Down has had this in America. It was first released to theaters by AVCO Embassy Pictures, but the later video release was distributed by Warner Bros., who would retain the distribution rights up until 2014, where they have since remained with Janus Films with a release from their sister company The Criterion Collection. * A sequel to Knives Out was initially greenlit by Lionsgate, which had released the first film. However, before production could begin, Netflix launched a successful $400 million bid to take over production and distribution of not only that film, but a second sequel as well. * RAD was released theatrically by TriStar and on VHS and laserdisc by Embassy Home Entertainment, then by its successor Nelson (and Warner Bros. in some international territories). After over two decades without a subsequent video release, Utopia Distribution(A company co-owned by Robert Schwartzman, whose father Jack produced the movie) acquired the theatrical and digital rights and gave it a one-off 4K UHD release on video through its partner label Vinegar Syndrome (which became one of the biggest sellers ever on the site). It subsequently licensed the film to Mill Creek for a general home entertainment release. * The View Askewniverse has run from studio to studio over the years. Clerks was an independent production that was picked up by Miramax. Its next film, Mallrats, was released by Gramercy Pictures, and is consequently owned by Universal. Chasing Amy went back to Miramax, who would've also handled Dogma. However, Miramax's owner at the time took issue with the film's subject matter, and had the Weinsteins buy the movie from them. The brothers licensed the film to a then-small Lionsgate for its theatrical release and Sony for home video, deals that had since lapsed and pre-dated streaming. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was released by Miramax under the Dimension Films label. All the Miramax-released films are now distributed by Paramount. Clerks II was released by The Weinstein Company. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot went to Saban Films domestically and Universal internationally, with Lionsgate handling home video. Lionsgate also acquired the distribution rights to Clerks II through a deal with TWC's successors, Lantern Entertainment and Spyglass Media Group, and released Clerks III. The rights to Dogma were sold off in 2024 to a company called Flicks Ventures, LTD, who would license it to Lionsgate for new home media the following year, bringing it back home in a sense. * The Qatsi trilogy and its successors Baraka and Samsara are another example of this, and a relatively rare one when it comes to documentaries. Koyaanisqatsi went through Island Alive Pictures on initial release, Powaqqatsi was coproduced by Golan-Globus and released by that firm's distribution arm Cannon Films, and Naqoyqatsi was coproduced and released by Miramax. Koyaanisqatsi and most of the rights to Powaqqatsi are both currently owned by MGM through their acquisitions of the PolyGram library and Cannon, respectively, while the TV/streaming rights to Powaqqatsi and all rights to Naqoyqatsi are owned by Paramount (and in the latter case by Disney and Lionsgate at various points). Both companies have licensed the three films to The Criterion Collection for their boxset and the Criterion Channel streaming service. Baraka, widely considered a Spiritual Successor, went to Samuel Goldwyn for theatrical, and is currently licensed to MPI for home video; that film's sequel Samsara went to Oscilloscope. Five films, five distributors. * The Jennifer Lopez/Josh Duhamel comedy Shotgun Wedding was originally produced and set to be released theatrically by Lionsgate; however, Amazon Studios picked up the film in 2022 with an offer Lionsgate allegedly couldn't refuse, releasing it on Prime Video. * The Crow (1994) began production under Paramount, but they dropped the film during production due to the on-set death of its star Brandon Lee. Miramax, just purchased by Disney at the time, stepped in to complete the film and handle distribution through its Dimension Films label. Thus, the 2020 acquisition of a minority stake in Miramax, and distribution rights to its library, by Paramount meant that rights to The Crow returned to the studio that originally greenlit the film. * Zigzagged with Twister. Whereas the first film was released by Warner Bros. in North America and Universal Pictures internationally, Twisters is being released by Universal in North America and Warners internationally. * The Rodgers and Hammerstein film versions of Oklahoma! and South Pacific were produced and distributed by the Magna Theatre Corporation for their initial roadshow runs. After they entered their general release runs, distribution of the films changed hands; Oklahoma! went to RKO, and later 20th Century Fox, while South Pacific went to Fox. In the 1980s, CBS acquired the video rights to both films from the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization; these rights were transferred to CBS/Fox, and later 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. In 1982, Oklahoma! was re-released theatrically by The Samuel Goldwyn Company, which also assumed television rights. South Pacific was not given a theatrical reissue, but Goldwyn still distributed the film for TV. By 2021, Oklahoma! was distributed for TV by 20th Century Fox's successor Disney (it was streamed on Disney+ for a while) before those rights expired shortly thereafter. In 2023, Samuel Goldwyn Films (a spiritual but not legal successor to the Goldwyn Company) acquired the worldwide distribution rights to both films, as well as the filmed 1998 Royal National Theatre production of Oklahoma! starring Hugh Jackman, from the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and released the films on Blu-Ray. * The Substance was originally a coproduction of Universal Pictures and its subsidiary Working Title Films, but the studio ultimately cast the film aside after seeing the final cut and just how much grotesque Body Horror it contained. The film was then shopped around by sales agent The Match Factory, and after it got an 11-minute standing ovation and won Best Screenplay at Cannes, cinephile-oriented streaming service MUBI ultimately won distribution rights in most countries. TV-To-Film Examples ------------------- * Firefly was produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television (oh, all right, and Mutant Enemy) but the big-screen film version, Serenity, was made by Universal. * Orion — owners of Filmways, which made The Addams Family — was having financial issues and elected to sell domestic rights to Paramount for the first film in order to cover some debt (they had a deal with Columbia for overseas distribution). After they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Paramount picked up the sequel rights from Orion (though was not involved in the 1992 cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera for ABC, despite owning a trademark on The Addams Family at the time). And things don't stop there: Saban got the rights in the late nineties and did a sitcom out of them (with Warner Bros. distributing on home video the pilot, Addams Family Reunion), and then MGM — current owners of Orion, made an animated flick complete with a sequel to boot. * The film of Lost in Space was made by New Line, though the series itself was from Fox. And then there was another series, made by Netflix. * Although The Fugitive was a Quinn Martin Production in association with United Artists Television, and the series itself is owned today (like almost the entire QM back catalogue(Warner Bros. co-produced and owns The F.B.I., 20th Century co-produced and owns the series based on Twelve O'Clock High and the only theatrical QM Production, The Mephisto Waltz)) by CBS and Paramount, the film is owned by Warner Bros. (this came about due to QM Productions's sale to Taft Broadcasting; Taft executive Keith Barish eventually left the company and took the rights to The Fugitive with him, so when former QM employee and latter-day producer Arnold Kopelson wanted to do a film based on the series with regular partners Warner Bros., a deal was seen to be made.) * Star Trek: The Original Series was originally produced by Desilu Studios and aired on NBC. Desilu Studios was bought out by Paramount during the show's run, and with the CBS-Viacom split, Paramount's original television division stayed on CBS's side. Paramount would distribute all the Star Trek movies. None of the spin-offs (other than Star Trek: The Animated Series) aired on NBC or an NBC-affiliated network, with Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine broadcast in first-run syndication, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise airing on UPN, and Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy (initially before jumping to Netflix), andStar Trek: Strange New Worlds airing on Paramount+, formerly CBS All Access. So after NBC canceled the series, it became a Cash-Cow Franchise and not only has NBC not seen a dime of it, the money all goes to the people who own their rival. Call it Laser-Guided Karma if you want. (Ironically, CBS originally passed on Star Trek in favor of Lost in Space.) * The A-Team was produced by Universal and Stephen J. Cannell Productions (Universal owns the series now), but the film was released by 20th Century Fox due to Universal putting the film in turnaround several years before it finally got produced, as well as Fox (via New World Communications) having bought out Cannell's company. * Dark Shadows was made by Dan Curtis Productions, but the film was released by Warner Bros., who purchased the rights directly from series creator Dan Curtis' estate. WB also owns the 1970s films that were originally from MGM (via Turner), and attempted a TV reboot in 2004. * Magical Mystery Tour was originally a Made-for-TV movie produced by Apple Corps in association with the BBC before it was re-released in theaters in 1974 by New Line Cinema and again in 2012 by Apple. * The film of The Equalizer was made by Columbia Pictures, while the series was made by Universal. * 21 Jump Street was a Stephen J. Cannell Production broadcast on Fox, but the film series was made by Columbia Pictures and MGM (with the former handling home video distribution). * Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters, a movie based on a series produced by [adult swim] was distributed by First Look Studios rather than Warner Bros. theatrically. Averted by the DVD releases, which are still distributed by WB though. ---	ChannelHop	null
Superman	# Shadow Archetype - Superman Superman ========== Superman's archenemies are dark reflections of himself. While many of them have gifted abilities and talents that set them apart and above regular people, they use said gifts for selfish gain. Whereas Superman is the Man of Tomorrow who inspires millions and grew up with a loving family who taught him to stand up for justice, his adversaries are People of the Past who instill fear due to the dark backstories that drove them to embrace villainy and cannot see beyond their short-term desires. --- Comic Books ----------- * Lex Luthor sees Superman as his own Shadow Archetype: Lex sees himself as someone who's worked and struggled for everything he has who represents the best humanity has to offer, viewing Superman as someone who never had to earn his powers but sets himself above humanity and lords it over us. Furthermore, Superman uses power for the good of mankind, while Lex would use his wealth just to show off. Superman grew up with a loving family, while Lex's were abusive and were killed (possibly by him). + Furthermore both Lex and Superman believe in humanity's ability for self-improvement and ability to achieve greatness. However Superman believes humanity should put those traits to use for the betterment of all, while Lex holds that humanity should seek to secure its own interests and power above all. * In the Silver Age when young Superboy and Lex Luthor started out as friends, Jax-Ur is what Superman would have been like had young Superboy let the bad influence of Lex Luthor poison his mind. He is a super powered mad scientist who not only squanders his own full potential in the pursuit of unethical experiments that destroy the lives of others, but he is also a shameless criminal who refuses to learn the right lessons from his setbacks. * Silver Age Faora is Superman if he truly enjoyed the power he has over other people and spent the majority of his time in pursuit of yet new ways to hurt, torment and kill those he dislikes. Where Superman had a fortress of solitude, Faora turned her own home into a concentration camp! While Faora is quite clever and a much better fighter than Superman, and every other living Kryptonian for that matter, she ultimately gets outsmarted by him because the focus of her studies has been so narrow, showing that while Superman hasn't become quite the warrior he could be, he hasn't been wasting his time either and can be affective ways that don't involve being the best fighter. In latter continuities Faora for all her fighting prowess usually ends up under Zod's thumb, and of less importance to him than Non and Ursa, while Superman is able to best Zod time and time again. * Darkseid is what Superman would be if he decided to use his powers to be a God ruling over everyone. Superman is what Darkseid might have been like if his formative years had not been guided by malevolent figures. Darkseid was genuinely capable of love once, as shown in his relationship with Suli before his mother poisoned her. * General Zod is Superman with a sense of personal entitlement instead of charity. Zod also serves as an example of what Superman could become if he gives in to self-righteousness and chose to become a ruthless dictator. + Zod is a representative of native Krypton's more unsavory and brutal culture and history as well as a need to dominate others through strength and militaristic force, given the fact that he was raised in a military background. This contrasts with Jor-El being a scientist and being willing to try encouraging others to see and reach the best of one's self as he once did with sending Kal-El to Earth. That said, Jor-El coming back alive in The Oz Effect as the eponymous Mr. Oz pushes Zod and Jor-El into being more direct Foils, as Jor-El's pessimistic view on Humanity is a common thing he shares with Zod. + Dru-Zod and Kal-El are essentially a contrast similar to night-and-day regarding their characteristic nature and their beliefs and perspectives on others. Kal was raised in a normal household and was taught earthly beliefs in virtue and kindness while Zod was bought up in a military occupation and was convinced that his race was the ultimate pinnacle in terms of power and might. Essentially, General Zod is a reminder of what Superman could have become if he was to be taught under a militaristic upbringing and wound up becoming someone who instilled fear and dread onto others with their powers in an attempt to assert dominance, much like Zod himself did. * Mr. Mxyzptlk is an "alien" who is "careful" with his immense power but still uses it frivolously instead of responsibly. While Superman can be playful and deceptive, Mr. Mxyzptlk lives to be, and often forces Superman, who would rather live as an example of truth and justice, to accept the more duplicitous side of himself in order to deal with Mr. Mxyzptlk. * Brainiac, being the cold, malevolent planet-destroying alien that is emotionally detached from humanity to Superman's caring, benevolent planet-saving alien that is emotionally attached to humanity. * Mongul I, another alien despot who enjoys watching others fight and die for his sadistic amusement, feels that the universe owes him its fealty, and runs every planet he rules into the ground with his limitless ambition and cruelty. * Metallo is a literal cybernetic "Man of Steel" whose powers came at the cost of his humanity in contrast to Clark's powers, which enhance his humanity. He's also an example of what a Superman weaponized by the military might look like. * Doomsday, pre-Flashpoint, is what Superman might have been with an uncaring, abusive "guardian" who only cared about the child's value to science for the sake of science rather than ethical adoptive parents. New 52 Doomsday is power harnessed for destruction instead of protection. Rebirth Doomsday is a symbol of dread rather than one of hope. * While not created as a Superman villain, Lobo has been used as Superman's shadow as well: both are comparably powerful, both are the survivors of a dead race (Lobo killed his race while Superman's was dead before he was old enough to know them), but Lobo does whatever he wants and leaves a path of destruction behind him. * Martian Manhunter could be seen as a heroic example of this. Both Clark and J'onn are powerful, benevolent aliens who are the last of their kinds. The difference being that Superman was raised on Earth and considers himself an Earthling for the most part, while J'onn is Martian through and through. Superman is a friendly, handsome white guy; J'onn is a bald, crimson-eyed, stoic green man (with his human guise usually that of a black man). Superman's powers (Super-Strength, Flight, Super-Senses) are the stuff of Greek legends; Manhunter's powers (Telepathy, Shapeshifting, Invisibility) are the stuff people feared about aliens during the 50's. * Bizarro is an an imperfect copy of Superman created by science gone awry. The end result is a Psychopathic Manchild trapped in an alien's body. * As with Metallo, Cyborg Superman's powers came at the cost of losing his sanity, causing him to irrationally blame Superman for his misfortunes. * The Erradicator is everything Superman is not: Abrasive, pitiless, willing to depose even the most minor threats with lethal force. He's all of The Man of Steel's power and willingness but without any trace of something akin to a conscience. * Ultraman of Earth-3 is what happens when absolute power is given to a small-minded, petty jerk, and demonstrates why Earth-1/the Matter universe is so lucky to get the Superman that it did. * Born on a parallel dimension devoid of any metas and destroyed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superboy Prime was trapped outside time for decades. Unlike mainstream Superman, his faith in Earth-1's heroes was destroyed by decades of their mistakes, and he emerged from a pocket dimension to try to replace Superman. Prime firmly believes that being Superman is his calling despite the fact that he is just a psychotic and murderous villain. * Batman could be seen as one - both are orphans who seek justice, but Clark is an idealistic everyman who won the Superpower Lottery and wants to be an inspiration, and Bruce is a jaded billionaire Badass Normal who wants to be a symbol of fear. Such contrasts is what make them Vitriolic Best Buds. * During the Camelot Falls storyline, Superman discovers an alien known as "Subjekt-17", whose ship landed in Russia years ago; his father died in the crash, his mother died giving birth, and he was subsequently "raised" in a government facility where he was subject to various experiments, including vivisection. While forced to fight Subjekt-17 due to his anger against the wider human race even after the people who actually experimented on him are all dead, Superman finds himself reflecting that Subjekt-17 is basically evidence of his own nightmare of what might have happened if he'd been found by someone other than the Kents and his alien nature was more obvious on top of that. Subjekt-17's biggest tragedy is that his upbringing left him with a serious case of Black-and-White Insanity where he considers humanity as a whole all monsters who torture him and other aliens, rejecting Superman's attempt to talk him down. * Manchester Black is a cynical Superman who goes on a Knight Templar crusade killing criminals instead of arresting them. Black even mocks Superman for being a stupid idiot who clings on to traditional heroics. * Red Hood and the Outlaws: Starfire to Superman. She's the flip side of Clark's coin, both being nearly all powerful aliens that are powered by the yellow sun. Both came from being traumatically removed from home into unfamiliar surroundings, with two very different upbringings. Starfire's perceptions of humanity, along with her tendency to attempt to kill whatever she doesn't like directly contrast Clark's. Star wishes to remain very private, only presenting herself willingly to the public eye when it's unavoidable. She doesn't wish to come off as friendly or there for others' protection, she just wants to do what she wishes. \|\|In issue 14, they meet... and it nearly breaks out into all out brawl involving the "team" and Supes, mostly due to her and Jason's character traits. It takes Jason's date, Isabel, from keeping things from getting out of hand while getting them all to sit down and talk\|\|. * Supergirl has several dark counterparts like Satan Girl and Dark Supergirl (who are literally her dark side given shape and sentience), Overgirl (her Nazi counterpart from a parallel universe), Bizarrogirl (her backwards, imperfect clone), and in Who is Superwoman?, Lucy Lane, who is pretty much her complete opposite: She's an adult woman whose powers are artificial and who is willing to do anything — no matter how abhorrent — to earn her surviving parent's approval. * Wraith is Superman if instead of being an alien orphan sent to Earth to save his life and raised to believe in truth, justice and the American way by a kindly couple of farmers, he was instead an alien weapon purposefully designed for Earth and gifted to the United States Armed Forces. While Superman lives a civilian existence and has a Fortress of Solitude if he needs space, Wraith's entire life has basically been missions, solitude and experimentation from his superiors who hope to use him to create more weapons. While Wraith is more powerful than Superman, he envies and admires Superman, hoping the day he ever has to fight Superman, for whatever reason, never comes. + Wraith can also be seen as a shadow archetype to Doomsday, being what Doomsday might have been like if created for genuinely altruistic reasons and left in the care of comparatively compassionate guardians. That Wraith's situation looks comfortable and enjoyable compared to Doomsday really shows how easy it would have been for the monster to become something possible for people to coexist with if he had just a little something go right in his formative years. Conversely, Doomsday is a reminder of just how wrong Wraith could have ended up if the people responsible for him were a little less than responsible people. * Ejecta from Power Girl volume 3 is what Power Girl might have become if, in going beyond its programming to the point of establishing an identity, Symbio decided he loved Kara Zor-L as a daughter instead of growing to despise the one he was programmed to keep safe. If Symbio didn't have an Irrational Hatred of Power Girl, it would be easy to see Ejecta becoming another entrepreneur and/or superpower rather than a Tyke-Bomb. On the other hand, it's easy to see a more loving Symbio turning a young Kara into a similar tyke bomb. Films ----- * Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: After two decades of fighting crime, Batman has become cynical and apathetic towards the world. His crimefighting methods are less about protecting the innocent and more about punishing the guilty, to the point even ordinary citizens fear him. Superman, who also struggles with insecurities in this film, begins to see Batman as the kind of person he could become if he ever lost his faith. * Superman: Doomsday features \|\|Superman's clone, created by Lex Luthor after Superman's death\|\|, who still holds Supes' desire to help people and protect his city, but goes into extreme measures to do so, from threatening civilians to \|\|killing Toyman\|\|. \|\|After the Man of Steel is resurrected\|\|, Superman even refers to \|\|the clone\|\| as "My reflection in a cracked mirror." * In Superman Returns, Richard White is essentially a reflection of the man that Superman could have become if he had fully embraced his human side as "Clark Kent" instead of traveling across the galaxy in search of his home planet. Like Superman, he's a brave, kind-hearted, square-jawed heroic figure who loves Lois Lane and can fly (in a plane); unlike Superman, he's a fully committed family man who actually marries Lois, and \|\|becomes a father to the son that Superman unwittingly abandoned\|\|. * Superman (2025): As a clone of Superman created by Luthor to mindlessly do his bidding, Ultraman's thematically a reflection of what would happen if Clark was never given a chance to be his own person and was instead forced to do others' bidding. Live-Action TV -------------- * In Smallville Lex Luthor was always being warned about the darkness that he carried within himself. Enter Lx-3, a failed clone of Lex in the Season 10 premiere, "Lazarus". Lx-3 was essentially Lex without the facade, with all the rage and anger simmering at the very surface. An Ax-Crazy psycho to Lex's Manipulative Bastard, Lx-3 showcases exactly what is lurking beneath the surface of our favourite Corrupt Corporate Executive, while demonstrating how vital that restraint really is if Lex is to be a successful supervillain. Video Games ----------- * Injustice: Regime Superman in Injustice: Gods Among Us represents what Superman can become if a tragic event drove him to snap and lose his moral compass for good. After understanding what drove his Regime counterpart to villainy, multiverse Superman fears that he would've done the same things. Regime Superman also channels General Zod's authoritarian tendencies. \|\|In his arcade ending, multiverse Superman ingests a kryptonite piece that can be remotely detonated in the event he goes rogue\|\|. + He's also one to Supergirl in Injustice 2, as while he still hasn't recovered from the Despair Event Horizon, she wishes to actually give people hope (and make them trust the House of El again) and not be a Well-Intentioned Extremist dictator unlike her estranged cousin. Not that one could rightly call her a heel in the first place, \|\|but she ultimately turns against the Regime and joins up with Batman in the endgame. Even then, she feels she failed her cousin, who she was supposed to protect from people like the Joker, and her family by being unable to stop the House of El's reputation from being tarnished\|\|. Western Animation ----------------- * Superman: The Animated Series: Lex Luthor can be considered to be the composite shadow of both Superman and Batman. With Superman, Luthor is a Misanthrope Supreme who craves godhood to dominate everyone else in contrast to Superman's desire to be a regular human who only uses his powers to help others. With Batman, Luthor is a multi-billionaire, Badass Normal genius who uses his money and company to spread crime and corruption everywhere in contrast to fellow billionaire Bruce Wayne's humanitarian efforts to reduce crime and corruption. * My Adventures with Superman + The General is the logical corruption of all of Superman's good qualities. Superman is dedicated to doing the right thing, and so is the General — but where Clark is filled with self-doubt, the General is firmly stationed within his biases and refuses to compromise his worldview. They swap roles in "Zero Day, Part 2"; while Superman becomes more confident in his abilities and role as a protector of Metropolis, the General begins to doubt everything he's believed for the past 22 years. + Brainiac embodies a dark reflection of Sam Lane as a father. They both have a daughter whom they trained like soldiers, and hid facts about their family (Sam never revealed to Lois her mother's illness was terminal, while Brainiac never told Kara anything about her biological parents). But while Sam does love his daughter, Brainiac constantly abuses and berates Kara, and is willing to kill Kara when she proves she'll never be the killing machine he wants from her.	ShadowArchetype	null
PaginasSoloParaDefinicion	# Es Administracion - Páginas Sólo Para Definición Las siguientes páginas consisten en un conjunto de tropos y jergas de fandom muy comunes. Estas páginas pueden ser empleadas dentro del contexto de un ejemplo((Las que sean Flame Bait solamente pueden aparecer en descripciones de tropos o índices, las páginas TCPV pueden ser enlazadas en subpáginas TCPV, y ninguna de las dos puede estar presente en la página principal de una obra)), pero nunca se pueden utilizar como un ejemplo en una obra. Las páginas que se convierten en Supertropos Sin Ejemplos van aquí; indexan Subtropos que pueden recopilar ejemplos de forma habitual. --- * +18 - Solo existe para definir el termino. * El Héroe - Supertropo sin ejemplos. * Fan Imbécil - Demasiado conflictivo y subjetivo. * Moraleja Esópica - Supertropo sin ejemplos. * Pantaletazo - Demasiado NSFW. * Tipo Duro - Supertropo sin ejemplos. * Trama De Tontos - Demasiado conflictivo y subjetivo. ---	EsAdministracion	null
AnimatedFilms	# Actor Allusion - Animated Films Examples of Actor Allusions in Animated Films. --- * Mr. Burnish from Abominable tries to prove something to the world (which, in this case, is the yetis' existence) by using the most drastic measures possible. This seems to be like \|\|a more benign approach to Sir Miles Axlerod (who instead tried to publicly convince that alternative fuels have gone bad)\|\|. * Aladdin and the King of Thieves: + At one point, the Genie becomes Mrs. Doubtfire. + Cassim has an interesting case: Originally, he was going to be voiced by the late Sean Connery, but thinking that it'd be too distracting to the audience, John Rhys-Davies got that part instead. Rhys-Davies actually collaborated with Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Considering the fact that The King of Thieves has archaeological themes akin to the Indiana Jones franchise, it rather makes sense that Rhys-Davies would be involved in this film. * Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation: While the Greens were chased by the killer Farmbots (played by Jack McBrayer), one of the farmbots chased after them while playing a banjo. * Big Hero 6: + T.J. Miller, playing the monster-suit-wearing kaiju fanboy Fred, has been "inside" of a monster before. The school mascot suit he wears in his introduction also resembles the head of a Hideous Zippleback. + Honey Lemon is introduced listening to "Boca, Dulce Boca", a song by Jose Luis Rodriguez (father of Honey's VA, Genesis Rodriguez). * In Disney's Bolt, Penny was a child actress who starred in an In-Universe sci-fi show, which is pretty reflective to how Miley Cyrus has been a young television star in her earlier career. * In The Book of Life, The Candle Maker says "Today was a good day.", the name of one of Ice Cube's songs. * Rut and Tuke from Brother Bear are literally just moose versions of Bob and Doug Mackenzie from SCTV, who were played by their voice actors Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas. * Cars: + Strip "The King" Weathers' design is based off a Plymouth Superbird, the same kind of car Richard Petty used in his racing career. Interestingly enough, "The King" is also Petty's real-life nickname. + In the first film: - At one point, Mater says of tractor tipping "I don't care who you are, that's funny right there", a catchphrase of his actor Larry the Cable Guy. Also, when Lightning McQueen jets out of the pit in the final race, Mater shouts Larry's other catchphrase, "Git 'Er Done!" - This is Played for Laughs at the end of the film itself: Mack watches Cars-ified Pixar films,(Toy Car Story, Monster Trucks, Inc. and A Bug's Life) where he soon notices that "they're just using the same actor over and over." + Finn McMissile from Cars 2 is simply Nigel Powers reimagined as a vehicle. + Sterling from Cars 3 is the new owner of Rust-eze and has been pressuring Lightning for his selfish goals, prompting a bet between them. It seems that Nathan Fillion is channeling his inner Johnny Worthington III while playing Sterling. * Chicken Little (2005): + Wallace Shawn voiced Principal Fetchit in this film, another stressed dog principal he played in his career. + This is also not the only time Joan Cusack played a Tomboy who fell for a guy who's considerably shorter than her. * Chicken Run has two references to BraveHeart. Mel Gibson's introduction is accompanied by him yelling "FREEEEEDOMMMMMMMM"!! Also, when he says that he hails from the land of the free, Mac guesses he's referring to Scotland. * In Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!, Shaggy, while messing around in the DJ studio, tries his hand at it. His VA Casey Kasem of course was well known for being a famous radio DJ. * Coco: + Mamá Imelda Rivera owns a giant flying jaguar named Pepita. Seems that Alanna Ubach wasn't done yet from playing a Hispanic character with a huge association with a feline. + Ernesto de la Cruz, Miguel Rivera's music idol, \|\|turns out to be a fraudster who murdered Héctor Rivera just for the sake of fame\|\|. Looks like Benjamin Bratt has not slow himself down from doing \|\|a Mexican villain whom the protagonist used to look up to\|\|. * Corpse Bride: + Emily recites Ophelia's "That's rosemary, for remembrance..." speech from Hamlet while holding a bouquet of flowers after Victor rejects her. Emily is voiced by Helena Bonham Carter, who played Ophelia 15 years earlier in Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 film adaptation of the play. + It's also not the first time Danny Elfman voices a singing skeleton. * Despicable Me: + From Despicable Me 3, Balthazarr Bratt is simply a more kid-friendly version of Randy Marsh, with both men behaving immaturely in front of others while they're doing some of the most questionable acts imaginable. + Maxime Le Mal from Despicable Me 4 has developed a strong rivalry with Felonius Gru all because of their academic past as Lycée Pas Bon students. Sounds a lot like Megamind, alright. * In the Disney Fairies franchise, Tinker Bell is curious to know what's it like to be a Water Fairy while she's a Tinker Fairy. Later on, in The Pirate Fairy, she finally gets to be a Water Fairy herself, albeit temporarily. Did we ever forget to mention the fact that Tink herself was voiced by Katara? * The Emoji Movie: + Christina Aguilera voices a dance instructor, officially named Akiko Glitter, in Alex's Just Dance app. Looks like Aguilera hasn't stopped herself yet from playing a fictional dancer in a film. + During the scene \|\|where Alex's phone is about to be deleted\|\|, the poop emoji, who was voiced by Patrick Stewart, gives his reaction by saying "RED ALERT!" while sitting on a swivel chair, in a similar fashion to Captain Jean-Luc Picard. * In The Emperor's New Groove, Yzma has been noted for being transformed into a kitten. Incidentally, her voice actress, the late Eartha Kitt, has previously played as Catwoman in the 1966 television series Batman. * Encanto: Olga Merediz plays an Abuela in a musical with songs composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. She originated the roll of Abuela Claudia in Miranda's In the Heights, and later played her in the movie. * In The Enchanted Boy, the Soviet adaptation of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, the rat chief has very Hitler-like appearance and manners. The actor voicing it, Sergey Martinson, had played the guy three times. * In Flushed Away, near the beginning, Roddy (played by Hugh Jackman) is trying on different clothes. At one point, he tries a Wolverine costume, referencing Jackman's role as Wolverine in the X-Men Film Series. * Frozen stars Idina Menzel as as Elsa, and the Duke of Weselton warns Hans that Anna might be "conspiring with the wicked sorceress", the "wicked sorceress" being Elsa. Idina Menzel played the Wicked Witch of the West in the musical Wicked. * Home (2015): + Oh is basically Sheldon Cooper as an alien: being quirky, yet knowledgeable towards others. They also have their issues with socializing others, but through maturity, they eventually know how to communicate to others more properly. + It was mentioned that Gratuity "Tip" Tucci originated from Barbados, which is Rihanna's real-life place of origin. * Hotel Transylvania: + Selena Gomez voices Mavis Dracula, the only daughter of Count Dracula and \|\|Martha LuBov\|\| who has the same powers as her father does. Looks like Gomez hasn't stopped herself from being part of a mythically themed family. + Steve Buscemi voices Wayne the werewolf, another animated monster he played in his career. * How to Train Your Dragon: Stoick the Vast commands his Berkian clan fiercely much like how King Leonidas boldly leads his fellow Spartans. * In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, during one musical number Quasimodo is briefly given a Mozart-esque white wig to wear. He's voiced by Tom Hulce, who played Mozart in Amadeus. * The Incredibles: + In the first film: - During his first scene with Buddy Pine, the future Syndrome, voiced by Jason Lee, Mr. Incredible forgets the boy's name. Mr. Incredible's first guess is Brodie, a reference to Lee's character Brodie Bruce from Mallrats. - Frozone's scene with the cop and getting the drink of water is a direct homage to Samuel L. Jackson's scene as Zeus in Die Hard with a Vengeance, in which a cop is about to shoot him but he needs to answer a pay phone. - Elastigirl's jet crashing into the ocean is a reference to the scene in Always where Dorinda, who was also played by Holly Hunter, does the same thing. + From Incredibles 2: - Winston Deavor plans to bring back supers publicly through legal means. Looks like Bob Odenkirk is channeling his his inner Saul Goodman while he's playing Winston here. - Winston's sister, Evelyn, who was voiced by Catherine Keener, \|\|is revealed to be the real Screenslaver, and her Evil Plan involves hypnotizing supers to paint them in a bad light\|\|. Sounds pretty similar to \|\|Missy Armitage, another prejudicial hypnotist played by Keener\|\|. * Inside Out has a mild example: Sadness, who wears a soft sweater and large glasses, is voiced by Phyllis Smith, who's best known for playing Phyllis on the U.S. version of The Office. Smith's outfits on the show are almost identical to the one Sadness wears. * In The Iron Giant, Annie Hughes' job during the film is being a waitress. Sounds pretty similar to Rachel Green's first job while in New York City. * In-universe example at the end of Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie: When Khalil appears and asks who needed a tow, Twippo says "Uh...have we met?" This was because Archibald Asparagus was both Jonah and Twippo in the film and Jonah meets Khalil in the Jonah story in the film. * In Disney's The Jungle Book, King Louie calls himself the "king of the swingers". His voice actor, Louis Prima, was nicknamed "The King of Swing". * KPop Demon Hunters: When Rumi first lays eyes on Jinu (voiced by Ahn Hyo-seop), MeloMance's "Love, Maybe" starts playing. "Love, Maybe" was written for and featured heavily on the soundtrack of Business Proposal, where Ahn played the protagonist and male romantic lead. * Kung Fu Panda: + Po Ping makes frequent use of Jack Black's catchphrases, most notably "Skadoosh!". + Viper was voiced by Lucy Liu, who previously played one of the Death Vipers. * In the trailer for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, Emmet - played by Chris Pratt - takes his pet plant to space with him to search for the kidnapped builders. It wouldn't be the first time he has a plant as a copilot; Pratt did that in Guardians of the Galaxy. * The Lion King: + Jeremy Irons is the original voice of Scar, a fratricidal lion with a scar on his face. As he kills his brother, he says "Long live the king". In Kingdom of Heaven, Irons plays the scarred Marshal of Jerusalem, who chants "Long live the king" in the exact same voice at Guy de Lusignan's coronation. + Also, the way Scar says "You have no idea" in response to Simba telling him that he's weird is exactly the same as the way he said it when playing Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune. + This also isn't the first time James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair played the king and queen of a fictional African country who are also the protagonist's parents. + In the Direct-to-Video sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Kiara has develpod intimate bonds with Kovu, whose mother Zira was rather negligent towards his wellbeing and rights. Did Sidney Prescott just went through this all over again? * Madagascar: + Alex the lion is basically Derek Zoolander as a lion: being flashy, fun-loving, and friendly while striking himself in front of the audience. + In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: - Melman the giraffe got instantly appointed by his fellow giraffes in Africa as a [witch] doctor. - Moto Moto the hippo is attracted to fellow hippo Gloria's fat body, much like how will.i.am was obsessively spending for a girl's humps. * In the Disney anthology movie Make Mine Music, Nelson Eddy performed all the voices in short "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing At The Met". At one point Willie the Whale sings one of Eddy's signature songs, "Shortnin' Bread". * Monsters, Inc. 1: + James P. Sullivan has developed a softening relationship with a human girl named Boo, much like how Pacha teaches to the teenage Emperor Kuzco about humility. + It's combined with a Parental Bonus, when Randall Boggs threatens to put his assistant Jeff Fungus through [a] shredder. * In Monsters vs. Aliens, Hugh Laurie voiced Dr. Cockroach, an eccentric doctor with a snotty attitude. Doesn't that seem familiar? * Mrs. Grunion from Mr. Peabody & Sherman is a Children Services agent who has a sense of zoophobia against certain types of animals (i.e. dogs). Is Allison Janney channeling her inner Gladys Sharp here? * Onward: Barley, who is voiced by Chris Pratt, is pretty much an elven version of Pratt's Marvel Cinematic Universe character Peter Quill/Star-Lord. He's a Heroic Wannabe with a fixation on his mixtape and mode of transportation, he's motivated by a parent who died from a terminal illness when he was young, and he never properly got to say goodbye to said parent because he was too scared to see their illness-ravaged bodies and them hooked up to all of the medical machinery right before they succumbed. Bonus points for the theme of Onward also being about fathers, and the lead character realizing who their true father figure actually is. \|\|Said true father figure happens to have blue skin in both cases, as well.\|\| * Peter Pan (1953): : + During "You Can Fly, You Can Fly, You Can Fly," when the children alight on the hand of Big Ben, Wendy's skirt briefly puffs out like a parachute, letting her gently float down. In Alice in Wonderland (1951), Alice's skirt does the exact same thing as she falls down the rabbit hole: Alice and Wendy share the same voice actress and live-action model, Kathryn Beaumont. + In "Your Mother and Mine," Wendy describes a mother as "The angel voice that bids you goodnight." Her mother Mrs. Darling's voice actress is Heather Angel. * Pinocchio (1940): Probably the earliest example, Jiminy Cricket hides from Gepetto by blending in with the players in a wooden music box and scatting along with the box's tune. His voice actor, Cliff Edwards, was known for his scat singing. * Ralph Breaks the Internet: + Shank, the "Big Bad" of Slaughter Race, is another bad girl in the racing world played by Gal Gadot. + In the film's post-credits scene, Nicole Scherzinger plays the mother of a child named Mo, who so happens to resemble a younger Moana. * In The Rescuers, there is at least one scene where Bianca mispronounces words; a reference to her Green Acres character Lisa Douglas. * Ron's Gone Wrong: Savannah warns Barney not go into the woods due to evil clowns living there. Fighting one such clown was Jack Dylan Grazer (Barney)'s breakout role. * Shrek has a good number of these. + The titular character himself is basically Fat Bastard (who was the inspiration of another trope) as an ogre, as while he was undeniably fearsome, he, too, has a soft side of his own. + Antonio Banderas is well-known for his role as the masked caped crusader in The Mask of Zorro, as well as the cheesy line "you are the love of my life" which Puss in Boots (who Banderas voices) repeats to a female cat just before getting on the boat in Shrek the Third. Not to mention him carving a "P" into the side of a tree with his rapier, just as Zorro is known for carving a "Z" on his enemies. + King Harold makes a excuse about his old "crusade wound" acting up. As Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, John Cleese made a similar claim about an old war wound. + Susanne Blakeslee gets to voice this franchise's version of the Evil Queen in Shrek the Third, much like what she did with Disney's version of that character. + After headbutting her way through two stone walls in a row, Queen Lillian (voiced by Julie Andrews) starts deliriously humming snippets from "A Spoonful of Sugar" and "My Favorite Things". + In the Latin American dub, the donkey is voiced by Eugenio Derbez. His lines contain snippets from some known characters played by Derbez, like his classic "Fue horriiiible!" from his character El Lonje Moco from his comedy show Derbez en Cuando. * Sing: A minor one, but at the beginning of the movie, Mike demands a baboon give him more money, criticizes him for not giving him enough cash, and practically robs him of all his cash. * Spies in Disguise: + Lance Sterling is simply an animated version of Agent J (bonus points for being Will Smith's Ink-Suit Actor). + When Walter Beckett can't see or hear, he says his other senses are heightened. * In The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Mr. Krabs in his superhero form, at one point, apprehends Burger-Beard by firing one of his robot claws and pinning him against a wall. Long Feng from Avatar: The Last Airbender could do something similar. * The Super Mario Bros. Movie: + At the beginning of the movie, Mario and Luigi briefly interact with an Italian man voiced by Charles Martinet, who is widely known as their voice actor in the games prior to him stepping down in 2023 (though in this movie, Mario and Luigi are voiced by Chris Pratt and Charlie Day respectively). Said man wears an outfit that's similar to Mario's classic appearances. He can also be seen playing an arcade game that's similar to the one that his character made his debut in. + The final scene before credits is scored to Electric Light Orchestra's Mr. Blue Sky, which also opens Volume 1 of Guardians of the Galaxy, one of Pratt's other fantasy adventure franchises. * Tangled: + If ever Princess Rapunzel's signature magical hair gets cut, as shown with Mother Gothel and \|\|Flynn/Eugene\|\|, it goes from blonde to brown. In real life, Mandy Moore has gotten through this, as well, albeit by dyeing her hair. + In the campfire scene, Rapunzel tells Flynn Rider/Eugene Fitzherbert "Don't freak out!" and then "It's complicated!" in short order. Both of those lines are from Chuck, starring Zachary Levi, the voice actor for Flynn. * Toy Story: + In the first film: - Mr. Potato Head says "What are you looking at, you hockey puck?", causing a puck toy to shrug. "Hockey puck" is a famous insult Don Rickles uses in his comedy routines. - Sid Phillips has Buzz Lightyear (voice of Tim Allen) trapped in an upside-down plastic crate with a tool box on top. The tool box clearly sports a Binford logo; Binford Tools was the sponsor for "Tool Time" on Tim Allen's Home Improvement. + A plot point in Toy Story 2 has Al McWhiggin, voiced by Wayne Knight, stealing Woody from the Davis family, just so that he could complete and sell the entirety of the Roundup Gang to the Konishi Toy Museum in Tokyo, Japan. That seems pretty similar to what Dennis Nedry did in the 1993 film Jurassic Park, only with dinosaurs instead. + Gabby Gabby from Toy Story 4, voiced by Christina Hendricks, wants to have Woody's voice box as her own so that she could impress a human girl named Harmony, her desired owner. It sounds like what Zarina from The Pirate Fairy went through: wanting someone to recognize her specialty and make her feel welcomed by them. * Trolls: + John Cleese voices the stubborn King Gristle Sr. in the first film, much like what he did with King Harold. Interestingly, their respective children speak with American accents, while the kings themselves talk with British accents. + Trolls Band Together reveals that Branch is the youngest member of the boy band BroZone, which sounds a lot like Justin Timberlake's time with \NSYNC, where he's their youngest member. \|\|Ironically, it was later revealed that Branch is also part of another boy band named Kismet, where the rest of the \NSYNC members voice their respective characters.\|\| * In Turning Red, Ming Lee had high educational expectations for her daughter Mei. Seems that Sandra Oh wasn't done yet from playing an academically demanding lady. * Zootopia: + Duke Weaselton, is misnamed as "Duke Weselton". In Disney's Frozen, the Duke of Weselton was misnamed as "Duke Weaselton". Both characters were voiced by Alan Tudyk. + The same movie has another, ironic example related to Frozen. In the latter, Kristen Bell plays a character with a Motor Mouth. In Zootopia, she plays a character who talks extremely slowly. + Gazelle has a ton in common with Shakira, from having hips that don't lie to being affiliated with tigers.(The latter statement was actually based off her Spanish song "Loca".) ---	ActorAllusion	null
ComicBooks	# Spanner In The Works - Comic Books The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU * Marvel Universe --- A fairly common stock superhero plot consists of bad guys managing to finally defeat or capture the heroes, only to have the entire plan foiled by the appearance of an unexpected new recruit. --- Other Comic Books ----------------- * 100 Bullets: The whole series is a giant game of chess, but nobody ever thought to tell the Minute Men, the most powerful pieces on the board. They never get a single answer to any of their questions and end up ruining every single character's master plan simply because they have nothing better to do. * Archie Comics: + Reggie Mantle tends to be this purely for the sake of being a dick. Most of the time. + Archie Comics (2015): How Betty ends up critically injured in "Over The Edge". Reggie challenged Archie to a racing duel with the intent of taking him out. His gang had set up an oil slick for Archie to hit and to go over the edge. However, no one expected Betty to find out what was going on and, in an attempt to find and stop Archie from doing this, instead hits the oil slick instead, causing the crash. * Astro City: + When the Ion Empire has captured Honor Guard, Quarrel managed to follow the robots to one of their ships. Since they were unaware of her presence, she was able to blow up the power supply for the "stasis lens" and rescue Honor Guard. + Professor Borzoi's Belief Ray created a giant gorilla powerful enough to challenge the Gentleman. Unfortunately, it also brought Loony Leo to life, who smashed the ray and made the gorilla disappear. + Krigari Ironhand's second defeat against Honor Guard came because he abducted all of their members except for Mermaid, whom he didn't think was worth bothering with. She manages to free them all. + \|\|Karnazon's\|\| campaign to discredit Winged Victory is foiled when an abused boy sneaks into their secret base and informs the heroes of its location. * In Cerebus the Aardvark, the title character possesses a "magnifier" quality that influences everything and everyone around him to varying degrees. This causes the plans of everyone who tries to do anything that directly involves Cerebus to succeed wildly then crash spectacularly. * Firefly: The Sting: River throws off Saffron's plans by separating her from her remote. * Grimm Fairy Tales: Robyn is the one variable of his plan that Father Time cannot control for some reason. Even though he foresaw her ruining his plan to kill everything to stop the cycle of violence using Skye to do so, and trapped her in a place removed from time where she would face an endless horde of enemies of the rest of eternity, she still managed to escape that place and stop his plans in a different way than he foresaw (he foresaw her shooting Skye whom he was manipulating into killing the serpent Oroborus, the embodiment of the endless cycle of time, which would have resulted in the death of everything, but she shot him instead). * Groo the Wanderer: One of his more memorable derailings involved him going up against a mind-reading sorcerer. Groo fights his way to the sorcerer's throneroom, is confronted confidently by him... followed by a full page of the sorcerer making strange faces at Groo while the latter stared at him in befuddlement until he finally screamed "There's no mind to read!" and ran away. * Knights of the Old Republic: + Zayne Carrick basically sets in motion the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of the Jedi — the one that they were trying to escape by killing their Padawans — when he (unintentionally) misses the knighting ceremony and then escapes. He continues to thwart their plans, intentionally or not, ever since. + He also thwarts Arkoh Adasca's plan (with the help of Lucien and Alek) by tricking the Mandalorian leader into thinking Adasca is working with the Republic to trap him, which results in a three way brawl which culminates in Adasca's ship getting eaten by giant space slugs. * In The Legend of the Chaos God, Solego's plans to escape his imprisonment and Take Over the World are constantly disrupted by the protagonists he runs afoul \|\|with Darkwing Duck being the biggest of them all\|\|. * In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Shattered Grid it turns out Finster-5 unwittingly lead to Lord Drakkon's defeat. \|\|Finster-5 sends Ranger Slayer — a Brainwashed and Crazy version of Kimberly from Drakkon's world — to find and rescue him only to completely miss and land in the past of the original Power Rangers. That point's Alpha 5 ends up freeing her from her spell and, as a last act, finds and hits Tommy with an arrow laced with the Green Chaos Crystal shard she used to try and find Drakkon. When Drakkon later murders Tommy, his soul is pulled in and is later able to free and resurrect himself.\|\| * Cebolinha/Jimmy Five from Brazilian comic Monica's Gang is known for "infallible plans" against Monica. They usually work up until a certain point, when "accomplice" Cascão/Smudge screws up, usually by revealing it was a plan. * Paperinik New Adventures: In the Xadhoom trilogy, the Evronian plan to defeat Xadhoom fails twice because of the titular hero showing up where he had no place to be: + Initially the cruiser Zermatt is sent to capture Xadhoom for all the five seconds they need to teleport her where \|\|the Evronians are keeping hostage the Xerbians, her people, thus forcing her to surrender\|\|. They manage to do so before she grows bored and wrecks everything, but Paperinik, who has wandered around the ship, has tried some sabotage, and the teleporting device ends up sending Xadhoom back on the ship, and annoyed to boot. The Zermatt is quickly disintegrated, with Paperinik wandering through space on one of the escape pods. + Later the Evronian mobile homeworld stumble on the planet where the last free Xerbians had escaped, and use them \|\|and the other Xerbians\|\| to capture her. Thing is, Paperinik has wandered there and joins forces with the captured Xerbians, and manage to bring them what they need to assemble a device that free every single Coolflame on board (powered by Xadhoom's energy, that she provided when Paperinik showing up led one of the Xerbians to find out who she was and talk to her about their plan). And once the Coolflames and the Xerbians are in revolt, Xadhoom is free to kill the Evronian emperor, a majority of his council, and every Evronian who wasn't fast enough to run away at the first explosion. * Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): + Snively describes Sonic as this in the 200th issue, after the blue blur defeats Eggman yet again, \|\|causing the doctor to go mad. It's only after Eggman himself realizes this and rationalizes that Sonic's near constant exposure to chaos energy has turned into a literal force of chaos that he makes some semblance of recovery.\|\| > Snively: Eccentrics aside, he really is a genius. He can build the most amazing things and plot a hundred steps ahead ... And then there's you. All the building, calculating, and planning in the world couldn't beat you. + \|\|Mammoth Mogul has told Sonic that he will not attempt to conquer the world while Sonic's alive because the hedgehog is invariably able to foil his plans. Sadly, in Silver's timeline, this turned Mogul into his own spanner — because he refused to act, Princess Sally was roboticized, only being remembered as an unidentified traitor, turning her against the Freedom Fighters and helping to ravage Mobius.\|\| * In the Polish Cyberpunk comic Status 7: Overload the Terrorist plot is foiled because one of the terrorists put a killswitch in the virus so he could hold the city for ransom (The plan the rest of the terrorist group had involved launching the virus no matter what), this is further complicated by the killswitch itself being extremely complicated to trigger, with destroying either of the components making the virus impossible to disarm ( it's a random retina scan that has to be entered into a specific terminal, the former coming from a child trying to rob an ATM by using his dad's card making the terrorists think the retina scan was from the father, the latter is the terminal of the CEO of the MegaCorp one of the main villains is working for, meaning if anyone tries to disarm it his boss will inevitably find out.) * Street Fighter: A large part of Cammy's eventual freedom from her brainwashing stems from Vega actively reprogramming her twice. Largely because he feels that beautiful people such as him and Cammy shouldn't have that done to them and partly because he just likes screwing around with Bison's plans. * Tintin: In Tintin and the Picaros, Colonel Sponsz plots to have his old enemies (i.e. Tintin, Haddock and Calculus) be the subjects of a fake kidnapping by Tapioca's nemesis (and Tintin's old friend) Alcazar so they can all fall victim to an ambush on a back road. The spanner is a monkey in the road, which causes Alcazar's getaway truck to suddenly swerve the moment it comes into firing range. * Transformers: + In IDW's Transformers comics, Shockwave's ultimate plan, stretching across over a dozen planets and thousands, if not millions of years, is given a good old monkey-wrench simply by the Dynobots looking for petty revenge. Getting things back on track when he wakes up takes a lot of speed chess, and a good couple of years. Even later, his plans still had consequences — mainly Ore-13, which helped drive the plot of the miniseries Revolution, which had villains from the newly-established Hasbro Comic Universe battling over it. In The Transformers: Unicron, Shockwave's plan is undone by a series of these. First, the Autobots warp many Cybertronians off along with the Talisman as Unicron physically tears Cybertron apart. Then, when Shockwave tries to reestablish his plans, Bludgeon and the Maximals betray him, Bludgeon being a servant of chaos while the Maximals are angry at the fact that they served a lie (Shockwave, as part of his plans, had killed the real Onyx Prime millions of years ago and disguised himself as the Prime). Shockwave is only saved when Prowl and his group arrive and kill Rhinox before taking Shockwave into custody. + The Transformers (Marvel): For the super-logical Shockwave Dinobots are his natural enemy - the first time they were created (for the sole purpose of stopping Shockwave from getting to the crashed Ark) he completely dominated them in battle, threw them down a cliff and started shooting at them from higher ground, knowing that they couldn't even fight back, but he overlooked the possibility that someone would be stupid enough to attack the cliff itself. Later on, in Target: 2006, Impactor and Xaaron come up with a plan called Operation: Volcano to kill the Decepticons' Ten Deadliest Killers. However, Galvatron, Cylconus and Scourge traveling back in time results in Optimus Prime being displaced to Limbo and the Matrix Flame going out so Ultra Magnus is sent to Earth to investigate. When Impactor tries to cancel it, Xaaron asks what would happen if Magnus did come back on time while the Wreckers are galvanized back into action by defending an innocent piano Transformer from Fang. Then, right before the ten Decepticons can walk into the trap, Megatron uses a communicube to demand the Coneheads and the Insections come to Earth via space bridge as soon as possible resulting in most of the Decepticons turning back, not wanting to disobey Megatron (Macabre continues on but Impactor takes the bullet for Xaaron and a ranting Macabre is killed by the Wreckers). * In the Vampirella story "The Resurrection of Papa Voudou" \|\|Paul Giraud manages to stagger into the ritual chamber, where he falls beside the altar. As a result, the spell intended to resurrect Papa Voudou splits its power between repairing the villain's mind and restoring Paul's body. Thus, Papa Voudou is raised as a sapient zombie but his body remains decayed.\|\| * Margaret from Yoko Tsuno's story The pray and the shadow. \|\|Forced by her boss to be his adoptive daughter Lady Cecilia's Body Double and be a part of his cruel plan to get said daughter killed and inherit her wealth, Margaret is shit scared of continuing in the plot, and she secretly contacts Yoko to both help save Cecilia and free herself from her evil boss...\|\| ---	SpannerInTheWorks	null
ComicBooks	# The Bus Came Back - Comic Books * Batman: + During the Bat Family Crossover, "Officer Down", Jim Gordon retired and was succeeded as Police Commissioner by Michael Akins. The "One Year Later" Time Skip after Infinite Crisis revealed that Gordon was back as the GCPD Commissioner, but there was no word about Akins' whereabouts. However, Akins came back in Detective Comics (2016), replacing the corrupt Sebastian Hady as Gotham's mayor. + In the 70s books, Lucius Fox had a delinquent son named Tim. Tim dropped off the face of the Earth after Len Wein left the series, and went decades without making a significant appearance. He finally returned to the DC Universe in late 2020 after The Joker War, with his lack of appearances following the 70s stated to be because he and his father had a falling out that left them estranged. * In 2020, the current Catwoman series was the return of Snowflame from The New Guardians. * Convergence: + Characters from the Pre-Crisis multiverse, the pre-Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! universe, the pre-Flashpoint DCU, and the Flashpoint timeline itself meet and fight. + The Worlds Finest tie-in focuses on some of the truly forgotten characters. The champion is Sir Justin a.k.a The Shining Knight, who is usually one of the more overlooked members of The Seven Soldiers of Victory, but its narrative focus is on Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist, who had previously been completely eclipsed by the original Red Tornado — Ma Hunkle, a housewife who dressed up as a male superhero. * Dawn of DC: Quite a few people are making a comeback with this initiative, namely those who were left out of Infinite Frontier or even as far back as Rebirth. + Eiko Hasigawa, the third Catwoman, was last seen prominently in a 2015 arc of Catwoman and was briefly touched on alongside bunch of other Gotham gang members in Infinite Frontier. She's going to return in the Catwoman ongoing. + Val-Zod, not seen since Earth 2 ended in 2016, makes a return in Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent. This will also include the return of the Injustice: Gods Among Us universe. + Kong Kenan, the Super-Man of China, has rarely appeared since 2018, and even his role as the "character whose powers are based in Chinese culture, while being tied to a larger franchise" role was filled by Monkey Prince and his connections to Batman. He's going to be part of the Superman Family proper in this relaunch. + The Doom Patrol have been MIA following Doom Patrol (2016) and Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds, thanks to the stagnation of the Young Animal imprint, but are slated to make a return with Unstoppable Doom Patrol. + Mia Dearden, who last appeared in the Arrow-inspired Kingdom arc of New 52 Green Arrow, as well as her Speedy mantle, which last appeared in the last issue of Pre-Flashpoint Teen Titans, makes a return. Green Arrow (2023) also sees the return of Cissie King-Jones as Arrowette and Eddie Fyers return since 2017. + The Flash (Simon Spurrier) sees the return of Evan McCulloch, the second Mirror Master, for the first time in 12 years, finally making his post-Flashpoint debut in the main DC Universe after the New 52 and its Cosmic Retcons included sidelining him and resurrecting his predecessor, Sam Scudder. * DC Rebirth: After their removal from continuity in the New 52, fans have waited throughout Rebirth for the re-establishment of the Justice Society of America and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Finally, it was announced in 2019 that both teams would officially return in, respectively, Justice League (2018) #31 and Superman (Brian Michael Bendis) #14. * Justice Society of America: The original team was Put on a Bus for twenty-five years, with the final issue of All-Star Comics in 1951. When Jay Garrick's surprise appearance in "Flash of Two Worlds" was a success the rest of the team became guest stars in Justice League of America 21 & 22 in 1963 and they started getting little appearances in The Flash and Wonder Woman any time there was an excuse to travel to or from Earth-Two. * The Multiversity: + Five years after Final Crisis, Nix Uotan and Captain Carrot are back. Harbinger and Lady Quark also return, after vanishing post-Flashpoint, although Lady Quark had apparently been a prisoner of A.R.G.U.S. in the Vibe book. + The 90s version of Doctor Fate, Jared Stevens, appears on the variant cover to Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World #1. The Multiversity Guidebook #1 and The Multiversity #2 show him as one of the heroes of Earth-13, along with the superheroic version of Hellblazer introduced in The Books of Magic. + The Just #1 is an entire bus filled with 90s DC characters, including most of the New Bloods, the third Hourman, Chronos (Gabriel Walker), Tomorrow Woman, and Alpha Centurion. Cameos and returns also included Offspring, Mas y Menos, Jakeem Thunder, Doctor Midnite (Pieter Cross)]], Artemis (as Wonder Woman), Tempest (as Aquaman), Chris Kent (as Superman), and Arrowette (Cissie King-Hawke). + Thunderworld #1 saw the return of the Monster Society of Evil, Uncle Marvel, the Lieutenant Marvels, and Tawky Tawny. * Robin (1993): Tim Drake's internal monologue notes that he's probably going to drift away from his friends at Gotham Heights when his dad forces him to transfer to Brentwood, and for quite a while none of them are seen or mentioned. Eventually Ives reentered the story and became a recurring character again, but the rest of the group stayed on the bus with only Callie ever even getting a mention afterwards. * Scare Tactics (DC Comics): When Fate was retooled into The Book of Fate, several characters were dropped. The most notable not to even get a role in Scare Tactics is Charnelle, Fate's Dreadlands ally. She does, however, get a cameo as one of the people sending in a question for Scare Tactics for their interview with Iggy Montana in Superboy Plus Slither. She wants to know if anyone in the band is otherworldly, which no one is. * Will Payton's Starman dropped off the map after the end of James Robinson's Starman run in 2001, until a picture of him showed up in 2017's Dark Nights: Metal, and the man himself returned in a 2018 Justice League story. * Superman: + One of the titles spinning out of Convergence was Superman: Lois and Clark, featuring the married Clark Kent and Lois Lane from the pre-Flashpoint DCU living incognito in the post-Flashpoint DCU alongside their post-Flashpoint versions. (Unfortunately for them, their lives are kind of complicated by the post-Flashpoint Clark having had his secret identity revealed to the world.) + In Superman: Brainiac, Cat Grant, a character that had not been seen since the early nineties, reappears and becomes again a permanent supporting character. + In 2003 story arc Many Happy Returns Kara Zor-El, the original Supergirl who had been killed during 1985 series Crisis on Infinite Earths, makes her reappearance. + In Supergirl (2016), Cameron Chase returns to regular appearances as the Director of the DEO after two years of absence. She was last seen (aside from a cameo) in the first Batwoman Annual way back in 2014, where she retired and went back to freelance PI work. + In 2017 storyline Plain Sight Shanon Vance - a. k. a. Strange Visitor - makes her first appearance since 2001. + Supergirl (2025) brings Supergirl's enemy Lesla-Lar back after forty-five years (she hadn't been seen since the final of 1980 story arc Strangers at the Heart's Core, where her soul was destroyed). + The Krypton Chronicles: Black Flame and Shyla Kor-Onn, two villains who hadn't been seen in years, make their -final- appearance in this story. + All-Star Superman: Nasthalthia "Nasty" Luthor was a Supergirl's villain that bedeviled the Girl of Steel during her Adventure Comics run and then faded into comic limbo until Grant Morrison brought her back for this story after thirty-four years. + The Great Darkness Saga marked the return of Darkseid after an absence of eight years. + Maxima, who got killed off during the Our Worlds at War event, returned to The DCU in the Supergirl: Crucible storyline after a fourteen-year-long absence. + 2008 storyline The Coming of Atlas is the eponymous character's first appearance since 1st Issue Special #1 (1975). + Strangers at the Heart's Core brings back several villains who hadn't been seen in around twenty-years like the Visitors, Klax-Ar or Lesla-Lar's Supergirl's first foe in 1961 The Unknown Supergirl. + Superman vs. Shazam! brought the Sandman Superman back seven years after his last appearance in Kryptonite Nevermore. * Teen Titans (2003): The final storyline had several Titans who were put on a bus at the start of JT Krul's run (notably Aquagirl and Bombshell, who were "fired" from the team off-screen and never mentioned again) coming back to aid the current team in their Final Battle. A number of other former Titans, many of whom weren't necessarily put on a bus, came back as well. * Wonder Woman: + Wonder Woman (1987): The Daxamite who allied with Diana to eradicate slavery in the Sangtee Empire nicknamed "Julia" comes back after over one hundred issues in order to help fight Imperiex. + Sensational Wonder Woman: The Empty People brings back Nina Close, a.k.a. The Mask, one of Wonder Woman's Golden Age villains who had not been seen for decades through several reboots of the character's mythos. + Wonder Woman: Black and Gold: - Cathy Perkins, a supporting character from the Mod era of Wonder Woman, makes her first appearance since 1972 in the titular story "Whatever Happened to Cathy Perkins?". - Badra, a one-shot villain from 1947, shows up again the story "Memories of Hator" published over 50 years after her prior appearance. Diana's reformed her in the interim and she works out of a museum. * Young Justice (2019) marks the return of the team 16 years after its dissolution. + The book brings back the Pre-Flashpoint Superboy Kon-El/Conner Kent—who'd previously been erased from continuity and replaced with a Darker and Edgier Kon-El in the New 52—by having his old best friends, Impulse, Robin and Wonder Girl realize he was missing and set out to track him down, discovering he'd been trapped in Gemworld when the timeline went wonky.(Prior to this, early in DC Rebirth, Superman recalls the events of The Death of Superman, but couldn't remember Conner's involvement in the storyline, though he does note that someone seems to be missing.) * The Empyre Aftermath: Avengers one-shot ended with a Flash Forward implying that Abigail Brand, who resigned from Alpha Flight in the main story, had reformed S.W.O.R.D., which hadn't been heard from since Secret Invasion (2008). Likewise, the X of Swords: Creation one shot ended with Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and Cable arriving at S.W.O.R.D.'s space station headquarters, the Peak, with a data page revealing that Earth had lost contact with it weeks ago. Finally, it was announced that in the aftermath of X of Swords, a new S.W.O.R.D. series would launch in December. * Gambit (2022) sees writer Chris Claremont return to the character, and he takes the opportunity to bring back some obscure antagonists from his other Marvel stories - Sabine from Uncanny X-Men and Bounty from Fantastic Four (1998). The 2022 Gambit series is 18 years after Sabine's last published appearance and it's over 20 for Bounty. * The Inhumans: When Marvel's 2010s initiative to make the Inhumans more prominent than the X-Men in the Marvel Universe backfired, they were sent straight into hiatus with 2018's Death of the Inhumans, with Maximus and Triton Killed Off for Real (along with several of the new Inhumans introduced throughout the initiative). Seven years later, 2025's Imperial marked the return of the Inhumans, with Maximus having an Unexplained Recovery. * Issue #16 of The Immortal Hulk ends with the surprise return of the original Hulk alter, Joe Fixit. * Spider-Man: + During the 1970s, after Gwen Stacy's death, Mary Jane Watson established herself as Spider-Man's primary love interest. This was not to the liking of some writers, so Marv Wolfman split the two up by having MJ reject Peter Parker's proposal of marriage, then involving Peter in an adulterous affair with Betty Brant Leeds before having him start dating a number of newly created female characters (Debra Whitman, Marcy Kane, the Black Cat). However, after the split Mary Jane still had great chemistry with Peter and also was friends with so many members of the supporting cast that many readers still expected her and Peter to get back together, so she was written out of the series (along with her Aunt Anna) in 1980. Three years later Roger Stern brought Mary Jane back in time to meet Peter exactly 200 issues after their first meeting (Amazing Spider-Man #242, 1983) and right from the start many of Peter's and MJ's friends and relatives tried to set them up again, paving the way for their eventual marriage in 1987. + Nels van Adder, the Proto-Goblin, only had one appearance in a "Minus One" flashback story where he was dealt with by Captain Stacy and his brother. He narrowly avoided being included in The Amazing Spider-Man 1 (replaced by an original character), before showing up in another flashback story, Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin, a several decades-long hiatus where he made zero other appearances, not even in guidebooks. It's an odd case because, though Adder was stuck in the bus for decades of real time, when Spidey meets him in Shadow of the Green Goblin, it has chronologically been only a few years for them, at most. + Shari Sebbens, Spider-man's Friend on the Force from the 2019 Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man series, is reintroduced investigating the "werewolf" that robbed the First National Bank in Hallows' Eve. * Ultimate Marvel: + Ultimate FF is Victor Van Damme's first appearance since he was left for dead in the Marvel Zombies universe at the end of the "Frightful" arc of Ultimate Fantastic Four. + Misty Knight was created in the 1970s, and forgotten a short time later. She was brought back in 2006 in the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy (first major appearance since then, Ultimate or otherwise). It was followed by the Daughters of the Dragon miniseries in the mainstream universe. She became a regular character since then, appearing in several comic books, and was even incorporated into the MCU Netflix series. * Astro City: + Ben Pullam first appeared in the first issue of the second series in 1996, and returned 17 years later in 2013 for the first issue of the Vertigo series. + Steeljack returned to the series in 2016, 16 years after "The Tarnished Angel". + An even longer bus ride is that of Marta Dobrescu, who originally appeared back in issue 4 of the original series in 1995, and returned for issues 39-40 of the Vertigo series in 2016 21 years later. + Michael Tenicek made his first appearance in "The Nearness of You" in 1998, returning 20 years on in 2018 for issues 50-52 of the Vertigo series. * Halo: + Jun-A266's fate was left intentionally vague at the end of Halo: Reach; it took almost three years before Halo: Initiation revealed he had indeed survived Reach's fall. + Team Black, the stars of Halo: Blood Line, were seemingly forgotten after their comic ended with a Bolivian Army Ending. It took five years before they appeared in Halo media again, in Halo: Escalation. \|\|And it was to be Back for the Dead; Team Black was brought back solely to killed offscreen by the Ur-Didact.\|\| * Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): + Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts returned in Issue #187 after a hundred and thirty issues of absence, now employed by Mammoth Mogul at the Casino Night Zone. + The Badniks have returned in the post-reboot issues, many of them as part of Hordes led by a Super-Badnik Commander. * Star Trek (IDW): After being presumed deceased in the 2009 film, Gaila (the green-skinned Orion woman) reappears in the "Reunion" arc, and permanently joins the Enterprise crew at its conclusion. * Star Wars: Ewoks: A Gorax heavily implied to be the same one from Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader's Castle shows up for the cliffhanger at the end of the third issue. * When Willy Vandersteen started the Belgium comic series Suske en Wiske in 1945, he originally wanted it to be about Wiske and her older brother Rikki. However, this format didn't turn out the way he planned so after just 1 story Rikki was put on a bus; he left to go buy new shoes, but never returned and was never mentioned again. Over 50 years later, in 2003, the character finally returned for a single story to reveal what became of him. * Usagi Yojimbo: After the Chanyou chapter, the Geishu clan, including Noriyuki, Tomoe Ame, Motokazu, Horikawa, and so on were completely absent from the chapters that followed it, but while they still have yet to return in the main series, they did come back in Senso. ---	TheBusCameBack	null
MarvelUniverse	# Good Is Not Soft - Marvel Universe Marvel Universe =============== Good Is Not Soft in this franchise. --- * The Avengers: As a whole, the Avengers strictly practice Thou Shalt Not Kill, not Thou Shalt Not Maim. During his stint as Captain America, Bucky Barnes's preferred tactic for dealing with Mooks was Knee-capping. Hawkeye once ricocheted an arrow so it hit a villain in the back of the neck, paralyzing him. > Hawkeye: "He'll live. Not well, but he'll live." * Daredevil: Matt Murdock (Daredevil) tries to avoid killing, but he can still deliver beat downs like no one's business > Matt: Fortunately for me, I'm not a cop. So, I can break your face into a jigsaw puzzle if I want to... * Doctor Strange: Doctor Strange is noble and a good judge of character, which means he will often spare villains whose intentions aren't wholly evil, particularly when they merely got in over their heads. But for the irredeemable? He won't offer them the chance to try again. The only ones he spares are the ones he can't permanently De-power or kill. He's also capable of being exceptionally creative in his punishments, as more than one person has found out - the fate of his murderer at the hands of his younger self in The Death of Doctor Strange is particularly instructive, and a masterclass in Harmful Healing. * Fantastic Four: Ben Grimm, the Thing, both figuratively and literally; he is one of the 4's most popular members, and is good with kids. But if anyone dares to harm his family and friends he'll pummel them to paste. * Moon Knight: Like Marc, Dr. Yehya Badr (Hunter's Moon) is sincerely devoted to protecting the wanderers of the night as per his role as a Fist of Khonshu. Also like Marc, Badr has zero qualms with extreme violence, seeing it as an expression of his faith in the "Greatest of the Great Gods". He's even more ruthless than Marc, going after the innocent Reese as vampires are recurring foes of the Fists of Khonshu. * New Warriors (2014): Water Snake and Scarlet Spider are downright vicious in a fight, one being a warrior and the other a former villain. If Speedball drops the goofy act he goes into this territory. * Nova: Richard Rider is one of the most idealistic heroes Marvel has, and a very firm believer of Thou Shalt Not Kill, for example when dealing with a violent assassin who is trying to catch him and re-assimilate him, he refuses to kill her, instead just knocking her out. However, he is not above killing when there is literally no other option, as Annihilus learned the hard way. Annihilus being Annihilus, this didn't stick - and actually rather impressed him. * The Punisher: Believe it or not, when in the general public or just interacting with people who aren't criminals or scumbags, Frank Castle can be fairly civil and even polite. It seems he only goes full-on scary, nightmare vigilante with the people he's either shaking for information or actively hunting. Honestly, outside of his Punisher work, Frank is actually a pretty decent guy. * Spider-Man: + Spidey is an example in that he does want to help because it's his responsibility. That responsibility does not extend to his fighting style, which is fairly brutal. Some storylines revolve around him becoming more vicious, usually after donning the black suit. + Though it's often mentioned that when dealing with people like Kingpin or Doctor Octopus or just everyday criminals, he has to decrease his strength considerably as he could kill someone with little effort. The events that led to Ends of the Earth, and later, Superior Spider Man, started because even holding back, constantly engaging in physical combat with Spider-Man over the course of years had damaged Octopus' body so much that it eventually just started shutting down completely. + Then came the day that he explained to Kingpin that his web-shooters in fact do have lethal applications, and he's been using them as non-lethal tools for his entire career entirely conscious of the fact. There is a remarkable difference between a faceful of webbing and a lungful of webbing. * The Ultimates (2024): Like their original Ultimate counterparts, the superheroes of this world find themselves having to resort to lethal force against some admittedly wicked opposition. * X-23: Laura Kinney demonstrates even from her first appearance in X-Men: Evolution that she's this: first going on an utterly understandable Roaring Rampage of Revenge due to her abuse by forcing Logan into a confrontation, then realizing Hydra is her real target she foregoes Non-Lethal K.O. and attempts to drive off Wolverine so he won't be caught in the crossfire. She puts up with the abuse Zebra Daddy deals out to her and his girls and it's only when she is gunned down and he tries to kill her friends that she acts. Bred to be a Living Weapon Laura exhausts every other option first, no matter how inane it may be. Trying to buy one of her old pimp's girls so she won't be abused anymore for example, then when the issue is forced not only kill him and his goons, but everyone linked to said abuse. + All-New Wolverine has her as more or less the moral center of the Marvel universe, with even the likes of Strange and Steve Rogers being antagonistic, as well as for the most part a complete softie to the point when Fin Fang Foom attacks her solution is to use herself as Distracted by the Sexy. For the most part Laura is a complete softie: when attacked her beating the Alchemax soldiers after her to near death is her holding back. She slices the Taskmaster's hand off. She wipes the floor with Old Man Logan. And has no problem fighting Cap, Fury, SHIELD, or anyone else who threatens her. * X-Men: Some members of the X-Men fall into this category; those who are firmly idealistic or genuinely want to do good also use their mutant powers to shoot Eye Beams or Mind Rape. + Jean Grey is a kind, warm, All-Loving Hero, and the Phoenix Saga shouldn't have served as a warning of what she's capable of when she gets mad. Don't attack her students, or her children, if you value your existence, as the sweetest member of the X-Men goes from kind and gentle to - when the U-Men attacked with the intent of killing her students to use them as spare parts - musing on how she can't help but think about how the contents of their digestives are going to move up... and down, and how she also can't help but think about separating their molecules one by one until there is nothing left but "screaming, traumatised atoms." She also went toe to toe with Cassandra Nova in X-Men: Red, and beat her by "ramming compassion into her cold, black heart." During the Krakoa era, she reminded Nova that their last fight had ended with Nova weeping on her knees before her, and if there was another, it would end the same way. + Nightcrawler is one the kindest, most compassionate X-Men (alongside Jean Grey), but he is not a pacifist and is perfectly willing to fight to protect his friends. + Storm's one of the nicest members of the X-Men. However, if she is pushed too far, either by her friends being threatened or the arising of a situation that her ethics will not stand for, she will go to extreme lengths in retaliation. Two instances were her first battle with Callisto, and years later, her battle with Marrow, Callisto's extremist protégé. + Part of the reason everyone was so concerned about Sunspot potentially turning evil starts very early on in the New Mutant days when, during the gang's first run-in with Selene, Sunspot kicks her into a lava pit. Everyone else is horrified, but he simply points out A: she really deserved it, and B: she'll likely be back anyway. And he was right on the bean. + Early on, Nate Grey is a hero through and through, but he can also be bullheaded and abrasive to the people around him. And when it comes to combat, he does not hold back, expressly rejecting the traditional Thou Shalt Not Kill philosophy of the X-Men due to coming of age in a much more hard and brutal world than the one they know. Later, he gets more polite and more morally ambiguous. * Marvel Cinematic Universe + Steve Rogers aka Captain America is shown to be one of the nicest, sweetest people you would meet. However, when fighting HYDRA and the invading Chitauri, he is merciless, including throwing HYDRA soldiers off airborne aircraft, hacking off Chitauri arms and even throwing a knife into a mook's hand as he tries to signal for help, which is straight out the Punisher's playbook. Steve does dip into the more extreme Good Is Not Nice end of the scale in later films, to the point of being a borderline Well-Intentioned Extremist in Civil War and in Endgame, is willingly to cruelly exploit his past self's grief over Bucky just to get away from him. + Natasha Romanov aka Black Widow is capable of showing great kindness and affection (in particular to Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, and \|\|the Barton family\|\|) and jokes with Steve about setting him up on a date while at the same time coldly killing mercenaries and HYDRA mooks. Played with slightly in that she is legitimately disturbed by some of her past kills. + Tony Stark aka Iron Man at his best (i.e. not being an egotistical jerk) is a Friend to All Children who's more than willing to sacrifice himself for his team and for the sake of humanity on several occasions as the Big Good. But even when saving innocent villagers, he mows down terrorists like a ruthless killing machine, though he will spare surrendering mooks, as seen in Iron Man 3. + Thor, a Boisterous Bruiser who's pure-hearted to the core, is still an incredibly violent Blood Knight who will go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against those who have hurt his loved ones. He even takes his time making Thanos hurt in revenge \|\|after he killed his brother Loki.\|\| + Peter Parker aka Spider-Man manages to be more kind-hearted than even Captain America, but when pissed off, can be extremely ruthless. He's got quite the body count by the time of Avengers: Endgame, thanks to Instant-Kill mode, and \|\|Mysterio and Green Goblin\|\| both discovered the hard way what happens if you push him past his breaking point. + The Vision is a Benevolent A.I. and unlike other heroes, is willing and able to talk his opponents down rather than just overpower or kill them. Push him, however, and he'll show you how powerful of a Flying Brick he is. He's also okay with stabbing his foes In the Back as seen in Infinity War. + T'Challa aka Black Panther, a charismatic Nice Guy and noble king of his country, will go full Terminator on anyone who hurts his family and \|\|even kills his own cousin when the latter usurps his throne and tries to take over the world.\|\| + Bruce Banner aka The Hulk, when not a green rage monster, is an unfailing polite Non-Action Guy who is definitely a more kindly Science Hero than his best friend Tony Stark. Although even then, Bruce is perfectly willing to choke a young woman out, admittedly one who had performed a Mind Rape on him a few days ago. Bruce also manages to unintentionally kill pursuers even as his mild-mannered alter ego in Thor: Ragnarok, and later manages to intentionally kill the Black Order's own hulking member in Avengers: Infinity War. + Scott Lang aka Ant-Man II is a goofy, kind-hearted man and a devoted and loving father. He's also perfectly willing to horrifically crush a man by breaking his shrinking suit to protect his daughter and will literally kill an enemy by casually stepping on him as Giant-Man. + Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy is easily the Token Good Teammate of the team, being an All-Loving Hero and Friend to All Children. But even then he's still willing to rip an alien thug's nose off and be a Mook Horror Show who flashes a carefree smile to his friends after brutally killing an army of foes. * Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: pretty much applies to all the main characters, save Ward. They're nice, kind-hearted folks as long as you're not a HYDRA mook or head — or \|\|Grant Ward\|\| — in which case they'll kill you in cold blood or order the same. Coulson, May, Skye (especially \|\|after she gets her superpowers, though she is later shown slaughtering a group of HYDRA soldiers using a regular gun\|\|), Bobbi, Hunter (a close-to-comic-relief character who midway through Season 2 \|\|commits an unambiguous cold-blooded murder of a HYDRA leader on Coulson's orders, with Bobbi watching\|\|), and even Simmons, \|\|who attempts to murder Ward and spends most of Season 2 devising ways to kill people with superpowers\|\|. * Daredevil: + Claire Temple is an ER nurse who first met the eponymous hero when she hauled him bleeding from a dumpster and tended his wounds when he refused to be taken to a hospital, she continues to stitch him up on occasion, as well as have a minor romantic subplot. You'd expect a nurse to be nurturing, gentle, meek, and generally an All-Loving Hero, right? As it happens, while Matt/Daredevil is interrogating a Mook in order to find a kidnapped child in a human smuggling ring, she goes from too horrified to speak to instructing Matt precisely how best to make him hurt. She is brisk, calm, and will not accept Matt nearly dying in her apartment and then leaving without explaining how he's any better than the people he goes after. A reason she helped him in the first place is that she believes the scum of Hell's Kitchen deserves punishment, having seen the pain they cause on a daily basis in the ER. + The titular character himself counts. He goes for bone breaks to incapacitate his opponents and can be quite brusque when dealing with civilians as Daredevil. But he's as gentle as possible when dealing with victims, especially children. A good example of this is "Cut Man", where he tears through a small army of human traffickers, then takes his mask off so the little boy he's rescuing won't be scared. ---	GoodIsNotSoft	null
Psych	# Actor Allusion - Psych Actor Allusion in Psych. --- * In Season 1, Episode 11 "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops He's Dead" Shawn and crew end up speed dating and Shawn's first date is played by Teryl Rothery, who played the character of Dr. Janet Fraiser on Stargate SG-1. In the episode, she says that she was raised on a farm and had a pet goat named "Cassy". "Cassy" is the name of the alien girl she adopted on SG-1 as Dr. Fraiser. + Reinforcing the Casting Gag, the Fake Irish restaurant host Marvin \|\|who turns out to be her husband and co-conspirator in the crimes\|\| is played by Colin Cunningham, who played Pentagon liaison Major Davis on SG-1. * During the episode "65 Million Years Off", Shawn can't remember the name of that movie with Sigourney Weaver where they dig all the holes, in which Dulé Hill (Gus) played Sam the Onion Man. Gus can't remember either. > Shawn: This is just like that movie! You know, that movie with Sigourney Weaver? Where they dig all the holes? > Gus: Alien? > Shawn: No! > Gus: Aliens*? + Another Holes reference occurs in "The Santabarbarian Candidate". When Shawn says that he needs a way to subtly derail his mayoral campaign, Gus responds with "I can fix that." (Except Sam the Onion Man meant that literally, not politically.) Also, heaven help us if the writers manage to cram in a West Wing reference. + It finally happened! 7x10, "Santa Barbarian Candidate." The West Wing, his job as an aide, and his character's name. > Gus: You know I could have made it to the White House, Shawn. > Shawn: As an aide. > Gus: You know it. > Shawn: Say "Yes, Mr. President." > Gus: Yes, Mr. President. > Shawn: Sorry, Charlie. + Also in 8x9 "Nightmare on State Street," there is a picture of Martin Sheen (President Bartlet on The West Wing) during Gus's dream sequence. Gus says "Papa?" to the picture. * Shawn's mother, played by Cybill Shepherd, is named "Madeline." * Shawn tells Gus to "not be the only black lead on a major cable network"—too late for that. * Shawn's forensic pathologist source (played by Kurt Fuller) tells him that a victim was killed by a Winchester 70. Fuller played Zachariah, an angelic enemy of the Winchester brothers on Supernatural. * In "Yang 3 in 2D," serial killer Mr. Yin is revealed to be \|\|a professor of fine art and history\|\|. The actor who plays him? \|\|Peter Weller, professor of fine art and history at Syracuse University. He really IS Buckaroo Banzai!\|\| * Kristy Swanson is suspected of being a vampire in "This Episode Sucks." This is particularly ironic when you realize what role Swanson is famous for. + Lucien (Tom Lenk) in the same episode had a recurring role in The Series. + And they run into a bartender played by Corey Feldman from The Lost Boys. - As Shawn, Gus and Juliet interview him, the music playing in the background is a remix of the film's theme. * Danny Glover plays a baseball coach in "Dead Man's Curve Ball." * In "Shawn Rescues Darth Vader," Shawn tells an ambassador that he picked up his British accent from watching Phineas and Ferb's grandfather. The ambassador is played by Malcolm McDowell, who does the voice of Ferb's grandfather on Phineas and Ferb. * Really, it would be shorter to list the guest stars who don't get at least one of these jokes made about them. * Impossibly, Psych somehow inverts this in the finale \|\|with Val Kilmer, who is often referenced in the show, as the ever-offscreen Officer Dobson\|\|. * "Dual Spires" is an homage to Twin Peaks, and guest-stars several members of the original cast as citizens of the titular town. The guest stars are Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Dana Ashbrook, Robyn Lively, Lenny Van Dohlen, Catherine E. Coulson, and Ray Wise(Wise is the only one not to play a citizen of Dual Spires. Instead, he reprises his role as a priest from a previous episode). * John Rhys-Davies plays the museum curator in the Indiana Jones-inspired episode. * “Autopsy Turvy”: Henry dances with a woman who asks if she can call him “Captain Magic.” Corbin Bernsen's (Henry's actor) character in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang exclaims “Captain fucking Magic!” just before he dies. * Ralph Macchio guest-stars as the director of the police academy in "We'd Like to Thank the Academy." Shawn makes occasional references to his role as The Karate Kid; In one scene, he says "Yes, sensei," and later he says, "Well, don't just stand there and wax on about it." * In "One, Maybe Two Ways Out," Franka Potente guest stars as a secret agent on the run from her agency. This is a clear reference to her role in The Bourne Identity, and Shawn even makes reference to their adventure being like a Bourne film. This could also be a small reference to her earlier role in the film Run Lola Run. * In "No Country for Two Old Men," Parminder Nagra reminds Gus that she is much better at soccer than he is. * In "Psych: The Musical," guest Barry Bostwick mistakenly calls an actress "Janet." When corrected, he remarks, "Dammit." This alludes to Bostwick's opening number in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which, incidentally, is also a musical. * Ally Sheedy, best known for her role as the therapy-addicted quirky "basket case" in The Breakfast Club, plays a quirky shut-in serial killer, who later is seen institutionalized. * Season 8 has a Plot Arc involving Anthony Michael Hall as Santa Barbara's interim police chief, who is a skeptic. This is a send-up of Hall's starring role in the previous (also USA Network) series The Dead Zone, in which he plays Johnny Smith, an \actual\ psychic (well, clairvoyant) who works closely with the police to solve crimes. * In "Cloudy...With A Chance of Murder," Shawn asks Henry whether he hangs out at the courthouse regularly. Henry replies that he usually only visits on Thursdays. * Season 6 episode 5; "Dead Man's Curveball," Danny Glover says "I'm too old for this crap," his (suitable for TV) catchphrase from the Lethal Weapon series. * Christopher Lloyd's character going "Great Scott!" in "100 Clues." * Shawn says that Gus needs cable to watch the season finale of Leverage in “The Head, the Tail, the Whole Damn Episode.” Jeri Ryan, who plays Tara in Leverage, guest stars in this episode as an oceanographer. * During a dance sequence in the musical episode, Lassie briefly does some river dancing before Gus stops him. Timothy Omundson played a villainous, river-dancing leprechaun in the Disney channel original movie The Luck of the Irish. * In the movie, Shawn and Gus find a manifesto on the villain's computer entitled "The Crimes of Juliet O'Hara." When Gus comments that it sounds like a title for a Hallmark movie (which Maggie Lawson has starred in a handful of) Shawn dismissively says that "Jules would never do a Hallmark movie." * In Psych 2: + Lassie's nurse, Dolores (played by Sarah Chalke), makes a reference to her scrubs, and gives Shawn and Gus this little line: > "You know, I'm very familiar with the 'goofy white guy, tall sexy black guy' routine... + Shawn asks Henry why he watches This Is Us when ABC has "the same show but newer." James Roday Rodriguez is one of the stars of that very same show. + One of the items on Lassie's to-do list reads "tape Galavant." * In "Not Even Close... Encounters" Lassie has a crap list(a list of people one dislikes) where Tyne Daly, among others, is listed. Daly co-started with Lassie's actor, Timothy Omundson, in Judging Amy. * In "Any Given Friday Night at 10PM, 9PM Central," Shawn is discussing the case with the football coach and he goes over a list of players with things they would like to keep secret. One of the names listed on the board behind the coach is Dorn. Corbin Bernsen played Roger Dorn in Major League film series. ---	ActorAllusion	null
VisualNovel	# Trauma Conga Line - Visual Novels(aka: Visual Novel) --- * Ace Attorney: + Maya Fey certainly counts throughout the first three games. When she is first introduced, she has just discovered her sister's dead body and is being framed for her murder. Cue the next three years, during which time, between being Phoenix's sidekick/legal aide, she is framed for murder (again), is kidnapped and starved, goes missing, is almost killed, and witnesses \|\|her mother's murder\|\|. She's a type F in that she acts essentially the same throughout all this, although that's explained in-game as her putting on a brave face for either Phoenix or her little cousin Pearl. + The events of the first game are one for Miles Edgeworth. The first case you meet him, he loses the perfect win record he's been taught to believe is the most important thing for a prosecutor — which has the side effect of throwing his 'all defendants are guilty, so it's okay to use dirty tactics to convict everyone' ideals into question. Second case, he has to prosecute the star of his favorite TV show for murder. Third case, he gets framed for murder, prosecuted by his mentor Manfred von Karma, and then has his childhood trauma dragged to court \|\|as he's prosecuted for killing his own father as a child — and Phoenix only disproves this by proving that von Karma was the real killer and had manipulated Edgeworth into becoming a 'Demon Prosecutor' to get Revenge Through Corruption against Miles' father Gregory\|\|. Final case, he learns that his most famous win was illegitimate and the defendant had been framed by the police when they were unable to find enough real evidence to convict him as a spree killer. After this, he has to take a year's vacation to figure himself out, emerging as a Type A despite convincing everyone else that he'd committed suicide. + Phoenix is a type E in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. After being tricked into using fake evidence and framed for it, thus losing his badge and his reputation, also getting his disappeared client's little girl dumped in his arms but having no idea how to take care of her and not having a source of income any more, plus, of course, all the stuff that happened in the previous games, like losing his mentor... he just Took a Level in Badass and became a bit bitter and cynical, but he never seems to have broken down at all. + Klavier Gavin also goes through one in Apollo Justice. He keeps his composure, but it certainly can't have been good to realize that \|\|his older brother was a murderer and used him as an Unwitting Pawn to get Phoenix framed for forgery and disbarred, and then that one of his bandmates was a smuggler and murderer who was essentially using Klavier as a drug mule\|\|. + In Dual Destinies, Apollo Justice comes dangerously close to type B, but is basically a type E who eventually comes out a type A in the end. After his best friend is killed and another of his friends accused of the murder, he decides to go rogue, hoping to bring his friend's killer to justice in his own way. Unfortunately, this results in him conducting his own investigation, utilizing some controversial-at-best ideologies, eerily resembling his former mentor (who happens to be a convicted murderer), and ultimately accusing his \|\|friend/coworker/fellow protagonist Athena Cykes\|\| of this murder, making him something of an antagonist for a portion of the trial. However, once it's proven through logic and evidence that she couldn't have done it, he sheds the somewhat villainous persona and agrees to search for the truth in court, alongside Athena and Phoenix. + Dual Destinies also counts as one for Athena, as the final case involves her being accused of killing her mother and having someone she considered her surrogate brother take the fall for her. And in order to prove she didn't she has to recall memories so traumatic that she can't consciously remember they existed. + The events of Spirit of Justice are one for Rayfa, who has to contend with her major parental figures being revealed as evil bastards who indoctrinated her into their toxic ideals, and used her as a pawn to take over Khura'in by blackmailing her mother and brother. * Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: \|\|Nagito Komaeda\|\|, and how. While he throws some shade on whether he's making it all up or not, game hints and additional materials indicate he's fully telling the truth about \|\|the hellish cycle of bad luck and good luck that's been his life. His family decides to go on vacation, only for the plane to be hijacked. Then a meteor kills the hijackers, saving most of the passengers, but also crushes his parents in front of him, which leaves him alone with a huge inheritance. Then he gets kidnapped by a serial killer, and is found hiding in the trash...which includes a winning lottery ticket. THEN he's diagnosed with malignant lymphoma and concurrent frontotemporal dementia, just before winning the lottery to be accepted into Hope's Peak Academy, where he becomes a patient of their SHSL Neurologist. And this is all before he ever even crosses paths with Junko Enoshima. Little wonder he's burnt out on life in general and a Stepford Smiler at best\|\|. * In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Poor Shuichi. Got trapped in a Killing Game, saw Rantaro's corpse with the knowledge of who killed him, had to fight Kaede and watched her being executed in front of his face, had to fight against his closest friend, Kaito to prove Gonta killed Miu, had to deal with Kokichi who was being a Jerkass to everyone, had to fight Maki and lose Kaito in Chapter 5, faced the truth of being in a reality show where the role his past self wanted was "the detective who committed the best murder of all", and out of trauma, goes against K1-B0 while under the effects of Despair Event Horizon, and that's not even the full list. * In Daughter for Dessert, this is pretty much all of the protagonist's adult life. \|\|He got an expensive engineering degree with the promise of a good job only to find out that the company he was planning to work for would soon close the plant, got stuck working at a hot dog stand, which was supposed to be a temporary occupation until he finished college, lost his first love in a preventable death due to the demands of her family,\|\| opened a diner which consumed pretty much all of his time and energy while almost always operating at a loss, has to conceal his next loving romantic relationship due to its incestuous nature, and gets targeted for ruin by a wealthy relative of his late girlfriend's \|\|who blames him for her death\|\|. * Fate/stay night: + Archer. Having once been an idealistic crusader with a credo to save everyone, Archer lost everything in the process of trying to save the people around him, while gaining nothing but scorn from his fellow humans and losing his friends, his lover and everything. In the end, after having sold his existence to Earth for a miracle that would save a few dozen people, he lost his life by being betrayed by someone he saved and ended up a Counter Guardian — one of Earth's "garbagemen", used to ruthlessly exterminate anyone who would threaten the safety of mankind by whatever means possible and no matter the collateral damage. By the time the game rolls around, Archer has become a broken, bitter person, consigned to his fate as one who saves people only at the cost of killing others. + Basically Sakura Matou has been a broken girl after \|\|her father gave her to the Matou family\|\|. She has only known cruelty from the Matou's like \|\|Shinji raping her or Zouken implanting worms to her body\|\|. She resented the Matou's, her father and \|\|her sister Rin\|\| but still she managed to keep her sanity. That is, until Heaven's Feel when Sakura finally snaps and becomes a type B \|\|as Dark Sakura\|\|. * The Fruit of Grisaia: Of the six main characters of Mihama Academy only Amane and Makina's past didn't look like this, only having one major traumatic event, which in themselves were pretty bad, the rest however: + Yuuji: \|\|He was not loved by his parents, in fact his father actively despised him. The only person who valued him, her sister, died in accident that caused his family to collapse ending with both of his parents dead. He was taken by a friend of his father who was "a bit of a bad guy" (terrorist, murderer and pedophile). After being rescued from there he was trained as a child soldier, to become a piece of disposable defense equipment, for a secret government organization.\|\| + Michiru: \|\|She was never a bright student, so when she under-preformed with her private tutors, her father always blamed and humiliated them. Out of petty revenge her tutors took out their frustration on her, abusing her both mentally and physically, forcing her to admit being completely useless, which left her with severe depression and cripplingly low self-esteem. Which then lead her parents growing distant with her. When she went to a normal school and finally managed to make a friend, her friend committed suicide. She had a bad hearth, which had to be replaced, however when the hearth donor girl's conscience awakened inside her even being capable of taking control of her body, she tried to commit suicide, which caused her to be locked in a psychiatry. From where she only got out by faking a different personality.\|\| + Sachi: \|\|She had a loving family, however once they started to get buried by work they grew distant with each other. Her best friend abruptly left her. On her birthday when her parents tried to throw a party, in a fit of anger at their previous neglecting behavior, she ran away. Just as her parents found her they were run over by a truck right in front of Sachi's eyes, something she convinced herself to be ultimately her fault. Leading to constant PTSD attacks, which she could only cope with by faking a new personality and developing a severe case of OCD. After getting back to a normal school, her OCD made her obey any and all kinds of requests, after getting an order to get rid of a school test, something she could not reasonably fulfill, she set fire to the school.\|\| + Yumiko: \|\|Her father never loved her or her mother, which led her both mentally and physically weak mother to be hospitalized, and her to be shipped to her mother's parents. Her grandparents only saw her as an asset, as only her extremely wealthy father kept their business afloat. It was always bemoaned for her not to be born as a boy, because then she would have been able to become a proper heir to her father. When her mother started to get better and they started to get their relationship normalised, first since her birth, her father had conceived a bastard, and planned to divorce her mother, of which the mere news of it completely broke her. Then her father took back Yumiko, acting resentful of his actions, only to turn out, that his bastard died and he needed an heir again. Even in school she had to find out that her classmate only pretended to be her friend to screw with her, which led her to attack said classmate with a box cutter.\|\| * The Bad Boys Love route of Hatoful Boyfriend is one giant Trauma Conga Line for all characters in general, but its main victim is Ryouta. Ryouta, the sweet and adorable childhood friend of the female protagonist, who \|\|finds her severed head in a box, is constantly harassed by a terrifying scarecrow mecha as he tries to find out who killed her, only to learn that he is the one who unintentionally killed her after being infected with a human-killing virus by the resident evil doctor who plans to use him as a weapon to exterminate the entire human race, all due to a well-intentioned wish that Ryouta made when he was a fledgling that the doctor proceeded to twist and warp beyond recognition. Oh, and that scarecrow mecha that Ryouta managed to kill with a stungun? Its head contained the brain of his supposedly dead childhood friend, which is now effectively damaged beyond medical repair thanks to being fried with Ryouta's stungun\|\|. Is it any wonder why he comes this close to crossing the Despair Event Horizon after all of this? + In addition to this, Sakuya also gets hit by one, learning over a few minutes that \|\|he is not the son of the man he assumed was his father and taught him to look down on everyone else and is instead the full brother of Yuuya, who he has treated terribly throughout the game. Not only this, Yuuya had saved Sakuya's life as an egg by killing their half-brother and replacing him with Sakuya. After telling this, Yuuya apologizes to Sakuya and proceeds to die, leaving Sakuya speechless.\|\| * Houjou Satoko, of Higurashi: When They Cry, is pretty much the ultimate Woobie. Not only did she lose both of her parents \|\|by pushing them off a cliff in a fit of Hinamizawa Syndrome-induced madness\|\|, have her brother Satoshi vanish without warning, and become hated by almost the entire town for supposedly being "cursed," but depending on the scenario, also goes through several other traumatic events: + In Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen, she is \|\|tortured to death by Sonozaki Shion, who is now under the Hate Plague effects as well, after finding out that Shion has also killed both leaders of the village, Satoko's best friend Rika, and is going to torture Satoko's other friends to death (including Shion's twin sister Mion)\|\|. + In Tatarigoroshi-hen, she is brutally abused by her uncle Teppei, and is too scared of the very-real threat of him killing her to call child services. She also \|\|sees her best friend Rika's bloody, mutilated corpse being eaten by crows and finally cracks, pushing Keiichi off a bridge\|\|. + In Minagoroshi-hen, she is again abused by her uncle, but is also \|\|shot in the face by the Big Bad after nearly overcoming all the hardships in her life. The same Big Bad makes sure she watches the murder all her friends in quick succession, with the knowledge that Rika will be tortured to death afterwards\|\|. + In Yoigoshi-hen, the Alternate Universe plotline, she is \|\|killed along with the rest of her classmates when Rena goes insane and blows up the school.\|\| + In Yakusamashi-hen and Tsumihoroboshi-hen, she is \|\|killed along with the rest of the town when the Big Bad sets off the gas and murders the entire village\|\|. - Actually, in Yakusamashi-hen, \|\|Satoko suspects for the whole arc that there is something wrong with Rika, and eventually she sees her being taken away and sees her gutted corpse again. Then she is chased away, and eventually falls from the same bridge she pushed Keiichi from, ending up catatonic. Then she is assassinated in hospital before Ooishi can help her. Oh, and the reason why she was catatonic? She saw all of her friends' corpses (except Rena's) after the gas killed them all.\|\| + It is revealed in Satoko's backstory that she was knocked down and then thrown books at by \|\|Shion disguised as Mion\|\|, with \|\|Rena, Rika and Satoshi\|\| managing to stop Shion and then made her apologize to Satoko. Since this happened before the main plot \|\|and thus Shion was potentially having a NOT Hate Plague induced anger fit, although she was susceptible to it due to having left Hinamizawa and being in emotional turmoil which are the conditions for the mental disease to manifest\|\|, it means this may have happened in multiple arcs besides the ones where Shion loves Satoko and treats her like her younger sister, willing to sacrifice herself for her. In Saikoroshi-hen, another Alternate Universe, the one who beats her (with a chair no less) is \|\|Rika, who as mentioned above is her best friend in the normal universe\|\|. + It is no surprise that most of the Tear Jerker moments in the series come from Satoko. + In all versions of Natsumi's story, Natsumi gets dealt a really rough hand. She finds out that her hometown was exterminated in a giant gas disaster, her grandmother starts going crazy and drowning puppies in the bathtub (no, literally), people start suspecting everyone from her hometown is secretly an Ax-Crazy murderer (potentially including her if anyone finds out she's from there), her new boyfriend sees some of her grandmother's crazy antics, her grandmother is killed by her mother (who then forces Natsumi to take part and help her hide the remains), and her mother then kills her father and attempts to kill her and Akira. \|\|Granted, Natsumi is actually the guilty party for some of the last items on this list\|\|. The visual novel, however, evidently decided that she didn't go through enough in the previous manga version and throws in her finding out that all of her classmates are going to one college, but due to her middling grades, she will go to another, as well as her making friends with a fellow Hinamizawan at a retirement center, only for him to go on a murderous rampage throughout the nursing home after the gas disaster. You know, because she just wasn't quite traumatized enough in the previous version. * In Muv-Luv Alternative, Takeru is on one for the entire course of the game. But between all the suffering he goes through thanks to the game gleefully deploying Kill 'em All, the most notable part is from the XM3 Trials until \|\|he meets the 00-unit\|\|. \|\|He loses it fighting BETA thanks to his deaths in his previous loops giving him PTSD, and after getting his ass kicked, his mentor, Marimo gives him a pep-talk, only to have her head CHOMP'd off by a Soldier-class. He promptly loses it even worse, and attempts to rape Meiya. Afterward, he attempts to flee back to his peaceful former world, which he does — he meets Marimo, who's notably Alive, and all of his friends, including Sumika... only for Marimo to die again — by having her head shoved into a meat grinder. But it doesn't stop there. Takeru comes to the realization that HE'S responsible for her dying in his world — as he brought the information for her death with him when he fled. Done? Nope. Next he finds that his friends and loved ones are forgetting him, because their memories are being sucked into the world of Alternative. Realizing he'll have to spend his life alone forever, he attempts suicide by sleeping unprotected in the snow — doesn't work because Sumika warms him up. Resolved that Sumika won't forget him, he goes to school for one last day — only for Sumika to have completely forgotten him in the morning. Then she's crushed by a falling basketball hoop, which, once again, is his fault for bringing the information from the world of Alternative. When this occurs, he is seriously Driven to Suicide, only to be stopped by Yuuko, and later returned to the world of Alternative\|\|. * The Terra route of Rewrite (2011) has \|\|Kotarou. After joining Guardian, he goes into the battlefield and becomes one of the few surviving members of his group. Later, he tries helping Kagari in saving the world because he is sick of how Guardian works. This forces him to betray and kill his own comrades along with his mentor to protect her. He tries to prevent the ritual in Gaia's headquarters, but people still die in the process. Finally, after all his efforts, he is the one who personally delivers the fatal blow to his love Kagari because it is the only option left. It is no wonder that he mentally breaks down and asks if he is cursed.\|\| * Umineko: When They Cry: + Battler gets all of the garbage that both the real world and the meta-world can possibly heap on him. From the real world, we have entire family murdered (with his father and stepmom, depending on the arc, \|\|having faces torn off, or intestines stuffed with candy\|\|), watching younger cousin turn from a cute little girl into a Cute and Psycho Creepy Child overnight, \|\|shot by his own aunt\|\| in one arc, figuring out that three people banished under suspicion of being the murderer \|\|were sent to their own deaths by having THEIR faces torn off\|\|, and that's just the beginning. The meta-world does everything to him from \|\|melting his cousins into unrecognizable piles of flesh\|\| to \|\|feeding him alive to goat-headed butlers\|\|. And then \|\|he finds out his late mother wasn't his real mom, putting him in such a bad Heroic BSoD that his brain shuts down and he physically vanishes for awhile. Only to be brought back by his sister! Yay! ...Who he finds out is his sister only as the universe is turning her into a delicious hamburger\|\|. Then EP6 \|\|he is one of the first six victims of the FIRST TWILIGHT. Sure he survived but how LONG he was STUCK in that room is horrifying. And the crazy part about it? HE PLANNED IT!\|\| + Natsuhi seems to have a day from hell in the 5th game. + And then we get \|\|Beatrice/Shannon/Kanon/Yasu\|\|, whose trauma conga line is the whole reason for the events on Rokkenjima. ---	TraumaCongaLine	null
TotalDisventureAllStars	# Shadow Archetype - Total Disventure All Stars Shadow Archetypes in Total Disventure All Stars. --- * Gabby is one to Priya. Both Gabby and Priya are Kind-hearted Genki Girls who are mentally unstable, can be very vengeful, and both become heartbroken upon hearing about their Love Interest's ulterior motives (Priya learning about Caleb's initial plans about using her feelings for him to further himself in the competition; Gabby learning about Ellie's allegiance to the Villains' Alliance and that she lied to Gabby about it). However Gabby is who Priya could become if she didn't have anyone supporting her throughout her ordeal, which Priya says to Gabby right after \|\|the latter eliminated her\|\|. While Priya had her friends and Caleb, who redeemed himself in Priya's eyes, who stayed with her in the competition that helped her throughout her struggles allowing Priya to strengthens her sanity and become a more well-adjusted person, Ellie gets eliminated just after Gabby learned about the truth and while people did try to help Gabby they were either eliminated just after she befriended her (Grett) or convince to give up on her (MK), and as a result of being alone her intrusive thoughts, Gabby succumbs with Sanity Slippage to point she becomes \|\|the final Big Bad\|\|. * Julia herself has a few of her own: + Riya is Julia's most notable shadow archetype, representing who Julia could become if she choses fame and fortune over everything else. Both appeared to be Nice Girls who revealed themselves to be Alpha Bitches as the game progress, embraces their villainous nature when it gives them fame and popularity, and are eventually faced with a Friend-or-Idol Decision when they start showing regret for their actions. \|\|However, Julia comes to realize that her friends, Ally and MK, are more important than the competition where she sacrifices her chances to stay in the game so she can apologize to them about her actions, ensure that they advance further, and maintain the close bonds she made with them, while Riya disregards her regrets and betrays her closest allies, Connor and Alec, to advance herself further in the competition and while she does apologize to them about her actions, it's only after she's been eliminated from the show to which Connor and Alec prefer to keep their distance from Riya for awhile\|\|. + Gabby is another one, representing who Julia was if the innocent Granola Girl she presented herself as wasn't just a fake persona but her true self, thus making Gabby's Face–Heel Turn much more tragic in comparison. Thus when both endured Trauma Conga Lines during their time in the competition, Julia was a Break the Haughty case since she was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, where the trauma Julia suffered made her undergo Character Development where she ends up becoming a nicer and more well-adjusted person, Gabby's case was more of a Break the Cutie where her trauma results in Gabby undergoing Sanity Slippage becoming a more villainous and unstable person until she has a Heel Realization about her actions. \|\|This leads to Gabby becoming a Mirror Character to Julia when they both decide to redeem themselves which results in their eliminations from the show\|\|. * Alec is one to Bowie. Though both are scheming, yet polite Punch Clock Villains, Alec is who Bowie would have become if the latter never pulled his Heel–Face Turn. \|\|While Bowie is able to redeem himself after joining the heroes, made it all the the way to the finale, and salvaged his reputation to the point he has become Loved by All, Alec stayed in the Villains' Alliance where he is inevitably betrayed by his fellow alliance member, Riya, and by the time of his elimination, Connor, Fiore, and MK are basically the only ones who Alec has friendly relationships with. Also, Bowie's realization that his actions led to his boyfriend, Raj, getting eliminated kickstarts his Redemption Quest where he's able to reconcile with Raj and maintain a loving relationship with him, while Alec was too focused on believing that winning the prize money could help salvage his marriage with Cheryl, that he never realized that she was planning to divorce him until it was too late\|\|. * Yul ends up being the kind of person these characters could have become if they didn't take their respective paths: + Yul is who Julia and MK would have ended up like if they never learned to outgrow their Friendship-Hating Antagonist selves. While Julia and MK end up finding new friends as well as having a Relationship Upgrade with each other, where they end up becoming nicer and better people, Yul remains Hated by All by the other contestants with even his girlfriend, Grett, breaking up with him after learning that Yul is the exact same Jerkass he presented himself as in his debut season and ends up all alone once the season ends. + Yul ends up becoming one to Riya, of all people. While both stood out as the most evil contestants to compete in the All-Stars season who end up destroying their own romantic relationships, Yul is who Riya might have ended up as if she had never took responsibility and apologized for her horrible actions and behavior. While the contestants appreciate and respect Riya for doing so, with Connor willing to become friends with her again after some time passes, Yul remains Hated by All, with no one, not even his ex-girlfriend Grett, wanting anything to do with him. Their different paths are even reflected in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, with Riya finding some closure and happiness in her life where she sports a humble, yet genuine smile while accepting an Emmy Award, while Yul is still forced to be a Stepford Smiler to retain what's left of his reputation. * \|\|Chris Mclean is one to Kristal Mclane. While both are reality TV show hosts with pronounced sadistic streaks, Chris is who Kristal would be if she never listened to her Morality Chain's advice in not going too far with her actions. As a result, Kristal is able to maintain a professional attitude throughout her time on the show and is humble enough to give her hosting position to Derek and Trevor when she decides to retire and hang out with her friends, Marcus and Oliver, while Chris becomes too egotistical and petty to accept not being the host of the crossover season and tries sabotaging the penultimate challenge, an action that causes his former sidekick Chef Hatchet to stop him, with implications that Chris might lose his job over this.\|\| ---	ShadowArchetype	null
ComicBooks	# Good Is Not Soft - Comic Books The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU * Marvel Universe --- Other Comic Books ----------------- * Mark Grayson, the eponymous hero of Invincible (2003), is the eptoime of this. At first, he's a typical Cape who believes in Thou Shalt Not Kill, but after several instances where his loved ones (such as his mother, girlfriend/future wife Eve and little brother) are placed in mortal peril, Mark decides that he shouldn't be merciful against villains who would happily kill the innocent. His brutal fight with Conquest in particular culminates in him headbutting Conquest's face into a bloody pulp after the latter had almost killed Eve. Mark is a good man, but anyone who harms his friends and family will fucking pay for it, as the abusive boyfriend who hurt his ex Amber learns the hard way, with Mark dangling him off a building and warning him to never touch or go near Amber again. * Miyamoto Usagi from Usagi Yojimbo is kind, courteous, and soft-spoken, and he will try to talk his way out of bad situations before they turn violent. That is a principle of bushido, albeit one that isn't very widely observed in the world Usagi inhabits. But those who oppress the weak or try to harm Usagi's friends or family will discover that he's just as diligent about following the martial code of bushido as well. A regular deliverer of the Curb-Stomp Battle or even Single-Stroke Battle. * In Empowered, the Maidman (one of Empowered's very few friends) is one of the few nice-guy vigilantes in a field dominated by douchecapes, but he says, "I find that severe physical and emotional trauma works wonders for disincentivizing even the most dedicated miscreants.... If necessary, career-ending injuries are a helpful tool for dissuading continued supercriminality." * My Little Pony is a prime example of this. No, really! In the original series comics, the ponies' leader Majesty had the power of transmutation, and though she didn't do it to everyone who displeased her, there were several occasions on which the enemy's punishment was being Taken for Granite. Some were left in And I Must Scream condition. (Chalk that up to the writers being hesitant to have an enemy killed outright... most readers agreed, though, that showing the villains as still sentient and cursing their defeat doesn't count as softening their sentence when they've been left in the form of bubbles that will endlessly float around the moat of their castle.) * Paperinik New Adventures: + Paperinik, as expected from the superhero identity of Donald Duck. With his friends and family he's nice and polite, even if easily angered. With his enemies? Well, the Evronians are emotionally crippled, and one that had a tour of duty on Earth is shown to be horribly traumatized by the beatings Paperinik gave him. + This comes straight from the "classic" Paperinik stories, where Paperinik has developed a Friendly Enemies relationship with most of Duckburg's criminals because they know they can't beat or escape him but if they give up without trying either they'll at least dodge the beating. That was learned with such lessons as Paperinik setting a lynching mob on the Beagle Boys for *falsely* claiming they knew his identity. + Lyla Lay is one of the friendliest characters in the cast. She's also a droid agent of the Time Police, who, when required by her duties, has gone into combat by shooting to kill. + Urk is a polite man, who, upon being stranded in Paperinik's dimension, took the time and effort to learn the language and customs of this new place and take a normal job, while also making sure to help anyone in need when he could. He's also an Iroquois warrior, chosen as the future leader of his people for his bravery and success in battle against the Viking invaders, and got stranded in Paperinik's world while chasing a time-eating monster with intent to kill it if he can or contain it if he can't. * Angel & Faith: Faith's compassion has reached the point to where The Dead Have Names and Even Evil Has Loved Ones in regards to vampire drug dealers, while slicing off the arms of human gangsters who threaten her and Angel and attempting to forcibly turn him human so he can let go of having to make amends. * Star Trek (IDW): Sulu is prone to many badass moments throughout the series, which prompts Section 31 to attempt to recruit him into their ranks. When that fails, they recruit his sister instead.	GoodIsNotSoft	null
AnimeAndManga	# One Winged Angel - Anime & Manga --- * AKIRA is famous for this, thanks to the infamous giant fetus... thingy that Tetsuo turns into toward the end of the series. It includes a final villain ultima-monster transformation, using it to introduce some fairly complex questions about humanity and monstrosity. * Attack on Titan + The series in general has villainous and heroic examples, with the various Titan Shifters. Their transformations signal a major battle, often with plenty of carnage and destruction left in their wake. When Eren battles any of the enemy Shifters, the only thing his human allies can do is get out of the way. This is especially true when their Secret Identities are revealed, leaving them with no choice but to transform and fight. + Eren later learns that \|\|he can absorb the powers of the nine principal Titans by eating their previous owners, and that the reason the other Titans have been after him is to do the same thing to him and his Attack Titan — as well as the Founding Titan that he acquired from eating his dad\|\|. Toward the end of the manga, his use of the \|\|Founding Titan\|\| allowed him to unleash an even bigger final form that has been called the \|\|Doomsday Titan\|\| by the fandom. * Done interestingly in Bakugan. \|\|Season 4 Big Bad Mag Mel and his partner Razenoid turn out to be the One-Winged Angel incarnations of the previous seasons Big Bad Emperor Barodius and his partner Dharak after being exposed to the power of the Bakugan god Code Eve.\|\| * Berserk's Apostles typically have two forms. The first is their regular human form, often with some monstrous feature that serves as their "tell." The other is their full demonic form, which they typically go into when they want to devour a victim alive or when their regular form is not enough. Zodd has the form of a winged humanoid monster with a horned tiger's head and hooved feet, and later on in the manga loses one of his horns to Griffith and becomes his dragon. Grunbeld has the form of a powerful crystalline dragon. Rosine \|\|has a "fairy" form in addition to her true demonic form\|\|. The initial 'human' looking form is a mid stage, acting as a more inconspicuous but weaker version of their demonic forms, as their true forms are only revealed when they die when the power of the Behelit leaves them and they turn into the desperate (and usually dying) human that made a pact with the God Hand. * When Sebastian of Black Butler reveals his true form, we don't get to see it, but it apparently includes black feathers and stripper boots, and is so horrible that Ciel is not allowed to watch. Ciel's seen some pretty messed up things. * Black Clover: The Zogratis Siblings, having made pacts with the Supreme Devils, can access their power and magic attribute at will; the more they draw on their devil's power, the more their body gains the traits of a devil (such as horns or a tail). Dante and Zenon, in particular, are able to take this a step further: Dante can use his Body Magic to grow larger and create additional limbs, while Zenon eventually makes a deal with Beelzebub to gain a devil's heart in exchange for his own soul. * Bleach: + The Arrancar transform (or revert back) into massive hulking demons when they release their Zanpakuto. One of them even utters one of the page quotes above just before doing this. + Chad, a protagonist, had a similar line, "This is my right arm's true form," when he used his new ultimate technique, "Right Arm of the Giant", against the Arrancar Gantenbainne Mosqueda. + During Ishida's climactic personal fight against Mayuri—in which he gained a momentous amount of power temporarily at a permanent cost—he took on a literal manifestation of the trope, complete with a spirit-particle-absorbing wing. + Ichigo's Full Hollowfication transformation is this mixed with an extreme case of Came Back Wrong and is one of the more terrifying Hollow forms seen to date; not because it's particularly hideous (it's certainly ghastly), but rather because of its sheer destructive power. + Ulquiorra Cifer \|\|actually grows gigantic wings during his two releases. In fact, his final fight with Ichigo even ends with one of his wings missing, although he's really more of a devil than an angel.\|\| + \|\|Yammy Llargo, who grows gigantic, and reveals that his number is not 10, but 0.\|\| + \|\|Kaname Tousen, who becomes a huge bug creature, giving him eyesight (was blind since birth), then gets owned then appears to die in the span of 5 chapters.\|\| > "You never would have let me get an opening like that, when you were blind." + The Big Bad has spent 20 chapters or so gaining new "evolved" forms. - \|\|419 gives us Eldritch Abomination Aizen, who has three Hollow holes and mouths on his wings. He transforms into this by having his skull (likely painfully) shoved through his face. If you look closely you can still see the features to the left and right of his new "face". This was a much-needed improvement over his previous form - a butterfly with effeminately long hair.\|\| + More recently, the Wandenreich have shown themselves able to use \|\|a more advanced form of Ishida's Letzt Stil form named Vollständig, with two wings and without the drawbacks. Most are rather tame, while a few (such as Quilge Opie's Piskiel after absorbing Ayon with Sklaverei and Äs Nödt's Tatar Foras) lean into Body Horror territory, and others like Lille Barro and Gerard Valkyrie reach quasi-divine levels of power with theirs\|\|. * All of the Chevaliers in Blood+, but especially James... * Spoofed on Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. The villain Over has six lights on his chest that light up when he gets mad. When all six are lit up, he transforms into his true self... Torpedo Girl. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. + An enemy's true form being "Sambaman", an enemy whose method of attacking is... dancing the Samba. No, really. + Bald the III after absorbing both Bobobo and Don Patch. This is the guy◊ and this is what he becomes.◊. When a villain invokes this trope, expect something very silly to happen. * He's not the Big Bad, but Lovecraft from Bungou Stray Dogs (naturally) possesses the ability to turn into a giant Eldritch Abomination, seen here◊ in a fight against Dazai and Chuya. * Claymore: + Claymores can turn into one if they are willing to put greater reliance on the youma side of their souls. In this state, they become known as Awakened Beings, and each Claymore has a unique form, which can vary in appearance, which some possessing demonic or even animal features. + The Abyssal Ones (Or any other Awakened Beings that we see more than once) tend to run around in their human forms until they get into a serious battle. * Between the various forms of the villains in other series and the increasingly (sometimes ludicrously) powerful Digivolutions on the heroic side in all series, Digimon loves this trope. + Digimon Frontier has a Big Bad named Lucemon who starts in the form of a child-like angel with wings and blonde hair and shiny light powers. He then turns out to be a fascist dictator and gets steadily deeper into One-Winged Angel territory over three new evolutions. + Digimon Adventure: The next best example is Vamdemon becoming VenomVamdemon, a humongous and less intelligent form of Vamdemon. In Season 2 he returns as an even stronger and more sadistic BelialVamdemon before he is finally destroyed for real. + Even a human has gotten in on it. Kurata, the Big Bad of Digimon Data Squad ultimately fuses with the Demon Lord Digimon Belphemon, taking direct control of it, his face appearing on its chest. Belphemon itself also counts, as this triggers its mode change from its cute Sleep Mode to its Kaiju-like Rage Mode. * Dragon Ball: + This happens a lot, especially in Dragon Ball Z, though typically on less grand a scale — the villain announces that he's changing to his "true form", then becomes larger and more muscular. (Some do this more than once!) + At the climax of the original Dragon Ball, a pre-redemption Piccolo grew building-sized, although only briefly. The same for Lord Slug from Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug. + Garlic Jr goes from looking like a paler midget version of Piccolo without the antennae (or like Emperor Pilaf) to looking like a bulkier, more adult-height version of the same. + The Saiyans have their iconic Super Saiyan form and, before that, the whole Oozaru thing. In the Saiyan saga, Vegeta has a move that allows him to go Oozaru by creating a ball of energy that looks like the full moon — he uses this move and turns Oozaru. Amazingly, he's still able to speak while being in this form, which was explained as him being trained to have some control over the form (as opposed to the only other Oozaru appearing being entirely untrained kids - Goku and Gohan). + Zarbon's case is an interesting one. In his natural form he is a large, ugly, and powerful hulking monster, but being obsessed with his own beauty, he most often uses a much weaker Bishōnen form. He is also incredibly reluctant to transform even temporarily into his ugly-but-powerful true form, and consequently determined to beat the shit out of the protagonist whose power forces him to do so or lose. - In reference to Zarbon, maybe it's the other way around as usual, where Zarbon is beautiful in his original form, but transforms into the big and ugly monster man/alien he can become when he must. + Frieza's initial form is small and rather weedy looking, but has proved to be extremely powerful in previous confrontations. He transforms into a much taller version of himself, then an even larger, monstrous beast with an elongated head and spikes on its back. However, his much-hyped final form turns out to be just slightly taller than his first form, but more sleek and aerodynamic, effectively crossing the Bishōnen Line. At first he is mocked for this, but soon proves that the extra speed and strength far outweighs what he lacks in height. And then these are followed by a more muscular form of the same, and after losing much of his body after his defeat on Namek and coming to Earth for revenge, a cyborg form. When he returns for Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', he dumps the cyborg form in favor of a Golden Super Mode. \|\|And in the Super manga, through training for 10 days in an Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he manages to attain the even stronger Super Mode Black Frieza.\|\| + His older brother Cooler, the villain of the movie Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge, starts the battle in the equivalent of Freeza's final form (but taller and more muscular); but eventually, to Goku's shock, reveals that he discovered a fifth form beyond it, which he transforms into, becoming larger, stronger, and far more horrific. + Likewise, as Cell steps closer to his 'Perfect' form, he becomes steadily more humanoid. + Majin Buu has the most transformations of any character in the entirety of Dragon Ball, as he assumes a new form and undergoes some personality changes every time he absorbs a person. He was created as a shrimpy little guy who has no vocabulary whatsoever and blows up planets for giggles; becomes very buff after absorbing the South Supreme Kai; turns fat and goofy after absorbing the Grand Supreme Kai (the form the heroes first encounter him in); expels the embodiment of its evil side as a pale, wiry thing, becomes muscular and savage when the evil side reabsorbs the good side; absorbs Piccolo and Gotenks to become smarter and more powerful with a more human face and longer antennae; reverts to a Piccolo-based form when Gotenks' fusion runs out; absorbs Gohan to take on his most human form yet; and then when Goku and Vegeta free all the fighters he absorbed he finally reverts back into his original form before all the transformations began. Counting Majuub from the anime-only Dragon Ball GT, that's 9 in total. - Buu crosses over into Power Limiter territory as the Grand Supreme Kai kept him from using all his power while also making him much more sane. + In Dragon Ball Super, \|\|Goku Black and Future Zamasu (who are alternate timeline versions of the same fallen Kai) ultimately decide to take the heroes seriously after Zamasu nearly gets sealed away by the Evil Containment Wave. They proceed to perform Potara Fusion into Merged Zamasu, who largely resembles a taller, more imposing, white haired Super Saiyan version of Zamasu with some of Goku's facial features and is far stronger than either of his components\|\|. * In D.Gray-Man, we get a good example of this when Tyki Mikk loses control of his Noah. \|\|He turns into an armored fiend with a good dozen tentacles coming from his back and a taste for blood.\|\| + Akuma could qualify as well, when they reveal their true form by shedding off the dead body of the one who tried to bring them back to life. + Recently, \|\|the Earl has transformed into an even more monstrous version of his usual appearance.\|\| + In Chapter 219, \|\|we see the Earl's true face; he's actually hot.\|\| And in Chapter 221, \|\|when we finally get to see the Earl's Noah power.\|\| * Fairy Tail: + The whole point of "Take Over" magic performed on oneself, particularly once the most powerful (and often inhuman) forms are brought out. + Etherious normally move about in "sealed" forms that look human enough, but possess "Etherious Forms" that revert them to their true appearances that always makes them look far more monstrous. This is most noticeable with Tempester post-first death (as he was reformatted into a dark-skinned blonde in his base that transforms into a hulking lion Beast Man), Jackal (who looks like a handsome Little Bit Beastly dog-man that transforms into a slavering werewolf), and Mard Geer (who's a Long-Haired Pretty Boy with no demonic traits whatsoever that transforms into a winged black-armored demon). + \|\|Acnologia\|\| is a variant since he entered his one-winged angel form centuries before the start of the series. \|\|He began as a Dragon Slayer like Natsu, only to turn into a dragon as a consequence of using his power too much. We finally see his human form near the end of the series, where Zeref approaches him to challenge him in a final battle for the fate of the world. In the final battle, his human and dragon form are split after he was sent Time Rift, his human form battling against the dragon slayers, while his dragon form rampages across Fiore\|\|. + \|\|Irene Belserion turns back into her true dragon form when fighting Erza and Wendy, which lets her increase her enchantment ability\|\|. * In The Fantastic Adventures of Unico Unico fights the villain of the film Baron DeGhost for kidnapping his friend Katy; he eventually knocks the Baron off the tower where he is impaled on a spire. But not only is he not dead, he transforms into a gigantic skull-faced demon — so large that his emergence smashes the castle to bits. \|\|Luckily, the love of his friends allows a near-dead Unico to take on his powered-up form...\|\| * Fullmetal Alchemist is chock full of this. + Envy's true form is... well, you'd hate to meet it in a dark alley. Or a light alley for that matter. \|\|It's a octopedal black-haired green thing, gigantic in size, with faces of the souls of its Philosopher's Stone squirming and screaming all over where its skin should be. However, this is also subverted. Envy's true true form, devoid of all the souls that compose it body, is that of a physically harmless embryo-like lump of flesh. It can still talk, and it convinces May Chang to return to Central where it can get "healed" (returned to its Eldritch Abomination form).\|\| - Downranked into a Clipped-Wing Angel later when \|\|Mustang points out that the huge size makes it that much easier to aim at him\|\|. For that matter, the only other time he uses it in combat, against \|\|Marcoh\|\|, he is defeated with an attack which entirely ignores his physical might. He has much better luck playing the Shapeshifter Guilt Trip game. + Gluttony \|\|can open up his torso to reveal a failed attempt to recreate the Gate of Truth\|\|. Unusually he really is more dangerous in this form and his actual death in the manga and the Brotherhood series comes at a time when he is not using it. + Greed grows a black diamond skin over his body, which also sets off his sharp teeth to fangy advantage; he avoids using this form as much as possible, thinking it makes him look uncool. + Pride \|\|becomes a replica of the shadows behind the gate, a swirling mass of darkness, eyes and hungry mouths\|\|. + Father, being the Big Bad, naturally gets in on the action. \|\|Twice, in fact: first, after being struck by Hohenheim's "finishing" attack, he leaves his physical body in the shape of a humanoid shadow covered in eyes and mouths, which then proceeds to eat his now-empty shell of a body off the ground. Second, after succeeding in his plans and swallowing God, he crossed the Bishounen Line and turned into a teenage Hohenheim; this makes him look like Edward without his automail, only slightly prettier and shirtless.\|\| + In the new Brotherhood anime (but not in the first anime nor in the source manga), Father Cornello transformed as well; he uses his Philosopher's Stone to turn into a gigantic version of himself, with an extra-monstrous arm where his alchemy had rebounded previously. + Surprisingly, Lust and Sloth are the only Homunculi who don't take special forms, as Lust relies on her shadow claws, while Sloth puts his faith in his brute strength and speed. * Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): + Subverted in the final episodes. In the middle of his battle with Edward, Envy finally reveals his true form. \|\|He actually looks a great deal like Alphonse... his younger brother... and uses the shock to kill Edward. Don't worry, Ed gets better.\|\| A few minutes later, \|\|he plays the trope straight and turns into a giant snake (well, a serpentine dragon-thing at least) as he crosses the gate to get at Hohenheim. He gets stuck in this form when he reaches our world, where alchemy doesn't work.\|\| + In the sequel movie Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa, Gluttony is seen \|\|roving about the sewers as a giant, monstrous version of his typically oafish body.\|\| * In the manga version of Gantz, a couple aliens have this, but the most extreme example is the Nurarihyoon alien, who goes through quite a large number of different forms, each appearing after the previous form is seemingly killed. The forms vary wildly, from an old man, to a hulking horned beast, a demon-like creature, a floating ball, a giant naked woman made out of other naked women, and at least one more demonic form after that. * Stinger and Cohen from Getter Robo: Armageddon pull this at the end, fusing together and becoming some kind of planet sized Living Ship that can spew waves of Invaders. * In Green Worldz, everyone got freaked out when the supposedly dead female Hybrid human rapidly regrow her body out from a small flesh and emerged out naked with a creppy bug-like looking head. She then commented that this is why she didn't want to get serious and then proceeded to unleash powerful attacks that nearly took out everyone around her. Even badass Iwatobi had a hard time fighting her in his original fighting capability. * HeartCatch Pretty Cure! has Dune growing to planet-sized proportions as part of his Villainous Breakdown as the Cures beat him down. They counter with their own. * Alucard from Hellsing uses this frequently in the form of removing his Power Limiters, to the point of not having much of a 'true' form. \|\|Paladin Anderson uses a nail from the Cross to become a thorn-monster.\|\| Also, \|\|Seras\|\| manages to pull off the One Wing (in place of an arm) look later in the series when \|\|Pip is killed by Zorin Blitz and she uses the blood he offers her to awaken her true vampiric abilities\|\|. * A heroic example can be found in the sixth light novel of High School D×D, where \|\|Issei goes utterly -berserk- when he is told Asia was killed, sprouting wings and entering Juggernaut Drive and quite literally -biting off the villain's arm- while growing swords and dragon arms from all of the jewels in his dragon armor.\|\| * Holoearth Chronicles Side:E ~Yamato Phantasia~: The squirrel Ayakashi gets Combat Tentacles and More Teeth than the Osmond Family as the fight with Fubuki progresses. * The trope is so old and frequent, that it has received numerous parodies for decades. Sometime in the '90s, Hoshin Engi even went ahead and lampshaded the common downside: "Villains who turn into a giant monster always die." * The entire Living Ship Grey Geshpenst from Infinite Ryvius undergoes this process during the final battle, absorbing a bunch of Space Whales into itself and transforming from a normal-looking spaceship to a massive organic... thing. * Inuyasha: + Sesshomaru is a powerful dog-demon who appears most of the time as a near-human Pretty Boy, so it's unsurprising he has the "true" form of a giant dog. He seldom uses it in combat, though, probably because it seems to compromise his mobility and have little by the way of inherent advantage of its own. + Naraku is a walking process of One-Winged Angel; a shapeshifting conglomeration of demons, he's constantly rearranging himself and gaining more power, so that his current body is always a work in progress, and his humanoid guises (even the ones that are Actually a Doombot) are prone to bursting into a mass of poisonous vapours or tentacles. In the final battle, when he's close to reaching ultimate power, \|\|his body is that of an enormous floating spherical spider that may be even Bigger on the Inside and that the heroes enter, and after that his central humanoid avatar inside still goes through some more changes.\|\| * In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, during the final battle of Stone Ocean, Pucci's Stand fuses with the Green Baby and transforms into C-Moon, and later evolves again into its final form: Made In Heaven. * Jujutsu Kaisen: + Once he "grasps the true essence of his soul", Mahito uses Idle Transfiguration to evolve into a stronger form called Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing. It greatly increases his offensive and defensive capabilities (becoming strong enough to shatter the ground and completely No-Sell Yuji's punches) at the cost of not being able to use Idle Transfiguration on himself while it's active (as part of a Binding Vow to further increase his power in order to kill Yuji). Additionaly, he gains a tail and blade-like appendages emerging from his elbows. This form would've been more than enough to kill Yuji had Mahito not taken severe damage prior to using it, though Yuji is still forced to rely on Black Flash in order to finish Mahito off. + \|\|After Kashimo puts Sukuna on the ropes right after the latter has finished his duel with Gojo, Sukuna is forced to use the ace up his sleeve and force Megumi's body (which he's currently possessing) to undergo a full reincarnation and take the appearance of Sukuna's original body from 1,000 years ago, granting him a Belly Mouth and two extra arms and completely healing his injuries in the process. This form permits Sukuna to continue breathing while using full incantations and fight with two hands while the other two perform hand seals, allowing him maximum efficiency in combat and granting him a massive advantage over most sorcerers. Kashimo doesn't last long after that.\|\| * The mikura of Karas have this, transforming into mechanical monsters for combat. * In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (2005), Agahnim forcibly transforms Ghanti into the three-headed, fire-and-ice-breathing turtle/dragon Trinexx, which Link doesn't find out until after he's mortally wounded her. * Reinforce's berserked defense program from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's. When its Deflector Shields were destroyed and Hayate petrified it, it simply shed its feminine first form and took on a more grotesque one with giant toothy heads and more tentacles. When that one was frozen and destroyed with three Wave Motion Guns, it started forming a third form. Unfortunately for it, it was jettisoned into space and vaporized by the Arc-en-ciel before it could finish its transformation. * In Magic Knight Rayearth, we have \|\|none other than Princess Emeraude herself. When Zagato dies at the hands of the Magic Knights, Emeraude loses it and decides to unleash her full power. This involves reverting to her actual adult age (her child-like appearance is a cover) and summoning a Masshin of her own - to fight the girls to the death.\|\| * Naruto has a fair bit of these. A couple of the purer "villain" forms of the transformation involved Gaara's grotesque mutation into his demonic Shukaku form; and Orochimaru's curse seal's second stage, which turns the bearer into a monstrous version of their former selves: various members of the Sound Five grow horns, spikes, deformed facial features, an extra eye, and a tail from using it (of course, some fans found Tayuya's 2nd form to be hot), and post-Face–Heel Turn Sasuke actually grows hand-like wings. + Orochimaru himself has a grotesque "true form" that he transforms into whenever he performs his body-switch technique. He takes the shape of a giant white snake made up of a multitude of smaller snakes, with a monstrous, dragon-like face and shaggy black hair. He also has a jutsu that allows him to transform into a giant "hydra", one of the mouths of which holds his normal body. + All the Akatsuki have a One-Winged Angel form in one way or another: Kakuzu's tentacle mass thing, Hidan's Grim Reaper form, Kisame's Samehada-Fusion form, Itachi and Sasuke's Susano'o, Sasori's real body, Konan and her paper angel form, Pain already consists of six remotely controlled zombies; his final revealed form was a creepy wasted body impaled by many chakra antennae. Deidara did the thing mentioned in the trope description of becoming a living bomb... Tobi is the only member who does not have this (Well, that is, before he became the Jinchuuriki of the Ten-Tails). + All the Jinchuriki (except maybe Gaara) have this. They have their human forms, then the Version 1 (as Killer Bee called it) chakra shroud, which is still human, but has the chakra of his/her Tailed Beast creating a Battle Aura with the appearence of the beast. Then there is the Version 2, which makes the Beast's chakra burn their skin and making the tails solid, and has the risk of reducing the Jinchuriki lifespan if he doesn't have the beast under control. Then there is the change into the beast itself... + As mentioned above, Sasuke manifested his Susanoo after evolving his Sharingan into the Mangekyou Sharingan; however, during his final fight with Naruto, he was able to draw and absorb chakra from the Tailed Beasts and transform his Perfect Susanoo into his incredibly powerful Indra Susanoo. This unique form of Sasuke's Susanoo was powerful enough to battle Naruto's Kurama Avatar shadow clones and slightly overpower them, and it was only matched by Naruto's Asura Kurama Mode. * Nyanko-sensei from Natsume's Book of Friends usually spends his time in the body of a Fortune Cat - except when in battle, then he turns into this.◊ * Negima! Magister Negi Magi: + Subverted when Negi single-handedly wipes out a gang of bounty hunters and the leader starts muttering about revealing his true form. Negi gives him a mean look, and he goes back to cowering on the ground. + Used when four of Fate's minions all revealed more powerful forms to fight Jack Rakan. \|\|Not that it helps any.\|\| + This also happens to Negi \|\|when Kurt Godel revealed who was responsible for the attack on his village, and Negi's ensuing uncontrollable rage caused his Magia Erebea to run rampant and transform him into a monstrous black daemon whose only thought patterns are "KILL". He later has to go through Training from Hell so that he can actually control the power, rather than going into a blind rage. It's implied that "control" here means "it's turned on all the time" as a downside.\|\| + \|\|Poyo Rainyday does this in Chapter 299. In response, the half-demon Mana unveils her own version of One-Winged Angel.\|\| * Spoofed in Neko Majin Z, in which Neko Majin transforms in a way so subtle he is forced to point it out ("Look closer... I have double eyelids"). * No Longer Allowed in Another World: Having eaten a portion of the Dark Lord's flesh, Kashiwahara is resurrected in a monstrous "Apex Predator" form after Tama kills him. * One Piece: + Virtually anyone with a Zoan fruit will have this to some degree, though only Rob Lucci and Kaku try fighting without their fruit powers. A notable example is Tony Tony Chopper as he didn't get one of those by default with his fruit, as all it did was allow him to go from a normal deer to a deer-human hybrid. However, he used his medical knowledge to create a pill that gave him extra forms, including a building-sized Monster Point. Initially, it was slightly crippled by being uncontrollable; but after the timeskip, he figured out how to control it and overall use it more easily. Another very impressive Zoan case is Sengoku the Buddha, who can become a giant golden Buddha statue with ability to fire energy blasts from his palms. + A few non-Zoans also manage to pull this off. Eneru and Gecko Moria both go One-Winged Angel shortly before being defeated, with the former turning into a giant thunder god and the latter absorbing a thousand shadows to become a massive, bulky version of himself. Magellan uses Hell's Judgement to sit himself in a giant demonic skeleton made of poison that threatened to destroy the entire building he was in (this one was actually unbeatable, effectively being an Advancing Wall of Doom). After the timeskip, Luffy joins in as well with his Gear Fourth form that grants him massive increase in power alongside weirdly distorting his body proportions. \|\|When he finally Awakens his Devil Fruit, which is actually the Hito Hito no Mi Model: Sun God Nika, Luffy can use Gear Fifth to become translucent white, with flaming-looking hair and a holy rein like with Gear Fourth.\|\| + Baron Tamago's Egg-Egg fruit combines this trope with Came Back Strong: if he's struck by a lethal blow, he melts into a vulnerable yolk slime, before regenerating into a stronger humanoid form - from egg-man, to humanoid chick, to humanoid rooster. The catch is that "killing" his rooster form forces him to revert back into his weaker egg form. * Many monsters from One-Punch Man have versions of this, including Vaccine Man, Carnage Kabuto, the Deep Sea King, Boros, and Garou. \|\|Particularly in the manga, Garou gets an extra form thanks to God, which mixes this with Bishōnen Line as it's his humanoid monster form, but featureless and filled by stars, galaxies and nebulas\|\|. Not that any of them (\|\|except Garou's God-granted form, for a while\|\|) ever helped against Saitama. * Outlaw Players: The \|\|elite Abominations do this. A. LOT. And for half of them, they are newly-discovered forms\|\|. * Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt has \|\|Chuck and Fastener, who can turn themselves into a big hellhound or a dragon (respectively) by turning themselves inside out.\|\| * Pokémon the Series may seem too casual an example to list here as Pokémon evolve all the time, but when an important character's Pokémon evolves to their final form right before (or even sometimes in the middle of) a huge battle in the anime, this Trope is definitely played straight. + Played even straight in Pokémon 4Ever where just right after Celebi is corrupted by the Iron-Masked Maurauder, it actually transforms into a giant monster made from twigs and leaves. * Puella Magi Madoka Magica: + Charlotte has what can be best described a giant worm-clown thing as a tongue, and it only shows up after she's been beaten on for a bit \|\|and promptly beheads Mami\|\|. Oh, and \|\|witches are One-Winged Angel forms of Magical Girls\|\|. + The Movie plays it straighter, \|\|with Sayaka and Nagisa both being able to turn into Oktavia and Charlotte respectively. Sayaka's body stays behind, though, probably because it's not her real body.\|\| * Ranma ½: + Pantyhose Taro is cursed to become a winged minotaur-like creature with an eel's tail (Spring of Yeti Holding an Eel and a Crane While Riding an Ox). Before, that is, he added octopus tentacles. Whereas most characters loathe or at least dislike being cursed, Taro loves the added power and takes advantage of it at every opportunity. (It probably helps that he was cursed as a baby.) + The final arc of the manga pitted the Nerima crew against a race of people who could turn into angel-like creatures (to be fair, they were genetic mutations from having drunk Jusenkyo water for generations.) But the Biggest Bad of them all, the one enemy that puts all of Ranma's prior foes to shame, started out as an obnoxious little kid who transformed into a living, breathing nuclear power plant with great golden wings and the regenerative powers of a Phoenix. + At least one fighting game used Pantyhose Taro's forms to its advantage by making him the final boss - Round One is against the human, and then he splashes himself with cold water before Round Two. * Reborn! (2004) has the Six Funeral Wreaths, a villain group who each have \|\|their box weapons embedded in their bodies. Their ultimate ability is to activate said weapons, which turns them into powerful half-animal beings\|\|. Three of them \|\|end up getting tricked into activating their transformation just so their boss can absorb their power, in order to fuel HIS one-winged angel transformation\|\|. * Rosario + Vampire: + \|\|Kuyo\|\| eventually shifts into what he considers to be his "ultimate battle form", which combines the strengths of both his "human" form and his monster form. + \|\|Hokuto\|\| does this after he \|\|tears off his holy lock that keeps him from losing his humanity\|\|. + During the Land of the Snow Fairies arc, the group fights Kalua Shuzen. Berserker Tears dealt with everyone until Tsukune tore Moka's rosario and Inner Moka delivered a well-deserved kick to the jaw. Kalua's response is to \|\|remove one of her rosario earrings. Cue six or seven demonic wings sharp enough to cuts through Inner Moka's muscle, bone, and kimono and a full-power roundhouse kick not being enough to take her down\|\|. When Koko says "This is when she gets scary!", it's an understatement. + And on the subject of demonic wings, there's Tsukune's little... problem in China. Three words: \|\|Broken. Holy. Lock. Jet-black skin, silver-hair, pure white eyes, no upper clothing, a pair of monstrous wings, and a reek of Alucard. Even Tohofuhai was freaked out.\|\| * Happens in every Sailor Moon movie and the season finales. + Or at least the first and last season finale, in which Queen Beryl's dying body is possessed by Queen Metaria and becomes a... giant Queen Beryl, and Queen Nehelenia turns old and ugly (though this was a result of her leaving the mirror that kept her young, and this seems to weaken her, though she can still fight well). Though Germatoid should count, as he was the Daimon who was \|\|Possessing Doctor Tomoe, and is revealed to be a gigantic monster.\|\| Though not a season finale, Esmeraude is transformed into a dragon by Wiseman before Sailor Moon destroys her. + In Sailor Stars, \|\|Chaos first possessing Sailor Galaxia and then taking on his own form in the manga fits right in. As a less extreme version, the anime-version of Galaxia becoming very much like an undead beast midfight with Sailor Moon should also count\|\|. * Sand Land: In the penultimate episode, \|\|Beelzebub's Heroic Second Wind over seeing Muniel trying to force Ann to kill herself causes him to punch the Fallen Angel into the Aquanium reactor that powers Garam. However, this causes Muniel to absorb all of the Aquanium, causing him to mutate into a far more muscular form that towers over Beelzebub, complete with his clipped wings regrowing\|\|. * Sgt. Frog: \|\|The fourth movie revolves around our heroes being forcibly evolved into giant dragons.\|\| * In one of the Slayers OVAs, Lina and Naga aggravate a vampire until he shows them his "True Vampire Form". He sprouts wings and grows to forty or fifty feet... and then he collapses into a fox-bat and gets beaten unconscious by Lina. * Melascula of the Ten Commandments in The Seven Deadly Sins can turn into a massive snake. * In the fourth-to-last episode of Sonic X's third season, Dark Oak, Black Narcissus, and Pale Bay Leaf use a Planet Egg and all seven Chaos Emeralds to merge together with an all-water planet with a tree on top of it to transform into a massive three-headed plant dragon resembling King Ghidorah from several Godzilla Toku films. Also, the male Seedrians were shown to be capable of turning into giant Godzilla-like monsters years before five of them survived and became the five Metarex commanders. * An ongoing theme in Soul Eater: + There are living beings who can transform into weapons, retaining human form to interact with others and maneuver of their own will. They can also temporarily transform into an amplified weapon form by resonating their souls with their Meisters. Moreover, one of the major villains of the series (\|\|the Kishin himself\|\|) assumes a large, grotesque form during the last battle of the anime. + Practically a recurring joke with Arachne's ancient second-in-command, Mosquito. Every time the heroes are about to beat him, he invariably reverts to stronger and stronger (younger) versions of himself, proclaiming each to be when he was at his "physical peak". (\|\|He pulls a Bishōnen Line when he fights Kid. It's later subverted when he fights Noah. He goes into what he says is his most powerful form ever, and gets killed in about 3 seconds.\|\|) * In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Supermutants, the Turtles were granted magical crystals that allow them to transform into superpowered forms. Sadly, Shredder, Rocksteady, and Beebop found evil versions of the same crystals and are now capable of turning into superpowered monsters. At this point, it's probably better just to direct your attention to the show's opening sequence. * Toriko: The Gourmet Hunters have their Appetite Demons which they can use in battle against Beasts and other Gourmet Hunters, and sometimes they can materialize out of their host and some can transform in their Appetite Demons, such as Acacia who ate his own Appetite Demon Neo and became a Humanoid Abomination. * Happens nearly every episode in Vampire Princess Miyu. The exception is the last episode of the TV series, where the final monster looks almost entirely human, making it somewhat less fine to kill her. \|\|The fact that the monster was Miyu's best friend Chisato all along does not really help either.\|\| * Mazoku generals Drum and Guitar from Violinist of Hameln normally appear in relatively small and goofy-looking (although still extremely dangerous) forms, to conserve their finite amount of magical power/lifeforce. When pushed, they can transform into a city-sized, many-headed dragon and an horrific cerberus, respectively. Vocal, however hard this is to believe, after witnessing his crazy acts of monstrosity is also sealed in a form that only utilizes 1/10th of his maximum power, however, in a subversion, his true form is a pretty boy version of him \|\|and exhausts most of his remaining magic in half a minute, causing Super-Power Meltdown\|\|. * Xam'd: Lost Memories: A Xam'd is a person who has the ability to shapeshift into a humanoid creature with awesome powers such as Super-Strength, Inhuman agility, and crazy bio-weapons (think blades and projectiles, not germs). This is more of a case of being Blessed with Suck, however, as these powers can also override a person's sense of self, resulting in them going Ax-Crazy, losing their memory, being turned into stone, or all three in no particular order. It's a constant danger for them, so it's rare to see a Xam'd make a full transformation; usually they'll opt for a Partial Transformation (Often just their arms). * In YⱯIBA, Kaguya transforms back to her true, gigantic form \|\|after she drains the essence of youth out of Sayaka.\|\| * Sometimes happens to individual Duel Monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh!, particularly the Winged Dragon of Ra. + Although in one episode Kaiba actually transformed into a Blue Eyes White Dragon. + In the manga (and Season 0 of the anime), near the end of the tabletop RPG against Yami Bakura, Zorc transforms into a super-form after his regular form is defeated. Yami Yugi even lampshades this by stating that, while horrifying, this is probably Zorc's last form. + Pegasus's monsters and battle strategy act as this for him during Yugi's last duel with him in the Duelist Kingdom arc. After Yugi destroys Pegasus's wacky Toon World monsters, Pegasus gets pissed and surrounds the arena in a dark void as the duel becomes a Shadow Game. This is when Pegasus starts busting out eldritch creatures such as Relinquished and Thousand-Eyes Restrict which grotesquely absorb opponent's monsters to power themselves up. + In the anime, there is an arc where the main characters are trapped in a virtual world and fight the evil Noah, whose father is Gozaburo, Kaiba's evil stepfather whom he battles in the end. After Kaiba wins, Gozaburo transforms into a beast of fire, but Noah holds him back and both remain as the virtual world is destroyed. Somehow, Gozaburo survives just long enough to appear for a few moments in the real world as a beast of fire and part of the explosion, but they escape him before he can eat them. - Considering that the real-world island is exploding as Gozaburo activated it's self-destruct as a last-ditch effort to kill the heroes, and that Gozaburo became a beast of fire in the virtual world, the explosion taking on his beastly characteristics was likely meant symbolically than Gozaburo manifesting in the real world. + Dennis in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V goes through a metaphorical case via his deck and ace monster. He starts out with the Entermages, of which most resemble a hybrid of Magical Clowns and Stage Magicians, as his deck's archetype with his ace being the flashy and silly Entermage Trapeze Magician. During his second duel against Kurosaki who reveals Dennis' true colors as a spy from Academia as he destroys Trapeze Magician, Dennis stops using Entermages entirely, and switches over to the Antique Gears used by the majority of Academia's forces. He also shows his true ace card: the gargantuan and abominable Mechanical Monster Antique Gear Chaos Giant. * In YuYu Hakusho, Yusuke fights numerous demons, many of them start out fighting in human form, and then when they are losing they shift to demon form in order to increase their fighting power. Oddly enough, considering how violent demons are, many demons seem to prefer wandering around in human form even when there's no need to hide what they are. + In an amusing and well-deserved subversion, Dr. Ichigaki \|\|gives himself an injection, transforming into a gigantic monster with extendy-claws. A pissed-off Yusuke annihilates Ichigaki in no time flat.\|\| + Younger Toguro still looks outwardly human most of the time despite being turned into a demon. He looks more like the demon he truly is when unleashing 100% of his full power. In the English dub, Hiei comments that he can't believe Toguro's body used to be human after seeing his transformation. Coincidentally or not, his demon form has a strong resemblance to Kairen \|\|the demon who slaughtered his students in the past (which became his Start of Darkness).\|\| ---	OneWingedAngel	null
ProfessionalWrestling	# Large Ham - Pro Wrestling(aka: Professional Wrestling) The world of Professional Wrestling is essentially a World of Ham. Very few wrestlers people in the business get any real success without a manager acting as a Large Ham, or being at least a bit of a ham themselves. Below, some of the hammiest examples of Large Ham. --- * "OL' HACKSAW'S GOT A LIST OF SOME OF WRESTLING'S LARGEST HAMS, TOUGH GUY!!! HOOOOOOOO!!!!!" * Bret Hart wasn't known for his hamminess, however, he had Jimmy "The Mouth of the South" Hart hamming it up for him during his tag team days. Hart got a tiny bit hammy during his late 90s heel run. * You have to start with Ric Flair. The Nature Boy didn't just become The Man with his endless series of great matches, but also because of his huge charisma. Give the man a microphone, and he just explodes with ham, whether to sell a feud, or just because he could! He couldn't just do an interview with Mean Gene, he always had to do an interview with MEEEEEEEEAN... WOOO! BY GOD, GENE!!! * This is the almost the entire purpose of managers. Got a great wrestler who can't work the mic to save their lives? Hire a manager. + Jim Cornette and his legendary Motor Mouth is a prime example. Corny ranted till he was more red in the face than Brother Love. + Sensational Sherri wasn't any great shakes when strictly a wrestler, but once becoming a valet, for Randy Savage, she turned the ham way up (of course, you'd have to if you're gonna keep up with the Macho Man). + Jimmy Hart's promos for his boys were a gigantic burst of energy, but that wasn't enough for Jimmy - no, he brought a megaphone to the ring so he could keep chewing scenery during matches. + And of course, manager Paul Heyman, currently the manager for The Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar, and possibly the largest ham going today. It's only right that the big monster has a big mouth next to him. * Or, if you don't want to use a manager, pair them up in a tag team with a notable ham so they can learn to work the mic. John Morrison helped The Miz and Joey Mercury get over this way. (Mercury helped Morrison on the wrestling side in exchange) * Tag teams in general can be a good source of Ham-to-Ham Combat, such as The Road Warriors, aka the Legion Of Doom. "TELL 'EM, HAWK." + Plus, The Nasty Boys, who spent almost every single promo they ever had *shouting at the top of their lungs.* Even when they're happy!! * What if you got a nearly seven foot tall guy pretend to be a zombie gravedigger? He's supposed to be The Stoic, so he doesn't talk much and emotes even less. But it's early 1990s WWF, how are you going to include the requisite amount of ham? Hire a guy named William Moody, give him a Punny Name, and have him ham it up, preferably with a hilarious voice. The results are deliciously hammy. * WWE chairman Vince McMahon turns into a Large Ham, not only on the WWE's own programming, but whenever there's a camera on him. This is best shown in the documentary Beyond the Mat, in the scene where he gives Darren Drozdov his gimmick. "He's gonna puke! He's gonna PUKE!" The "tidal wave of phlegm" phenomenon that is so prominent in his way of saying "You're fired!" that it's impossible to hear it without laughing. > "IT'S ME, AUSTIN! IT'S ME, AUSTIN! IT WAS ME AAAAALL ALOOOOONG, AUSTIN!" * Dusty Rhodes, THE AMERICAN DREAM, DADDY!!! * To call Roddy Piper hammy would be a major understatement. Incredibly brash and obnoxious with one-liners to spare, Piper was such a notable ham (in both hot and cold varieties!) that they gave him the interview segment "Piper's Pit," which, as a result, became easily the most beloved wrestling interview segment ever. * And then there's Hulk Hogan, who almost merits his own page on this wiki and set the standard among Professional Wrestling for large hamminess that all others emulate. Quite simply, after Hulkamania ruled the world, wrestlers had to be Larger Than Life. + As a matter of fact, the Hulkster's sheer bluster is part of the reason Bob Backlund isn't better remembered nowadays - once Hulk showed up, Bob, his predecessor as the face of the company, was too milquetoast to really compete with him. Of course, it's funny how things work out, because when Backlund made his comeback in the early 90s, he had a Face–Heel Turn that turned him into a huge ham. * THE SHEER UNBRIDLED HAMMINESS AND THE POWER OF THE WARRIOR IS TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROOOOOOOOL. * Santino Marella. "Bring forth...The Honk-a-Meter!!!!" * For a very short time, Charlie Haas (who is not very well-known for his charisma). "Mamajuana Extreme dot com!" * Randy "Macho Man" Savage demands his place on this list, ooooooh yeeeeaaaaaaaaah!! + So does Black Machismo, better known as Jay Lethal. + Hell, Randy's real-life brother, Leaping Lanny Poffo, was also a big ham himself, most notably camping it up as The Genius. * A large part of the New Age Outlaws' appeal to crowds during the Attitude Era was, no doubt, the Road Dogg's booming, scenery-chewing introduction. "OH, YOU DIDN'T KNOW????" * Bryan Danielson was long pegged as an impossibly brilliant wrestler who unfortunately had no personality. Then he won the Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Championship and started bringing the ham. His hammy act included daring the audience to riot because he is a "ONE MAN RIOT SQUAD", forcing the ring announcer to call him "The best wrestler in the world, with an emphasis on entire world," or most famously putting his opponents in illegal holds for as long as the referee allows him because "I HAVE TILL FIVE!". + During his heel World Heavyweight Champion run in WWE, we have "YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!" after winning matches (or doing anything, really). * Kurt Angle certainly qualifies. This was lampshaded by John Cena: When Kurt was throwing a tantrum in the ring, Cena popped up on the TitanTron and yelled: "Kurt! Kurt! Stop it, man, you're acting like a friggin' ham sandwich! * Of course, John Cena is one to talk - the guy's been consistently hamming it up as The Hero on a weekly basis for the past decade. * CM Punk took a turn for the gloriously hammy when he added religious/cult overtones to his Smug Straight Edge gimmick. His performance at the 2010 Royal Rumble, where he cuts a promo interspersed with eliminating whoever comes out next doubles as both a Crowning Moment Of Awesome and a Crowning Moment of Hamminess. > Punk: Let me thank you all for joining me, in what will be the most historic moment my Straight Edge Society has ever seen. These were just the first of twenty-nine other men who will be thrown over the top rope, or if they have the courage that the WWE Universe LACKS... they CAN be saved! And unfortunately not everyone can win the Royal Rumble... excuse me. It's clobberin' time. * Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man. During his heyday, his promos (complete with constant shouting, an Evil Laugh so OTT it has to be heard to be believed and attempts to buy everyone and everything in sight) managed to be the largest ham in a business in an era filled with them. Ted DiBiase Jr.... not so much. * Kevin Sullivan was pure deviled ham during his "powers of darkness" phase in the 1980's. * Vickie Guerrero seemed to have developed some hammy qualities as a side effect of needing to talk over the amazing heat she got from the WWE Universe. * Vickie's late husband, Eddie Guerrero, was so fantastically hammy that he made nephew Chavo come off as flat (which Chavo never really overcame). * Jillian Hall, even before her bad singing gimmick. * On the Real Life page, we gave sports commentators a mention, so as you can imagine in pro wrestling, regardless of the federation or country, ham is constantly served at the commentators' table. + The most famous example is quite probably "Good Ol' JR" Jim Ross. His ability to get overexcited about any match and to make even the weakest of jobbers look like a badass is what people love about him (and probably a big part of the WWE's success in the first place). - "GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY! GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY! THEY'VE KILLED HIM! WITH GOD AS MY WITNESS HE'S BROKEN IN HALF!!" * Bray Wyatt. He's got the wholeworld with his ham. * Handsome Jimmy Valiant, The Boogie Woogie Man, had a gruff, powerful voice that was at maximum volume at all times. Jerry Lawler admitted in his autobiography that Jimmy was untouchable in the old days of Memphis Wrestling when it came to promo work, even if he wasn't the best wrestler in the world. Expect Jimmy to say "baby", "daddy", "woo!" and his own name as often as possible. * During his heel run in the mid-2000s, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, aka JBL, defined Evil Is Hammy as much as anyone else in the company's history (he could be considered a more cerebral Ted DiBiase). His overbearing, right-wing bigot schtick had gusto to spare, and seeing him shout down entire audiences was something to behold. Still got some leftover hamminess at the commentary table. * Zack Ryder! His time as the WWE's biggest Ensemble Dark Horse was relatively brief, but with his big, goofy persona, he established himself firmly as a glorious ham, on air and on his YouTube show. Woo WOO woo! You know it! * "DON'T YOU DARE BE SOUR! IT'S A NEW DAY, YES IT IS!" * The GZRS (Tom Irivn and Sebastian) of Progress Wrestling * Enzo Amore and Colin "Big Cass" Cassady, aka Enzo & Cass. Enzo's really brash by himself, but with Big Cass backing him up they just effortlessly steal the spotlight wherever they go, and you CAN'T. TEACH. THAT. * MISTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANDERSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! + ....ANDERSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! * While Ivory was often overshadowed in this department because of how hammy the guys were(Her WWE PPV in-ring debut was at SummerSlam 99, which had in the main event Mankind defeating WWE World Heavyweight Champion "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Triple H for the title), she was easily the most over-the-top Diva WWE had, until Vickie Guerrero's heel turn and Jillian Hall's bad singer gimmick. For a time, part of her ring entrance involved her Shaking the Rump on the ring apron. Tied in with her Cloudcuckoolander and Genki Girl tendencies, she had no problem acting silly and messing with the crew during photo shoots for her own amusement. * Sha Samuels of ICW and later NXT UK fame appears to be incapable of doing anything without bellowing at the top of his lungs. The thick Cockney accent just adds to it. * Val Venis: HELLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, LAAAAAADIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! ---	LargeHam	null
LiveActionTV	# Spanner In The Works - Live-Action TV The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * Marvel Universe --- * A British Sketch Comedy program parodied this. A man is buying a camera, and is shown one that is "totally idiot proof". He then smashes it on the table. "What did you do that for?" "Well, I'm an idiot." The shopkeeper then shows him a camera made out of concrete. --- * In 9-1-1, a few of the situations shown occur due to things getting out of control. + A worker at the firehouse and his bank manager brother in law hit on what looks like a good plan for a robbery. The manager uses a drug to create what seems to be an outbreak on a money truck driver to bring the cops in. He also drugs himself and then gets locked inside the vault. While the firefighters are busy inside, the worker poses as a hazmat agent to get the other driver out of the truck. He then steals the money and puts it in the fire truck, intending to get it out later. - The first spanner is that the manager double-crosses his partner, taking advantage of being locked in to steal $6 million worth of diamonds. At the hospital, he drops a call to the cops on what happened. Thus, just as the firemen return, the cops show up to take the money before the worker can get it. - The manager then gets hit with this as he figured he'd have plenty of time inside the vault to get the diamonds. He never counts on paramedic Hen ending up getting locked inside with him. He's forced to drug her too but knows the rescue crew will be coming in faster than expected. He thus swallows the diamonds to smuggle them out...which ends up causing him a fatal case of internal failure later that night. + The owner of a failing diner decides to set the place on fire to collect on the insurance for his family. He figures by the time the fire is noticed and reported, it will have spread out to cover any signs of arson. However, his son had to go back to get his computer just as the blaze erupted with his mother calling 9-1-1 immediately. While both survive, the firefighters' early arrival exposes the arson and has the man arrested. * Alfred Hitchcock Presents: One of these supplies the censor-mandated bout of Offscreen Karma in the series' adaptation of Roald Dahl's Lamb to the Slaughter. As explained by Alfred Hitchcock, for reasons unknown the Villain Protagonist decided to kill her second husband the same way she killed her first (by bludgeoning him to death with a frozen leg of lamb), but said second husband was The Ditz and did not bothered to plug in the freezer when she asked him to, which led to the leg of lamb remaining unfrozen and soft and her attempt to attack him with it was successfully fought off. * The Angel episode "Guise Will Be Guise" has this when a sorcerer's plan to sacrifice his virgin daughter for power is thwarted when it turns out she hasn't been a virgin since she was in her teens. She even dated one of his mage bodyguards, who probably knew that she had to be a virgin for the sacrifice to work, and shuffles awkwardly offscreen after she points him out. * Better Call Saul: Kim and Saul have been spending the better part of the last season's first half plotting a complex and large-scale con on Howard. The last step of the plan is to plant doctored photographs apparently showing Saul bribing Judge Casimiro (actually an actor dressed up to look like Casimiro). Saul is out buying a bottle of expensive tequila for the celebration on the day the prank is about to happen when he coincidentally spots the real Casimiro at the same liquor store, and he has a very prominent physical attribute which they could not have accounted for: his left arm is broken and in a sling. Realizing this means their doctored photos could be easily disproven, Saul immediately calls Kim to cancel the whole thing, but Kim refuses to quit at the last second and they quickly reshoot the scene to fix the mistake (although they have to shell out a pretty penny to get the same camera people and actor back immediately). * Breaking Bad: + In the first episode of Season 2, Jesse and Walt discover Tuco is so violently psychotic, he beats one of his own underlings to death for an extremely minor slight. Fearing for their lives due to having witnessed Tuco commit murder, they devise a plan to secretly poison Tuco by lacing a batch of meth with ricin powder. Unfortunately, the plan is foiled before it can even be attempted because Tuco's other underling went to recover the body of the first underling on his own at the trash dump and ended up accidentally killing himself when the trash stack fell and crushed him. When Tuco didn't hear back from his underling, Tuco assumed he was actually a rat for the DEA, and in response kidnaps Walt and Jesse at gunpoint so he can flee with them to Mexico. + In the episode "Better Call Saul", Badger has been caught in a DEA sting operation, and will go to jail unless he can identify the mysterious Heisenberg. Jesse, Walt, and Saul set up a scheme in which (for a sizeable fee) a jailbird takes the fall for Heisenberg in a sting operation set-up. However, their plan runs into an unexpected setback when the jailbird arrives late and a random passerby who resembles the jailbird sits down on the bench next to Badger during the sting operation, making Badger mistakenly think this is the person who he's meant to rat out, while the fall guy sits on a different bench next to Badger's. Jesse and Walt have to make some rapid-fire improvising to set the plan back on track. * Blake's 7: In the episode "Weapon", Servalan brings in Carnell the psychostrategist to plot her strategy in trying to lay claim the eponymous gun from its absconding creator. (Un)fortunately, Carnell isn't informed until way too late that the scientist took a menial female slave along with him when he fled, and her presence means that all the villains' plans go pear-shaped. Carnell is smart enough to run for it himself the instant he finally hears about the slave. * In Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Captain Holt and Sergeant Jeffords begin to secretly "CompStat" the precinct office in order to meet a paperwork deadline, by secretly manipulating the detectives in order to increase efficiency. Unfortunately, both of them forgot that Detective Peralta was out of the precinct while they were doing this; when he gets back to find Detective Scully moved to his desk, Peralta shoos Scully away to the break-room, which leads to a chain of events which sees Scully accidentally start a fire and bring the whole thing crashing down around them. + In the sixth season finale, Jake assembles a "Suicide Squad" of rivals Wuntch, Stentley and the Vulture in a scheme to take down Kelly. However, Stentley's sheer stupidity keeps messing things up. At one point, Jake comes up with a scheme to fake a kidnapping with the Vulture assuring him he'll give the case to "the two worst cops in my division" to ensure it won't get solved. Too late, Jake realizes that the Vulture only considers these guys "bad" cops because they're not friends with him and in reality they're very sharp detectives who nearly ruin the plan by finding the truth. * Many a killer on Burke's Law has seen an otherwise perfect murder plan ruined by one tiny unexpected wrinkle. + The killer in "Who Killed the Highest Bidder?" would have gotten away with it thanks to his "airtight" alibi of being on a video chat in Paris when the murder was committed. But when watching the video, Burke hears a police siren in the background which doesn't match the distinctive sounds of a French police car. He thus realizes the suspect was actually in Los Angeles and faked the video call to kill the victim. * This trope has made the lives of the investigators on CSI much, much easier over the years. Whether it's people discovering a dead body before it can be completely dissolved or buried, witnesses who unwittingly provide evidence that ties a murderer to a crime scene, or a Heroic Bystander who catches a Peeping Tom that also turns out to be a serial rapist, various members of the public have helped the CSIs bring a lot of criminals to justice in many different ways. + CSI: NY: - "Rain": A bank robbery that's a right-after-work inside job starts to go sideways when an employee not in on the scheme hangs around for a while because it's raining too hard for him to walk home. - A great turn comes in "Open and Shut". A therapist plots to kill her husband and make it look like it was done by a disturbed patient who she then shot in "self-defense." When she arrests her, Stella lampshades how the woman's plan was good and might have worked thanks to the preparation; but what she could never have counted on was that when she shot the patient, a pack of cops and CSI techs would be literally across the street investigating another murder, get there in record time, and prevent the woman from properly cleaning up the crime scene. + On CSI: Miami, a bank manager and his lover conspire to trick two armored car drivers (via a faked "kidnapping") into switching their millions of dollars for counterfeit bills. The manager figured by the time anyone realized the switch, he'd be long gone with the cash. As fate would have it, another pair of crooks pick that exact day to rob that armored car, killing one of the drivers. When they're captured, it doesn't take long for the CSI team to realize the money is fake and unravel the scheme. * In the Diagnosis: Murder episode "Till Death Do Us Part", two fiancés attempt to pull off The Perfect Crime and murder the bride's father on their wedding day. The first act is an extended Imagine Spot of the pair imagining how they're going to pull off The Perfect Crime with a brilliant plan. Cue the actual murder...where nothing goes to plan, from the pair oversleeping to being unable to get the cap off the bottle of poison to knocking over an entire bookshelf trying to plant evidence. Despite all that, they succeed in killing their target, but fail to get away with it due to the unexpected interference of a dog. * Generally speaking, the TARDIS from Doctor Who spends her days throwing herself, the Doctor and their Companions at various intricate plots specifically so they can act as nifty spanners, just by dint of shuttling between crisis points, whenever they may be. "VWORP-VWORP-VWORP" is generally the sound of the Villain of the Week's ten-step plan starting to belch smoke. + In "The Smugglers", the Doctor, Ben, and Polly derail seventeenth century pirates' plans to get a hold of treasure hidden by one of their number who had long since gone straight. Even if any pirates survived the final showdown, their lives were still forfeit. + In "The Pirate Planet", after all the planning to destroy the Mentiads by both a cyborg pirate captain and a tyrannical Queen Xanxia in disguise, the Mentiads and the Doctor manage to do this trope... literally. + In "City of Death", Duggan, the detective who seems to have gotten into his line of work just because he likes hitting things, derails the villain's multi-millennial scheme with one thoughtless, well-timed punch. + In "The Caves of Androzani", unusually, the Doctor's role in the story is limited to frantically attempting to get him and Peri out alive. His mere presence, however, inadvertently causes the entire messed-up Androzani society to implode under its own decay. The Doctor brings down a corrupt government by accident. + "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood": Psychic schoolboy Tim Latimer throws a loop into the Doctor's plans to hide from the Family of Blood until their short lifespans were up by turning himself into a human and hiding out for a few months. Tim's psychic powers, you see, let him "hear" the Chameleon Arch containing the Doctor's memories and Time Lord nature, leading him to steal it after being invited into "John Smith's" office for a conversation, and opening the watch alerts the Family to the Doctor's presence. * Downton Abbey: In Series 1, Barrow's scheme to get Bates sacked by framing him for stealing gets scarpered because Molesley happens to find him stealing from the storerooms. Carson believes Molesley because as butler to Crawley House, he doesn't work at Downton itself and doesn't have the same opinions on Barrow as the rest of the staff do. * Scores of the schemes on Dynasty (2017) are marred by a huge wrinkle none of the other characters could have expected. + Alexis conspires to \|\|have a con man pose as Blake's long missing son Adam in a scheme to get her own money. But the con man gets greedy about getting his own money and thus makes a key vote that keeps Alexis from her payday.\|\| + Jeff \|\|fakes his own death and makes it appear as if Adam killed him while he leaves town. He gives the key piece of evidence to his mom to plant at the "crime scene" and thus set up Adam. Too bad Jeff never considered his mom would simply sell the "evidence" to Blake for a big check, thus removing Jeff from things while Adam remains free.\|\| + Adam himself \|\|wants to remove Fallon from the board by dredging up the lake where he overheard Fallon's old childhood friend (who died in an accident) had been dumped into. Too bad Adam had no idea there was another corpse inside the lake from another death Blake hushed up.\|\| + Fallon decides to pull a major move by \|\|selling off her publishing company to Kirby for one dollar so Blake can't get the profits of it going public, meaning Fallon makes a big payday when Kirby sells it back for the same amount. At which point, Kirby announces she has no plans to sell it back as she thinks she can run it better.\|\| + Sam plans to renovate a hotel and reopen it as a big deal. What could go wrong? First, while breaking down a wall, he finds a stack of treasure that belonged to the older owner who turns out to be famous artist. This means the Atlanta Historical Society wants to make the place a landmark which would hurt the chances of opening it as a regular hotel. Sam decides to embrace this by boasting of the artist's history...and learns the guy was a massive homophobe whose very name is considered toxic in some circles so now Sam has gay rights groups ready to picket the place. + Really, it's easier to count the number of schemes that don't go off the rails because of some spanner. * Elsbeth: + Elsbeth herself is this. The killers likely all would have gotten away with their murders with near perfect crimes that would fool even experienced detectives. What they don't count on is an eccentric lawyer whose quirky mind allows her to spot details and make conclusions no one else would. + Plastic surgeon Vanessa sets up a terrific alibi of being at an art museum, ducking out to commit the murder and then returning before anyone knows she's gone. But when she returns to the museum, she sees everyone else has paint splattered on their clothes from a protestor. Vanessa quickly buys some paint herself to put on her shoes so as not to give away the fact that she wasn't there. But Elsbeth sees the pattern isn't quite right. Then, the garbage people are later than usual collecting the newspaper Vanessa stood on with the paint drops and shoeprints and it's just a few calls to find out who in that area at that time was buying the exact style of paint needed to copy the splatter, leading to Vanessa arrested. * Firefly has a rare example of this happening to the hero. In "Objects in Space", River's Batman Gambit to lead Early onto the top of the ship where Mal can ambush him is almost dashed by Simon trying to stop Early, unaware that River is actually prepared to ambush Early and not simply surrendering. Fortunately, Simon's woeful lack of skill in combat means Early is able to beat him back in time to waltz into the trap. * For Life: Cassius Dawkins, intentionally sent to be so for Aaron, \|\|Safiya, and her wife, who was Maskin's opponent in the Attorney General race\|\|. * The Fringe episode "The Plateau" features a villain whose intelligence was boosted so he can perfectly predict anything that will happen and set up ridiculously complicated scenarios to kill people and escape from the agents chasing him. He's foiled by \|\|Olivia not actually being from his universe, just brainwashed to think she is. So she doesn't recognize a sign indicating a low oxygen area, and doesn't pause to grab an oxygen mask, allowing her time to dodge the stack of pipes he thought would kill her\|\|. * Game of Thrones loves this trope: + In the first season, the Lannisters have a very careful plan for dealing with Ned Stark in such a way that he would be discredited, but the Starks would decide against going to war, and thus the succession for the Iron Throne would be secured... and then \|\|Joffrey has Ned publicly executed for shits and giggles, causing the North to declare war and making the Iron Throne look so insecure that Joffrey's uncles Renly and Stannis both decide to take their chance and challenge Joffrey.\|\| + On a smaller scale, part of the Lannisters' plan was to \|\|take the three visiting Starks (Ned, Sansa and Arya) prisoner and use them a political bargaining chips. However, on top of Joffrey executing Ned, the much overlooked eleven year old Arya turns out to have both a swordmaster and the skills to fight back and manages to escape King's Landing. The Lannisters are left with only Sansa, and for the rest of the series have no idea what Arya's up to or even if she survived.\|\| + The survival of Arya, Bran and Rickon means House Stark isn't quite as dead as many characters believe. + In the sixth season, Margaery devises an as-yet unrevealed plan to free herself and her brother Loras from the Faith Militant. Said plan becomes moot when \|\|Cersei elects to have the entire Sept of Baelor blown up, killing Margaery, Loras, their father Mace, the High Sparrow, and dozens of others.\|\| + Indirect example but the wildfire which Aerys Targaryen left under King's Landing was a spanner in the plans the High Sparrow had to establish the theocracy in Westeros and ultimately leads to his death. + Also in the sixth season, Littlefinger's long-running plan to make Sansa Stark his new bride and turn her into a puppet Queen of the North is suddenly dashed when \|\|Lyanna Mormount decides to shame the various Northern factions into naming Sansa's "brother" Jon Snow the new King of the North.\|\| + Ramsay to his own father. While Ramsay takes orders from Roose, he does things Roose doesn't order and in doing so screws up Roose's plans. For one thing, there's burning Winterfell and flaying the Ironborn, when it seems Roose's offer to them of safe passage out of the North if they surrendered was genuine. Not to mention that Theon's value as a prisoner became virtually non-existent after Ramsay castrated him; Balon has no use for a son who can't continue the family line. When Roose has Ramsay use Theon to have the Ironborn at Moat Cailin surrender, the plan almost collapses because Theon is so emotionally broken that he can't command respect from them. > Roose: Ramsay delivered the terms. The Ironborn turned on Theon as we knew they would. They handed him over, trussed and hooded, but Ramsay... well, Ramsay has his own way of doing things. + Thanks to the High Sparrow's manipulations, Tommen ruins whatever plans Cersei and the Small Council had to curb the power of the Faith Militant. + Daenerys to the whole Game of Thrones, as per Varys. The original plan was for Dany to marry Khal Drogo to provide Viserys an army to take Westeros in place of dragons, but Dany's assimilation into the Dothraki, her supplanting of Viserys in their hearts and minds, and then finally her hatching three dragons upset all of his and everyone else's schemes. Nobody expected or predicted that Daenerys would do the things she did or become the great conqueror and liberator she has. + Stannis Baratheon's arrival at the Wall completely derails Mance's invasion, but also throws a wrench in Roose Bolton's attempts to solidify the North under his rule. + Renly's rebellion was one of the key factors for why Westeros was divided in the wake of the Succession Crisis after Robert's death. Ned wanted a smooth transition to Stannis over the illegitimate children, yet Renly insisted that Ned leapfrog the line of succession and make him King for ideological reasons which Ned refused and in response, Renly, Loras and their contingent of soldiers leave the capiital. This prevented Ned from having proper allies at the key moment of Robert's death, forcing him to turn to Littlefinger and Janos Slynt instead, leading to his downfall. In addition, Renly declaring himself a King was a key factor in the Succession Crisis becoming a War of Five Kings, rather than a straightforward conflict between Joffrey and Stannis as Ned intended. Since Stannis hadn't yet received Ned's letter he didn't know of his claim until much later. Renly declaring himself King challenged the line of succession, as Robb Stark pointed out, which led to the North and Riverlands electing Robb as King in the North. Had it not been for Renly, the North would have probably rallied behind Stannis as Ned intended, and there would have been a proper alliance against the Lannisters. + Daenarys' invasion of Westeros begins with seemingly one-sided odds; with her, the Tyrells, the Dornish, and part of the Greyjoy fleet, along with an army of Dothraki and Unsullied, versus the Lannisters and a small handful of supporting lesser noble houses. Enter Euron's alliance with Cersei, where he destroys Yara and Theon's fleet and abducts Yara, kills or captures Ellaria and the Sand Snakes, and destroys the part of Dany's fleet at Casterly Rock. Euron manages to pretty-much singledhandedly save the Lannisters from losing the war. + Arya returning to Winterfell ultimately becomes the death blow to Littlefinger's plans\|\|, and Littlefinger himself\|\|. He works on the assumption that Arya would want to usurp Sansa's place as Lady of Winterfell, and uses this to play the sisters against each other. \|\|He fails to realize she couldn't care less about being Lady of Winterfell and only wants to protect her family and take revenge against those who'd wronged them, the former part at least being something Sansa is well aware of, allowing the sisters to work together to trick him into a trial where Arya promptly executes him.\|\| * Get Smart, of course; Maxwell Smart is more likely to defeat KAOS by accident than on purpose. * The main characters in The Good Guys are generally competent cops (yes, even Dan Stark) who solve major crimes largely by stumbling into them while investigating something much smaller. * Good Omens (2019): + The Antichrist is born, and an order of nuns in service of the Devil are preparing for an American diplomat's wife to arrive at their convent in labor. They will then switch her baby for the Antichrist as growing up in an influential American political family is the first step toward achieving his destiny. What throws it off is that a couple called the Youngs show up with the wife also in labor. When Crowley drops off the Antichrist, Mr. Young tells him that "the birth" is happening in Room 3, meaning his own child. But Crowley thinks he means the diplomat's wife and so gives the child to a nun to switch. Then two nuns each misinterpet the other's winking signals so instead of the diplomat's family, the Antichrist is given to a totally different couple. So when Crowley and Aziraphle decide to stop Armageddon by finding a way to "defuse" the Antichrist, they have no idea they're dealing with the wrong child and so, 11 years later, this mix-up nearly ends the entire world. + As it happens, the boy, Adam, turns into a spanner for Armageddon. Had he grown up as a diplomat's son, he'd have turned into a spoiled and obnoxious brat who'd be a nightmare with his powers. Instead, \|\|he grows up with a kind family and, more importantly, a group of friends who tell him off when he tries to use his powers for wicked stuff. This group of kids ends up aiding Adam in stopping the Apocalypse. Aziraphle even lampshades it by dryly noting to Crowley how things would have ended poorly "had we been more competent."\|\| + The big move of the Four Horsemen is to set up a computer virus to cause a worldwide nuclear missile launch. \|\|Walking Techbane Newt, whose presence no one but an ancient seer saw coming, hits one command into a computer and the entire program shuts down to prevent the launches.\|\| * The Good Place: Eleanor Shellstrop serves as one: + The entire premise of the first season is that the Good Place architect is finding his carefully constructed paradise, tailored to perfectly meet the needs of each inhabitant, is suffering cataclysmic disasters. He knows that something is a Spanner in the Works but he does not know that it is Eleanor, who was sent to the Good Place by mistake and her actual selfish nature and behavior is apparently incompatible with the very nature of the place. + \|\|The above is actually a subversion: Eleanor and her three 'friends' have actually been in The Bad Place all along with the intent of them believing that they were in heaven while their insecurities and clashing personalities serving as an eternity of psychological torture. Those disasters were deliberately engineered by the architect to make Eleanor fear being exposed as a fraud. However, he did not count on Eleanor undergoing genuine Character Development and his entire plan goes Off the Rails when she selflessly confesses that she does not belong in paradise.\|\| + We do however get a Failure Montage in the first episode of the second season as \|\|Michael's plan to torture his charges with the fake Good Place depends on them not figuring out it's the Bad Place, and they keep doing so extremely early, forcing Michael to keep erasing their memories and loop the simulation. At least one time Eleanor figured it out within five seconds of the loop starting, and in a second instance it happened because they overheard his Evil Gloating because he forgot to close the door of his office.\|\| + Also, \|\|Michael ends up becoming the Accidental Hero of the whole series by simply doing his job. He proposes a new neighborhood in the hopes of impressing Shawn and revolutionizing torture, only to learn that humans are capable of change after death and keep improving no matter what he does to gaslight them. Then he learns that the system is so forked up that no one can enter the Good Place, exposing that Shawn was enabling a broken system. Cue Michael facing bureaucrat after bureaucrat in the divine hierarchy, before he and the Soul Squad convince Gen that something needs to change.\|\| * Harrow: In "Quam Innocentum Damnari" ("An Innocent Man Is Punished"), after killing the Victim of the Week, the murderer comes up with a brilliant scheme to frame the victim's lover for the crime. What they did not know was that the lover was already dead at the time the murder took place. * In Hawaii Five-0, a mystery novelist appears to have been almost drowned in her tub by a man out for a secret lost novel. The open air duct indicates he escaped that way. Later, Steve and the others come up to reveal how they figured out this whole thing was a massive publicity stunt for the novel which got out of hand (including a couple of real murders). Steve compliments the author on the whole thing but notes how there was one major flaw: the air duct had been sealed off for repairs to the above floor so there was no way anyone could have escaped through it. When they found this (literal) dead end, it didn't take long for the cops to unravel her entire hoax. * The first volume of Heroes (2006) has a large and complicated plot that involved blowing up New York in order to usher one of the characters into the White House. The only thing stopping it from being a Gambit Roulette was the fact that the people responsible were basing their convoluted plot on the works of an artist who could paint the future. And it was working, hell, it almost did work. Unfortunately for them, a certain Future Badass with the power to control the Space-Time continuum didn't like the result, and traveled back five years to give a message to one of the present day characters. This guy had no idea that there was any sort of plan, he just thought it all happened naturally, but the message he delivered set off a chain of events that ended up ruining the plan at the last minute. * In The Incredible Hulk (1977), David Banner is a 2-in-1 spanner: he tends to accidentally stumble into some illegal activity going on. When the bad people in each episode try to get rid of him using violent methods, it leads him to transforming into the titular character, who is a big green spanner that ruins the schemes for good. * Kamen Rider: + Shinji Kido/Kamen Rider Ryuki is this trope's personification when it comes to Kamen Rider. He has an unholy ability to barge in at the least convinient moment and his The Determinator tendencies make him impossible to remove from the plan once he gets there. Also, being an Idiot Hero, he doesn't know any of this. + Shotaro Hidari, despite being the main character of Kamen Rider Double, gets this from every single one of the show's Chessmasters. Neither \|\|Ryubee Sonozaki nor his wife Fumine, AKA Shroud\|\|, ever considered that the overly emotional and all-too-human detective could possibly be a factor in their plans, especially since \|\|Ryubee's Terror Dopant form emits such raw Primal Fear that Shotaro can barely think in his presence, and Shroud was planning on partnering up Ryu Terui (Accel) with Philip since they're both immune to that effect\|\|. Neither did the True Final Boss \|\|Jun Kazu, the Utopia Dopant\|\|, thanks to his Reality Warper powers. Shotaro manages to show them all up, overcoming his limitations with a combination of Hot Bloodedness and loyalty to his True Companions that lets him make the impossible possible, even defeating \|\|Utopia\|\| without transforming into Double. Arguably lampshaded by Shotaro being tied heavily to the concept of the Joker — he's both the Wild Card (the element nobody saw coming) and the Trump Card (the key to victory). * Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: + The Season 10 finale, "Zebras", had this in the form of a mosquito, of all things. It had been killed in the same gas attack that had killed the perp's lawyer and everyone knew it could reveal who the killer was. \|\|What they didn't realize was that the killer wasn't who they thought it was.\|\| * Leverage: + This is why Nate has to be a master of Xanatos Speed Chess. All it takes is for, say, the mark to make a change to his daily routine or an unexpected phone call or a sudden visitor to pop in and it can throw the team's carefully planned scam off. + Sometimes, the spanner comes from the discovery the mark is more dangerous than the team thought. For example, their simple con on the corrupt owners of a Chinese laundromat goes awry when they find out the place is the front for the Triads. Likewise, a sting on a Russian businessman at his daughter's wedding is thrown when they discover too late the guy is connected to the Russian mob and half the wedding party are ruthless mobsters. + Another spanner can be the team's amazing ability to hit Gone Horribly Right on their jobs. In more than one case, they con the owner of a corrupt business into thinking it's in jeopardy, expecting him to sell it off to them...and instead the owner just decides to shut the business down and put everyone out of work. + On at least one occasion, the team hit a wrinkle they never expected: their mark is actually a downright decent and good person who's simply made mistakes, not some corrupt monster so have to adjust the plan so as not to ruin them. + "The Beantown Bailout Job" has the team up against The Irish Mob on a job and using the nebbish local bank manager as a pawn. It's only deep in the con that they discover the manager is, in fact, the mastermind of the entire scheme. + In "The Gold Job" Hardison demands, and is given, the opportunity to run his own con by Nate. Hardison plans an elaborate Batman Gambit based on video game theory and it's working very well, until the people he's manipulating decide that it's not worth the effort to keep jumping through his hoops. In an ending scene Hardison receives a letter Nate wrote earlier in the day which outlines the three things the plan needed to succeed (which Hardison's plan made possible). Nate then explains how he plans his cons to anticipate the possibility of spanners; he starts with the crude, ugly basic plan, and then plans the elaborate, beautiful, intricate plan from there. > Nate: The perfect plan, it's got too many moving parts, too much that can go wrong. You have to expect the perfect plan to fail, that's what I do. + "The Office Job" has a straight-up scam to bring down Fred Bartley, the owner of a greeting card company who the team believe is scamming by creating fake orders and pocketing the cash. Spanner 1: There's a crew filming a documentary and naturally, having a camera crew around makes it harder for the team to pull their scam. Spanner 2: They realize this isn't embezzlement, someone is using the company to print Counterfeit Cash. And Spanner 3 is Fred is really a nice guy just in over his head and it's his supposed trusted aide who's the real crook and using him as the fall guy. + Also seen in "The Tap-Out Job"; Nate is pretending to be a fight organizer from South Dakota, complete with a convincing online profile. The Spanner comes in the form of the mark's assistant. He gets suspicious and calls his cousin Jimmy in South Dakota, who "knows every fight producer in the state", but never heard of Nate's alias. > Hardison: Look, you know what I can do? I can re-task a satellite. I can get a level-3 NSA security clearance. But I can't hack a hick. + "The Rashomon Job" features the crew each trying to claim that they were the one who stole a priceless dagger from a museum years ago. However, it turns out that none of them got the dagger in the end because this trope was in play. Everyone's plans collided with each other, resulting in the dagger quite literally falling into Nate's hand. + The sequel series shifts it up as, without Nate, the team is less prepared to handle and adjust to such spanners. "The Card Game Job" is nearly ruined when the reclusive millionaire not seen in years suddenly shows up at the event. "The Tower Job" has the team thrown when the wife of the corrupt builder waltzes into the empty floor they were using as a hideout to have a fling with her assistant and recognizes them all. + In "The Bucket Job," the team do a nice act by giving a dying librarian a role in a "spy" adventure. What could go wrong? A batch of real spies showing up for one...but then when this quiet, mild-mannered librarian suddenly breaks away from the plan because he's a retired spy himself who doesn't know what's real and what's part of the game. + "The Harry Wilson Job" has the team running what should be a simple con until they keep getting interference. It turns out that \|\|the long-absent Hardison\|\| has his team working a con on the same mark and the ensuring Gambit Pileup nearly ruins it all. + "The One Man's Garbage Job" has a simple con as Sophie poses as an insurance investigator asking corrupt smuggler Hammond for paperwork on his art. As the team figures, he won't have it and his offering a bribe to Sophie will set up his fall. They're naturally rocked when Hammond immediately offers up the paperwork and realize he has a forger on his side. Then it turns out that said forger is Sophie's old "friend" Arthur, whose knowledge of her tricks keeps shuffling the plan even when they try to bring him on board. * In Malcolm in the Middle, Malcolm's dad Hal is accused of being the mastermind of a money-laundering scheme in his company, which was set up by his corrupt coworkers to make Hal the fall guy. Unfortunately, the culprits made the mistake of claiming they witnessed Hal doing the money laundering every Friday... except it turned out Hal had been skipping work on Fridays for the last 15 years to go and have fun, and had brought proof of his escapades. The culprit's case proceeds to completely fall apart and Hal goes free. * Married... with Children: Kelly Bundy tended to mess up whatever plan she became involved in, given her role as The Ditz and Brainless Beauty. It's even lampshaded by Peggy at one point as the Bundys and the D'Arcys are being arrested by the police, when she notes that it probably wasn't a good idea to let Kelly in on the plan. * Monk: + Dale J. Biederbeck III was rich and influential enough that he could get away with whatever he wanted. Then Monk's investigation allowed the police to arrest Biederbeck's personal physician, whom Biederbeck had blackmailed into service. Said physician immediately agreed to provide as much information as he could to get Biederbeck arrested as well. + In Biederbeck's second appearance, he's the spanner in another murderer's plot. The victim was a death row inmate who would have died anyway, and when suspicion fell on Biederbeck, the prison staff stalled on completing his Luxury Prison Suite. Monk was about to walk away, not wanting to stay in the prison, but Biederbeck promised him vital information on his wife's murder in exchange for solving the case. Monk agreed, and with his skills, the murderer and motives were exposed. * Tragically, Lancelot became this for Arthur and Guinevere on Merlin despite repeated promises to himself and Merlin that he would never come between them. However, Morgana resurrects him after his Heroic Sacrifice, robs him of his free will, and forces him to seduce Guinevere (who was enchanted to respond to his advances). * In Oshin, \|\|Oshin's very meddling mother-in-law Kiyo plans to part her from her son Ryuuzo when she leaves Saga to work in Tokyo, by intercepting Oshin's letters and cutting off her and Ryuuzo's communication.\|\| The plan works very well when \|\|Oshin moves to Sakata, stops getting Ryuuzo's letters (since he doesn't know she has moved away) so she thinks he's ditched her and vice versa\|\|, until two people ruin this: \|\|Oshin's other prospect love interest Kouta (who writes to Ryuuzo to call him out on his "abandonment" and say he will help Oshin and her son Yuu instead, making Ryuuzo realize there's something fishy going on)\|\| and \|\|Ryuuzo's sister-in-law Tsuneko (who finds the remains of Oshin's letters, reconstructs them and shows them to Ryuuzo).\|\| * Every killer on Poker Face quite likely would have gotten away with their murder scott-free if only Living Lie Detector Charlie hadn't picked just this time to be on the scene and soon figuring out what really happened. * Power Rangers: + Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: In Season 2, "When Is A Ranger Not A Ranger," Lord Zedd makes a monster out of a kaleidoscope to erase the Rangers' memories and suppress their powers. He gets half of them, allowing the other half to figure out that using prisms can reverse the process, but Scatterbrain still manages to erase their memories. But Bulk and Skull saw the whole thing, and when Scatterbrain is about to finish them off, they grab the prisms and confront the monster. Scatterbrain zaps them, and while it costs them their long-sought-after memories of the Rangers' true identities, the prisms reflect the light into the Rangers and restore their memories and powers. > Zedd: Leave it to a couple of meatheads to mess up my plan! + Power Rangers Zeo begins after the cliffhanger ending of the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers mini-arc — Rita and Zedd have destroyed the Rangers' Command Center and captured the Zeo Crystal, and nothing's stopping them from finally conquering Earth...only for the Machine Empire to invade out of nowhere, forcing them to flee to Master Vile's territory before they get destroyed. They do return later in the season, acting as this for the Machine Empire's plans more than once. + Power Rangers Ninja Storm begins with Lothor ambushing all the ninja schools (ninja being the only ones who could stop him) and capturing the students. Only five people manage to remain: the Wind Academy's Sensei (who was not captured, but was effectively neutralized by being turned into a Guinea pig), his son Cam (who wasn't captured because he wasn't a student), and three student ninja who decided to be good samaritans and so were Late for School. Since they were the only ones with anything resembling the proper training, the three students ended up becoming the new Power Rangers under the mentorship of the Sensei and with Cam's help, and soon they start fighting back against Lothor. + Power Rangers RPM: Venjix's plan to \|\|infect Corinth's population with half-human hybrids and then conquer Corinth in one fell swoop\|\| would've gone off flawlessly, had it not been for General Kilobyte being jealous and \|\|activating a hybrid, Hicks, early and attempt to kill Scott and Colonel Truman\|\|, thus tipping the Rangers off about the plan (Venjix banishes Kilobyte in response). * In the third series of Primeval, Helen has a plan to \|\|kill the first hominids and thus erase humanity from existence.\|\| She very nearly succeeds, if not for \|\|one desperately hungry raptor\|\|. * The fun of Prison Break is how Michael has crafted an intricate and brilliant plan to break his brother Lincoln out of a prison. It includes tattooing the blueprints on his body and crafting perfect escapes. From day one, Michael learns the hard way that real life has a way of throwing wrinkles into any plan... + The biggest failing is Michael realizing too late that people in prison don't react the way normal people would. He had assumed he could just win over mobster Abruzzi by offering the location of a witness against him after they escape. He doesn't expect Abruzzi to simply order his goons to torture Michael for the information. + A major part of the plan is how Michael is convinced Westmoreland is legendary hijacker D.B. Cooper and his hidden money is key to the escape. Too bad Westmoreland has a perfect alibi for when Cooper's hijacking took place. \|\|Subverted as a dying Westmoreland does confess he was indeed Cooper. His alibi—that he was in jail for drunk driving at the time—was actually his father.\|\| + Michael thought it would just be him, Abruzzi, Lincoln and Westmoreland escaping. But soon, various others find out what he's up to and the escape crew expands beyond Michael's planning. + The initial escape looks to be going great and just like Michael planned...until he discovers that the water pipe that he weakened to create the escape tunnel has been replaced by a new and stronger pipe that's impossible to break through. + Michael had planned just a minor distraction so he could set up the infrustructure for the finalescape...only for it to escalate into a full-blown prison riot. During which, dangerous psychopath T-Bag stumbles onto the plot and forces his way onto the team which creates numerous spanners down the road. + The gang track down the money \|\|Westmoreland/Cooper\|\| buried long ago...only to find the area is now a housing development. They get into the target house and are forced to hold the owner hostage...at which point, her police officer daughter drops by for a visit. + Michael prides himself on being smarter than anyone the FBI could send after them. He could never count on the FBI handing the case to Alexander Mahone, a brilliant agent whose quirky mind allows him to figure out just what Michael is up to. + Perhaps the biggest spanner of all is that Michael went into this under the impression that Lincoln's conviction was simply the justice system getting the wrong man. It's only deep into the plot that the brothers discover Lincoln was set up by a powerful conspiracy who counts the Vice-President of the United States among their number. Michael lampshades how he was prepared for the cops and feds but not a group who can commander the resources of intelligence agencies to hunt the brothers and doesn't care who they have to kill to get their own way. + Really, about half the series is all about Michael's "perfect" plans going awry. * Profit: In his first episode, Sykes is trying to obtain evidence to convinct a mob boss who once murdered his best friend. His initial plan was to get a job at Gracen & Gracen, then suggest a merger with the mob boss' waste management company where he launders most of his money so Sykes can legally obtain a copy of his books to prove fraud and embezzlement. However, he's baffled when Profit doesn't walk into his office refusing to partner with a criminal and goes ahead with the deal anyway. As a result, Sykes has to play an extended game of cat and mouse with Profit to eventually get the evidence he needs. * Psychopath Diary: Dong-sik constantly ruins In-woo's plans just by existing. Shown especially when In-woo is about to murder Bo-kyung, then learns Dong-sik has got the police looking for Bo-kyung. * Salem: John Alden's mere presence in Salem is screwing up the witches' preparations for their Grand Rite. Increase Mather later becomes this as he basically appoints himself the inquisitor of Salem. * Stargate SG-1: SG-1 was once called to help Thor to serve this very purpose(Actually a subversion: the Asgard didn't need stupid people, they needed people who thought very differently from the Asgard, as the Replicators were perfectly capable of countering Asgard attempts, but had no experience with humans). > Jack O'Neill: So what you're basically saying is you need someone dumber than you? > General Hammond: I'm sorry, Thor, but we need SG-1 here. > Sam Carter: I could go, sir. > Jack O'Neill: I dunno, Carter, you may not be dumb enough. + In "2001", A simple Volian farmer gives a glowing account of the Aschen, being completely ignorant of what they did to his planet, and sees no problem asking Daniel and Teal'c for help with the "iron root" in one of his fields. This ends up completely undoing the Aschen's plans for Earth. + In the episode "Bad Guys", a comedy of errors when arriving to a new planet gets SG-1 Mistaken for Terrorists and they are forced to keep the ruse going until they can jury-rig the Stargate so they can go home. The plans of both SG-1 and the police get repeatedly screwed over by a bumbling, Glory Hound security officer who thinks he's John McClane (even directly compared to him by SG-1) and tries to save the day himself in direct opposition to his orders. * Star Trek examples: + "The Trouble with Tribbles" from Star Trek: The Original Series. A Klingon spy going by the name of "Arne Darvin" poisoned a shipment of quadrotriticale grain being sent to Sherman's Planet with the intent on preventing the Federation from claiming it. However, a shady trader named Cyrano Jones had arrived at Deep Space K-7 with small alien creatures called Tribbles in tow. Tribbles eat everything in sight and multiply extremely quickly when fed. The Tribbles quickly breed out of control and get into the grain stores... at which point they die from the poison, which causes the humans to realize that something was wrong and find out what it was by autopsying the dead Tribbles. The Tribbles also expose Darvin due to their mutal negative reactions with Klingons. + Star Trek: The Next Generation: - In "The Mind's Eye", Geordi gets abducted by Romulans and brainwashed into serving as a Manchurian Agent, with one of his training exercises being killing a holographic Chief O'Brien. Later, just as Geordi is unwittingly about to try and kill Governor Vagh, Chief O'Brien comes up to him, asking for a little help. This simple, unwitting act delays Geordi long enough for Data's investigation to conclude, and thus barely avoid the killing shot; without this, it's likely Geordi would've succeeded once he got close enough. - "The First Duty", Wesley, his buddy Nicolas Locarno, and their squadmates at Starfleet Academy, were involved in a flying accident that got one of their friends, Joshua Albert, killed, and their resulting testimony given to Starfleet officials is a bit shaky on the details. It seems as though Joshua simply made a fatal mistake while piloting his aircraft, and Locarno would've been content to let that be the story. Unfortunately for him, Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew got involved with the investigation, out of loyalty to Wesley, one of their own. This is when Picard found out what really happened: Nicolas Locarno convinced Wesley, Joshua, and the others, to perform an illegal maneuver for their flight demonstration, and it didn't work as planned, killing Joshua in the process.(And it was illegal in the first place due to people dying; the last time it was attempted all five were killed.) Picard then gives an epic What the Hell, Hero? speech to Wesley in the ready room, after which Wesley, utterly ashamed of himself, blows Locarno's cover at the following inquiry. - In "Starship Mine", the Enterprise is cleared of all personnel so a baryon sweep can clean exotic particles out of the ship. Right as Picard is about to leave the bridge, a maintenance crew assemble on the bridge to do their part in cleaning up. At a small party down at the starbase on the planet below, Picard does not like having to put up with Commander Hutchinson, who is every single guy at a party who just yammers on about nothing. Seeking an excuse to leave, Picard claims he's going to quickly grab his saddle from the ship and go horse-riding. And in doing so, he discovers the "maintenance crew" on the Enterprise are actually criminals stealing trilithium from the ship, none of whom expected Picard to return to the ship, figure out what's really going on, and go all Die Hard on the Enterprise on them. + Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: - The two-part "Improbable Cause"/"The Die Is Cast" has Enabran Tain, former head of the Obsidian Order, organize a joint operation with the Romulan Tal Shiar to make a preemptive strike on the Founder homeworld. It's a well-detailed plan headed up by arguably the most brilliant mind the Order has ever seen...and it fails because Tain misses how one of the chief Romulans has been replaced by a Changeling. Thus, the strike turns into a trap wiping out the Order and Tal Shiar forces. Tain himself lampshades this, noting how in his prime he would have kept someone that cagey and smart at arm's length from the action. - "The Assignment"; when Keiko is possessed by a malevolent alien called a Pah-wraith that threatens to kill her if O'Brien doesn't perform some "adjustments" to the station, O'Brien recruits Rom to help him. Rom's surprising grasp of what the "adjustments" would do to the station ("Why are we trying to kill the wormhole aliens?") and his knowledge of Bajoran mythology and folklore from his conversations with Leeta end up giving O'Brien the key he needs to thwart the Pah-wraith's plans and save his wife. + Seska's cover story in Star Trek: Voyager as to why she has Cardassian blood factors despite ostensibly being a Bajoran (she received a bone marrow transplant from a sympathetic Cardassian to cure a childhood disease) might have passed muster when dealing with any ordinary doctor or field medic. But Voyager's doctor is the ship's Emergency Medical Hologram, who is essentially a walking database of all recorded medical knowledge in the Federation, so he instantly knows it doesn't work that way. * Supernatural: + Naomi calls Castiel this by name, and says that he has never completely done what he was told. + The Winchester brothers might also qualify, as it is their \|\|unwillingness to do as they're told that derails the angels' apocalypse plans.\|\| * Survivor + In Heroes Vs. Villains, Tyson served as a Spanner In The Works for Rob's gambit by serving as an Unwitting Pawn in Russell's gambit. The Villains tribe was divided between Rob's and Russell's supporters, with Rob leading 6-3. However, Russell had an immunity idol, which meant that when the tribe voted someone out, he (or whoever he gave the idol to) could stand up and play the idol to prevent any votes cast against them from counting. Rob wasn't sure whether the idol would be played by Russell or by Russell's closest ally, Pavarti, but Rob had a plan to guarantee they could get rid of either Russell or Pavarti. He would have three people vote for Russell and three for Pavarti; then, regardless of who played the idol, the other one would have three votes. Even if all three people on Russell's side voted for one person, it would have meant a 3-3 tie between votes to get rid of Russell or Parvati and votes to get rid of whichever Rob supporter Russell targeted, leading to a tie-breaker that Rob's side could easily win. However, the plan fell through because Tyson actually let Russell (his alliance's enemy) tell him who he should vote for. Rob had assigned Tyson to be one of the three people to vote for Russell. However, Russell told Tyson that he would sacrifice Pavarti and use the idol to protect himself, leading Tyson to think that he should vote for Pavarti because votes against Russell wouldn't count after Russell played the idol. Russell had other plans, and gave the idol to Pavarti. After the votes were cast, Pavarti played the idol, meaning that the final vote count was four votes (including Tyson's) against Pavarti that didn't count, two votes against Russell, and three votes cast by Russell and his allies against... Tyson. It was three to two, and Tyson was sent home. Afterward, Tyson admitted to the camera, "I am a victim of my own stupidity." His action was one of five official nominees for the dumbest action in Survivor history. + Sash fell victim to three Spanners during Nicaragua. He was in a very good position in the game, having just ousted Chessmasters Marty and Brenda in quick succession, but then his closest allies Kelly and NaOnka decided to quit at the same time, leaving him without an ideal final three (Kelly did very little in both strategy and physical play, and NaOnka was universally disliked by the other tribemates). He managed to quickly get himself into a secret alliance with Chase, Holly, and Jane, but then Fabio, who was both the alliance's obvious target and had been faking the part of the Dumb Blonde up until that point, planted the idea in Chase's head that Jane needed to be taken out before anyone else. Sash proceeded to make the plan his own, which in turn led to Jane revealing the alliance at the next Tribal. From there, Sash could only helplessly watch as Fabio went on a string of Immunity Challenge runs, keeping him safe to the very end, which forced Sash to turn on his alliance and vote out Holly. The end result? A Final three of Sash, Chase, and Fabio, with Chase getting four votes, Fabio winning with five, and Sash with... none at all. * On S.W.A.T. (1975), a group of crooked cops prepares a scheme to rob a beauty pageant of the million-dollar diamond crown and scepter to be given as a price. They've got it all set to pose as security guards, get the jewels, it's working perfectly...then one of the cops realizes the jewels are fake. It turns out the pageant owners had swapped them with duplicates, intending for the security guards to get blamed for missing jewels while they ran with the real ones. The ensuing fight over the real jewels turns into a hostage situation before the cops arrest the entire bunch. * In an episode of Wallander, the title character avoids a fatal bullet by tripping over a conveniently-placed rug. * The Season 5 finale of Weeds features an unusual instance of a smart character acting as fate's tool: \|\|Shane Botwin's murder of Pilar, a brilliant criminal who acted as puppeteer for Estaban, the Mexican stock exchange, and Mexican government as a whole. Essentially, Shane and his croquet mallet accomplished in a mere second what Nancy and Guillermo had failed to do in half a season, and those two burnt down an entire town without getting caught...\|\| * In White Christmas, Kang Mi Reu sneaks back into the school unbeknownst to anybody but his fellow students to pull a prank after being expelled. The killer never knew he existed and when he reveals himself and holds the other kids at gunpoint, Kang Mi Reu had since left the school. Though unable to navigate the snow Mi Reu returns and tries to pull a prank on an unsuspecting person, in actuality the killer, by wiring a doorknob to shock him. It disables the killer long enough for them to get the gun away from him and reclaim the school. Only then does he realize that a dangerous serial killer had been threatening everybody. * In Young Blades, the fact that "Jacques" is really Jacqueline posing as a man to join the Musketeers throws off a few villainous plots: + A woman is able to use a hypnotic power to control any man. She naturally can't understand why "Jacques" appears immune to her charms to ruin her plot. + The Chameleon is able to "bend light" to look like anyone and impersonates "Jacques." D'Artagnan (the only one who knows her secret) can see it through because the Chameleon is acting like an actual man, not a woman pretending to be a man. + The Chameleon is also thrown when Captain Duval "confesses" to a crime the Chameleon committed as part of his plan to flush the imposter out. ---	SpannerInTheWorks	null
Film	# One Winged Angel - Film --- Films — Animation ----------------- * At the climax of All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, Red assumes his gigantic true form after \|\|capturing all the dogs in Heaven with Gabriel's Horn\|\|. Truthfully, it's just an incredibly massive and more demonic version of his base form, but is still enough to prove a major problem... \|\|until Charlie discovers his weakness\|\|. * In Bartok the Magnificent, Ludmilla steals a potion that Babayaga has given Bartok to aid him in his quest — it turns you into whatever you are, deep down inside. She drinks it and... * In BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui, Makuta consumes his two hired bounty hunters and his pet bird Nivawk to turn his weak, depowered body into a giant, winged titan. His movie design◊ was just the model from the first film with wings, but the toy◊ was a true monster. * In Coraline, after The Other Mother loses her temper with Coraline and tries to stop her from escaping, she gets less and less human-looking. At first, she simply becomes inhumanly tall and gaunt; at the climax, \|\|she turns into what is best described as a spider-woman with skin covered in cracked porcealin and limbs made from sewing needles\|\|. * Despicable Me 2 has the Big Bad using a Psycho Serum to turn himself into a giant furry monster. * In Destination Imagination, Mr. Herriman makes the mistake of verbally threatening an emotionally unstable Reality Warper named World with the thing he fears most, to be sealed away alone again. World replies by destorying his imaginary world and transforming into a massive chimera creature to try and reclaim Frankie, the only person in years who has treated him with kindness. It actually works out pretty well for him as no one can really stop him until Frankie calms the poor kid down. * Disney Animated Canon: + The Queen's "perfect disguise" in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs certainly counts, depending whom you ask; it's absolutely terrifying enough and — more importantly — it reflects the Queen's true nature. Supremely ironic given that the Queen wants to be "Fairest of Them All". + Sleeping Beauty (1959): Maleficent turns into a dragon to fight Prince Philip, as pictured in the trope's main page. > Maleficent: Now shall you deal with me, O Prince, and all the powers of *Hell!* + Parodied in The Sword in the Stone when Mad Madame Mim comes very close to ending her Wizard's Duel with Merlin by turning into a goofy-looking Dragon. \|\|Then Merlin wins by turning into an infectious disease. Given how germs work, this means that her body is full of millions of tiny transformed Merlins...\|\| + In The Little Mermaid (1989), when \|\|Ariel doesn't get Eric's kiss within the time limit\|\|, Ursula \|\|allows King Triton to trade himself for his youngest, and she takes his trident and\|\| uses it to turn into a giant version of herself. Then \|\|Eric crashes his ship into her, impaling her right as she's also struck by lightning.\|\| + In Aladdin (1992, Disney), Jafar turns into a giant cobra, then into an "all-powerful" genie. The thing is, Aladdin actually tricked Jafar into wishing he was a genie, so he'd be trapped in a lamp. Played with in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar in that it's actually his original, real form at the start of the film, but Jafar decides to transition back into his gigantic Genie self for the final battle instead of the human he looked like for most of it. Unlike the first film, it's not in any way a Clipped-Wing Angel. + Parodied in The Emperor's New Groove: Yzma is exposed to one of her own potions, and emerges laughing maniacally from a huge cloud of smoke only to be revealed as... \|\|a Cute Kitten\|\|. Surprisingly, her new form allows her to nearly get the potion several times and be a worse threat then she was as an old woman, subverting Clipped-Wing Angel as well. In an even more comical version, Kronk's New Groove features Yzma using a potion that will turn her into something that her enemies (in this case a bunch of old people who she sold fake potions to) cannot harm... \|\|a cute little bunny\|\|. Unfortunately for her, while they don't harm her, \|\|the local condor doesn't mind taking her for food\|\|. + Atlantis: The Lost Empire has \|\|Rourke become this after being sliced by a shard of glass infused with Atlantean magic, turning him into a shrieking, violent crystal golem with glowing red eyes and a glowing red mouth\|\|. In addition, \|\|Kida has a non-combative form after being fused with the city's Heart Drive. Fortunately, she's released when the danger is overcome\|\|. + In Wreck-It Ralph, \|\|King Candy/Turbo is eaten by a Cy-Bug. He takes it over and becomes a massive fusion of himself and the Cy-Bug\|\|. > \|\|Turbo-bug\|\|: Welcome to the BOSS LEVEL! + Downplayed in Frozen (2013) with Elsa's snow creature "Marshmallow" (as named by Olaf). Already intimidating to begin with, making him angry causes him to sprout giant ice spikes and send him on a rampage. * At the end of DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, the villain Merlock uses his talisman to transform himself into a gryphon as an attempt to take away the titular magic lamp and use it to take over the world. * FernGully: The Last Rainforest: After Hexxus' power source from human pollution is disconnected, his smoke form dissipates, and it momentarily seems like he's defeated. Then he harnesses his own power and transforms into a giant, black, cloaked skeleton made out of fire and tar. It's hinted to be his real form, as it's glimpsed earlier in the film during his Villain Song. * In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Kadaj transforms into no less than the Trope Namer himself. Shortly after being super-Omnislashed, Sephiroth proceeds to show his lone black wing, before leaving Kadaj to go through the whole 'dying' process. In Advent Children Complete, the wing appears before Sephiroth is Omnislashed, and he uses it to do a number on Cloud. * During the climax of The Frog Princess, Koshchei turns into a giant crow to battle Ivan. * Joe, the villain of Help! I'm a Fish, does an odd inversion of this. He starts out as an ordinary fish, granted human intelligence via the "anti-fish" potion. During his final confrontation with the hero, he begins drinking more and more of the potion to boost his intelligence, which causes him to turn into a human. The next question he gets asked is "Can a human breathe underwater?" He, of course, can't, and promptly drowns. * Howl's Moving Castle has a heroic example. Near the end, Howl transforms himself into a giant flying bear/wolverine-eagle thing to fight off bombers. * Spoofed in Igor when Jackyln runs out of pills and turns into her true form: a cute little Igorrette. * During the climax of Kubo and the Two Strings, \|\|the Moon King transforms into a ghostly dragon that resembles a cross between a millipede and a Dunkleosteus\|\|. * Monster House contains one of the most bizarre versions of this ever. Bizarre, because the Big Bad in question is a *house* that has transformed into a monster. * My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: + Sunset Shimmer transforms into a winged red devil. + In the final showdown of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, the Dazzlings get evil versions of the Rainbooms' anthro-pony transformations, with leathery wings and glowing red eyes. They up the ante even further with magical projections of their true siren forms. + \|\|Human Twilight Sparkle, of all people\|\| ends paralleling Sunset Shimmer in the first movie — she is accidentally turned into an insane monster that is powerful enough to almost destroy the whole human dimension in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games. + Gloriosa Daisy turns into a dark nature spirit in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree, which is her own version of a creature mentioned in a campfire tale. + Juniper Montage pulls it at the end of her miniseries of episode-length specials, turning into a giant version of the glamorous self she wished to be. + To the surprise of many, \|\|Wallflower Blush\|\| averts it in the climax of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship. As one of the writers put it, "Appreciating that YOU appreciate that \|\|Wallflower\|\| didn't turn into a kaiju-demon-stomper threatening to devour the school. Sometimes the biggest stakes are invisible." * Night of the Zoopocalypse: During the climax \|\|the plan to lure all the Gum-Beasts to Dan's enclosure and cure them via soap and water fails, and they end up all fused together into a giant gelatinous amalgamation of animal parts with Bunny Zero controlling it as the head\|\|. * In Plankton: The Movie, Karen transforms into a gigantic, three-headed version of herself after she decides to take over the world solo just to spite her husband and his failures. The heads are later seen as separate minions of the "main" Karen. * In Reality Trip, Freakshow turns into a large and grotesque ghost to combat Danny Phantom. He doesn't realize it until the last minute that Danny tricked him into being a ghost so that he could easily suck him up in the Fenton Thermos. * In the already insane Rock-A-Doodle, the Grand Duke appears to puke his evil magic up all over himself and mutates into a sort of gigantic owlish... tornado-ish... thing... * In Sakura Wars: The Movie, \|\|Brent Furlong merges with the remaining Japhkiels to transform himself into a gigantic demon with multiple arms before Ichiro Ogami arrives and helps the Flower Division kill him\|\|. * Simone Lenoir, Lena Dupree, and Jacques undergo this trope in the finale of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island when they transform into hideous, mindlessly snarling, spiritual life energy draining vampires that look like were-versions of cats. It is implied that this is their true form after they made a deal with the statue of an eldritch Cat God that is supposedly an evil version of Bast. * Rothbart in The Swan Princess has the ability to become "The Great Animal". His monstrous true form was teased throughout the entire movie until the very end — only to have him bring the Narm and change into what appears to be a big fruitbat. * In Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, the human bad guy leaps into a tank of magical ink, turning into a giant inky monster with metal tentacles, constantly spawning four-color minions. * The Transformers: The Movie has Galvatron, an upgraded form of Megatron, and Unicron, who does it with style. * In Turning Red, when Ming's red panda spirit is released, she goes completely berserk, becoming a kaiju-sized monster. * Winx Club 3D: Magical Adventure: When the Ancestral Witches possess the Trix, they end up as green-skinned, elderly {{ Wicked Witch}}es with white hair and red versions of the Trix's suits. They are rather ugly to look at. * Wishology has \|\|the Lead Eliminator, who eventually morphs into the powerful Destructinator\|\|. Films — Live-Action ------------------- * In one of the Alien Nation films, the Big Bad takes a massive overdose of the MacGuffin slave-drug, seemingly dying, and then... * Aladdin (2019), like the original, also has such a moment. \|\|Just like the Maleficent example listed below, however, it's not Jafar who undergoes such a transformation into a big cobra: instead, he turns Iago into a rukh and sends him after Aladdin and Jasmine, who are trying to fly out of Agrabah on the Carpet, taking the Lamp with them. Rukh!Iago does a really good job of it, successfully snatching the Lamp from Aladdin, but then the Sultan briefly knocks Jafar's staff out of his hands, causing Iago to return to normal and nearly fall out of the sky under the increased weight of the lamp in his parrot feet. Jafar does end up becoming a genie, as per the original film, but as per the original, this transformation is more of a Clipped-Wing Angel.\|\| * In Batman (1989), Viki Vale sprays water on the Joker's face, revealing his Monster Clown look under the makeup, whereupon the Joker quotes the witch from The Wizard of Oz. * The Penguin in Batman Returns is another non-fantastic example. As a derelict living in the sewers, he wears nothing but a thick robe over slime-stained long underwear. Once he decides to compete in Gotham City's mayoral race, he begins appearing in public in a tuxedo shirt, a waistcoat, striped pants, a bow tie, and a top hat. Fleeing the city in disgrace after his hypocrisy is exposed by Batman, Penguin loses his hat and retreats back into the sewers, where he begins stripping off his fancy suit. For the rest of the movie, he appears only in his robe-and-long-underwear combo, signaling that he has returned to his "normal", quasi-animalistic self. * In Beetlejuice (1988), the titular character turns into a variety of bizarre things to frighten people, as do Adam and Barbara. * Parodied in Big Fish. The hero suspects the ringmaster is a werewolf and dreads the inevitable transformation. It turns out he is — but not a mean or monstrous one. The werewolf does bite Edward, but then he apologizes after he turns back into a human. * According to the bonus features on the DVD of Blade (1998), this was the original ending of the film, with villain Deacon Frost transforming into the blood god La Magra (who looked like a giant CGI red tornado). However, the filmmakers were struck with a jolt of good sense and realized that it would detract from the climax, having just spent the entire film building up Frost as the main villain. Instead, \|\|La Magra possesses Frost, granting him nigh-invincibility and fighting prowess\|\|. * Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022): \|\|Sweet Pete\|\| gets an unwilling instance of this when his modification machine malfunctions and starts zapping him repeatedly, turning him into a disjointed mashup of animated characters, with a CG version of the heads of Felicia and Marie, Silver's coat, Wreck-It Ralph's left arm, Sheriff Woody's right leg, '87 Shredder's shoulder (and voice) and Optimus Prime's left leg. He proceeds to go on a rampage and chase after the titular heroes. * Toward the end of Conan the Barbarian (1982), the villain Thulsa Doom (played by James Earl Jones) turns into a snake to emphasize his inhumanity, though Conan doesn't actually fight him in that form. * In Demon Knight, we do briefly to get to see The Collector's true form \|\|just before he dies\|\|: a gigantic, skeletal being with a ram's head and enormous wings. \|\|He blows up real good.\|\| * The Devil's Advocate: \|\|Milton, after Kevin shoots himself, explodes and briefly turns into a demon, unleashing a curse that turns Christabella into a husk, and then turns into his old angelic form.\|\| * Enchanted: Appropriately for an Affectionate Parody of Disney's own movies (see the Films — Animation section), the villain turns into a big dragon who will NOT shut up. > "You're crazy!" > "No. Spiteful, vindictive, VERY large but never crazy." * End of Days has an almost literal example. After Satan's human host is damaged beyond repair, he abandons it and manifests in his true form as a gigantic, winged demon/dragon \|\|before possessing the hero\|\|. * In a Protagonist Journey to Villain example, the finale of The Fly (1986) has Half-Human Hybrid Seth Brundle's final transformation from a man who looks diseased but recognisably human into a horribly mutated insectoid beast, which not coincidentally happens just after his decayed human jaw is accidentally ripped away by his desperate lover as \|\|he's preparing to forcibly merge himself with her and their unborn child via the telepods\|\|. Taking away his ability to speak, the last tether he has to what remains of his human reason and compassion, means "Brundlefly" is solely driven by survival instinct and rage. Here it is. Hope you have a strong stomach. \|\|Luckily for the other characters, that makes him vulnerable to Revenge Before Reason and he ends up a Clipped-Wing Angel... but nobody's celebrating that.\|\| * The Fly II has Seth's son Martin undergo a similar transformation, but unlike his father's agonizingly Slow Transformation most of it happens inside a cocoon to avoid Body Horror. Also unlike his father, he still retains most of his humanity, even if he can no longer speak...which does nothing to save his oppressors from his Roaring Rampage of Revenge! * In Fright Night (1985), the vampires have three phases of transformation. The first is typically like a normal human, the second is like a normal human but with fangs, and the third phase is an extremely crazy-looking monstrous creature with More Teeth than the Osmond Family. At the end, Jerry Dandridge (the main vampire) turns into a human/bat hybrid thing, gets hit by sunlight and bursts into flames and finally dies. Interestingly enough, the vampiric version of Amy is in fact a recycled version of the rejected librarian ghost from Ghostbusters. * Fright Night 2: New Blood: While fighting Peter Vincent in the climax, Gerri just drops all pretense and transforms into some sort of baldheaded bat-monster. * Ghostbusters (1984): + The librarian ghost from the scene at the beginning turns into a hideous ghoul when the GBs are trying to get her. Interestingly enough, there was an earlier librarian ghost puppet that got rejected because it was too scary, but it was recycled and used in the 1985 vampire film Fright Night (see above). + Parodied at the end when Gozer, who initially appeared as a young woman, demands the Ghostbusters choose the form it will use to destroy them. All the GBs clear their minds except Ray — who unintentionally thinks of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Cue the attack of a 50-foot mascot. + Technically, this also happens to Zuul and Vinz Clortho; after they complete the mating ritual and get zapped by Gozer's lightning, they burst out of their human disguises and resume their natural Terror Dog forms, only to not do anything more for the rest of the film until they are ultimately destroyed and turned back into stone statues by the destruction of the gateway to Gozer's dimension. * In Ghostbusters (2016), the ghost-obsessed Rowan North commits suicide and comes back from the dead. Like Gozer, he asks for a form to cause the Apocalypse and transforms into a demonic and gigantic version of the Ghostbusters' logo mascot. * Some of the monsters in the Godzilla series can change form. + For example, in Godzilla: Final Wars, Monster X transforms from a skeletal dragon into the more powerful Keizer Ghidorah, which is essentially an Expy of both King Ghidorah and Desghidorah (a quadrupedal three-headed dragon Kaiju)). + Likewise, there's Destoroyah, who changes from a pretty dang big crab/scorpion-esque monster into what looks like a kaiju version of The Devil that towers over Godzilla himself. + And there's Biollante, who takes this trope and makes it her own. * The main villain in The Golden Child spends most of the film looking like actor Charles Dance. At the Final Battle, and with no foreshadowing anywhere in the film, he transforms into a large, bony, winged demon (stop-motion animated to boot), whereupon Murphy kills him with a special knife. * At the end of The Guyver, Fulton Balcus, the head Zoanoid, turns into a giant creature after the main character refuses his invitation to join Chronos. The transformation is shown in the dark. All you can see are his Glowing Eyes of Doom, as they raise and separate to show just how big he has become. To his credit, taking him down requires the Guyver to use his secret weapon — a Wave-Motion Gun in his chest. * In Guyver: Dark Hero, Crane, a reptile zoanoid and main antagonist, gets his own (though damaged) guyver unit and turns into bad-ass incarnate. * In Hellboy (2004), every time Rasputin dies, a little bit more of his god comes with him, until at the end of the film, he dies one last time, his body splits open, and a full-fledged Eldritch Abomination emerges. * In the climax of Hop, holding the egg of destiny transforms Carlos into a giant, freakish bunny/chick amalgamation. * Happens to the villains in both 2003's Hulk and 2008's The Incredible Hulk. Then again, this makes sense as The Hulk himself could qualify as the heroic version. * At the end of the stop motion film, Jack the Giant Killer, after several attempts to kill Jack (the main character) are foiled, Pendragon, the main villain and evil sorcerer, transforms into a dragon to fight Jack, who eventually kills him in the final battle. * In Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen, Daiki Kaito uses the plates of DaiZangyack and DaiShocker to turn their respective battleships into the massive monstrosity Big Machine, a threat so powerful, it requires the Go-Buster-Oh and the Super-1 and Super-3 Switches in tandem. * The martial arts comedy, Kung Fu Wonder Child, ends with the Evil Sorcerer Big Bad using his chi to transform into a gigantic cartoon Chinese dragon to assault the heroes. * In the film version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Dragon consumes enough of Jekyll's serum to tower over the real Mr. Hyde. > Mr Hyde: Not the whole thing! * In Lisztomania, Richard Wagner turns into a grotesque vampire at the final showdown with Franz Liszt. * The Lord of the Rings: + An early idea for the grand finale in The Return of the King was to show Aragorn fighting Sauron in the final battle. Sauron (just a gigantic red eye up to this point) would first be seen as a tempting angelic bishonen (Kate Winslet in cameo) who then transform into the gigantic armored fighter seen in the first movie's prologue. The filmmakers eventually decided that this was silly (and an inconsistency, since they had decided that Sauron wasn't supposed to be powerful and capable of fighting without his ring) and replaced the armored Sauron with a troll. + There was a captivating piece of concept art◊ for the "pretty-boy" Sauron: an angelic albino possessing an otherwordly beauty...except for his eyes, fiery red-on-black, exactly like the flaming eye of his other form. Furthermore, a close look at his face reveals that the flesh around his eyes has subtly began to crack like plaster... + This is because Sauron is a Maia (angel), sort of like Gandalf. The beautiful side was his original form and he used it to corrupt Aragorn's ancestors. Eru Ilúvatar destroyed Númenor and Sauron lost his body. He recovered, but could never regain his beautiful form and had come up with a badass one instead. Thus the above scenario would have violated canon, but that probably wouldn't have bothered the film makers since they had already swapped Sauron's physical book-form for a giant red eyeball. + A heroic example in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies is the beautiful, elegant, and queenly Galadriel entering her 'wraith' form in both The Fellowship of the Ring (when she is tempted by the One Ring) and Battle of the Five Armies (when she banishes Sauron to Mordor). She becomes a green and scary looking, almost demonic version of herself and seems to increase in height and stature, her voice lowering several octaves and reverberating with power. According to the Word of God, this is taken from Tolkien describing mighty Elf Lords entering such 'wraith' forms when experiencing extreme emotion such as anger or fear, and is an effective way of showing how powerful Galadriel is. * Appears out of freakin' nowhere in the Lost in Space movie. \|\|Dr. Smith\|\| is attacked by an alien bug and somehow this transforms him into a distracting CGI creature. Bonus points for Lampshade Hanging the "well, we couldn't kill you as a human but now that you're a monster you're fair game" issue! * In The Luck of the Irish, when Seamus starts losing to Kyle at basketball, he turns into his far darrig form (making him look a bit like Teen Wolf) and his voice turns into a deep growl. Then again, only Kyle, his friends, and family appear to notice this. * Happens to Maleficent in Maleficent, naturally. \|\|Though it's actually the return of her wings, not her transformation into a dragon\|\|. + Also happens to the shape-shifting Diaval, \|\|who does become a literal dragon\|\|. * In Man of Steel, Zod starts out like his fellow soldiers jumping around at high heights and having Super-Strength and speed. But when he breaks out of his battle suit during the final battle, he becomes as equally powerful as Superman, with the ability to fly and use heat vision. * Happens all the damn time in Men in Black (both the comic, movies, and Animated Adaptation) whenever the disguised alien villains expose themselves in front of J and/or K. One has to wonder why they don't just shoot before the transformation is complete, what with the guns usually loaded and pointed at the alien during the transformation. + However, they may be following the grand tradition of movie aliens flipping out and assuming monstrous forms to attack. The Thing (1982) does it (quite a lot really). So does Sil in Species. + For the first film, it was justified since \|\|the Bug had eaten the galaxy and shooting him would probably have destroyed it.\|\| Subverted in the third film - \|\|after Boris kills J's father, he starts transforming and sneers "Go ahead, arrest me," at young-K. K calmly replies "Not today" and disintegrates him with one shot.\|\| * Inverted in all three entries of The Mummy Trilogy, in which both Imhotep and the Dragon Emperor undergo some terrifying transformations before the climax, yet end up facing down the heroes in human form at the end. In the first film, a timely incantation renders the villain an ordinary mortal again; in the second, it's because Anubis wanted it that way; and in the third, it's because the hero dares the Emperor to fight like a man for honor's sake. * Nope has \|\|the Big Bad Jean Jacket. It spends most of the film as a Flying Saucer, but that's just a compacted version of its true form. Said form is unveiled in the climax as a massive Starfish Alien that resembles a bizarre white jellyfish with an expanding green eye.\|\| * At the end of Megiddo: The Omega Code 2, Stone finally turns into The Devil, a monster with wings, horns, and a tail. * In the climax of Once Upon a Warrior, Irendri the Snake Sorceress proves she lives up to her name by revealing her most powerful form, a snake-human hybrid, whose body have numerous extra snakes extending from her limbs, shoulders, and various parts. It's her most powerful form and she absolutely delivers a thrashing on the hero Yodha, who is hopelessly overpowered by the sorceress. * Resident Evil: Extinction has the big bad evil scientist injecting himself with a massive dose of secret formula and then mayhem ensues. So does Resident Evil: Degeneration \|\|Except that in Degeneration, he was more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist, who's plan was to go on a rampage, exposing the research on the G-virus that was being done.\|\| * In Return to Oz, once Dorothy begins guessing right at the ornaments and restoring the Scarecrow, Tik Tok, and Jack to their original forms, the Nome King — previously human-sized and at one point almost looking entirely human thanks to everyone else being imprisoned — becomes a giant rock monster and attempts to eat them all. Unfortunately for him, \|\|Billina is still inside Jack's head and lays an egg, which falls into the King's mouth... POISON... TO... NOMES!\|\|! * The true form of the renegade spirits in R.I.P.D.. * In Scooby-Doo (2002), Scrappy(!) turns into a demonic version of himself with razor sharp claws and teeth, a big muscular body, wild looking eyebrows, enhanced agility and strength- A DEEP BOOMING VOICE and a horrid case of bad breath. Take That, Scrappy!, much? * The Hessian Horseman's head growing back at the end of Sleepy Hollow (1999) could qualify, although it's debatable if the Hessian counts as a villain. * In Suicide Squad (2016), Diablo somehow turns into a twelve-foot-tall Aztec skeleton wreathed in flames during the fight with Incubus, making him just strong enough to \|\|force him into the corner with the bomb\|\|. * At the end of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, Shredder drinks the mutagen, which transforms him into Super Shredder (also transforming his outfit). He attempts to destroy the Turtles along with himself by bringing the pier down on their heads. * In Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny Paul F. Tompkins changes into Satan and KG and Jables challenge him to a rock-off. * Ultra Series: + During the final battle of Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends, Ultraman Zero manages to defeat Ultraman Belial by throwing him into a pit of lava. He's soon followed by the souls of his 100 kaiju, merging with them to form the 100 Union Kaiju Beryudora. It takes an all out attack from the Ultras, EX Gomora, and Ultraman Zero to finally put him down. \|\|And Belial still survived!\|\| + In the sequel Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial, Belial absorbs a massive amount of energy crystals he was stealing, transforming into the gigantic and monstrous Arch Belial. + In Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey, the Dark Giant Camila uses The Power of Hate to call forth the residual darkness of Gatanozoa left over from the Series Finale, merging herself with it to transform into Demonozoa, an utterly colossal version of Gatanozoa made entirely of shadows. * Dracula and his brides in Van Helsing can turn into harpy-esque bat things. And in the finale, \|\|Van Helsing himself\|\| becomes a werewolf to battle Dracula, who has turned into a giant demon thing. * In Warcraft (2016), when Lothar and Khadgar confront \|\|Medivh\|\| and beat his minion, he hulks out into a giant demonic figure. * Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit is almost a sick parody of the "Look at my true form and despair" variation. > Eddie Valiant: Holy smoke, he's a Toon! > Doom: Surprised? > Eddie: Not really. That lame-brain freeway idea could only be cooked up by a Toon. > Doom: Not just ANY Toon... (reveals his true identity) Remember me, Eddie?! When I killed your brother, I talked! JUST! LIKE!! THIIIIISSS!!!!! * In Windigo, Slender Man is seen primarily as a Badass in a Nice Suit... until the climax where he unleashes his Combat Tentacles and starts throwing around vehicles. * In Wishmaster, the Djinn adopts his true djinn form whenever things get serious. He also appears like this when he gets defeated in the climax of every one of the movies, demonstrating that it's a true monster being overcome by the protagonists. > Djinn: Spare me, child. Behold my true face. > Alexandra: Oh my god. > Djinn: Yesss. The shit just "hit the fan", didn't it? * The Witches of Eastwick has the scene where Jack Nicholson's character becomes a giant and then after the girls smash the wax voodoo doll of him becomes a worm-like monster. ---	OneWingedAngel	null
PowerRangers	# One Winged Angel - Power Rangers In Power Rangers, the One-Winged Angel trope be both played straight for the villains and inverted for the heroes. See also Super Sentai: * "Make My Monster Grow!" Every Power Rangers season has had this, with each Big Bad using a different growth method. Also, growing comes with different other advantages for the monster: sometimes any damage taken or weapons lost while small will return (including whatever you broke to shut down its main means of terrorizing the populace. Uh-oh!), and sometimes it will gain a new form much like a Big Bad can. Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue has the latter happpen often. Sometimes, entirely new powers are gained. * Also, many a major villain has an advanced form (the better to make formerly human villains killable, as well as giving Dragons an extra edge.) + Probably the uber-example would be Season 1's Scorpina. Whenever she grew she went from a pretty Asian woman to a hideous scorpion creature. * Kat herself had one before becoming the second Pink Ranger, while still a Brainwashed and Crazy pawn of Rita; she could assume a monstrous Cat Girl form called Katastrophe; it wasn't mentioned after her Heel–Face Turn. * For quantity, several Big Bads tie with four advanced forms. Most recently, Dai Shi has a human form, a Lowemon-ish lion armor form (with similar transformation!), a Phantom Beast King form, and an eight-headed dragon form (his true self, as seen in a carving at the beginning of the series.) He's not alone, though: Ecliptor, Trakeena, and Olympius can boast the same number of forms. + Dai Shi's sidekick Camille has three forms: human, armored, Phantom Beast General. * In the aforementioned Lightspeed Rescue, in a few cases, the monsters have to grow twice to fight the Supertrain Megazord, which is a good two or three heads taller than the average giant monsters. * Power Rangers Mystic Force: the Five-Man Band have One-Winged Angel forms instead of the traditional Humongous Mecha. + Also, some of the more powerful wizards can take on monster-like People in Rubber Suits forms of their own. Two in particular have rubber suit and Ranger suit forms. + A similar thing happens in Power Rangers Jungle Fury. The Zords are actually manifestations of primal spirits unlocked through martial arts. * Power Rangers Operation Overdrive has it like it's going out of style, with Moltor being the only major villain to have just one form. Namely: + Flurious gets the MacGuffin in the end, turns into something that looks like a chess piece or a Monster Pope, and freezes the planet. + Miratrix turns into a monster bird with the power of the MacGuffin of the week and completely manhandles the Rangers' strongest machines. Unfortunately for her, Ronny and Tyzonn are able to remove the MacGuffin from its place before she can finish the Rangers. (In Super Sentai, this was the One Winged Angel form of another villain who isn't in PR. Mira's counterpart Shizuka had a different OWA form.) + Kamdor... can open his faceplate to show a different faceplate. Kind of a letdown after Miratrix's transformation. + The two main Fear Cats use Flurious' technology to go from feline monsters to awesome black-armored gun-toting warriors, a permanent upgrade. * In Power Rangers in Space, the Psycho Rangers didn't have Zords, instead transforming into giant monsters, which were hideous even when compared to the typical Monster of the Week. This is the same series with Ecliptor's four forms, and Darkonda's three: standard Darkonda, Darkliptor after absorbing Ecliptor, and a powerful but insane form he mutated into after taking a strength enhancer that had been poisoned by Ecliptor for the Darkliptor incident \|\|(and separating from Ecliptor and using him as a shield once the fight went bad.) The poison seems to count as Cursed with Awesome, though: after seemingly being taken out by, but soon recovering from, the Megazords' first finishing move, he's suddenly much saner and still ultra-powerful.\|\| * Power Rangers: Dino Thunder makes a habit of it, too. Mesogog turns into a monster that is very strong and separates into five. Zeltrax uses a mystical 'tree of life' and gains a second, thorny form - and as a case of We Can Rebuild Him, Zeltrax's standard form may count as the OWA form of Terrence Smith. The White Ranger clone has access to the same Super Mode as the good White Ranger, and Elsa...does returning midseason with a new haircut, and inexplicably stronger count?	OneWingedAngel	null
WonderWoman	# Shadow Archetype - Wonder Woman Wonder Woman comes from an isolated island to help better the world of man. In doing so she encounters other outsiders who have different ways of approaching this goal, or different goals entirely... --- Comic Books ----------- * The Emperor of Saturn and Eviless, as well as Duke Mephisto Saturno and Saturnette, were this to Queen Hippolyte and Wonder Woman. They came from a society ruled by demons that encouraged sin but did little to reward their mortal subjects, resulting in an expansionist slave trading empire who had powerful, stolen technologies but were physically lacking, where the gods would reprimand the amazons for their sins, but also heap huge rewards for their corrections and virtues, leading to an isolated society that made revolutionary scientific advancements and were physically powerful. Eviless was their Wonder Woman, and while she seemed nothing like her at a glance, flipping their circumstances wouldn't likely change the story at all. Duke Mephisto Saturno and his daughter Saturnette, while less so in their positions in the empire compared to Hippolyta and Diana's on Paradise Island, also shadow the two as how they might have ended up as parent and child if their patrons had been cruel demons rather than nurturing goddesses. * During the Golden Age, Gundra the Valkyrie served this role to Wonder Woman. Both come from mythological races of warrior women but while Diana fought for the Allies, Gundra fought for the Axis powers. Where Diana was instructed by Goddess Aphrodite to aid the Allies over the Axis, Justice Society Of America reveals that War God Odin didn't care one way or the other about who won, that Gundra in fact disregarded Adolph Hitler's orders when he summoned her for help and decided to aid the Axis powers in her own way. Both women also loved Steve Trevor on sight, but where Diana nursed an injured Steve Trevor back to health, took him back to his home, and playfully deflected his advances, telling him to wait until her mission was complete, Gundra kidnapped and brainwashed Steve Trevor. Ultimately, Gundra is close to what Diana would be if her patron was a war god who only cared about an impending conflict against giants rather than a love goddess interested in mankind's well being, if Diana had been beckoned by a warmonger rather than chanced upon an injured soldier. * Nifty operates out of a secluded, hollowed out mesa that leads to an Elaborate Underground Base she calls "Pirates' Paradise", alluding to Diana coming from Paradise Island, and both women proceed to infiltrate operations in the US as moles. Diana to catch other moles, Nifty to steal scientific research to enrich herself. Nifty also operates with a team of all women pirates, save her husband paralleling how Wonder Woman operates with Steve Trevor and the Holliday Girls. The difference, besides selflessness versus selfishness, is that Wonder Woman comes from a super natural island to help the World of Man while Nifty was born in the world of man but has been cursed and emotion controlled by a supernatural monster that feeds on her as she unwittingly does its bidding rather than given a clear mission by a gift giving goddess. Wonder Woman might have been an even more problematic version of Nifty if Aphrodite had been less benevolent. * Wickedra and Badra are basically Hippolyte and Diana if Hippolyte and Diana were royalty of nation constantly under attack from the rest of the world rather than one that enjoyed peaceful isolation under the protection of goddesses. Wickedra values martial skill, much like Hippolyte, but also teaches her daughter in the ways of deception and thievery, where Hippolyte stresses honesty and charity, and painfully disciplines young Badra for her failures. While young Diana was a prodigy who could trounce the adult amazons, young Badra is a runt among her nation and was thus hardened by several such punishments. While Diana arrives in "Man's World" as Wonder Woman on a mission from Aphrodite to help The Allies defeat The Axis, short term, and help guide "Man's World" in Aphrodite's way, long term, Badra arrives on Earth as a refugee from a war that destroyed the entire planet of Hator, and "The Meteor Girl", a name she rejects, immediately goes into hiding, starts trying to figure out how to build up a power base on Earth, and eventually starts coercing women into serving her as thieves. Not only are their morality and attitudes flipped by circumstance but Badra also has a different perspective than Wonder Woman because, as Badra puts it, Wonder Woman never had the displeasure of facing an "equal" before and thus doesn't recognize how "lucky" she is to suddenly have a bunch of weaklings torment, which is about Badra's only pleasure in being the Sole Survivor of her entire planet.. * Circe's cynical and hateful attitude towards humans (men in particular) is played in deliberate contrast to Diana's more compassionate and optimistic view. Really exemplified after Circe briefly stole Diana's powers and became an Evil Counterpart to Wonder Woman. In her first Post-Crisis story, she herself pointed this out. Much like Diana, Circe was to fulfill a mission from the gods — namely, Hecate, who wished to punish humanity for her mistreatment, which Circe did by driving divides between men and women further. She later invokes their similarities again when she explains how both she and Diana are powerful women who are outsiders feared by humans because the causes they fight for are hidden beneath blood shed by their hands (Circe fought and killed to get her daughter back, while Diana fought and killed others like Maxwell Lord to protect her friends and herself). * The Silver Age Earth 1 Wonder Woman Diana had her twin sister Wonder Woman Nubia, who valued life in the same way Diana did, in spite of the fact she was raised by Diana's nemesis Ares. Still, Nubia was less interested in being a hero to the world than she was defending her territory and reinforcing her status as its ruler, because she was raised by Mars and cohorts instead of the disciplined and loving Amazons or their doting gods. While the Amazons of Paradise Island had mostly abandoned their warlike ways, and had a responsible queen to guide them, the monsters and men of Slaughter Island needed to be kept in check, and it was really a testament to Nubia's independence and strength of character that she was decent a person as she was. Nubia was much like Diana, and would have been just like her if Ares hadn't gotten to her much earlier in life than he did Diana. * Cybernaut is a robot created to suppress war and it shares Wonder Woman's exact aversions to killing. However, while Diana would preferably limit her diet to things that can be consumed without anything having to die, such as milk, unfertilized eggs, nuts and fruit, she recognizes that this is highly impractical, often even impossible for most other people, who are going to need to eat leaves, stems, roots, tubers, fungi, who are greatly helped by meat in their diets. Cybernaut doesn't care about the consequences of forcing this on anyone else. It was built due to the belief that sapience inevitably leads to nuclear war. Therefor any killing intent in any sapient life form anywhere must be found and suppressed. If that makes people easy prey for non sapient predators, so be it. If farmers are unable to deal with pests, unable to get a balanced diet, then waste away in malnutrition. If a sapient species can't figure a way around these problems to the point it dies out, then it was a dead end anyway. As long as there is no nuclear war Cybernaut's mission is accomplished and it is onto the next planet. Wonder Woman of course sets out to stop this poorly programed autonomous machine, but is a little disturbed that the minds responsible have similar goals to her mothers. It's basically her if she only cared about her principle beliefs and was completely detached from all society, which she very well could have been since Wonder Woman herself has an artificial origin that didn't require she be given sentience, much less emotions and empathy. * Osira, Bronze Age villain introduced to fight the Golden Age Justice Society, is basically what The Golden Age Wonder Woman would have been if she had never met the gods, Warts and All, never had a chance to study the outside world before being trust into it by force rather than entering by choice, and not been taught about the wonders of willing submission to a loving authority. As Wonder Woman learns to love "Man's World" Osira learns to love humanity. As Wonder Woman believes in Brainwashing for the Greater Good, so does Osira. As Wonder Woman is a shameless monarchist and polytheist in a world that increasingly is not, so is Osira. Where Diana is on a mission from her mother the Queen Hippolyte secondarily and The Goddess Aphrodite primarily, Osira sees herself as the rightful goddess of Egypt in particular and humanity in general. Where Wonder Woman is okay with locking specific, problematic individuals in Mind Control devices with the goal of reforming them until said devices are no longer necessary, Osira wants to permanently mind control as much of the human race as she can while ruling the rest she can't through religion based around worship of herself. Where Wonder Woman enjoys sporting competition, even if it gets violent, she's against killing to the point she prefers to eat things like milk, nuts and fruit in an effort to take as few lives as possible where Osira will gladly take as many lives as she can for world peace. Where Diana saw The Justice Society as potential allies and eventually joined them, Osira identified them as obstacles to be pushed aside and put on display. As potential soldiers in her campaign if it came to it. While the two do fight each other, they also argue a lot, and words end up being the key to stopping Osira. Wonder Woman could have easily been Osira without the upbringing she got on Paradise Island, while Osira could have been Wonder Woman had she come to Earth under more ideal circumstances. * While not a villain, Artemis of the Bana-Mighdall is a shadow archetype to Diana as well. Both are the champions of their respective Amazon tribes and are named after a hunting goddess. But whereas Diana is friendly, warm and humble, Artemis is rude, brash and arrogant (though she does have a hidden heart of gold). This is because Artemis's tribe, The Bana-Mighdall, were initially martial pacifists to Themyscira's isolationists but have been driven to be more warlike due to the loss of their original queen(s), and in the pre Flashpoint continuity in particular, manipulation from Circe that Themyscira managed to avert. Pre Flashpoint it is starkly contrast that while Diana grew up under the harsh but loving tutelage of Philippus, Artemis grew up fighting for her life in a war of extermination against the amazons that Circe had instigated. In the Post Flashpoint continuity, where Circe is less vindictive, Artemis is also less hostile and contrarian towards Diana, suggesting they could be even more alike if more of their circumstance were made more similar still. * In volume 3 Wonder Woman gains another sister through adoption in Pele, who serves as a shadow archetype to Diana. The same fury that overtook Diana upon discovering that her adopted father, Kane Milohai, had been killed also overtook Pele, only where Diana directed her wrath at Zeus for slaying Kane Milohai, Pele directed it at Diana for being the easiest target. The two sisters through adoption share enough values to eventually become allies but where Diana seeks justice more than revenge and reconciliation more than prevention, Pele sees things the other way. * Donna Troy ultimately gained her own shadow archetype in the form of Dark Angel, an evil version of Donna from another universe. Specifically Dark Angel is what Donna Troy would have become if she had been adopted by Antimoniter instead of Diana and Hippolyta. Just like the Donna Troy we usually follow, Dark Angel hates Antimoniter, but having him as a larger influence in her life without a loving family steering her in her developing years, not only turned Dark Angel into a cruel sadist, but turned Dark Angel bitter against the Donna Troy who had a happier life. * Donna Troy gets another shadow archetype during Countdown To Final Crisis when she meets another alternate version of herself among Belthera's army, one who apparently flew under Dark Angel's radar. This Donna Troy was so envious of her adopted sister Diana that she killed her Diana by strangling Diana with Diana's own lasso before taking it for herself. The Donna Troy we follow is envious of her big sister too, but nonetheless loves her Diana and is driven to violence when her counterpart suggest she kill her adopted sister too. * In volume four both Donna Troy and Nikos Aegeus are re tooled as problem "children" tasked with defeating/killing Wonder Woman. It's around this time Diana, who herself has been retooled as far less merciful warrior, but one who would rather not kill "kids", is starting to see the value in rehabilitation. Where Donna Troy quickly sees the error of her ways and immediately wants to kill herself for her crimes, Nikos Aegeus sees Wonder Woman as annoyingly self righteous but immediately vows to help Diana once he comes to realization she's right. The biggest thing setting the two apart is that Aegeus is a descendant of Poseidon who has inherited nothing and resented Wonder Woman for having it so easy in comparison to himself, where Donna Troy was given a position of authority from birth and was told Wonder Woman was an unworthy usurper to be cut down. They largely are the same character turning out differently due to the circumstances around them and do eventually become friends, with Diana and each other. * Poor Donna Troy gets yet another evil counterpart she could have easily become during DC Infinite Frontier in the then latest incarnation of Super Woman, who was what Donna Troy would have been if Hippolyta was not a loving mother and in fact set an example for Donna Troy by killing Donna's older sister Diana for being "soft". Super Woman still loves her adopted mother despite, not unlike the Donna Troy we usually follow, but nonetheless is out to conquer her Themyscira and kill her Hippolyta out of the belief her Hippolyta wants a stronger, crueler successor with a more powerful army. * Heracles could be considered a shadow archetype to Cassie Sandsmark. Both are demigod offsprings of Zeus, but while Cassie has adjusted to the values of her age and become Diana's friend, Heracles struggles to adapt and is often her enemy. * Invoked: With Devastation and Genocide, who were both created, psychologically at least, to be everything Wonder Woman is not. Diana has personally intervened in their lives to forcibly make them more like herself, and while she didn't succeed to redeeming either one of them before the next universal crisis made her efforts moot, both monsters had to repress things that come naturally to Wonder Woman. The ability to love and desire to bring reconciliation for Devastation, after Diana altered Devastation's very creation to include a part of Diana, and Diana's inherent curiosity and desire to form connections with people clashing with Genocide's programmed drive to...genocide. They are also foils to each other, as while the psychological approach didn't work as well as Wonder Woman would have liked with Devastation, it still had an advantageous affect. Ultimately, force was the only thing worth using on Genocide, Diana's more positive traits manifested in Genocide simply putting off murder to thieve and torture her victims first. * Lira from Birds of Paradise is a shadow archetype of Genocide and Wonder Woman. Genocide was originally a Justice League killing weapon of Doctor Morrow's that Cheetah, Doctor Psycho and Ares corrupted into a monster whose end goal is the eradication of humanity. Lira is merely Doctor Ivo's research tool that just so happens to be way more powerful than needed and just so happens to get loosed on a member of the Justice League tracking Genocide. Wonder Woman has an artificial origin like Lira, but was created to give Hyppolyta a child while Lira was created only For Science! Genocide is literally wired to only take pleasure in others' pain and discovered on her own how to find joy in cruelly tormenting people not yet scheduled for death. Lira is helpful, informative and sporting, much like Diana, but is forced to be cruel by her programming for the sake of behavioral and probability experiments. * Cassie Sandsmark gets another in "Amxon Thunder", a teenage delinquent who leads a gang of more. Amxon Thunder genuinely believes she is a virtuous person doing right by her society, and that Cassie's world is hopelessly broken...it's just that in Amxon Thunder's world weak laws, rampant violent crime and unchecked larceny are "good" things. Basically their developmental environment is the only thing that caused the two to be different. * As with Regime Superman, Regime Wonder Woman shows what multiverse W.W. can become if she joined his side. Unlike multiverse Wonder Woman, her Regime counterpart is abrasive, holds a jaded view of humanity, and goads Regime Superman down a darker path, \|\|something which she regrets in the sequel but won't admit to openly\|\|. Regime W.W. even believes she is doing the right thing, something which her Multiverse counterpart is horrified at and even condemns her for breaking the Thou Shalt Not Kill rule. + Given the explanation that all of this is the result of \|\|her Steve Trevor being a Nazi spy who tried to manipulate her\|\|, it could be argued that Regime Wonder Woman is what would happen if our W.W.'s first contact with the outside world was less benign.	ShadowArchetype	null
LiveActionTV	# Actor Allusion - Live-Action TV Series with their own pages --------------------------- * Castle (2009) * Doctor Who * Glee * How I Met Your Mother * Kamen Rider * Last Man Standing (2011) * NUMB3RS * Psych * A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017) * Super Sentai --- Other series ------------ * 13 Reasons Why: + Hannah's parents mention briefly that she had a thing for show tunes. Brian D'Arcy James, who played her father, is an accomplished stage and musical theatre actor, and originated the role of King George in Hamilton off-Broadway. + Mr. Porter mentions offhandedly a comment about high school football. Derek Luke, who played Mr. Porter, played a high school football player in Friday Night Lights. + Hannah imitates an Australian accent when quoting the film Strictly Ballroom - a nod to her actress Katherine Langford being Australian. * 3rd Rock from the Sun: + In one episode, Dick (played by John Lithgow) gets himself and Mary thrown off a plane when he looks out the window and breaks down screaming, "There's something on the wing!" (It's then explained to him that that's just the engine.) In a later episode, the human form of the Big Giant Head (played by William Shatner) complains that during his flight in, there was something on the wing, to which Dick muses, "The same thing happened to me!" William Shatner was in The Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", in which his character has the same reaction to a gremlin on the wing; in Twilight Zone: The Movie, John Lithgow played the same role. + In another episode, Dick launches into a tirade about how much he hates rock and roll music, which toward the end is copied almost word-for-word from one of the speeches made by Lithgow in Footloose. + Another blink-and-you-miss-it moment came when Mary (played by Jane Curtin) gave a long, lingering look at some people cosplaying as Coneheads at a convention. Curtin had played Prymaat Conehead in "The Coneheads" series of sketches on Saturday Night Live, as well as other media (including the 1993 film). + In one episode Sally complains that Mary forced the family to watch an A&E Biography of Susan Saint James, Curtin's Kate & Allie co-star. * In 8 Simple Rules, Kaley Cuoco's character Bridget plays Anne Frank. In The Big Bang Theory, Kaley Cuoco's character Penny plays Anne Frank. * In a fourth-season episode of 24, the Speaker of the House comments that then-Acting President Charles Logan is "in good hands" with David Palmer, a reference to Palmer actor Dennis Haysbert's Allstate commercials. * In The 10th Kingdom, Wolf is in trouble in Little Lamb Village, but Tony says he'll be able to help -he used to be a lawyer. Tony is played by John Larroquette, who also played D.A. Dan Fielding on Night Court. * Several for 30 Rock: + One episode of has Jack Donaghy, played by Alec Baldwin, confessing his seemingly endless sins to a priest. One was "I once shouted 'I am God' during a deposition", which is exactly what Baldwin's character did in the movie Malice (while still being in-character for Donaghy). + Baldwin gets scads of these. On multiple occasions, he's encouraged himself by muttering "Always Be [X]," where X is a c-word - a shout-out to his scene in Glengarry Glen Ross. In a later episode when Tracy wanted to derail his successful dramatic film career, Baldwin's character encouraged him to "just go back to TV. Nobody will mistake you for a serious actor ever again." + Another episode sees Liz Lemon meet her idol, a legendary comedy writer played by Carrie Fisher. After Liz discovers that Fisher is actually a flaky weirdo, Liz flees from the room, with Fisher calling out after her, "Help me, Liz Lemon! You're my only hope!" + In "Jackie Jormp-Jomp", Jenna fakes her own death. At the memorial service, an actual commercial Jane Krakowski (Jenna's actress) starred in as a child is played. + In "Kidnapped by Danger", Lance asks Mary Steenburgen's character if she is a time traveler. She is best known for her role as Clara Clayton in Back to the Future Part III. + In the season 3 finale, TV comedy star Tracy Jordan invents a story about dropping out of school because a drug dealer wanted him to cut up a snitch named Baby. However, he eventually tearfully confesses that he left school because he was too chicken to dissect a frog in science class. A character played by Alan Alda then wanders in from another plot thread and says, "A guy crying about a chicken and a baby? I thought this was a comedy show!" This is a reference to the famous series finale of M\A\S\H, not to mention a lighthearted jab at the series' turn towards drama. + When Stephanie March, of Alex Cabot fame, appears as a guest star, she is a Lipstick Lesbian extraordinaire. Alex Cabot is best remembered for clearly being in love with Olivia Benson. + After Matt Damon finished out his guest-arc as Liz's boyfriend, there was a line where Liz talked about Invictus* (which Damon starred in with Morgan Freeman) and asked: "Who was the white guy in that?" * The 4400: In "Wake-Up Call", Kevin Burkhoff gives Tess Doerner a copy of At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft. Jeffrey Combs (Kevin) is well known for his roles in several Lovecraft adaptations, most notably “Re-Animator” and its two sequels, and played Lovecraft himself in Necronomicon. * The puzzles in The Adventure Game frequently referenced the celebrities' careers; for example, when Prof. Heinz Wolff and Ruth Madoc appeared together in Series 4, many of the puzzles had a scientific solution that played to Prof. Wolff's strengths, while one puzzle featured a xylophone identical to the one Madoc played as Gladys Pugh on Hi-de-Hi! to herald brodcasts on Radio Maplin; inevitably, she played her signature three-note jingle and said "Hello campers!" in the exaggerated Welsh accent she used on Hi-de-Hi! upon discovering the instrument (she also affected Gladys' accent and vocal inflections to recite the password after she, Prof. Wolff, and their civilian partner Deborah Leigh Hall succeeded in navigating the password maze). * Alice: In the Season 7 finale ("Jolene Lets the Cat Out of the Bag"), Alice references Barney Miller, which was Linda Lavin's previous most notable role. * In the All in the Family episode "We're Still Having a Heat Wave", Edith tells her neighbor, Irene Lorenzo: "I know you're not a movie star or nothin', but I think I'm gettin' to be a fan of yours!" Betty Garrett, who plays Irene was actually a movie star in the '40s, appearing in several MGM musicals. * In season 2, episode 6 of Alpha House the actor playing panel member "Ned" is Bradley Whitford, and he is being berated pretty harshly by Senator Peg Stanchion, played by Janel Moloney, who played his assistant Donna on The West Wing. * Alphas: + In "If Memory Serves", Skyler's daughter asks her if she, Skyler, is a Terminator. Skyler is played by Summer Glau, who played a terminator in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. + Callum Keith Rennie played Don Wilson, a Dead Star Walking who was introduced as a major character but violently killed off in the third episode of the series. At the time his highest-profile recent role was as Leoben/Number Two in Battlestar Galactica (2003), a character known for his Resurrective Immortality. * In one "Blockblister" segment of The Amanda Show, Josh Peck comes in and complains that he had wanted to rent Snow Day and they had instead given him "Snowy Day." Peck played a leading role in that film. * In a Christmas episode of the show Amen, the characters are debating which carol to perform for an upcoming competition. When someone suggests "Mary's Boy Child", Rolly Forbes scoffs, "I never cared for that one". That's too bad, considering that Forbes' portrayer, Jester Harrison, wrote the song. * At the beginning of American Horror Story: Asylum, Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) runs the insane asylum. \|\|By the end, she's a patient there, who's been wrongly institutionalized for years.\|\| Lange received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a wrongly institutionalized woman in the 1982 film Frances. * In an episode of American Housewife, Greg launches into an impassioned tirade about how terrible Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is, a nod to his past work voicing Batman in various productions (most famously Batman: The Brave and the Bold). * In a mix of Shout-Out, Celebrity Paradox, and this, the characters of the soap Los Amores de Anita Peña had an extrange Time Traveling experience (don't ask), and going further and further in the past, they ended in many previous works of the cast, including the famed soap Por Estas Calles. To further the joke, the characters of Anita Peña met the ones interpreted by the same actors in Por estas Calles, which set up for hilarious situations, like dimwitted Anita Peña meeting no-nonsense Broken Bird Euridice Briceño (both interpreted by Maria Alejandra Martín), and the later meeting of Anita with Por Estas Calles's Kavorka Man Eudomar Santos, whose actor Franklin Virguez interpreted Anita's Love Interest and his Evil Twin, both of them also irrupting in the scene (this has the Reality Subtext of Mr. Virguez being accused by several critics of repeating his famous "Eudomar" role, only because he moved from interpreting a Hot-Blooded, catchphrase spouting barrio man with dubious ethics, to interpret a couple of twins of humble origins, one of them an Ambulance Chaser lawyer with dubious ethics). + Roberto Lamarca was cast in Anita Peña as a Deadpan Snarker Genre Savvy ghost whose looks and past was an obvious Shout-Out to famous late doctor and beloved proto-saint Jose Gregorio Hernández, a comparison who was constantly loathed by the character. If you watched Por Estas Calles, you could remember Mr. Lamarca as Affably Evil Jerkass MD Dr. Valerio, the only character which an internal voice, and a snarky one to boot. After having been Dr. Valerio for about 700 soap chapters and being constantly confused with him, Mr. Lamarca was ostensibly and publicly tired of the role, and obviously took the Ghost role in the hopes to escape Typecasting. In a bout of irony, the role only pigeonholed him more. + In a more meta level, each chapter of Por Estas Calles ended with a related aphorism or famous quote read in Voice Over by late character actor (and James Earl Jones Venezuelan equivalent) Tomás Henriquez; the same resource was used in Anita Peña, but instead used bad jokes, lame puns, and other related nonsense. Guess who reprises the narrator role! * In his first appearance in Andor, Anton Lesser's character Major Partagaz describes their function of the ISB as being "healthcare providers", likening their attempts to find and stamp out rebellion against the Empire to doctors diagnosing and protecting against sickness and disease. Lesser's best known television role prior to this was on Game of Thrones, where he played Mad Doctor Qyburn, who was a fantastically efficient healer... albeit only thanks to horrifically unethical and torturous experimentation he'd done on people. * In the first episode of Andromeda, a redshirt Scrappy Plucky Comic Relief Engineer comments that Kevin Sorbo's character "looks like a Greek God or something". Sorbo had previously played the title character in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. + It gets better. During season five, removing a wall panel near the floor behind the desk in Captain Hunt's office/quarters reveals a compartment. In this compartment are: > 1. A rack of force lances. > 2. Hercules' sword. > 3. Hercules' loincloth. > 4. The wig Sorbo wore as Herc. - The expression on Sorbo's face suggests that some Enforced Method Acting was going on here... - What's even funnier about that scene is that there is this heroic music swell as he pulls out the sword, then it abruptly cuts out and he says something akin to "it's a long story", sets it aside and pulls out the force lances. * In The Aquabats! Super Show! Mr. Lawrence plays a tiny villain with antennae. * A.N.T. Farm: In one episode Lexi speculates that Cameron's girlfriend played by Vanessa Morgan might be a vampire to which he retorts that she can't be a vampire because she babysits and no one would hire a babysitter who's a vampire. At the time that episode aired Vanessa played the female lead in the Disney Channel series My Babysitters a Vampire where she played...you guessed it, a Vampire * Are You Afraid of the Dark?: "The Tale of the Curious Camera" and Goosebumps (1995): "Say Cheese and Die!" both cast Richard McMillan as the owner of the cursed camera and Christian Tessier as the school bully. * Are You Being Served?: + Captain Peacock delivers a limerick in "Our Figures Are Slipping", ("On the chest of a barmaid from Sale..."). Frank Thornton absolutely adored limericks and would entertain his dinner guests with them. + In "Founder's Day": - The episode has the staff put on their own version of This Is Your Life for Young Mr. Grace. Just three months prior, John Inman had been the focus of an episode of This Is Your Life, with co-stars Mollie Sugden, Wendy Richard, Arthur Brough, Nicholas Smith, Arthur English, Harold Bennett, and writers David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd all taking part. - Also, Mr. Grainger's birthplace is incorrectly given as Folkestone (he tells Mr. Lucas it was actually Eastbourne). Brough ran a repertory company in Folkestone for forty years. + One of the Standard Snippets featured in "The Ballet of the Toys" is "Teddy Bear Picnic", a song featured on the same album on which star Inman sang the title theme (which would later be used for the Australian version of the show). + In "The Hold Up", Mr. Harman comes up with a plan with Mrs. Slocombe and Mr. Humphries to rescue the others by dressing up as the dreaded Gumby Gang. As Pa Gumby, actor English as Mr. Harman is dressed up as a character he was most famous for doing years prior to the show: a shady "spiv" character, complete with pencil moustache and wide tie. * Army Wives: Roxie and Trevor's twin boys are called Drew (Trevor is played by Drew Fuller) and Wyatt (The older brother to Drew Fuller's character of Chris on Charmed.) * Arrested Development played with this trope constantly. + Zuckercorn (Henry Winkler) ends a scene on a pier where characters discuss the dead shark lying at their feet by jumping over it on his way back to his car. Henry Winkler invented "Jumping the Shark". + Zuckercorn is shown in one episode combing his hair in a bathroom. When he is finished he makes the same “ain't I fantastic?” gesture with his hands that the Fonz did in the opening of nearly every episode of Happy Days. + The lawyer Bob Loblaw remarks "Look, this is not the first time I've been brought in to replace Barry Zuckerkorn. I think I can do for you everything he did. Plus, skew younger. With juries and so forth." Loblaw was played by Scott Baio, who was cast as Chachi on Happy Days when producers worried the Fonz was getting too old to maintain the show's youthful demographic. + In a later episode, Dr. Stein (played by Dan Castellaneta, who plays Homer Simpson) makes a mistake, accenting it with a "D'oh", to which Lucille replies, "I knew it!" + Michael (Jason Bateman) jokingly asks Nelly, a prostitute, to marry him before adding, "That's wrong on so many levels." Nelly is portrayed by Justine Bateman, Jason Bateman's real-life sister. + Lucille Two becomes exasperated hearing the song "New York, New York", saying, "everyone thinks they're Frank Sinatra." Lucille Two is played by Liza Minnelli, the singer who first recorded the classic. + In another episode, George Michael is traumatized by watching HBO's Oz having confused it for the classic 1939 film, described as "starring Judy Garland." Garland was Liza Minelli's mother. + When a lawyer is needed to defend George Sr., the family considers hiring Andy Griffith to emulate his role as TV lawyer Matlock. He cancels, causing the narrator to point out that they would never dream of making fun of Andy Griffith. Arrested Development's narrator is Ron Howard, whose first role was Opie on The Andy Griffith Show. + In another episode, Jessie, an image consultant, derides George Michael by calling him "Opie". The narrator cuts in at this point, saying "Jessie had gone too far and had best watch her mouth." (Howard was also an executive producer on the show). + In a third season story arc, Michael falls in love with Rita (played by Charlize Theron). After breaking up with her, someone mentions how bad she looked before her plastic surgery. A picture of Charlize Theron from her role in Monster is displayed onscreen. + In a deleted scene, Michael searches for an actress he knows, Marta, on the Internet Movie Database. Her picture is the default "no picture" graphic. This is because the role of Marta was played by three different actresses through the show's run. + In one episode, Michael sarcastically praises George Sr.'s lying ability, saying "Yeah, Dad, you're a real Brad Garrett." This episode was originally preceded by the Emmy Awards, in which Jeffrey Tambor (who plays George Sr.) lost the Best Supporting Actor award to Brad Garrett. + Buster accidentally gets his hook stuck in the stair car's dashboard while doing the robot to Styx's Mr. Roboto; a reference to a commercial featuring Tony Hale (who plays Buster), in which he does the same dance to the same song. + A subplot in the first Un-Canceled season involves Tobias trying to stage a musical adaptation of the Fantastic Four, and at one point, someone suggests using Morgan LeFay as the villain (the role Lucille is after). In real life, Jessica Walter played LeFay in the Made-for-TV Doctor Strange movie. * On an episode of The A-Team, Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck reacts to a full-costumed Cylon(from Battlestar Galactica) walking by at a movie studio. The actor who portrayed Face, Dirk Benedict, played Starbuck on Galactica. (This shot was used in the Title Sequence montage for two and a half seasons.) + In one episode the team uses a book written by a Dr. Dwight Pepper. Two of the main cast were Dwight Schultz and George Peppard. + One episode from the last season featured Stockwell (Robert Vaughan) being captured by an old friend-turned-traitor played by David McCallum. The two starred together on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Said episode was appropriately called "The Say Uncle Affair", a nod to the show and its tendency to title all their episodes "The \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Affair". * Ask Rhod Gilbert: David Tennant appears as the authenticator in one episode, fading into the studio over the TARDIS materialisation noise. * In Austin & Ally Austin mentions wanting to play a surfer in a beach musical, Ross Lynch who plays Austin also played a surfer named Brady in the Disney Channel musical Teen Beach Movie as well as its sequel. (Lynch's Teen Beach Movie Co-star Grace Phipps guest stars in this episode) * In The Avengers (1960s) episode "Too Many Christmas Trees", Steed receives a Christmas card from old partner-in-crimebusting Cathy Gale. He notes with surprise that the card has been sent from Fort Knox. (Honor Blackman, who played Cathy, left the series to appear as Pussy Galore in the James Bond movie Goldfinger, in which Fort Knox featured prominently.) + When Blackman left the show, Steed claimed Gale was going "...pussyfooting it on the beach". * Barry: + In "The Show Must Go On… Probably?" Sasha insists she'd never play an Australian. Kirby Howell-Baptiste did just that on The Good Place. + Hank mentions Yoshinoya Beef Bowl to Barry in Season 2, referencing a particularly famous moment on Saturday Night Live wherein then-writer John Mulaney made a rare physical appearance to make Bill Hader break character by randomly whispering "my girlfriend works at Yoshinoya Beef Bowl" in the latter's ear during a Stefon segment; something Hader still finds funny to this day. * In John Inman's second guest appearance on The Basil Brush Show, he appeared in a clothing shop sketch where he asked Basil, "Are you free?", to which Basil responded, "I'm free!", trying to imitate Inman's voice. Then at the end of the episode, after hearing a distraught Inman ask, "What can I say?", Basil once more replied, "I'm free!". * Battlestar Galactica : + The episode "Bastille Day" had a field day with this, with a long debate between Lee "Apollo" Adama and Tom Zarek, played by Richard "Old Apollo" Hatch. + The orphan boy's costume in "The Plan" is an exact copy of that worn by Dean Stockwell in his 1948 movie "The Boy with Green Hair". * One episode of Becker was comprised of flashbacks as Becker related the events of his day to a bartender. The bartender was played by George Wendt - Norm from Cheers - so for the actors, this was a reversal of a familiar scenario. * On Being Human (US), Kyle Schmid's character is a vampire named Henry, probably a shout-out to Schmid playing vampire Henry Fitzroy on Blood Ties (2007). * The Big Bang Theory: + Johnny Galecki's character Leonard Hofstadter had a brief relationship with a woman played by Sara Gilbert. He previously played her character's husband \|\|/brother-in-law\|\| on Roseanne. + In 8 Simple Rules, Kaley Cuoco's character Bridget plays Anne Frank. In The Big Bang Theory, Kaley Cuoco's character Penny plays Anne Frank. + Katey Segal, Kaley Cuco's mother in 8 Simple Rules, also played her mom in the Season 10 opener. + A slight zigzag: in season 1, while looking for a fourth member for their Physics Bowl team, Raj suggests asking "the girl who played TV's Blossom". Said girl is Mayim Bialik, who later plays Sheldon's girlfriend Amy. Both Amy and Mayim are trained neuroscientists. * In the opening scene of the Birds of a Feather (1989) episode "Tattoo You", Tracey and Sharon are watching a murder mystery show on TV where a body is discovered on a beach next to a burning boat. Pauline Quirke, who plays Sharon, appeared in Broadchurch, an 8-part television series that aired in the UK, about the murder of a young boy whose body was discovered on a beach near a boat that had been set on fire. > Tracey: How do you know? > Sharon: Because they always find a body on the beach in one of those creepy seaside things, like... Broadcliff, or...Southchurch, or... Western super Mare!" * In Black Lightning (2018), James Remar plays a character, who raised a little boy, after unintentionally causing the death of one of his parents, and helps him channel his dangerous skills into a positive outlet and puts him on the path of becoming a vigilante. Wait, are you sure we're not talking about Harry Morgan from Dexter? * On an episode of Black Monday, Bronson Pinchot's character makes a sneaky reference to the Perfect Strangers Theme Tune...while banging two prostitutes...in the nude. When he is discovered in the middle of his threesome and is asked to stop, he responds, "Nothing's gonna stop me now!" * In an early episode of Blindspot, it's revealed that Patterson plays Dungeons & Dragons, and when another character calls her "elf girl", she replies, "Actually I play a gnome cleric". Patterson is portrayed by Ashley Johnson, who at the time was playing a gnome cleric on Critical Role. * In an episode of Blossom, Blossom blinds a prowler (actually her brother) by blowing talcum powder into his face. When her best friend Six asks her where she learned to do that, Blossom replies "MacGyver". Blossom's actress Mayim Bialik previously played Recurring Character Lisa Woodman on MacGyver. * Daniel Fredrickson played Tess' husband in Blue Heelers, who turned out to be gay when he left the show, marrying her for convenience. When he joined the Stingers crew as Leo Flynn fellow Heelers guest star Neil Pigot plays a drug dealer in one episode, calling him a faggot. * The victim in Body of Proof episode "Love Thy Neighbor" lived in a cul-de-sac with lots of beautiful people and lots of goings on. When first arriving Dana Delany's character mentions she used to live in a cul-de-sac like this, and several times throughout the episode she quips that there's more to the place than meets the eye. In the ending moments, she tells a co-worker he couldn't handle a desperate housewife. Delany had a role on Desperate Housewives which centers on an action-packed cul-de-sac filled with beautiful people. * Bones: + In one episode Bones finds Booth reading a Green Lantern comic in the bathtub. David Boreanaz, who plays Booth, voiced Hal Jordan in Justice League: The New Frontier, the Animated Adaptation of DC: The New Frontier. + And in an earlier episode of the show, Booth orders a search of the area surrounding the Hyperion Hotel, which, on Boreanaz's previous show, Angel, is the name of his character's home/base of operations. + The episode "The Headless Witch in the Woods" revolves around a murder that involved the victim being videotaped along with two fellow college students in the woods while tracking down a legendary witch-ghost; they find signs of this witch all over the place, to their palpable terror. The victim's film professor is played by actor Joshua Leonard - no points for guessing what movie made him famous. + In the "Death of the Queen Bee" a suspect is described by Sweets as being "creepy, very Freddy". Take a wild guess as to the Actor playing him. He plays a school janitor. + Angela's middle name being "Pearly Gates" is one to Billy Gibbons, who plays her father and who calls his guitar that. * Yet another Denny Crane moment: in the Larry Craig Ripped from the Headlines episode of Boston Legal, just as Denny is being arrested for allegedly soliciting sex in a bathroom stall, he opens up his cell phone. Of course, the old Star Trek communicator sound effect plays. + In the season 2 episode ...There's Fire when it is suggested that Denny move to Hawaii, he responds, "What am I supposed to do? Beam myself to Boston every day?" + In an earlier season's episode, when Denny Crane talks to the press when walking through the courthouse, he often spouts out non-sequiturs. One of them was, "I was once a captain of a space shuttle!" + When Alan and Denny go fishing, Alan is reading a book about salmon farms and remarks that salmon lice are sometimes called "cling-ons". Denny: "Did you say...Klingons?" + Alan certainly seems to know what he wants in a secretary. * Boy Meets World: + Eric tries to impress a girl with a stream of lies ending with "and I'm Batman." Eric is played by Will Friedle, voice of the future Batman Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond. + The students attend John Adams High, a nod to William Daniels' role as John Adams in 1776. In the episode where Eric decides he wants to be a teacher, the immigrants recite the Declaration of Independence in the final scene. The term "inalienable rights" was replaced with "unalienable rights," the term that John Adams fights to be replaced in a memorable scene in 1776. * The French series Bref. has an episode where the main character lists his pet peeves, such as people showing up to a costume party without a disguise. Cut to the costumeless guy grabbing a paper crown and declaring himself disguised as a king, while his buddy stuffs his face. The two individuals in question are better known as Arthur and Big Eater Karadoc on Kaamelott. Other allusions are a guy explaining why coffee goes up the sugar cube (one of the characters from the science show C'est pas sorcier) or a guy geeking out over the history of Parisian streets (Lorant Deutsch, an amateur historian, and actor who's flanderized as such in his TV appearances). * In Episode 5 of The Brittas Empire, "Stop Thief!" Gordon's wife reveals that Gordon briefly worked for the Samaritans, on what became known as Black Friday because all four people he spoke to committed suicide. And one of them was the wrong number. In the Red Dwarf episode "The Last Day", two years earlier, Rimmer, also played by Chris Barrie, had also mentioned he worked for the Samaritans, on what became known as Lemming Sunday for the same reason, complete with the wrong number. * Brooklyn Nine-Nine: + Peralta's remark about singing along to his favorite rap songs is one to Andy Samberg's parody rap group The Lonely Island. - When Jake presents one of his elaborate cover stories on a stakeout, Boxed Crook Doug Judy mentions that "You played him like a boss." - He also starts rapping apropos of very little in "Unsolvable". - "Operation: Broken Feather" has Peralta and Santiago searching a hotel, and being directed to the Salieri Ballroom. Samberg actually played Salieri in a Saturday Night Live skit with Justin Timberlake as Mozart. Yes, really. - In "Into the Woods", Jake claims to have an app on his phone that makes him sound like T-Pain. He then says he doesn't need it and can make himself sound like T-Pain without it. He would know what T-Pain sounds like. - At least Jake likes his sister this time. + Peralta states he can't grow a mustache just like Rod. + In "Unsolvable", a sleep-deprived Jake hallucinates "Terry's biceps mocking him". + Scully regularly breaks out into operatic singing, likely due to Joel McKinnon Miller having taken opera singing lessons early in his life. + In "The Oolong Slayer", Holt refers to Wuntch as a "bat." It's an insult that's usually accompanied by some sort of prefix ("dingbat," "old bat," etc.). Kyra Sedgewick played Batwoman in Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman. + Luis Moncada plays Tito Ruiz, the Giggle Pig kingpin, and is wearing the exact same suit he wore on Breaking Bad where he played Marco Salamanca, another menacing guy involved in the drug trade. As a bonus, Jake is very obviously dressed up like Jesse Pinkman in the same scene. + In "Operation: Broken Feather", the team plays a football game against the Fire Dept in which Terry is The Ace. Guess which actor is a former NFL player? + Terry is a talented artist. Terry Crews originally went to university on an art scholarship before earning a spot on his school's football team and going onto the NFL. + In Season 3's "Into the Woods", Gina suggests that Santiago change her first name to "Vanessa" since Gina considers it more attractive. "Vanessa" is the middle name of Gina's actress, Chelsea Peretti. + Season 5's "The Box" is essentially a comedic remake of Homicide: Life on the Street's "Three Men and Adena", with the only major difference being that \|\|the suspect confesses to being guilty.\|\| + In "The Set Up", Holt expresses to Jake that he hates colleges that award diplomas for acting. Andre Braugher has degrees in acting from both Stanford and Julliard. + Marc Deveraux in "Serve and Protect" is an actor who's played a cop for so long he thinks he's as good as one. He is played by Nathan Fillion, best known for his role as Richard Castle, a writer who's written cop stories for so long he thinks he's as good as one. * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: + The episode "What's My Line" had Buffy telling Kendra "Back off, pink ranger!" Sarah Michelle Gellar's stunt double was the suit actor for the American filmed footage of the Pink Ranger in the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. At the end of the same episode, Buffy advises Kendra not to watch the in-flight movie if it has dogs or Chevy Chase in it. This is probably a reference to the Chevy Chase film, Funny Farm in which Sarah Michelle Gellar had an uncredited cameo. + The first full episode featuring Dawn starts with her writing in her diary, much like Harriet the Spy (Michelle Trachtenberg, aka Dawn starred in The Film of the Book). * In an episode of the 1994-95 revival of Burke's Law entitled "Who Killed the Movie Mogul?", Amos Burke and his partner/son Peter go to a movie memorabilia shop to question the owner, the daughter of this episode's murder victim. While they're waiting for her, Amos notices a movie poster for the 1953 version of "The War of the Worlds". He mentions it's one of his favorite movies and adds "Whatever happened to the fellow who starred in that?" and the camera cuts to the lower portion of the poster which reads 'Starring Gene Barry'. * Burn Notice: + The second-season character Carla (whose actress played Caprica on Battlestar Galactica (2003)) was described as having "... a hell of a breaststroke, Mike; she's a machine." + Sam Axe, played by Bruce Campbell, refers to a homemade mortar as a "Boomstick". + In the episode Noble Causes, Erik King, who plays Sgt. Doakes in another show set in Miami is ambushed from behind with a syringe to the neck. + Mike's mother, played by Sharon Gless, befriends an insurance clerk played by her Cagney & Lacey co-star Tyne Daly. * In the episode "The Trial" of Californication the main character, Hank (portrayed by David Duchovny), while getting dressed in a suit comments that "I look like a f\ckin' FBI agent" and then winks in the mirror in reference to Duchovny's character in The X-Files, who happens to be an FBI agent. + To which his wife replies "A brooding and comely FBI agent," a reference to the song "David Duchovny" by Bree Sharp. In Caprica, Peter Wingfield played a character named Gara Singh, who was simultaneously the head of the Caprica civil defence organisation and the leader of the monotheist terrorist cell on Caprica who he was meant to be catching. In Highlander, his immortal character Methos had infiltrated the immortal-watching Watcher organisation and taken charge of the hunt for himself. * A game of Celebrity Jeopardy! featuring (then) stars of Law & Order, one of whom was actress Carey Lowell, had a category called "Bond, James Bond", which was all about the James Bond movies. Lowell previously starred as the Bond girl of Licence to Kill, so she got a kick of that. * Charisma Carpenter appeared in several episodes of Charmed (1998) as a demon who had visions. * An episode of Cheers during its final season had Sam Malone, who throughout the series took pride in his head of hair, revealing that he had been going bald and covering it with a hairpiece for some time. It was already well known for years before the episode aired that Ted Danson was wearing hairpieces. * Chicago Hope: + Dr. Geiger is treating a patient who thinks she's Eva Peron. The patient goes up to him and slyly says, "I know who you are." Dr. Geiger was played by Mandy Patinkin, who was better known at that time for his work as a Broadway actor and won a Tony Award playing Che in the Broadway production of the musical Evita. + In the second season, when Geiger's ex-wife Laurie is getting married to a fellow mental patient, the 'hymn' for the wedding was "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina". * Chuck: + An episode uses a rather extreme version that really stretches suspension of disbelief. The film Die Hard exists in the series but in this episode Reginald Vel Johnson guest stars as the cousin of regular character Big Mike: a Twinkie eating cop named Al Powell who gets involved in a hostage standoff. Later, Mike (one of the hostages) and Al even gets to talk on the phone and share dialogue quite reminiscent of the film. + Scott Bakula shows up as Chuck and Ellie's father, and after Ellie's first words to him are a blunt reminder of the night he abandoned them he replies "Oh boy," Bakula's catchphrase from Quantum Leap. + "Chuck vs the Sizzling Shrimp". James Hong plays a businessman that 'owns half of Chinatown'. Confined to a Wheelchair. Named (Ben) Lo Pan. + In an earlier episode, Casey (played by Adam Baldwin) scoffs at the threat posed by a young genius opponent: "What, is he gonna hurt me with his mind?" This is similar to a threat issued towards Baldwin's character by another young genius on Firefly: "Also, I can kill you with my brain." + The season four premiere has Dolph Lundgren saying "I must break you," with the exact same delivery he used in Rocky IV. Later on, when talking to his men over PA, he says "If they die, they die," again referencing Rocky IV. + Chuck at one point described Agent Daniel Shaw as "kinda Superman-y". Three guesses for which superhero Brandon Routh has played as. - Works on two levels. Chuck's coworker comments on how attractive Agent Shaw is. Chuck responds "Yeah, if you're into that whole Superman thing." Said coworker is played by Kristin Kreuk. + In "Chuck Versus The Fear Of Death" Casey confronts Greta, telling her he doesn't care "what crew you were on," a low-key reference to both Adam Baldwin and Summer Glau's respective roles in Firefly. + In "Chuck vs. the Gobbler", Sarah goes undercover. She dyes her hair black, wears a catsuit and says "I love a good suicide mission." + In "Chuck vs. the Leftovers", Chuck's mother, played by Linda Hamilton saves his son and Sarah. Then she tells "Come with me if you want to live". - She also portrays Pilar in Defiance where she says this to Nolan in the season 3 episode "Broken Bough". * Cold Case: "Creatures of the Night" involves a serial killer, played in the present day by Barry Bostwick, beginning his crimes in the 1970s after his religious sensibilities were disgusted by the portrayals of perversion and bisexuality in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which the young Bostwick played Brad Majors. * Community has had many references to Joel McHale's other jobs (like hosting The Soup) or his Real Life Sitcom Arch-Nemesis, Ryan Seacrest. + In one episode, Malcolm-Jamal Warner appears as Shirley's ex-husband and he's wearing a funky sweater. When Jeff comments on it, he says "my dad gave it to me." + We meet Jeff's half-brother, Willy Jr., in Season 4's Thanksgiving episode. Willy Jr. (played by Adam DeVine) nearly vomits from anxiety when first meeting Jeff, and claims that this is a frequent problem for him. DeVine had a major role in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect, which had another main character suffer from the same thing (in spectacular CGI, no less). + Another Season 4 episode has Pierce (played by Chevy Chase) mentioning that he's never understood the appeal of golf. + In "Basic Lupine Urology", Troy dresses up as a comically "old-timey" college student in order to catch a thief. The same basic gag (but with coke dealers instead of a thief) was used in Mystery Team, the cult indie comedy Donald Glover starred in a few years before he got cast as Troy. + In "A Fistful of Paintballs", Abed describes Josh Holloway's character as "Really good-looking. Like, network television good-looking". + In "Comparative Religion", Pierce says "I know guys like this Mike. He used to be a nerd, now he's a meathead." Mike is played by Anthony Michael Hall, who became famous in the '80s for portraying nerds in movies like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and Weird Science. + Michael K. Williams had a recurring role in Season 3 as a hardened ex-con who becomes the gang's new biology professor. In "Basic Lupine Urology", he gives a speech about no matter what, a man has to live his life with a code of honor. + Keith David guest-stars as the narrator in the Season 3 episode "Pillows and Blankets", and at the very end, Jeff asks him if he was in The Cape (which is also a Call-Back, as Abed was shown to be obsessed with the show in earlier episodes). + In "Physical Education," Abed attempts to seduce Annie (played by Alison Brie), Don Draper-style. Don Draper, of course, is the main character on Mad Men, on which Alison Brie recurs as Pete Campbell's ex-wife, Trudy. + In "Ladders," it's mentioned that Shirley left school to take care of her aging father. In real life, Shirley's actress, Yvette Nicole Brown, left the show for the same reason. + In "Pascals Triangle Revisited", Starburns suggests that they bring back Conan. His actor, Dino Stamatopolous used to be a writer for Conan in the mid-'90s. * In the pilot of Cops: L.A.C., Detective Sam Cooper makes a mildly cynical comment about the foster care system and is called on it by another officer who grew up in the system and turned out fine. The joke is that Sam is played by Kate Ritchie of Home and Away fame, a show with a long history of portraying idealised foster families, with Kate's character Sally starting as a foster child and growing up to be a great foster mother. * Corner Gas: + The fifth-season premiere has the cast discussing Canadian television shows. As soon as Street Legal is mentioned, Oscar yells out "Street Legal sucked!". Oscar's actor, Eric Peterson, had a role on the series as Leon. + The series finale dealt with Brent trying out stand-up comedy. Which is of course what Brent Butt does when not starring in his own sitcom. * Cougar Town: + In one episode Jules' son looks through his mother's photo album and asks, "wow, did you really dance with Bruce Springsteen?" Jules proudly says yes. Jules is played by Courteney Cox, whose first big acting role was in Springsteen's 1984 "Dancing In The Dark" music video as an audience member he pulls on stage to dance with him. + In the season 2 finale, Sam Lloyd guests stars. He says he moved to Hawaii because he was broken up with by a girl named Gooch, who ran off with a man named Hooch. Gooch was a character he had a brief romance with on the show Scrubs, played by Kate Micucci. Also on the show, there was a background character named Hooch, played by Phil Lewis. * In County Line, which is a made for TV movie, Tom Wopat plays the ex-sheriff of Maksville County, which is in Georgia in the movie. He is a veteran of the USMC and in one scene, is seen stealing a sheriff's car, which happens to be a Dodge Charger. In The Dukes of Hazzard, the General Lee was a Dodge Charger and his character, Luke Duke served in the Marine Corps. * The Crazy Ones: + Sarah Michelle Gellar's character has a Bones marathon, \|\|and when her date turns out to have been using her\|\| asks if he even likes David Boreanaz who played her love interest on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel + In another episode, Robin Williams' character dates an author played by Pam Dawber, his co-star from Mork & Mindy (and who, tired of his manic nature, quips "You're like an alien!") * Criminal Minds: + In one episode the two suspects were played by Chris Marquette and Michael Welch. They were questioned by Joe Mantegna as David Rossi. Mantegna played Will Girardi on Joan of Arcadia. Welch played his son and Marquette played his daughter's boyfriend. + In another episode Hotchner says Reid's new haircut makes it look like he joined a boy band. Reid's actor, Matthew Gray Gubler, voiced one of The Chipmunks in a movie. * In the pilot episode of Crossing Jordan, the leader of the anger management group asks Jordan what she's angry at. She replies "...and then, of course, there's all the crap I see in my line of work: people killed by drunk drivers, psychos who murder innocent people for no reason, injustice." Jordan was, of course, portrayed by Jill Hennessy, whose character, Claire Kincaid, was previously killed off Law & Order when her car was hit by a drunk driver. * CSI: NY: + In one episode, the suspect of the week is a really passionate actor trying out for the part of George in a play production of Of Mice and Men. As he's rehearsing his lines, Mac comes up to him and says something along the lines of "Looks like you might beat me to the part." One of Gary Sinise (Mac's actor)'s early roles was actually playing George in a movie adaptation of Of Mice And Men which he also directed and produced. + Detective Mac Taylor also shares last names with Sinise's most famous role, Lieutenant Dan Taylor of Forrest Gump. His first name is said to be McCanna, though it's only shown up in scripts. This is after Gary Sinise's son (who is, in turn, named after a brother-in-law of Gary's who was a decorated Vietnam veteran). + In one episode, Danny says to Mac, "I got my sea legs" upon recovering from being injured and in a wheelchair; and in another, Adam comes in with evidence to show the rest of the team and uses a variation of "you can tell a lot about a person by his shoes." + There are also two eps where Mac is shown to play bass in a jazz band: "Stuck on You" and "Time's Up." This is an allusion to Gary Sinise being the bassist in his own Lt. Dan Band. He plays his personal guitars in those eps. + There's another ep where Mac's Quip to Black is "Houston, we have a problem." Gary played Ken Mattingly in Apollo 13. + Another episode has Stella refer to a suspect as "Buffy the Friend Slayer" to Danny. Carmine Giovinazzo got his first break on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. + Mac Taylor's involvement with the "Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance" in ep 8.01 was loosely based on Gary's help with the project. + Danny Messer's back-story of pursuing a baseball career before being side-lined by an injury mirrors that of his actor, Carmine Giovinazzo. + In season 7, Jo tells the team she was a cheerleader in high school. Sela Ward had been one both in high school and at the University of Alabama. * Leslie Phillips plays Dr. Cunningham, a Doctor of Anthropology, in The Culture Vultures, a nod to his roles as medical doctors Dr. Burke and Dr. Grimsdyke in the Doctor... Series. * Dad's Army: + Ian Lavender is a fan of Aston Villa and chose to wear a claret and blue scarf (the club's colours) as Pike as a way of showing support for his team. + Captain Mainwaring likes people to think that his father was a master draper. Before playing the pompous Captain, Arthur Lowe was best known for playing Mr. Swindley in Coronation Street, who too came from a family of drapers. * The "Network Neutrality" segment on The Daily Show had Jon Stewart trying to make a reluctant John Hodgman say "I'm a PC" in reference to the latter's Apple ads. * Daisy Jones & The Six: At one point Daisy wears a guitar strap that looks like the one worn by Elvis Presley during his '68 Comeback Special. Daisy's played by Riley Keough, Elvis' granddaughter. * Dancing with the Stars: + Alfonso Ribeiro, aka Carlton Banks, danced through a set resembling a mansion, in a sweater and bowtie, to Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual". And yes, he did "The Carlton". + Tia Carrere competed in one season, and her tango routine was choreographed to Carlos Gardel's "Por Una Cabeza", which is the same song she danced to with Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies. * In an early Dawson's Creek episode, Joshua Jackson comments on how great "those ducks movies" were — a coy Shout-Out to his role as Charlie in The Mighty Ducks films. * On Days of Our Lives, Brady Black confronts Eve Donovan over her use of aliases, including "Chelsea" and "Blair." Eve is played by Kassie DePaiva, who played Chelsea Reardon on Guiding Light (whose setting of "Springfield" is also name-dropped) and Blair Cramer on One Life to Live and General Hospital (with the former's Pennsylvania setting also mentioned). * In Dear Louise, it's revealed that if character Dana Whitaker drinks, she would dance too wildly; the cast is thrown out of a bar when Dana dances on the table to the music of "Boogie Shoes". In Desperate Housewives, when Lynette wants her boss to stop inviting her to bars in "They Asked Me Why I Believe in You", she dances provocatively with all the guys to the sound of "Boogie Shoes"... both characters are played by Felicity Huffman. * In Demons, Philip Glenister's dialogue is littered with Gene Huntisms, including barking "Gladys!" at Gladiolus. * In an episode of Design:e2, Brad Pitt is narrating at the beginning of the episode and three lines in, he utters the phrase "They are not the cars they drive", which is a reference to his line in Fight Club where he says "You are not the car you drive." * In a TV series called Development Hell, in which The Room (2003)'s Juliette Danielle has a recurring role, an episode is called "You Are Tearing Me Apart, Damien". * Dexter: Michael C. Hall previously played a funeral home director on Six Feet Under. So when Dexter goes to a funeral home in the season 5 première, and the roles are reversed, the show makes the most of it, from a set that looks like the Fisher funeral home to the funeral director offering tissues. * In the "Protecting the Ego-System" episode of Dharma & Greg, actor Ed Begley Jr., a noted green environmental activist, guest stars as "Actor Ed Begley Jr.". He is always referenced by this full name whenever anyone speaks to him or about him. The episode revolves around a protest at an environmentally sensitive wetland being converted into a golf course. * In one episode of Diagnosis: Murder, Dick Van Dyke as Doctor Sloan is walking through the corridors of the hospital. As he turns a corner, he passes an internal window through which we see, not a medical procedure in progress, but a broadcast booth in black and white. It's a clip from his mostly forgotten show Good Morning World. He walks on without seeming to notice. + This show was fond of stunt casting. For instance, one episode featured guest stars from the movie and TV versions of M\A\S\H. The plotline involved a murder mystery in the middle of casualties pouring in from a multi-car accident, similar to marathon operating room sessions that figured prominently in M\A\S\H. + Randolph Mantooth and Robert Fuller guest starred in an episode about a wildfire. There's even an Engine 51 that Mantooth's character rides in at one point, referencing their Emergency! roles. + Victoria Rowell co-starred on The Young and the Restless for much of the same time she played Dr. Amanda Bentley on Diagnosis: Murder. In one episode, Dr. Bentley won a walk-on role on Y&R in a contest. Several members of the soap-opera's cast were taken aback at how much she resembled Victoria... * In the A&E documentary series Dinosaur!, hosted and narrated by Walter Cronkite, his last line of narration is "...and that's the way it is." Referencing his famous newscast sign-off. * In the first season finale of Dirt (2007), Lucy (played by Courteney Cox) gets a visit from an old friend, played by who else but Jennifer Aniston. * In the TV adaptation of the Discworld novel Hogfather, after Albert implies Death is deliberately following the Rules in a way that means Susan will break them, Death, voiced by Ian Richardson, replies "I couldn't possibly comment", the catchphrase of Richardson's character in House of Cards (UK). * In Dollhouse, Summer Glau plays a sadistic brain surgeon very similar to the ones she was victimized by on Firefly. She even references having to toy around with someone's amygdala with a cheery "Fun time for me!" + When flipping through Bennett's academic achievements, Caroline says "Bet she could kill you with her brain." + In "Stage Fright", Echo throws a perceived threat, revealed afterward to be merely paparazzi, over a balcony in a "punch first, ask questions later" move reminiscent of Faith: > Sierra: That was so cool. > Echo (shrugging sheepishly): I'm from Southie. * On a late episode of Drake & Josh, the movie theatre, which usually featured fictitious movies advertised during the Establishing Shot, was advertising "Now She's Carly", an allusion to actress Miranda Cosgrove new role of Carly in iCarly. * In the EastEnders episode for 15th January 2024, Phil asks Sam if she arranged taxis for the funeral of Aunt Sal, who was played by the late Anna Karen. Sam retorts "How else are we going to get there? On the Buses?" * Eerie, Indiana: + Simon's younger brother's full name is Harley Schwarzenegger Holmes. Christian and Joseph Cousins, who played Harley, previously played Dominic Palmieri in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Kindergarten Cop. + In "Reality Takes a Holiday", the Adam Westing version of Mary-Margret Humes tells Marshall that she cried for days when she found out that her character was being killed off in Jake and the Fatman. The real Humes appeared in two episodes of the series: "I Ain't Got Nobody" and "My Boy Bill". * At the Emmy Awards one year, Alan Arkin and Adam Arkin (who was a regular on the ER competitor Chicago Hope) presented together. The elder Arkin says to the younger one, "I loved you as Batman." * A brilliant combination of Actor Allusion and Shout-Out was in Entourage, in regards to Drama's now-cancelled Ancient Action Hero show Viking Quest. His show was eclipsed and outlasted by the spinoff series Angel Quest. In Angel Quest the title character was played by Vanessa Angel, who was originally slated to play the role of Xena before a car accident prevented her from taking the role. * A rather bizarre self-Allusion came from Steve Valentine, the host of Estate of Panic. A contestant named Jordan is last out of a room. Valentine goes "I guess we'll be...Crossing Jordan off the list." * Possibly an unintentional in The Expanse with Elias Toufexis's character having electronic eyes, just like his voice-only character in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. * Season four of Eureka has been having a blast with guest star James Callis, formerly the delightfully nutty Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica. In addition to the numerous "fraks" uttered by the other cast members throughout the season so far, 4x08 also references his character hallucinating a "leggy blonde in a slinky red dress." This same episode also makes a reference to Ed Quinn as a vampire. Quinn's first role after his original Eureka run was as exactly that on a few episodes of True Blood. * An episode of Falling Skies has resistance fighter Margaret teaching Anne, the 2nd Mass's doctor, how to shoot. When Anne fires off several wild shots, Margaret tells her, "Slow down honey - you're not the Terminator!" Moon Bloodgood, who plays Anne, played a resistance fighter pilot in Terminator Salvation. * In an episode of Fastlane, Deaq quips that "this Dennehy guy has seen In the Name of the Father too many times." * A Pink Ranger can be seen in the background of the first year Halloween Episode of Felicity. Amy Jo Johnson (Julie) played the Pink Ranger on Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. * In an episode of The Flash (2014), Mark Hamill's character says, "No, I am your father." + This series lives and breathes this trope, having featured several actors playing Earth-1 versions of the characters they played on the original 1990 series. The events of that series are now established as having taken place on Earth-90 and John Wesley Shipp has appeared as the Barry Allen/Flash from that world. - Shipp also plays Barry's father and \|\|his Earth-3 counterpart Jay Garrick\|\|. + The Latin American dub has one a Season 3 episode where H.R Wells sings the Dragon Ball Z opening song "Cha-la Head-cha-la". Wells' VA, Mario Castañeda is best known in the anime community for voicing Son Goku as an adult in the Dragon Ball franchise. * In FlashForward episode "137 Sekunden", Agent Demetri Noh (played by Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle's John Cho) is about to leave a person's house when he bumps into something: > Guy: I can explain... > Noh: It's OK, I know what a bong is. * One episode of The Flying Nun had Sister Bertrille show home movies of her life before becoming a nun. The "movies" were clips from Sally Field's previous series Gidget. * Foyle's War: In "The Russian House", Tom Goodman-Hill plays the estranged son of a murdered man and remarks that the details of his father's murder are "like something out of an Agatha Christie novel." This is two years after he appeared in the Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp", \|\|in which he plays the title wasp,\|\| when the Doctor meets Agatha Christie. * Frasier: + In one episode, Niles briefly plays a part of the finale to Schubert's A major sonata D.959, also known as the theme song to Wings, on the piano. Wings was another Angell, Casey, and Lee production that Kelsey Grammer once guest-starred on as, surprise, Frasier Crane. Niles and Daphne's son David was named as a tribute to the late David Angell, who was killed in the September 11 attacks. + In one 2004 episode Frasier's ex-wife, the children's entertainer Nanny G, asks him if he has any idea what it's like playing the same character for twenty years. Of course, Kelsey Grammer knows exactly what it's like, having played Frasier since 1984. * In one episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when Uncle Phil and his parents are having an argument, and Will is trying to help, Uncle Phil tells him "Sometimes, parents just don't understand." An allusion to Will Smith's rap career is made again when Uncle Phil says of his wife's gullibility, "Oh please, Vivian. You'd believe that boy if he told you that he was a big rap star whose album just went platinum!" The audience immediately laughs because at the time, in real life, Will Smith's album "Parents Just Don't Understand" had gone platinum. * Friends: + On "The One with the Football", Phoebe wears a That Girl T-shirt. Marlo Thomas, the star of that show, played Rachel's mother. + There's even one for animal actors. In "The One After the Superbowl," Ross learns Marcel the monkey is now filming the fictional sequel to Outbreak. The monkey actually was the monkey in the film. + For one episode in the opening credits, Courteney Cox gets first billing and is now billed as Courteney Cox-Arquette (due to her marriage to David Arquette). The rest of the cast also have Arquette hyphened onto the end of their names in the credits for that episode. The end of the episode has a little dedication saying "For Courteney and David, who did get married". * On Fringe, while looking over William Bell's books, Nina a finds one written by Dr. Spock, clearly no relation to the character played by Leonard Nimoy (who, naturally, also played William Bell). + The first season episode "The Road Not Taken" contained a ton of Star Trek references, including a man named Emmanuel Grayson (Spock's mother's last name) who truly believed he was Spock. He referenced The Wrath of Khan by name and then warned the agents that a war would soon be started by "renegade Romulans from the future, here to change the timeline" (the plot of the 2009 Star Trek movie). In the very next episode, Leonard Nimoy made his first guest appearance. + There is actually a real Dr. Benjamin Spock who wrote a famous best-selling book about childcare. Many a Star Trek fan was disappointed when he purchased a copy. + For one Monster of the Week we have Canaan, the shapeshifter-a Serial-Killer Killer that only kills criminals and who is (\|\|was\|\|) the blindly loyal minion of the Big Bad. One of the people to play Canaan is Kirby Morrow who voiced Teru Mikami on Death Note. * The Full House two-parter set at Walt Disney World has a subplot in which D.J., pining for her absent boyfriend Steve (Scott Weinger), sees him as various performers through her point-of-view, only for her to find on second glance that they aren't him after all. One of the mistaken cases is Aladdin — Weinger is the speaking voice of that character. * Game of Thrones: Matriarch Olenna Tyrell often alludes to her past beauty and having lived through decades of court intrigue. She's played by Diana Rigg, who was not only a sex symbol in the '60s, but she made a name for herself in the spy genre, in both The Avengers (1960s) and the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. * GARO: Makai Senki introduces Wataru Shijima, a character portrayed by Kenji Matsuda, who had two roles in Kamen Rider beforehand- One as the lightning-using Zanki in Kamen Rider Hibiki, and as the blue werewolf Jiro in Kamen Rider Kiva. Wataru is thus the Thunder Knight Baron, whose wolf-themed armor is blue and allows him some control over lightning. * The short-lived Bob Newhart/Judd Hirsch sitcom George & Leo had an episode which featured a ton of cameo appearances from people who had co-starred on both men's earlier shows. * On an episode of The George Lopez Show. George's new maid, played by Barbara Eden, wishes she can get her work done faster by crossing her arms and nodding. * Ghost Whisperer: + In "Horror Show", the ghost made short movies based on people's worst fears. When Rick and Melinda are looking at the movie list, Rick reads out one called "I know what you did last summer," pauses and looks at Melinda (who is played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, who of course was in "I Know What You Did Last Summer"). + In "Love Still Won't Die", (S02E02) Lacey Chabert is a guest (both her and Jennifer Love Hewitt were on Party of Five). In the scene where they meet they both act for a moment as if they recognize each other. * Gimme, Gimme, Gimme: Su Pollard's One-Shot Character, Heidi Honeycomb, is greeted by everyone with: "Heidi, Hi!". * Girls5eva: Wickie mentions that she had a "Henrietta Lacks situation with HPV cells". Her actress Renée Elise Goldsberry played Lacks in the biopic The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks. * In The Good Place, Michael's brief appearance as a bartender alludes to Ted Danson's role of Sam in Cheers, complete with plaid shirt and signature bar towel sling. * Good Times: + In one episode William Christopher played an Army doctor. + In another episode, a well-meaning white family tells Florida that they didn't know how bad Black people had it until they saw the struggles of Kunta Kinte on Roots (1977). Her reply was "He's making more money than all of us now!" This was in reference to John Amos, who played James Evans for four seasons, left the show, and later starred as the older Kunta Kinte. * On The Good Wife Starring Julianna Margulies, Margulies' character Alicia Florrick is being interviewed by TV commentator Frank Prady (played by David Hyde Pierce) about her run for state's attorney. When asked how she balances her work at her law firm, her personal/family life, and her campaign for state's attorney, Alicia says that she "triages" each area, figuring out which one takes the highest priority at that moment. This is perhaps a reference to ER, where Margulies previously played an emergency room nurse, a job which required her (or more accurately, her character) to "triage" patients to determine their level of priority. Pretty hilarious if you make the connection. Unclear as to whether this was intentional on the part of the writers, or if it was merely a coincidence of phrasing. * Gossip Girl: + In "It's Really Complicated" when Blair finds out that Serena's ex Steven wants to reunite with her, Miss Waldorf says "Ooh, you must be in seventh heaven!" Steven is played by Barry Watson, alias Matt Camden from another show that used to be on The CW. + Another one is back in season 3 when Blair calls Georgina a vampire; Michelle Trachtenberg's first big role was as Buffy the Vampire Slayer's younger sister Dawn. + There's also the episode titles, which are always plays or puns of movie titles, some of which star the main cast acting in them as well; prominent examples include episodes "Easy J" (from Easy A, starring Penn Badgley), "The Townie" (from The Town, starring Blake Lively) and "New York, I Love You XOXO" (from New York, I Love You, starring Blake Lively again), among others. * Grandfathered: + Paget Brewster's character does an online quiz to find out which of the Friends she is. When it gives her the result of Ross, she retorts that she is 'obviously Monica' - presumably because when Paget Brewster was on Friends, she also dated Chandler. + In "The Biter", Gerald Kingsley (played by Josh Peck) pitches an app to Kirk Kelly (played by Drake Bell). After Kirk decides to invest in the app, Gerald shouts "Hug me, brotha!" And then they hug. * Greek: + "Oh, look! Frasier's on!" says Casey (played by Spencer Grammer, Kelsey's daughter). + Also, Rusty's \|\|ex-girlfriend\|\| Jen K. says living with her roommate is like "living with lonelygirl15." Jen K is played by Jessica Rose, aka... lonelygirl15. + And another: "...which is why I think Ferris Bueller is our generation's Gatsby," says Ashleigh to Dean Bowman (played by Alan Ruck, who played Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off). And in a later episode, the dean drives a red Ferrari with a date named Sloane... + And a really, really obscure one: Lizzi's gushing over Great Expectations: "Little orphans are so cute!" Senta Moses, who played Lizzi, played Molly in an original touring production of Annie. ...don't look at me like that, she is old enough... + In a later episode, the Beta Zeta's are putting on a skit based on The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Someone remarks on the attractiveness of the actor who played Kostas. Casey doesn't seem to agree. Michael Rady, who played Kostas, plays Max, Casey's boyfriend at the time. * Grounded for Life had one, where a couple of ex-NFL players were watching the Super Bowl at the Finnertys' house. One of them said something to the effect of "I love watching it here! It's like I'm actually there on the field!" * In Ground Floor we get Jesse becoming a favorite of Dr Cox for beating up Turk. Then the revelation that Jesse and Aubrey dated in college. Stacie, now their coworker, disapproves. + Apparently, Heather's Pitch Perfect, though: > Jenny: She's pitchy! > Brody: No, she's not. > Jenny: No, she's not! + Though she treats Threepeat like The Help. * Growing Pains: + In one episode Jason asks Mike if he's seen Maggie. Mike replies, "Tall blonde, looks like Donna De Varona?" Olympic swimmer Donna De Varona is the sister of Joanna Kerns, who played Maggie. Later in the episode, Maggie asks if Mike has seen Jason. Mike replies, "Tall man, looks like a talk show host?" Alan Thicke, who played Jason, had previously had his own talk show. + In another episode, Maggie's parents come for a visit in an RV. Maggie's father, Ed, is telling Jason how popular this particular model of RV is, and says that all the Hollywood types have them, even Loni Anderson. Jason later says he could be happy with it, "Forget Loni Anderson!" Ed replies "I can't!" and pulls open a cabinet door to reveal a poster of her. Ed Malone was played by Gordon Jump, who played Arthur Carlson on WKRP in Cincinnati, co-starring Loni Anderson as his secretary. + In the episode "Carol's Papers", Ben makes a date with Marlene, an 18-year old girl, played by Tracy Wells. Ben tells Mike that "She looks just like that girl from Mr. Belvedere." * Guardian: The Lonely and Great God: + In Episode 7 Kim Shin and Ji Eun-tak go see Train to Busan, which Gong Yoo also stars in. Shin freaks out after telling Eun-tak not to be scared. + Sunny describes Kim Shin to her shaman and demands to know if the shaman knows a man who looks like that. The shaman helplessly suggests "Gong Yoo?" * The description of the plot of the movie Miley Stewart is offered in the series finale of Hannah Montana resembles the Miley Cyrus movie So Undercover, which she had completed filming at the time. * Happy Days: + In one episode, Marian drags Howard to see The Music Man repeatedly, because there's a little boy in it who looks just like Richie did as a child (Winthrop Paroo was played by Ron Howard, who went on to play Richie). Howard doesn't see it. + In an episode in which Robin Williams guest stars as Mork, one scene opens with him watching The Andy Griffith Show on the Cunnigham's TV (while Richie is upstairs packing), and remarking, "I like that Opie boy. Funny how he has a Martian name." (Ron Howard). (A slightly anachronistic reference, as Happy Days takes place in the '50s, and The Andy Griffith Show didn't premiere until 1960.) * In an episode of Happy Endings, Brad, played by Damon Wayans Jr., mentions that before they were married, his wife used a picture of "one of the guys from In Living Color!" as a placeholder for him. In Living Color was created by and starred Damon Wayans Sr. as well as his brothers and sister. + A retroactive example; Wayans was in the pilot of New Girl. When he left, his character was replaced by Winston, who had just returned from playing basketball in Europe. In the pilot of Happy Endings, his friends describe Brad's smoothie as smelling "like a European basketball player". + In one episode, Penny and Alex (played by Elisha Cuthbert)are discussing hypothetical situations. One of them is "Maybe your dad is the head of some elite counter-terrorist unit and you only have 24 hours to... I don't know!" This is a reference to Cuthbert's role as Jack Bauer's daughter on the show 24. - Before this they also mention THAT Kim Bauer plot > Penny: What if you were, like, stuck in a trap, in the woods and like, a cougar was trying to eat you. Would you date then? > Alex: That's insane! Why would that even happen?! * In the first season finale of Harry's Law, Josh Peyton (played by Paul McCrane) sings the song "Is it Okay If I Call You Mine?" at a lawyer gala. The song was written and performed by McCrane originally in Fame. Also with the added touch "I usually sing this in the privacy of my own home," which is exactly how his character in Fame had sung it. * This has happened with numerous guest hosts and panellists of Have I Got News for You to different extents: + When Bruce Forsyth was a guest presenter for the first time, the show turned into a parody of Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game and Play Your Cards Right, the latter as "Play Your Iraqi Cards Right", a reference to the "deck of death" to the utter bewilderment of Hislop and utter delight of Merton. His second appearance featured incidental music from Strictly Come Dancing, and ended with the points revealed in the style of that show. Hislop later described "Iraqi Cards" as being quite possibly the most tasteless thing the show had ever done. (It could have been worse — the writers wanted to call it "Play Your Kurds Right".) + Jerry Springer's episode featured descriptive captions for the panellists and his trademark 'final thought'. Also, Paul suggesting they have a lie detector test, and Ian suggesting a fight. + Nicholas Parsons did a Just a Minute round. + Joan Collins' episode featured a spoof of the Dynasty (1981) opening sequence (using the shots of the team captains from the first ever episode) + It also happened with guests, like the spoof Mastermind rounds. + Dominic West had the "Squad Car of News", because of his role on The Wire. + Benedict Cumberbatch had The Round of the Baskervilles. + Anne Robinson's guest hosted episode ended with "exit interviews" of Merton and Hislop in the style of The Weakest Link. + BRIAN BLESSED: *"In the news the polls continue to slide for Gordon Brown, and some people think he's dead and buried. But I think the opposite, I say: GORDON'S ALIVE!!!"* He does it again when he returns to host in a 2013 episode, this time managing to fit it into a conversation about Margaret Thatcher's death. + Tom Baker appeared by being "transported" in via TV special effects, complete with TARDIS noise. He then proceeded to introduce the show thusly: > Tom Baker: Good evening, and welcome to Have I Got News For You. I used to be Jon Pertwee. + William Shatner opened the show with the background sliding open like automatic doors with a familiar ssshtk sound, and the host's chair had been modified to resemble the captain's chair on the Enterprise. Then there were lots of little phrases hidden throughout the show relating to Star Trek. He even did a song round, reference to his singing career. Also all the guests did their best to bring up Star Trek at every opportunity. + When Sir Roger Moore hosted, the James Bond allusions started before the opening credits, with Ian stroking a toy Right-Hand Cat. Also, when Sir Roger comments that an Archbishop needs the patience of a saint, a halo appears above his head. + At the end of the episode where Daniel Radcliffe hosted, a stinger showed him turning Paul Merton into a toad. + This exchange in series 44, episode 5 (extended). > Damian Lewis: What's Radio Four for? > Paul: Radio 4-4? Is there two of them? [...] Is there a Radio 2 too? > Harry Shearer: Radio 1-1 makes 11. > Damian: "Look it goes to eleven." > Harry: Ohh, yeah. > Audience: Ahhh. > Damian: Spinal Tap joke! > Harry: I knew it would happen. > Damian: Got there early. I am so, SO happy I've got that in. + Robert Lindsay signed off his Series 45 guest host appearance by saying, "Power to the people." + Ian's editorship of Private Eye is brought up a lot. + Victoria Coren Mitchell did an Only Connect-inspired round which she called "Simply Link" instead of the "Odd One Out" round on her appearance in Series 48. + The Wheel of News is occasionally given a host-related revamp, such as Jeremy Clarkson presenting the Steering Wheel of News, and Mel Giedroyc presenting the Pithivier of News. + In the episode hosted by Michael Sheen, who played Tony Blair in The Deal (2003), The Queen and The Special Relationship, one of his linking bits involved asking if any of the panellists could do a good Blair impression. + When Jeremy Paxman hosted, the Missing Words round became "Missing Wordsity Challenge", complete with the University Challenge catchphrases and the panellists being displayed in the famous stacked teams shot. Also, when he gets into a brief argument with Ian during the first round, Paul interjects "Are you threatening to overrule him?!" + An episode where the guests included Pointless's Richard Osman and Only Connect's Victoria Coren Mitchell had a round titled "Pointlessly Connect". + In Series 55, a episode hosted by Lee Mack had a bonus round titled "Would He Lie to Us?" (it was about a politician, and the answer to that question was "yes"). + When retired England and Manchester United player Gary Neville hosted, the episode featured 'the penalty shoot-out of news'. * Haven: + In "Last Goodbyes", Nolan North plays an archeologist who helps Emily Rose's character solve a supernatural mystery, similar to their roles on Uncharted. + In "William", Edge's character takes down a thug with his Finishing Move, The Spear. * The Hawaii Five-0 episode "The Truth Within" has Jorge Garcia appear as a conspiracy theorist. He has a chat with Daniel Dae Kim's character where they reminisce about a past camping trip, which the two of them liken to being "stuck on a deserted island". * In a late season 2 episode of the Hawaii Five-0 remake, Max (Masi Oka) confronts a serial killer he's been hoping to help put away for some time. He does exactly the same thing — except in a more improvisational way — that Oka's character Hiro Nakamura did to Sylar, his serial killer nemesis, in the season 1 finale of Heroes. * Fans called Ryan The O.C.'s Hercules. So who should play his father? Kevin Sorbo. + Oh, that's nothing. There were two episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys showing that Hercules was still alive in the present day under the secret identity of... Kevin Sorbo. + He's only doing that so he can be in television, and so close enough to keep an eye on Ares (revealed in an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess to be alive and working as a TV producer...who gets the idea for Xena pitched to him). * In one episode of Herman's Head, Louise angrily snaps "I do not!" into the phone, slams the receiver back into the cradle, and then asks, "Herman, I don't sound like Lisa Simpson, do I?" Louise, of course, was played by Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson. Conversely, a Simpsons episode has Lisa chuckling. When Marge asks her why she is laughing, Lisa replies "Oh, just remembering a joke I saw on Herman's Head." * In Heroes, one of Claude's very first lines is the exclamation "Fantastic!" Folks watching on the Scifi Channel have heard this before: it was the actor's catchphrase during his short tenure as the Doctor on Doctor Who. + It's worth noting the significance of the name he gave. Claude Rains was The Invisible Man in the movie of that name. + Also in Heroes - although the show is already rife with Star Trek references, several are centered around the character of Kaito Nakamura, portrayed by George Takei. Of special note - the license plate of his limo reads NCC-1701. Somehow his son Hiro, a huge Star Trek fan, doesn't notice that his dad is Sulu. + More obtusely, the People Puppets man assumes Claire's Playing with Fire bio-mom is "the fun aunt" of the family — a role Jessalyn Gilsig had filled the previous year on Friday Night Lights. * Hi-de-Hi!: + Ted makes a comment about auditioning for Coronation Street in "Hey Diddle Diddle". In reality, Paul Shane had been chosen to play Ted after Jimmy Perry saw him playing Frank Roper in a 1979 episode. + Throughout "On with the Motley", Peggy hopes to appear on Opportunity Knocks, while Su Pollard actually had been featured in a 1974 episode. + In "Empty Saddles", Gladys, growing jealous of Betty and Jeff's shared fondness for Gustav Mahler, tells Jeff she has a record of the Black and White Minstrels if he's interested. Ruth Madoc was herself a performer on The Black and White Minstrel Show. * Highlander: + In the episode "Freefall", the immortal villain of the week is played by Joan Jett. Her opening/introductory scene quite prominently features a large portion of Cherry Bomb as the background music. + Geraint Wyn Davies guest starred in one ep. The character he played had a girlfriend named Jeanette, an allusion to his character's girlfriend on his series, Forever Knight, which aired at the same time Highlander was. * In a 2019 episode of Hollyoaks, it's revealed that Sienna, who hates Nancy and has tried to kill her, is a big fan of The Muppet Christmas Carol, but finds the Ghost of Christmas Past "creepy". The Ghost's voice was performed by Jessica Fox, who also plays Nancy. * In a Halloween Episode of Home Improvement, a pair of trick-or-treaters are dressed as Buzz Lightyear and Simba, respectively alluding to Tim Allen and Jonathan Taylor Thomas being in the show's main cast. Randy, played by Thomas, is the one who opens the door, and pointedly gives more candy to the kid in "the cute lion costume." * Homeland: + Saul is a horrendous typist. That could be Mandy Patinkin's fault or it could be an allusion to a similar scene in Dead Like Me. + In the Season 3 episode "The Yoga Play", the agent who has been listening in on Dana and Leo's conversations tells Carrie that it's just "Romeo and Juliet". Carrie replies "you do know how Romeo and Juliet ends, do you?" Of course, Claire Danes does know how it ends. * Homicide: Life on the Street: + In "Heartbeat", Dr Dyer tells Dr Cox she's done dating homicide detectives after her break-up with Munch, and is now seeing a stand-up comic. She is played by Harlee McBride, Richard Belzer's wife. + A possible subtle one. When Pembleton is interrogating Gordon Pratt he mentions Jim Thompson and The Getaway. Talking about the film and its remake, Munch concludes that the remake wasn't worth remembering. The remake starred Alec Baldwin, brother of Daniel Baldwin who played Beau Felton. * Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: + In the episode, "Honey, You Drained My Brain", Wayne invents the Szalinski Ant-ellectual Farm, a device that boosts the brain power of ants. In it, they sculpt what looks like his face. Amy says that it looks more like Rick Moranis, who originally portrayed Wayne in the movies. + One season later in "Honey, I'm the Sorcerer's Apprentice", the Quintessence Stone has a face that is said to look like that of Tom Hanks, pre-Forrest Gump, in Bosom Buddies. Mr. Jennings thinks it looks like the other actor (besides Tom Hanks). That actor was, of course, Peter Scolari, who portrays Wayne in the show. Nick, on the other hand, thinks it looks like the guy from Newhart. * House: + An episode featured singer Meat Loaf playing a character named "Eddie". "Eddie" was also the name of the character Meat Loaf played in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. + Then there's the wonderful moment in another episode that has star Hugh Laurie, on a phone call, using an English accent...not his real one, but the "Upper-Class Twit" one he used on Blackadder and A Bit of Fry and Laurie. - Later, House appeared at an "80s party" dressed in a similar period costume to the sort he wore in Blackadder. The in-show rationale was that he got the wrong 80s (they didn't specify which century), while the audience's immediate reaction was "that's what Hugh Laurie was wearing in the 80s". + There's also the episode where we catch a glimpse of a videotape labeled "Blackadder" on a bookshelf in House's apartment. + During the new team's introduction, House wrote each of their names on his whiteboard, spelling Kutner as Kumar, a reference to Kal Penn's best-known role at the time. + There was a Patient of the Week played by Erin Cahill named Jennie, Her Power Rangers Time Force character? Jen, the Pink Ranger. + Once Amber Tamblyn was cast it was just a matter of time; in the episode "Fall From Grace" (7x17) Chris Marquette, who played Adam on Joan of Arcadia, plays the Patient of the Week. Near the end of the episode, he confesses to Tamblyn's character that he's a bad guy, and seeks God's forgiveness, which she promises him he has. It was quite a touching moment. + This might be going out on a limb, but when Ron Livingston appeared as a doctor in Africa, he hands out candy from his "friend in Hershey, Pennsylvania." On Band of Brothers, his character's best friend was from Hershey, Pennsylvania. * House of the Dragon: Kieran Bew plays Hugh Hammer, a supposed Targaryen bastard and a dragon rider. This is not the first time he plays a dragon rider as he had previously voiced Prince Imrik of Caledor (another dragon rider) in Total War: Warhammer II. * In an episode of How to Get a Divorce for the Whole Family, Midori (Kotono Mitsuishi) sings a karaoke version of "Maiden's Policy," the ending song of Sailor Moon R. She's best known for voicing the title character in both the original Sailor Moon and the reboot. * Hustle: + In one episode, Jodie Prenger plays a friend of the gang who winds up in hospital after using a dodgy diet product sold by that episode's marks. Before her acting career took off, Prenger won the UK version of The Biggest Loser and subsequently worked as a writer on diet issues. + At the end of the final episode Danny proposes that now there are seven of them, they should form a new gang called "the Magnificent Seven". Albert (Robert Vaughn) thinks it's "a hell of an idea", and there's a quick burst of the theme from The Magnificent Seven. * iCarly: + It is revealed that Carly (played by Miranda Cosgrove) has never pulled a practical joke. After being pressured by Sam and Freddie, she unsuccessfully attempts to prank Gibby. Later in the show, she's shown watching TV, and you can hear the scene of the Drake & Josh episode "Megan's Revenge" when Megan (who is well-known for her pranking), also played by Miranda Cosgrove, causes an explosion that makes the floor under Drake and Josh collapse. Carly sighs, saying "How come that little girl is so good at pranking?" + In the same episode, Spencer (played by Jerry Trainor) is watching the scene of the Drake & Josh episode "The Storm" where Crazy Steve (also played by Jerry Trainor) is yelling at the TV while watching Dora the Explorer. Lampshaded by Carly after she turns off the TV: > Spencer: Hey, why'd you turn that off? > Carly: I'm turning you off! + Tim Russ, who was Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager, plays Principal Franklin. In "iOMG" he says the line "Study hard and prosper". + One of the shows Carly is flipping past when watching TV in the bathtub in "iToeFatCakes" is Drake & Josh (with her in it as Megan, of course). She's seen that episode already. * The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret has Todd seemingly yelling at someone over the phone. Will Arnett's character notices him, and Todd shouts something about a "banana stand!" Both David Cross, who plays Todd Margaret, and Will Arnett played main characters in Arrested Development, which had a banana stand at which two of the characters worked. * Interview with the Vampire (2022): This isn't the first time Sam Reid's character has fallen in love with a biracial beauty who has a rich family and struggles with racism. In Belle (2013), the long-haired and handsome John Davinier (Davinier is a French surname, although the character is English) has strong romantic feelings for Dido Lindsay, who is half-English, half-Afro-Caribbean (which happens to be Jacob Anderson's exact heritage!). There's a scene where John is visibly jealous when he notices from a distance that a suitor is flirting with Dido, which is reminiscent of a jealous Lestat de Lioncourt watching Louis de Pointe du Lac socialize with his Old Flame Jonah Macon at the Azalea. John tells Dido that she's beautiful, just like Lestat does with Louis. John asking Dido to be his wife parallels Lestat's proposal that Louis become his companion for eternity, and both couples seal their Relationship Upgrade with a soul-stirring kiss. * In Spanish TV series Isabel, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, played by Sergio Peris Mencheta, meets Cardinal Cesar Borgia as the Pope wishes to ask for his help in freeing the port of Ostia. Sergio Peris Mencheta played Cesar Borgia in the Spanish film Los Borgia. * In It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Frank, in an effort to become well again in a short period of time, takes an unsafe amount of prescription drugs and is institutionalized after wandering the streets of Philadelphia. While in the mental ward, a series of events plays out very similarly to those of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in which Danny DeVito played the minor role of Martini. Most notable similarities include a nurse garbed much like Nurse Ratched, and a deaf, dumb and blind Indian, whom Frank tries to convince to throw a drinking fountain through a window. * In an episode of iZombie, Lowell refers to Liv's zombified appearance as an "ethereal Tinkerbell look." Before she took the lead in iZombie, Rose McIver played Tinkerbell in Once Upon a Time (2011). * Janda Kembang: + In episode 8, Sri is asked to imitate Si Manis' creepy laugh from Si Manis Jembatan Ancol movie, which she naturally can do since both are played by Diah Permatasari. + In episode 10, Eko comments that the RT leader, Rais and Robert look like comedy group Patrio, referencing the RT leader's actor being part of that group. (Coincidentally, one of Patrio's members is also named Eko) + After getting scared of facial-mask-wearing Sri, Rais compares Sri to "Si Manis Jembatan Ambrol" in episode 18. * One episode of Jessie has Jessie going to the Tipton Hotel from The Suite Life of Zack & Cody to find Emma there. After the two go home, Mr. Moseby calls Cody on the phone to tell him that Jessie looks just like Bailey, a reference to both of them being played by Debby Ryan. * Just Shoot Me! character Jack Gallo discovered he had a black son in one episode. This is the plot of the George Segal movie Carbon Copy. * Judging Amy had an episode where Maxine Gray (Tyne Daly) receives a visit from an old friend, Dr. Sally Goodwin (Sharon Gless), sent to investigate her. Daly and Gless starred together as partners in the police drama Cagney & Lacey. * In K.C. Undercover's "Spy-Anoia Will Destroy Ya", when K.C. tells Ernie's gorgeous girlfriend Jolie that she has to get some fresh juice \|\|as part of her cover to sneak out and follow Jolie, who she realizes is a Russian spy\|\|, Jolie - played by Bella Thorne - replies "Well, I guess it never hurts to Shake It Up." (The episode also has K.C. say "I know it seems a little rocky" - Zendaya used to play a character called Rocky.) * L.A. Law: + One episode featured a character who dressed up in a Homer Simpson suit, who spoke in Homer's voice when he had the Homer headpiece on. He was played by Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer. + In another episode, the lawyer played by A Martinez was asked where he'd been living the previous few months. He says "Santa Barbara" — not a surprise when you know that's the title of the soap opera Martinez had once appeared on. * On the Grand Finale episode of The Larry Sanders Show, Sean Penn mentions the cast of a movie he just finished, which includes Garry Shandling. (He then goes on to whisper to Larry how Garry was the worst actor on the set.) * L.A.'s Finest: While pretending he's an exterminator once, Joseph (Ernie Hudson) quips "Who you gonna call?" referencing his famous role in Ghostbusters. * In the last season of Las Vegas, Tom Selleck plays the billionaire new owner of the casino. One episode includes an annual poker game with his billionaire friends, who are played by Roger E. Mosley and Larry Mannetti, his co-stars from Magnum, P.I. Both were said to have made their fortunes in the same fields as their Magnum characters. Also, a reference was made to a British billionaire who couldn't make it that year, a reference to John Hillerman's character, Higgins. * Last of the Summer Wine: + Yvette Fielding — best known for presenting Blue Peter — guest-starred in the Christmas Episode, "Crums", as Fran, who wears a Blue Peter badge. + Bill Owen requested that Compo sing "Lulu's Back in Town" in "The Man Who Nearly Knew Pavarotti", as it was the song he had sung as a song and dance man at the start of his career. + When Lois Laurel, daughter of Stan Laurel, cameoed in "Bicycle Bonanza", Laurel and Hardy's signature tune plays over the shot. + "The Crowcroft Challange" has a scene of Alvin in the library with a visible poster for Linda Regan's novel, Behind You!. In Real Life, Regan was married to Brian Murphy, who played Alvin. * A Law & Order one that may have been accidental: Briscoe and Greene were working a case and made some joke about cowboys and westerns. Briscoe remarked that he'd barely made it through the novel Shane. Years before L&O came out, Orbach had voiced the hero character in an obscure Space Western. "Shane" was the name of the show's Lancer. (Yes, the Lancer's name was a Shout-Out to the book) * In the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Cruise to Nowhere", Detective Goren, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, tells Joey Frost, played by Lou Taylor Pucci, not to bite his nails. In the movie Thumbsucker, D'Onofrio plays a man who tries to get his son not to suck his thumbs. The son is played by - you guessed it - Lou Taylor Pucci. * In an early episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a guest character tells Fin (Ice-T) that "You look like a pimp. All you need is a feathered hat and a crushed-velvet suit." Before beginning his regular role on SVU, Ice-T had appeared in the Law & Order Made-for-TV Movie Exile as a pimp, wearing pretty much that exact outfit. + Another, possibly unintentional one occurs in a later SVU episode with guest star Lou Diamond Phillips, who portrays a psychopathic killer who meets his demise at the hands of a police sniper. At the time the episode aired, Phillips had a recurring role on another cop show as a police sniper. + Mike Dodds, the unit's sergeant for most of Season 17, has a background in boxing. Dodds was played by Andy Karl, who had previously played the lead in Rocky The Musical. * The first episode of Law & Order: UK, starring Freema Agyeman (and written by Doctor Who writer Chris Chibnall), has a scene set in London's Royal Hope Hospital. * One episode of Seinfeld had an upstart comedienne (who Jerry insulted in a previous episode) perform a shtick about comparing Jerry to Satan that becomes a big hit. She was played by Kathy Griffin, who is primarily known for her insult humor. * Legends of Tomorrow: + In "Fail-Safe", Len Snart (Wentworth Miller) takes part in a plot to rescue Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell) from a Russian gulag. "This isn't my first prison break," he says. True; the first time Miller sprung Purcell was the series Prison Break. + In "Invasion!", Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) comments that Supergirl resembles his cousin. Routh played Superman in Superman Returns. + In "Freakshow", upon discussing going to 1912, to the Titanic, Professor Stein (Victor Garber) gives an abject refusal. Garber played Thomas Andrews in the 1997 movie. + In "Tagumo Attacks!!!" Hank Henshaw Jr (Tom Wilson) correctly uses the phrase "Make like a tree and leave". Nate somehow thinks he got it wrong. Wilson played Biff in Back to the Future, who had the line "Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here?" * Leverage: + Nate Ford's (played by Timothy Hutton) dad is named Jim, which is also Timothy Hutton's father's name. + In The Ten Li'l Grifters Job, wherein all the characters have to dress up as various detectives to infiltrate a costume party, Nate dresses as Ellery Queen. Tim Hutton's father played Queen on the TV show. + The Last Dam Job features hacker Chaos, played by Wil Wheaton, demanding that Parker dress up as Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica (2003). When Hardison reacts badly, Chaos says he'll settle for Sophie as Counselor Troi. + The season 2 finale has Richard Kind as the mayor of Belbridge, Massachusetts. His longest-running role? Press secretary to a New York mayor. * In the pilot episode of Lie to Me, Tim Roth's character carries a Briefcase Full of Money that looks remarkably like the mysterious briefcase from Pulp Fiction. * Liv and Maddie: "Grandma-a-Rooney" guest-starred Patty Duke as the titular twins' grandmother Janice and her own twin sister Hillary, as a nod to her own sitcom The Patty Duke Show, which was also about teenaged Polar Opposite Twins. Heartbreakingly, this was Patty's final role before she passed away in 2016. * In one episode of Lizzie McGuire, a kung-fu master is invited by Sam McGuire to teach his son, Matt, the ways of the grasshopper. The master is David Carradine, of Kung Fu (1972) fame. When the master leaves, Sam is asked how he knew the master, responding, "Him? He's like a brother to me." Sam is portrayed by Robert Carradine, Dave's real-life (half-)brother. * Lois & Clark: + In one episode Sonny Bono appeared in the teaser as the mayor of Metropolis, holding a press conference. His dialogue consisted largely of references to old Sonny & Cher hit singles. He was also mayor of Palm Springs from 1988 to 1992. + In another episode Jimmy remarks how much Clark and Superman look alike. Perry White counters with "People say I look like Richard Nixon but I've never been to the White House". Lane Smith (who plays Perry) played Richard Nixon in the tv movie "The Final Days". * The nameless Dark Wizard appearing in season two of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power resides on the outskirts of civilisation and he commands undead slaves who have an insect motif, not unlike Steppenwolf, also played by Ciarán Hinds. * One episode of Lost had one character refer to Dominic Monaghan's character as a "Munchkin", possibly in reference to his previous role as Merry in The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy. + And while being kidnapped, Charlie covertly drops his finger tape behind as a trail, prompting a few comments that he'd been paying attention to Pippin when he dropped an elf broach on the trail he and Merry were being taken down. + Also, "Trees? Yeah, I've heard they're wonderful conversationalists." * In an episode of The Lucy Show, veteran character actor William Frawley makes his final TV appearance. After his scene, Lucy says, "He reminds me of someone I once knew," referring to his role as Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy. * In an episode of Mad About You, Richard Kind says to Paul Reiser, "I feel like there's something in my chest, bursting to get out... did you ever see that movie, Illegal Alien [sic]?" Reiser is quick to reply, "Just the first one." Paul Reiser starred in Aliens as the Corrupt Corporate Executive who gets attacked by an alien. * Bert Cooper on Mad Men is played by Robert Morse, most famous for originating the lead role in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, another production about businessmen in the 60s. * MADtv (1995) featured a sketch called "Gump Fiction", a somewhat predictable pastiche of Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction. When rattling off the cast list, it included series regular Phil LaMarr, who cowered on hearing his name and shouted: "Oh no, not again!" In Pulp Fiction, Phil LaMarr played Marvin, a minor character who was accidentally shot in the face. * Magnum, P.I.: One episode was an hour-long Affectionate Parody of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Tom Selleck had to turn down the role of Indiana Jones because of his commitment to do Magnum. * The Marlow Murder Club is a gang of interfering old women busybodies who wander round crime scenes solving "cozy" murders. In the pilot episode, one of them introduces herself like this: "The name's Potts. Judith Potts". She is played by Samantha Bond, who was Miss Moneypenny, the secretary in the James Bond films many years ago. * Medici: Once again, Richard Madden finds himself pledged to marry a daughter of David Bradley's character, except this time the marriage actually goes through and doesn't end in a bloodbath. * In Melissa & Joey the main characters enter a local version of Dancing with the Stars which both of the actors appeared on at different times. * Miami Vice: Sonny Crockett's pet alligator is named Elvis. Don Johnson had played Elvis Presley a few years earlier in the made-for-TV movie Elvis and the Beauty Queen. * In The Middle episode "Life Skills", Brick's school therapist, played by Dave Foley, asks if Brick has seen The Kids in the Hall. * Midsomer Murders: The murder in "Secrets and Spies" takes place during a cricket match. One of the competitors in said match is Peter Davison, formerly the cricket-loving Fifth Doctor. He also conspicuously bites a stick of celery, which the Doctor wore in his lapel. * In an episode of mixed•ish, Paul (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) told a teacher at his childrens' school she was Saved by the Bell. * In Monarch of the Glen, Donald Macdonald makes his first entry wearing a long floppy scarf. In a later episode, he's driving a go-cart with the number "4" while wearing a vivid blue jumpsuit... * From Monday Mornings: Ioan Gruffudd is fondly remembered for portraying sailor Horatio Hornblower from Hornblower miniseries. He guest-starred in the episode "Truth or Consequences" as Dr. Delany. When Dr. Hooten fries him on the stage of dishonour during their "screw-up meeting", he refers to him several times as "the Captain of his ship". * Monk: + The title character (played by Tony Shalhoub) meets Tim Daly, who co-starred with Shalhoub in Wings. His assistant Sharona recognizes him and points him out to Monk, who replies, "I never saw that show. Was it good?" Sharona answers, "Well, he was." + Another episode features Stanley Tucci; he and Shaloub played the protagonist brothers in Big Night. They end up fighting each other and rolling around on the floor, just like in the film. It's a shame they couldn't get Tucci in a scene with Dr. Kroger, played by Stanley Kamel, for a Murder One reunion. * In the first season Monkees episode, "The Monkees at the Circus", Micky Dolenz incessantly sings a song from "some old TV show" as the group gets acquainted with the big top. The song is the theme tune from Circus Boy, which he starred in as a child actor. * In Michael Palin's travelogues, he sometimes makes nods to his Monty Python career, for instance singing "The Finland Song" when entering that country, or telling a parrot "I was in a sketch with you once." * When John Cleese appeared on The Muppet Show his first sketch involved him boarding a space ship as a pirate (But not a Space Pirate), with a Hook Hand and a Pirate Parrot. He got into an argument with it and threatened "You want to be an ex-parrot!?" The same skit has the captain disputing that he's a space pirate because the entire idea is just silly. Cleese snaps back, "What else would I be, a management consultant?" which is either a riff on Fawlty Towers where he played an inept hotel manager or a reference to his company Video Arts that made company training videos. * Murder, She Wrote: + The episode "Murder In A Minor Key" has Shaun Cassidy playing a young college student who turns Amateur Sleuth to solve a murder, a callback to Shaun's biggest role of Joe Hardy in The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. + The very first episode starts with Jessica Fletcher watching the rehearsal of a murder mystery play and calmly pointing out who did it by the end of the first act. Angela Lansbury did much the same thing at the beginning of The Mirror Crack'd, in the role of Miss Marple. * According to That Other Wiki, an ep of My Name Is Earl has Crabman passing out office supplies from a shopping cart. Prior to playing Crabman, Eddie Steeples had done this in a commercial for OfficeMax. * This happened often on The Nanny: Toward the end of Sunday in the Park with Fran, Fran asks about a repairman "Who You Gonna Call?", to which a repairman played by Dan Aykroyd walks in, introducing himself as "Frost Busters!". What's better, the scene continues in the style of a 1978 Nerds sketch on SNL. * One great example is the Nash Bridges episode "Wild Card", where Cheech Marin is reunited with his former Cheech & Chong partner, Tommy Chong, while Don Johnson is reunited with his former Miami Vice partner, Philip Michael Thomas. In the episode, there are several references made to the former works. Tommy Chong's character is even named Barry Chen, a play on his real name with a reference to his half-Asian parentage. > Barry Chen: I can probably get him to set you up. > Joe Dominguez: Actually, I stopped smoking pot years ago. > Barry Chen: Oh no? What's your drug of choice now, man? > Joe Dominguez: Uh, Rogaine. > Barry Chen: Rogaine? What's that? Do you snort it? * Nashville: + As one Television Without Pity poster stated re Juliette Barnes, "first there was the older man thing and then the football player thing. It almost feels like they're copying (Hayden Panettiere)'s real-life love life." No prizes for guessing who she plays on the show. + In season two's "Don't Open That Door," Juliette is signed to a deal with Neutrogena, something the actress who plays her has had plenty of experience with. \|\|And "She's Got You" has Juliette discover that the wife of the man she's sleeping with is hot for her. Miss Panettiere's had some experience with that as well.\|\| * NCIS: + In one episode Kate curiously asks what Ducky (played by David McCallum) looked like when he was younger. Gibbs replies "Illya Kuryakin", which isn't surprising, as McCallum played that role on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. forty years prior. + Tony comments on the difficulty of something by saying he had a better chance of sleeping with Jessica Alba. Michael Weatherly, the actor who plays Tony, was at some time engaged to Jessica Alba. Furthermore, both he and Jessica Alba's characters from Dark Angel Can't Have Sex, Ever. + Also, in the show's second episode Kate tells Abby that she wanted to be a lawyer, but made it through a year of law school and dropped out. Sasha Alexander had guest-starred on CSI as a district attorney two years before. + There was another reference to Dark Angel in the 10th episode of Season 5. About halfway through the episode, Tony and Gibbs go to interview a woman named Karen Sutherland. During the course of the interview, Sutherland mentions that her company makes exoskeletons. Weatherly character on Dark Angel used an exoskeleton in Season 2 in order to walk. + Tony and Delilah discuss characters in wheelchairs in series 11: Delilah mentions Logan Cale, Weatherly's character in Dark Angel. + Subverted on an episode where Tony said that the victim of the week reminded him of the guy from the movie DOA, he was played by Matthew Marsden who also played Christie's boyfriend in DOA: Dead or Alive. However, Tony was referring to the 1950 Edmond O'Brien classic which had a similar plot to that episode, the opening dialogue where a man reports his own murder was even taken from that film. * In a Season 6 episode of NCIS: Los Angeles, Deeks while sparring with Kensi claims that she's a terrible dancer. Daniela Ruah won the first season of Portugal's version of Strictly Come Dancing. * In an episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine, Christine yells 'Get Out!!' and shoves Barb's chest. This is an allusion to Julia Louis-Dreyfus' most famous character, Elaine from Seinfeld. * In the finale of Newhart , Vermont innkeeper Dick Loudon (Newhart) gets conked in the head with a golf ball and blacks out, then wakes up in bed as Chicago psychologist Bob Hartley (Newhart's character from his first sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show), turns to awaken his wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette, also from the earlier show), and explains that he had been dreaming he was the owner of a hotel. + An earlier episode had Dick visiting a psychiatrist running into a character who acted as he recognized him from somewhere. The character was played by Jack Riley, who had been Mr. Carlin on the earlier show. (After Dick mentions this to the psychiatrist, he's told that the man in question was deeply unbalanced and had never recovered from the damage that had been done to him by "some quack in Chicago".) + Another episode had Dick watching television, with the theme music from The Bob Newhart Show heard coming from the set. + Still another episode had the Loudons getting a new next-door neighbor, played by Bill Daily (who'd been the Hartleys neighbor Howard Borden in the earlier show). + Yet another episode had Dick talking with Michael about old TV shows, and in particular the old Saturday night lineup on CBS (All in the Family, M\A\S\H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show). Michael: "Yeah, and what was that one with the shrink who stuttered?" Dick: "He didn't stutter, Michael, he...he...he stammered." NewsRadio: + One episode involved the delivery of a Stargate Defender arcade machine to the radio station. The delivery guy is played by Eugene Jarvis, the guy who co-created the game with Larry DeMar back in 1981. + Another episode had Matthew becoming obsessed with the Dilbert comic strip until another character hires an actor to pretend to be Dilbert creator Scott Adams. The real Scott Adams has a one-line cameo. * Night Court (2023): Season 2, Episode 6, "Wrath of Comic-Con" Dan Fielding (played by John Larroquette, who also appeared in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock as a Klingon named Maltz) is disguised as a Klingon (It Makes Sense in Context), gives his name as Maltz, expects to be killed (as Maltz expected Kirk to kill him), and eventually screams "CONNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!" (echoing Kirk's "KHANNNNNN!!!!!!" in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) A veritable double-helping of Actor Allusion Stew, with the Kirk reference for seasoning. + Abbi is played by Melissa Rauch, and several of her The Big Bang Theory co-stars have appeared in the show, referencing her role as Bernardette in that show. - In "A Crime of Fashion" Abbi has a passionate fling with a fashion designer named Martini, who is played by Kunal Nayyar. In The Big Bang Theory, Nayyar's character Raj had an obsessive and unrequited crush on Bernardette. Lampshaded when they first meet and the instantly smitten Abbi asks Martini if they've met before. - In "Mayim Worst Enemy", Mayim Bialik appears As Herself and she and Abbi quickly become friends. Among other activities, one of the things they do is attending a MENSA meeting where Abbi says that she wore Nerd Glasses like Bernardette. When Mayim mentions that she was in The Big Bang Theory, Abbi says that the only thing she remembers from that show is "the girl with the high voice". - In the season three finale "A Decent Proposal", Simon Helberg, who played Bernadette's husband Howard in TBBT, appears as Abbi's estranged husband. * In the short-lived series, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, Garry Chalk plays a character named Silvermane, who is a villainous gangster Ape. Gary Chalk also voiced Optimus Primal in Beast Wars, the heroic leader of the Maximals and who transformed into a Gorilla. * Oddboys has Vice Principal Kira Tatsunojo, a.k.a. Kiratatsu, who claims to hate musicals, and is out to destroy the main characters' musical club. Of course, it turns out that he really loves musicals — or used to love them, until he was traumatized when he \|\|forgot his line during an important scene\|\| back when he was a member of that same musical club as a student. When his close friend and rival from his student days, Kamoshida, comes back and they talk about their time as musical-loving students together, they talk about the musicals they went to see back then — Jersey Boys, Frankenstein (2014), and Mozart!, all of which Kiratatsu's actor, Akinori Nakagawa, has starred in. His performances as Frankie Valli and Wolfgang won him some prestigious awards, and Frankenstein was the first of many shows that he's done with Kamoshida's actor, Kazuki Katō. * Oh, Doctor Beeching! has two to other sitcoms also written by David Croft which had many of the same cast members: + In "Pregnant Pause", Parkin finds Arnold and Ralph in a scuffle in the buffet and says he is trying to run an efficient station, not a holiday camp. Hi-de-Hi!, which also starred Paul Shane, Jeffrey Holland, and Su Pollard, was set in a holiday camp. + Pollard plays Ethel Schumann in Beeching!; Ethel was also the name Lady Lavender kept calling her character in You Rang, M'Lord?. * On the Buses: In "The Kids' Outing", Stan puts on a show for the kids, Crossdressing as Camilla, Queen of the Clippies. Reg Varney had previously starred as a drag artist in The Best Pair of Legs in the Business, a 1968 installment of ITV Playhouse. Varney later leave On the Buses to return to the role for The Film of the Play in 1973. * Once Upon a Time (2011): + Jiminy Cricket calms Henry down by telling him "giving into one's dark side never solves anything." Raphael Sbarge used to play the self-appointed conscience of an amnesiac Sith Lord. + Fans have speculated that Regina suffering Electric Torture at the hands of Greg and Tamara towards the end of Season 2 was a grim pun on the name of her actor Lana Parilla - "parilla" (Spanish for "barbecue") was a slang term for Electric Torture in various South American countries that had repressive regimes during the 1970s. + In the Season 4 episode "Breaking Glass", Snow White is worried that Belle won't be able to reach her and Charming while she (Belle) is babysitting their child. Charming grabs a walkie-talkie to give to Belle and assures Snow that it will allow Belle to reach them "even if we fall through a portal to Asgard." Josh Dallas, who plays Charming, played Asgardian Fandral the Dashing in Thor. * Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: + The show isn't the first time Keith David has voiced a magical cat. + Peter Gadiot says he actually played a genie before in a pantomime of Aladdin. * Only Fools and Horses: In a Comic Relief episode Rodney says how stupid the idea of walking through a portal to the 1940s would be after Uncle Albert starts talking about World War II followed by Raquel saying she's going to bed only for Del to reply "Goodnight Sweetheart." followed by a shocked look from Rodney. Del goes on to say that he is not a chief inspector. + This was also done the other way around—in Goodnight Sweetheart Gary (played by Nicholas Lyndhurst) is about to lean back and fall through an open bar door like Del Boy famously did, but notices in time and gives an Aside Glance wink to the audience—accompanied by uproarious laughter that must seem inexplicable and random to anyone unfamiliar with the Only Fools scene in question. * An early episode of Orange Is the New Black has Piper's fiance Larry, played by Jason Biggs, angrily ask Piper why she never told him about her smuggling, when he was open about incidents in his past such as the "webcam horror, and the penis-shaving incident". * The Outer Limits (1995) + In the episode "Gettysburg", Col. Angus Devine is the character who is played by none other than Meat Loaf. + In the episode "Music of the Spheres" Dr. Taylor (Howard Hessman) stated, "You should have heard what we had in the Sixties. THAT was music." + In "The Joining", there is mention of a supply ship called the Highlander. One of the guest stars in that episode was Highlander star Jim Byrnes. + In "Monster", Clash of the Titans (1981) star Harry Hamlin's character Ford Maddox is a spy whose codename is Charon, a reference to the ferryman of Hades in Greek Classical Mythology. + In "Better Luck Next Time", Megan Gallagher plays Detective Terry Russo. She previously played Officer Tina Russo in Hill Street Blues. + In "Lion's Den", Brae refers to his friend Morris Shotwell as "Flash" when he beats the track and field star Brent Kearns in a race. Morris' father Peter is played by John Wesley Shipp, who previously played the title character in The Flash (1990). + In "The Human Factor", Commander Ellis Ward says that holograms give him a headache. Ward is played by Robert Duncan McNeill, whose Star Trek: Voyager character Lt. Tom Paris initially had a difficult relationship with the Doctor, the ship's Emergency Medical Hologram. * In an episode of Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Jerry is trying to sell an Enterprise replica at a swap meet to a skeptical buyer, who questions the authenticity of some of the parts. That buyer is Michael Dorn, who played Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation. * In an early episode of Picket Fences Judge Bone (played by Ray Walston) is seen at a Halloween party dressed as Uncle Martin from My Favorite Martian. * In Poirot, the adaptation of Five Little Pigs has Toby Stephens and Rachael Stirling play two characters between whom there is some long-standing animosity \|\|and desire for the same man.\|\| Their mothers, Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg, had squared off as Daphne Castle and Arlena Marshall in the 1982 film of Poirot story Evil Under the Sun, in which both women were ultimately rivals for the affections of Kenneth Marshall. * In the Popular arc focused on Harrison's struggle against leukemia, he meets a fellow patient named Clarence who dies but then returns when Harrison is about to commit suicide claiming to have become his guardian angel then takes him on (of course) a Wonderful Life journey. Clarence was played by Mike Damus, who earlier in his career was the star of Teen Angel, a series about a guy who dies and becomes his best friend's guardian angel. * In Power Rangers Mystic Force, the Mystic Mother is said to have been called Rita during the "Dark Times". Rita Repulsa and the Mystic Mother were both "played by" Machiko Soga's footage from their series' original Super Sentai source material, dubbed over in English. Machiko Soga died after filming her part in Magiranger, making the Power Rangers reference a tribute. PR fans aren't sure whether or not to take that literally (as cool as it would be for the former Big Bad to now be a Big Good, we last saw Rita played by a different actress, Carla Perez, with an onscreen explanation, and the Mystic Mother's VA sounded nothing like Rita.) * Season one of Prey, which starred Adam Storke and Vincent Ventresca, ended on a cliffhanger with Adam Storke's character captured and imprisoned. The series was then canceled and the cliffhanger was never resolved. Until that is when Vincent Ventresca was starring in a completely unrelated series years later called The Invisible Man. In the episode entitled "Exposed", Vincent's character (the eponymous invisible man) opened a locked door in a research facility and an unnamed prisoner played by Adam Storke who was inside the room thanked him and ran off (presumably to freedom). * In the fourth season premiere of Primeval, Abby plays the song "Don't Stop Moving" by S Club 7 to scare a dinosaur. Abby is played by Hannah Spearritt, famous for being in S Club 7. * QI: + At one point Stephen asks the panel, "Where would you find the world's biggest drip?" to the accompaniment of a picture of Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster. + Another episode features a question about Oscar Wilde. Much to Stephen's embarrassment, the picture is of himself as the title character in Wilde. * Radio Enfer: + In the Season 2 premiere, Maria asks Camille what did she see in Léo. After saying that he's cute (among other things), she adds that he looks like "the guy from 4 et demi" (which was a popular French-Canadian TV series at the time). Robin Aubert, Léo's actor, played a character in that series. + Jocelyne is played by Micheline Bernard. During an episode where a secret agent comes to school after mistaking Jean-David for being another secret agent, the agent accidentally keeps calling Jocelyne "Micheline". * Several appear on Raising Hope. + In one episode, Virginia (played by Martha Plimpton) laments the fate of child stars: "Child stars go downhill no matter how good they act. They could star in a Spielberg movie and still end up playin' the nutty mom on some sitcom." + In another, she describes neighbor Andrew (played by Ethan Suplee) as "a skinny version of the fat guy from Mallrats." + The entire plot of the season 3 episode "Making the Band" involves reuniting the cast of My Name Is Earl as their respective Hope characters. + The third season episode "Throw MawMaw From the House, Part 2", one of the nursing home staff comments about how crazy MawMaw is and the other agrees, saying that "Yesterday she claimed she won an Oscar and slept with Warren Beatty", both of which actually happened to Cloris Leachman. + While watching old home movie footage of MawMaw and PawPaw, Virginia remarks that MawMaw looks like that nosy neighbor from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. * In the The Random Years episode "Dangerous Liaisons", Alex Barnes (Will Friedle) dates a part-time stage magician. In My Date with the President's Daughter, Friedle played a teen whose hobby was magic tricks. * Reaper episode "Underbelly" has the Devil (played by Ray Wise) say, "Him and his perfect town. Just like a David Lynch movie." Ray Wise played Laura Palmer's father in Twin Peaks and its prequel movie. * Reba tossed in a nod or two to star Reba McEntire's other career as a Country Music superstar, the most famous being, in a discussion of how your dreams don't always come true, Reba Hart cracking, "I always wanted to be a professional singer." * In the Red Dwarf series Back to Earth, Rimmer (played by Chris Barrie) plans to get his own sitcom. + In Pete, Lister and Rimmer are accused by Captain Hollister (Mac McDonald) of using truth serum on a character, the result being that the character admitted having an affair with an officer's wife while dressed like Batman. Mac McDonald played a henchman in the 1989 Batman film. + Also in Back To Earth, Rimmer has suddenly acquired an interest in classic cars. As viewers of Chris Barrie's Massive Engines and Petrolheads will be aware, this is something he shares with Chris Barrie. + And then there's the Dwarfers meeting Craig Charles on the set of Coronation Street... * When Lars Bom appears in the second episode of the Danish Cop Show Rejseholdet (English title : Unit One) as the unit's new driver Johnny Olsen, the rest of the cast all seem to recognize him immediately ("Say, isn't that ...?" "Yes, it is."). Lars Bom had previously played the lead character in another popular Danish Cop Show Strisser på Samsø. (In universe, it is because Johnny Olsen is a well-known former football player.) * The Red Green Show: Edgar Montrose (Graham Greene) once mentioned watching Dances with Wolves and remarks that the "native guy" (also Graham Greene) should've won the Oscar. * In Ringer Bridget is played by Sarah Michelle Gellar and has a love of horror movies. She would have some experience with that. * John Malkovich plays the character of Reeves Minot in Ripley, an adaptation of the first book in Patricia Highsmith's Ripliad series. This series of books follows the criminal Tom Ripley, and Malkovich played Ripley himself in Ripley's Game (2002), based on the third book. Furthermore, Reeves Minot is also character in that film (played by Ray Winstone). * Rizzoli & Isles has Bruce McGill as Detective Vince Korsak, who at one point was asked where he went to college. He responded by saying that he never did, but that he had watched Animal House several times. McGill played Daniel Simpson Day (D-Day) in that movie. * The Rookie (2018): + Chen getting thrown in front of the American Idol judges in "The Overnight". Chen's actor Melissa O'Neil won the third season of Canadian Idol in 2005. + Nolan observes that after his father left, his mother initially lied and claimed that his father was a spy. In Fillon's previous famous role, his character's father really was a spy. * In an episode of Royal Pains, Paul Wight, known for being the WWE wrestler Big Show, cameos and entertains at a children's party as the character "The Trasher". The party hostess introduces him with the line "Okay, kids, are you ready for the big show?" * Sabrina the Teenage Witch: + In a later season, Sabrina works for Mike, played by George Wendt. When he enters a room he is sometimes greeted by everyone cheerfully shouting: "Mike!" exactly as they would greet his character Norm when he entered the bar in Cheers. + In Sabrina Goes to Rome, Sabrina's witch friend Gwen owns a mouse voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz. Sabrina's cat, Salem, is voiced by Nick Bakay. Both voice actors voiced Norbert and Daggett on The Angry Beavers. + In the episode "A Girl and her Cat", a little boy takes Salem in when he finds him on the street. The boy's dad is played by Joe O'Connor, who played the dad of Melissa Joan Hart's (Sabrina) other famous character Clarissa Darling. * Sadakatsiz: Cansu Dere has the lead role in another production involving a mother figure who is willing to veer into illicit acts and manipulate people in order to ensure her child's happiness and safety. As well as making sure said child stays with her. Coincidentally, the Turkish Drama Anne is also a Foreign Remake. This is given a subtle nod with the naming. In Anne, Dere's character is called Zeynep. In Sadakatsiz, Zeynep is the name of Asya's (Dere's character) not-quite stepdaughter—also, Asya and baby Zeynep are Mirror Characters. Furthermore, Dere's mother in Anne is called Gönül Aslan. In Sadakatsiz, Gönül is also an elderly mother who interacts a lot with Dere's character, just with an antagonistic dynamic. Moreover, Aslan is an alternative spelling of the surname Arslan. At the beginning of the series, Dere's character is Asya Arslan because she married a man with that surname. In Anne, the situation is inverted—Gönül Güneş neé Aslan divorced her husband when he cheated on her, so she returned to her maiden surname. * Sanctuary: The season 3 episode "Firewall" had a rather blatant example. In a somewhat frenzied state Will is under surveillance from Big Guy (played by Christopher Heyerdahl). After he pours a substance on him called "Twilight", Will asks him what he thinks of "those movies". The latter's response? That he liked Marcus, the very role he played in New Moon (and who was actually a very minor character in that film). * The Sandman (2022): Lucifer Morningstar (played by Gwendoline Christie) faces off against Dream in "The Oldest Game", with their first form being a dire wolf. Given Christie's star-making role as Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones, this hardly seems like a coincidence. * On Sanford and Son, Fred Sanford (played by Redd Foxx) once entered a Redd Foxx lookalike contest. * Saturday Night Live: + In one cold opening most of the cast are playing a group of Republican members of Congress who plan to hijack President Obama's health care speech by yelling "You lie!". They decide to rehearse it and one claims that they need someone to act as Obama. Rep. Eric Cantor, played by Fred Armisen, offers to do it, claiming that he does a good impression of the president. This is a reference to the fact that Armisen is the one who usually portrays Obama in sketches involving the president. + Another case is during the 2010 Anne Hathaway/Florence + the Machine episode, Anne, playing future Princess Kate Middleton alongside Prince William, meets the Queen of England and her assistant, who threaten and bully Kate while speaking in working-class accents. At one time, the Queen mentions, "This isn't The Princess Diaries." The Queen's assistant calls the movie "crap", and "Kate" says, "well it has its moments". + Another sketch had Sarah Palin (played by Tina Fey) and Hillary Clinton (played by Amy Poehler) make a joint announcement on sexism. At one point Clinton refers to Palin's "Tina Fey glasses". + This sketch has Pete Davidson play a firefighter, a career his father is well-known via his jokes for having died from on 9/11. * Scrubs: + One episode had JD trying to find out why the Janitor was simultaneously pretending to be three different people. Later on in the episode, he watches The Fugitive which Neil Flynn was in. Janitor even confirms that he is an actor at the end of the episode (granted, he is a compulsive liar). + A newer episode where Carla tries to trick the Janitor into forgetting something embarrassing references this incident. When the Janitor stops trusting his memory, he says, "Maybe I really wasn't in The Fugitive..." + And speaking of janitors played by Neil Flynn... (Word of God confirms this one, even claiming that this janitor's name is Glenn) - Neil Flynn also played the plumber/mechanic/etc. in the first three Ratchet & Clank games (and Secret Agent Clank). + "Alright, Dr. Cox...ridiculous name, by the way..." -Dr. Taylor Maddox, played by Courteney Cox. - In another episode Jordan (Christa Miller) refers to both herself and Dr. Maddox as cougars. + There was an incident in which Dr. Cox addressed Elliot as "Becky," Sarah Chalke's sometime character on Roseanne. + "My Mirror Image" featured three patients who were meant to provide a mirror, contrast, or both to the current situations of JD, Dr. Cox and the Janitor and were each played by the actor of the main character they mirrored. JD's patient was called Mrs. Zeebee, referencing Zach Braff's initials, the patient Janitor talked to was called Mr. O'Neil, referencing Neil Flynn, and Dr. Cox's patient was called Mr. Slydell, referencing John C. McGinley's character in Office Space. + In "My White Whale", Cox attempts to intimidate a puppet-collecting pediatrician, played by Chris Meloni, by sending him a puppet hand. Chris Meloni also had a recurring role on Oz in which his on-screen sometimes-boyfriend Tobias Beecher was targeted by the prison's white supremacists, who had an associate cut off his son's hand and mail it to him. + In "My Sacrificial Clam", St. Elsewhere stars William Daniels, Ed Begley, Jr., Stephen Furst and Eric Laneuville play four doctors who contracted Legionnaires' disease at a medical convention. * In The Secret Life of the American Teenager several allusions are made to roles played by Molly Ringwald in her youth, but possibly the most prominent is when she says, "Everyone forgot my 16th birthday and it stayed with me my whole life." in reference to her role in Sixteen Candles. * Sesame Street: + During an '80s PBS pledge drive featuring a crossover between Sesame Street and The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, news anchor Robert MacNeil covered an alleged cookie theft called Cookiegate. Over a decade earlier, MacNeil and his business partner and NewsHour co-anchor Jim Lehrer got their start covering the original Watergate scandal. + In the "Slimey to the Moon" story arc, the head WASA training officer was Lynne Thigpen, who voiced Luna on Bear in the Big Blue House, and also played the Chief on fellow PBS show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?. * In the last season of Sex and the City, Mikhail Baryshnikov played Carrie's boyfriend Alexandr Petrovsky. In his first episode, he has to run to catch the cab Carrie left her purse in, performing impressive ballet-like leaps and footwork. In the commentary, the series creator acknowledged that they couldn't not have at least one scene showing his dancing abilities. * In the Shadowhunters episode "The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy", Simon compares Jace to Mick Jagger. Dominic Sherwood, who plays Jace, had played Mick Jagger in Not Fade Away. * In the Sherlock episode "The Empty Hearse" one of John's patients is a Dirty Old Man with an Eastern European accent who owns a shop and tries to sell him some porn. Mark Gatiss who writes and stars in Sherlock (and wrote the episode in question) also wrote and starred in The League of Gentlemen which features an almost identical character called Pop. * The fourth episode of She Spies has a scene where the character played by Natasha Henstridge, star of Species, gets rid of kids by telling them "Hey, guys, Species is on cable!" * In a fourth season episode of Sister, Sister, the character Diavian reacts to Roger's claiming to know the lead singer of a hot R&B group by saying, "Yeah, and my sister is TV's Tootie". Diavian is played by Alexis Fields, whose sister is Kim Fields... aka Tootie from The Facts of Life. Oh, and Roger just happens to be played by Marques Houston, a member of the then-hot R&B group Immature... who just happens to drop by during that episode, because he is the lead singer of said R&B group that Roger claims to know. Naturally, an Identical Stranger plot ensues. * Skins had Anwar reciting a list of Hugh Grant films in order to stave off orgasm during sex: "I never get as far as About A Boy." About A Boy being a film in which Skins actor Nicholas Hoult played a leading role. * Corey Feldman makes a guest appearance on Sliders in which he exchanges a handshake with Jerry O'Connell that references their roles in Stand by Me. * Smallville: + Two different episodes have made references to The Dukes of Hazzard, a nod to John Schneider (who plays Jonathan Kent) having played Bo Duke. In the episode "Nicodemus," Jonathan Kent is listening to Waylon Jennings' "The Good Ol' Boys" (the theme song of The Dukes of Hazzard) while driving in his truck. In "Exposed," Tom Wopat (who played Luke Duke) guest stars as Jake Jennings, an old friend of Jonathan's who arrives in a Dodge Charger similar to the General Lee, kicking off a number of homages to The Dukes of Hazzard throughout the episode. + Also, it is probably not a coincidence that in one season 10 episode, a character played by Michael Shanks ends up in Egypt. + In the episode that introduced the show's version of the Justice League, Lex Luthor captures Bart Allen (the future Flash). Michael Rosenbaum (Lex's actor) voiced the Flash on Justice League and voiced him in Lex Luthor's body in an episode. + Brainiac (played by James Marsters) tells Clark in one episode that vampires don't really exist. + Clark once tells an immortal doctor played by Dean Cain who tried to cut out Chloe's heart to immortalize his wife that "You and I are more alike than you think." + Bridgette Crosby, played by Margot Kidder, once said "I do know what it's like to love somebody whose calling's greater than your own." + Increasing the reference, the person she's referring to is Dr Virgil Swann, the closest thing to a human expert on Kryptonians. He was played by Christopher Reeve. + Moira Sullivan's (played by Lynda Carter) main episode happened to feature a supervillain that grabs people with an air lasso. * The Sonny with a Chance episode "Battle of the Network Stars" features almost as many allusions as scenes. When Sonny (Demi Lovato) says "nobody knows me the way that I know me", immediately followed by guest star Selena Gomez (the actor's real-life best friend) entering; Selena says she was in 'Camp Hip Hop' (a play on Camp Rock, starring Demi Lovato), Sonny accuses Selena of acting like "some kind of relationship wizard" (Selena Gomez stars in another Disney show called Wizards of Waverly Place) and at the end there's a 'Camp Hip Hop' trailer featuring three boys who look a lot like The Jonas Brothers (who were in Camp Rock). Also, Chad tells Sonny if she thinks she'll ever be BFFs with Selena Gomez, to which she replies "it could happen". * Sons of Anarchy: + An indirect one from Jax, whose ex-wife was played by Drea de Matteo (best known as Adrianna on The Sopranos) in the previous season, confronts a woman who thinks he's about to kill her. He reassures her with: "You think I brought you here to Adrianna you?" + In another episode, Tig suggests Gemma (played by Katey Sagal) to "go redhead for a while." + A very glamorously made up Walton Goggins makes an appearance as a transgender woman by the name of Venus Van Dam in a recent episode. The name bears a remarkable similarity to Cletus Van Damme, the alias Goggins' character Shane uses in The Shield * In Spaced, Tim is shown to have been heartbroken by Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and the film is continually mocked throughout the series. Peter Serafinowicz, who voices Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, plays Duane, who stole Tim's girlfriend at the beginning of the series. After a confrontation in a London bar, Duane notices that Tim has left his keys on the table, and mutters "At last I will emerge as the victor. At last, I will have revenge." * One episode of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Peter Mensah's character Doctore exchanged words with Crixus that referenced Mensah's role in 300. > Doctore: Crixus, what is this madness? > Crixus: Spartacus. * An episode of Spin City, "Back to the Future IV: Judgment Day", guest-starred Christopher Lloyd as Michael J. Fox's (political) mentor. The line "It's just like stepping back in time" is just one of many. + Later, Michael J. Fox's last episode of the series opens with him complaining on the phone to his absent therapist that he's developed an almost father-son relationship with him, that he couldn't possibly reproduce with a substitute. He then hangs up when his replacement therapist enters the room, played by Michael Gross, who had played his character's father for years on Family Ties. + Meredith Baxter appears in several episodes playing Macy Flaherty, Mike's mother. Baxter also had played Fox' mother on Family Ties. + Fox's last lines on that show have him describing his new job at the US Capitol. He ends by saying, "Junior Senator Alex P. Keaton is going to be hard to work with", referencing his own hardnosed conservative character from Family Ties. * On Sports Night, Dana is telling Isaac about how much she loved The Lion King on Broadway, and describes the opening when Rafiki calls the animals- "And they come!" Isaac is amused- possibly because he's played by Robert Guillaume. * In the Stargate SG-1 pilot "Children of the Gods", Captain Samantha Carter explains to Colonel Jack O'Neill (played by Richard Dean Anderson — the actor who played MacGyver) that "It took us fifteen years and three supercomputers to MacGyver a way to power the gate." Interestingly, Amanda Tapping, the actress who plays Carter, actually ad-libbed this line during her audition. This is what actually got her secured for the role. + A sneakier MacGyver reference: Colonel O'Neill has never seen Alf. Alf was on opposite MacGyver. - Still, it's probably a lie, considering he says that right after making up an alien planet called Melmac. + Conversely, in the 10th season of SG-1 there were a few references to Ben Browder and Claudia Black being imports from Farscape. Probably the most blatant was in 200 (itself full of in-jokes), where Black's character Vala proposes a remarkably Farscape-like show with herself in the role analogous to Black's Farscape role, Aeryn Sun. Oddly enough, the role of Crichton was played by Michael Shanks, instead of Ben Browder. This was actually on request of the actors; originally, Browder was going to be Crichton. (It was apparently inspired by them noting how people thought they looked similar.) - The first time Vala meets Mitchell, she does a bit of a double take and then says "I know we haven't met. That I'm sure I would remember." - As a subtle one, Black managed to get the same introduction in both shows. In the pilot of Farscape when Aeryn Sun is introduced she's in a full Peacekeeper commando pilot suit (basically a jumpsuit and motorcycle helmet). Upon meeting Crichton she deftly knocks him on his back and pins him in a sort of straddling position. When Vala is first introduced in Stargate SG-1 she is disguised as an Anubis warrior (basically full body armor jumpsuit and a helmet not unlike a motorcycle helmet). Upon meeting Daniel Jackson she deftly knocks him on his back and pins him in a sort of straddling position. The only difference between the two motions is that Aeryn removes her helmet before pinning Crichton while Vala keeps hers on as she pins Jackson. That was only really done to provide an excellent wtf moment when the "Anubis Warrior" claims to find Daniel attractive. - One more: In late season 9, an incredibly pregnant Vala resurfaces to give the team some valuable intel on the Ori...and to tell them she's pregnant. Mitchell asks who the father is; Vala says she doesn't know. Season 4 of Farscape revolved largely around the mystery of who fathered Aeryn's unborn child. + Similarly, in the Stargate Atlantis episode "Vegas", an alternate-universe McKay quips that a stranded Wraith might want to take up a job as a Klingon at The Star Trek Experience attraction in Vegas. The alternate Woolsey sadly comments that the attraction has closed down. Actor Robert Picardo, who plays Woolsey, reprised his Star Trek: Voyager role as the Emergency Medical Hologram in the attraction. - According to The Other Wiki's now-deleted article on the episode, Picardo actually requested that this line be added since it had only recently closed. There is also another moment in a season 5 episode where Woolsey discusses founding an alliance, which is immediately compared to the Federation of Planets. + In the SG-1 episode Avenger 2.0, Dr. Felger is seen putting a roll of duct tape into a backpack. The actor who played him, Patrick McKenna, also played Harold on The Red Green Show. + In one episode, Vala asks Daniel Jackson how he can tell the Asgard apart, noting the physical similarity between Thor and another Asgard. Daniel Jackson replies "It's the voice." Michael Shanks, who plays Jackson, also does the voice of Thor. + In another episode, Teal'c mentions having played Def Jam Vendetta. His actor, Christopher Judge, voiced D-Mob, that game's Big Bad. + At one point in Atlantis, Mitch Pileggi (as Colonel Caldwell) is revealed to be possessed by a Goa'uld. During this exchange, his eyes flare a yellow-ish color and he (almost) sets events in motion that could've killed many major characters. Years later, on Supernatural, Mitch Pileggi (as Mary's father) is revealed to be possessed by a demon. During this exchange, his eyes flare a yellow-ish color (as the demon possessing him was season 1 & 2 Big Bad Azazel) and he sets events in motion that lead to Mary's death. + We've gotten this far without mentioning all the Star Trek references in the episode guest-starring John Billingsley? + Another Star Trek reference; during one of HBO's then-annual broadcasts of a benefit comedy concert for the charity "Comic Relief" (no relation to the British Comic Relief charity), the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast produced a clip where the Enterprise crew discussed the history of this 20th-century charitable foundation. Data at one point displayed a picture of the charity's founders, comedians Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg (which he pronounced Who-Pie). Dr. Crusher then commented, "Wait a minute, doesn't this Who-Pie Goldberg look a lot like Guinan? You don't think..." After a beat, the whole crew shook their heads and said, "Nah." * Starman: In "One for the Road", the alien title character, Paul (played by Robert Hays), is a chaperone at a school dance. At first he refrains from dancing when invited by one of the teachers because he doesn't know how, but when dragged onto the dance floor he soon picks it up (as he tends to do with skills and languages). As he gets into it, he briefly adopts the "Staying Alive" Dance Pose Hays famously parodied in Airplane!. * In one episode of Starsky & Hutch, Starsky says Hutch sounds like "Dirty Harry, a cop in San Francisco". David Soul costarred in Magnum Force, the second Dirty Harry movie. * The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Spectre of the Gun" plopped the main cast into an extremely realistic illusion that required them to play out the infamous Gunfight at the OK Corral. DeForest Kelley - aka Dr. McCoy - had played Morgan Earp in the 1957 film Gunfight at the OK Corral. * Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In "Far Beyond the Stars", when Captain Sisko starts to hallucinate that he's a science-fiction writer in the 1950s, there's a note on Armin Shimmerman's desk rejecting his story idea of a cheerleader who kills vampires. This is a joke on Armin's recurring role as Principal Snyder in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. * The Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Detained" found The Captain (played by Scott Bakula) held in a detention camp, run by an officer played by none other than Dean Stockwell, Bakula's co-star on Quantum Leap. Even further, Bakula half-jokingly suggested that Jonathan Archer's middle name was Beckett. Whether an actor's word can be Word of God is up to debate. * In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "The Q and the Grey" a female Q remarks, "I've always liked Klingon females. You've got such... spunk." The Q was played by Suzie Plakson, who had previously played the spunky Klingon female K'Ehleyr. * In the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode "Those Old Scientists" (crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks), Commander Jack Ransom of the USS Cerritos sees a recruiting poster of Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley and calls her the "hottest woman in Starfleet." Jerry O'Connell (Ransom) and Rebecca Romijn (Chin-Riley) are married in Real Life. * In one episode of Stay Tooned! a documentary series about classic cartoons hosted by Tony (Baldrick) Robinson, Tony describes how Porky Pig's Characterization Marched On, and says the same thing happens with live action characters. Cue clip from Black Adder, with Prince Edmund announcing he would be known as "The Black Vegetable". > Tony Robinson: But then they decided they didn't want a Blackadder who was an idiot and kept doing stupid things. They could get someone else to do that. * St. Elsewhere: + In "Hearts" and "Remission", it is mentioned that Dr. Auschlander is a fan of Charlie Chaplin films. Norman Lloyd, a good friend of Chaplin's, played Bodalink in his final American-made film Limelight. + In "After Dark", Shirley Daniels goes to the morgue to get "the report on that Hasselhoff car wreck," referencing William Daniels' concurrent role as the voice of KITT. + In "Playing God, Part 2", Ellen wonders what is on The Merv Griffin Show. Dr. Craig replies, "Probably some stupid comic." When he turns on the television, Howie Mandel's stand-up can be heard. + In "Close Encounters", the amnesiac mental patient John Doe #6 comes to believe that he is Mary Richards from The Mary Tyler Moore Show after seeing it on television. He mistakes Captain Gloria Neal, who is played by Betty White, for the happy homemaker Sue Ann Nivens, White's character on the series. Captain Neal explains that he has confused her with someone else. + In "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby", Dr. Craig starts singing "Sit Down, John" from 1776 when the Craigs go to Philadelphia. He also says that he doesn't know what Ellen saw in him as he was "obnoxious and disliked." John Adams is frequently described using this phrase in the play. + In "Getting Ahead", while reading The Cutting Edge, Dr. Kiem wonders why Asian women are always portrayed as either geishas or Suzie Wong, unaware that the novel was written by Dr. Craig and the character in question is based on her. France Nuyen, who played Dr. Kiem, was originally cast as the title character in The World of Suzie Wong but was replaced by Nancy Kwan. + In "Jose, Can You See?", when Ellen Craig suggests that she restarts grief counseling after a few events re-trigger her pain following \|\|their son Stephen's death\|\|, Mark Craig dismissively tells her "Simon's Broadway bound." Philip Sterling, the actor who played psychiatrist Dr. Simon Weiss, was appearing on stage in Broadway Bound at the time. + Before \|\|Victor's wedding to Lucy\|\| in "The Idiot and the Odyssey", as he's having second thoughts due to a mysterious other woman, Dr. Craig tells him, "This is not 1968. It's time you graduate into adulthood. Don't drive over troubled waters with some plastic bimbette." A shout-out to The Graduate (William Daniels played Dustin Hoffman's father in the movie), its theme song singers Simon & Garfunkel, and the famous one word of investment advice. + Also in "The Idiot and the Odyssey", Ellen rejects Mark's gift of a mink coat as she does not want to look like Mamie Eisenhower. Bonnie Bartlett (Ellen) previously played Mrs. Eisenhower in the 1979 miniseries Ike. + In "Heart On", Jack Morrison tells his wife Joanne, who is hiding under the covers of their bed, that he has made a list of thirtysomething guests for their upcoming housewarming party. Patricia Wettig (Joanne) left St. Elsewhere after "The Idiot and the Odyssey" as a result of being cast as Nancy Weston in thirtysomething. + In "Heaven's Skate", Judge Farnham (Jack Dodson) asks to get a haircut from Floyd the barber of The Andy Griffith Show. Dodson played Howard Sprague on the series. + Also in "Heaven's Skate", Fiscus tells Griffin that some people thought that Bobby Caldwell, \|\|who has recently died from AIDS\|\|, was the sexiest man alive. While starring in St. Elsewhere, Mark Harmon was named the Sexiest Man Alive by People in 1986. + In "Requiem for a Heavyweight", Fiscus lists several works of fiction with titles relating to distance or locations, including South Pacific. France Nuyen (Dr. Kiem) played Liat in the 1958 film adaptation. + In "Split Decision", Dr. Auschlander mentions that Chaplain Claire McCabe and Penny Franks are watching an Alfred Hitchcock film. Norman Lloyd appears in two Hitchcock films, Saboteur and Spellbound, and produced Alfred Hitchcock Presents. + Additionally, all four of the doctors from St. Elsewhere showed up on an episode of Scrubs... as a group of doctors who were at a medical convention together, got sick at the same time, and shared a hospital room. * In the "Independence Day" episode of Suburgatory, a worried George is consulting with Mr. Wolfe, the school guidance counselor, about his daughter. Mr. Wolfe says "I'll also lean on Malik for information. If there's one thing everyone knows about him, is that he's a snitch". Malik is played by Maestro Harrell, who also played Randy, on The Wire. Succession. * In "Lion in Meadow," Adrian Brody's character refers to series lead Logan Roy (Brian Cox) as "King Kong, come to dance with me." Brody was the male lead in the 2005 Peter Jackson remake of King Kong. Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye: : * In "Elvis is In the Building", Bobby goes undercover as an Elvis Impersonator. His actor, Rick Peters, played the role of Elvis in the movie Elvis Meets Nixon, in which Elvis wants to become a federal agent. The characters directly reference the movie, saying that the guy who played Elvis was "not as good as you, Bobby." * In the final episode, Sue (played by Deanne Bray) is waiting in a hospital waiting room, where she meets an older Deaf woman. The two talk about what they do/did for a living, each expressing that they'd once had thoughts of doing the other's job (FBI agent and actress, respectively). The woman, rightly played by the real-life Sue Thomas, was named Deanne. Disney Channel appears to enjoy this trope. In an episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Maddie (played by Ashley Tisdale) auditions for the part of Sharpay in High School Musical (who was also played by Ashley Tisdale), and doesn't get it. She claims that everyone says she looks just like "the girl who plays her" but no one else sees it. During the run of the show, the director comments to Cody, "You look just like Zac Efron." Maddie responds, "And I don't look like Ashley Tisdale? You people are all crazy!"Supernatural: : * In "Hollywood Babylon", Sam and Dean Winchester are taking a tour of a movie and TV studio. When the tour guide mentions that they're passing the set of Gilmore Girls and might see some of the stars, Sam looks uncomfortable and leaves the tour. Sam is played by Jared Padalecki, who was also on Gilmore Girls, whose star was by then his character's ex-girlfriend. * In "Shadow", someone mentions meeting "Something Michael Murray", in a bar, to which Sam replies "Who?" Chad Michael Murray was also in Gilmore Girls. * At the end of "No Exit", Dean makes a joke about Katie Holmes to which Sam replies, "That's funny... and for you, so bitchy." Dean is played by Jensen Ackles, who was also in Dawson's Creek with Holmes. + At the end of "The Usual Suspects", Dean comments that a police officer who helped them seemed fairly familiar, and commented that he had a hankering for pea soup. The officer was played by Linda Blair. - If you get the context, this may also function as a form of [[squick]]. + In season five's "Fallen Idols", an ancient god (who kills its worshippers to feed on their blood) is disguised as Paris Hilton. Dean claims that she can't kill him, because "I'm not a Paris Hilton BFF. I've never even seen House of Wax." At this, Sam gives Dean a pointed look. Jared Padalecki co-starred with Hilton in the 2005 movie. + The episode in which Famine is introduced, titled "My Bloody Valentine", (No, not that) is a direct Shout-Out to Jensen Ackles's star role in the Slasher Movie remake My Bloody Valentine 3D. Though the name is justified by the fact that two innocents on their first date eat each other to death. + In "Frontierland", Bobby says to Castiel: "Well, we can't leave the idjits stranded in Deadwood". Jim Beaver played Whitney Ellsworth on Deadwood. + Season 7 episode 3, "The Girl Next Door" manages to fit two in about as many minutes. Dean is passed out on the couch with the TV still on when a commercial for My Bloody Valentine 3D comes on (which Jensen Ackles starred in). And then in pretty much the next scene he talks to a store clerk wearing a Batman: Under the Red Hood t-shirt. Which, again, starred Ackles as a voice actor. + In "LARP And The Real Girl", some of the guys in the technical tent at Moondoor are playing Dragon Age II - specifically, Mark of the Assassin.◊ We can see Felicia Day, who plays Charlie Bradbury, as an Ink-Suit Actor portraying Tallis. * In the Tales from the Crypt episode "Yellow", General Calthrop mirrors one of Kirk Douglas' most famous roles as the French Colonel Dax during World War I in Paths of Glory. However, whereas Dax was a moral character who deeply cared for his men and tried to protect them from the capriciousness of the Generals, Calthrop IS one of those Generals with little to no concern for the lives of those under his command, even \|\|sentencing his own son to death for cowardice\|\|. * In Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, the two-part BBC televised version of the eponymous novel, Death, voiced by Ian Richardson, answers one of Susan's uncomfortably direct questions saying "You might very well think that, I could not possibly comment." This is a direct quotation of a signature phrase used by Francis Urquhart, the evil politician played by Richardson in The House of Cards and its sequels. * Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: + Catherine Weaver, who is actually a disguised T-1000, is played by Shirley Manson, who in the music video for Garbage's "The World Is Not Enough" played a robot copy of herself. There's also an ironic nod to Manson's day job when Weaver's daughter mentions her mother can't sing (bonus points for that episode opening with a song performed by Manson). + Weaver's gopher Walsh says in "Desert Cantos" that he used to be a cop in Baltimore. His actor Max Perlich did have a role in the Baltimore police during Homicide: Life on the Street, albeit as a technician rather than an officer. * That '70s Show: + One episode had the guys go backstage to meet wrestler Rocky Johnson. Johnson in this episode is played by The Rock, AKA Dwayne Johnson — Rocky Johnson's son. Johnson points out that it's nice to see a father bringing their son to a wrestling match as he has one of his own, who will one day become the most electrifying man in sports-entertainment. Rocky Johnson's father-in-law, High Chief Peter Maivia, is played by the real Rocky Johnson, too. + In another episode, a gay couple mentions that one time, they had to say that they're brothers. One of them comments: "Who would ever believe that the two of us could be brothers?!" They're played by Barry Williams and Christopher Knight, who played brothers in The Brady Bunch. + Mary Tyler Moore plays morning show host Christine St. George and references the scene in the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" when she is hired by Lou Grant, a scene in which Lou Grant tells Mary, "You got spunk!" When Christine St. George hires Jackie, she says, "I like you. You've got sss...spirit. No, m-moxie, yes mo... Wait, no, it's... it's gumption. Oh, there's a word for it and I can't think what it is!" At the end of that same episode, Moore tosses Jackie's new beret and the screen freezes just like the opening of the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" (albeit angrily this time). + In another (Season 6) episode, Donna and Eric go to see a pastor for some relationship counseling. Donna mentions that one of their problems is Eric's love of Star Wars, and the pastor voices his similar opinion on the subject, and later uses Star Wars metaphors in his sermon. The pastor? Billy Dee Williams, who would play Lando later in the trilogy (which neatly avoids Celebrity Paradox as well.) * Armando Iannucci has said one of the reasons he cast Tom Hollander as Cal 'The Fucker' Richards, a bossy and feared PR man, in The Thick of It is as a joke for anyone who saw the spin-off In the Loop, where he plays an extremely wet and cowardly minister. * Deliberate in the case of Penelope Keith starring in To the Manor Born. The series was conceived when one of the writers thought, "What if Margo from The Good Life was as rich and sophisticated as she pretends to be?". * On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, recurring sketch character Hashtag the Panda is revealed to be Ben Stiller in costume. Stiller previously wore a panda's head on his own head in Tropic Thunder. * Torchwood: + At Comic-Con, John Barrowman and Naoko Mori explain how "Exit Wounds" had one for them. In the episode, \|\|Tosh dies in Jack's arms\|\|. Previously, the pair had played Chris and Kim opposite each other in Miss Saigon, in which \|\|Kim dies in Chris's arms\|\|. + "Ghost Machine" featured a character named Ed Morgan, played by Gareth Thomas. Morgan's suicide at the end of the episode was deliberately staged to recall the death of Blake, the character who Thomas played in Blake's 7. Additionally, immediately after leaving Blake's 7, Thomas had played the lead role in a series called Morgan's Boy, in which he also played a character named Morgan who killed himself at the end of the story. * One episode of Tracker (2001) featured Cole using a katana to escape a museum vault. Adrian Paul, who played Cole, was well known for playing the katana-wielding Duncan MacLeod on Highlander: The Series. * Christopher Lloyd just can't get away from his famous role, as seen in Tremors: The Series. > Gus: Hey, didja guys in the underground lab ever do some tests on time travel? > Lloyd: (exasperated eye roll) * True Terror With Robert Englund is narrated by Robert Englund, best known for playing the dream-hopping murderer Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. On at least one occasion, telling the story of Julia Cook suffering ominous recurring dreams suggesting something in her future, he notes: > Nightmares are something I know a thing or two about. One thing I know... you don't pick them; they pick you. * The Twilight Zone (1959): + Half of "Once Upon a Time" is shot in the style of a Silent Movie as a tribute to Buster Keaton, who plays the protagonist Woodrow Mulligan. More specifically, the chase sequence after Mulligan arrives in 1962 recreates a scene from Keaton's 1920 short film The Garage co-starring Fatty Arbuckle. In both, Keaton's character's loses his trousers and is about to be arrested for public indecency. However, his heavyset partner prevents this when he walks behind him to hide him from a policeman. He then helps him to get a new pair, which Keaton puts on after being lifted up while they are walking. + In "Cavender is Coming", one of Agnes Grep's fellow usherettes is named Burnett. Agnes is played by Carol Burnett. + In "The Last Night of a Jockey", Mickey Rooney plays a man who used to be a jockey. Rooney had previously played ex-jockey Mi Taylor in National Velvet. * The Twilight Zone (1985): + In "Personal Demons", Rockne O'Bannon wrote for Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. O'Bannon is played by Martin Balsam, who played Dr. Gillespie in the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse episode "The Time Element". That episode served as the unofficial pilot of The Twilight Zone (1959). + In "A Day in Beaumont", there are three: - Dr. Kevin Carlson pointedly describes the Flying Saucer that he and his girlfriend Faith saw crashing as "a thing" to Sheriff Haskin. Haskin is played by Kenneth Tobey, who is best known for playing Captain Patrick Hendry in The Thing from Another World. - H.G. Orson sarcastically refers to "tarantulas as big as houses." Pops is played by John Agar, who played Dr. Matt Hastings in Tarantula!. - Orson also refers to the planet Altair IV. Major Whitmore is played by Warren Stevens, who starred as Doc Ostrow, a member of the Bellerophon crew who visited Altair IV, in Forbidden Planet. * Two and a Half Men: + Charlie Harper is watching Glee, and notes that the "woman in the red jumpsuit freaks him out". Jane Lynch, who plays the jumpsuit-wearing cheerleader coach Sue Sylvester on Glee, also plays Charlie's psychologist. + In the late-season 10 episode, "Bazinga! That's From A TV Show", Jake's 36-year-old girlfriend Tammy confronts Jake who is sleeping with her daughter, Ashley. When Ashley shows up at Alan and Walden's home to declare to them of of her love for Jake, Alan at one point calls Ashley "Hannah Montana" as tempers flare up. Ashley is played by guest star Emily Osment, who played Lilly Truscott on the series. Interestingly enough, the star of Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus, guest-starred as Walden's family friend Missi (a previous girlfriend of Jake's) in episodes earlier in the season. (Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones had both guest-starred on Hannah Montana on separate occasions in the show's last few seasons.) * Ultra Series: + Ultraman: Towards the Future: In the Japanese dub, Akiji Kobayashi, the man who played the original Ultraman's Captain Muramatsu voices this series' team leader, Arthur Grant. + Ultraman Max: - The show features three actors of the original 1966 Ultraman series in roles as leaders of the attack team DASH: Professor Yukari (played by Hiroko Sakurai, who portrayed Akiko Fuji), Chief Kenzo Tomioka (played by Susumu Kurobe, who portrayed Shin Hayata) and Professor Date (played by Masanari Nihei, who portrayed Ide); Tomioka even gets to parody the original Ultraman's transformation sequence in a scene where he pulls out some scissors to groom his bonsai tree while doing a similar pose to the one Hayata did when employing the Beta Capsule. - Kohji Moritsugu cameos in Episode 19 as an archaeologist. Guess how he puts on his glasses?(Hint: Dyuwah!). - In a non-Ultra Series example there's Nao Nagasawa who plays the title girl of "The Daughter of Zetton", and at several points (when possessed by Alien Zetton), is seen in a ninja outfit, like when infiltrating the DASH base and piloting King Joe. + Ultraman Orb: - The show wasn't the first time Hiroki Yasumoto voices an Alien Mefilas (the first is in Ultra Zero Fight). And in said series, he has already familiar having teammates consist of Koichi Toshima (Alien Metron Tarude / Alien Groza Glocken) and Tetsuo Kishi (Alien Nackle Nagus / Alien Hipporito Jathar). - Reibatos' voice actor from Ultra Fight Orb is Hidenari Ugaki, who previously voice Mold Spectre in Ultraman X. In fact, the first being that Reibatos revived from his debut appearance is none other than Juda Spectre, Mold's younger brother. + Ultraman Geed: Much like his two performances in Kamen Rider, Minori Terada once again plays someone related to one of the members of the main cast. Much like with Hideo Ishiguro(who previously played Kai from Kamen Rider Den-O) playing the titular character of the previous Ultra series, however, he's a good guy this time. + Ultraman Z: All three Alien Barossas are played by veteran Toku actors and allude to many of their roles both in Tokusatsu and anime through either their mannerisms, dialogue or actions. Notably, the second one played by Tomokazu Seki references both the Final Wave from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (where he played the role of the Gokaiger's equipment voice which also called out their attacks) and even gets attacked by a parody of the hot hand from Mobile Fighter G Gundam (where he portrayed the main character, Domon Kassu). + Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga: Kei Hosagai in this series stars in the role of Ignis, a rogue treasure hunter who ends up at odds with the heroes of the show. Not unlike his role in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger as Basco Ta Jolokia, though Ignis is far less of a villain than Basco. To boot, the seventh episode sees him getting into a conflict with the Space Pirate Alien Barossa. * In The Vampire Diaries season four episode "Down the Rabbit Hole" the cast is on a deserted island looking for the cure for vampirism when Damon and Vaughn stumble upon a corpse. Vaughn looks around and says that there's someone else on the island. One might wonder why Damon looked so surprised, considering that it's not his first time trapped on a mysterious island that turned out not to be deserted. * Vampirina: Teenage Vampire: The character played by Jenna Davis is named Megan just like her most famous role, the eponymous android in M3GAN and M3GAN 2.0. * Veronica Mars: + A very subtle one: the title of one episode is "Clash of the Tritons," a play on the title of the film Clash of the Titans. That film's star, Harry Hamlin, had a recurring role on the show. + Enrico Colantoni's character dates a character played by Laura San Giacomo for a few episodes. The two previously played amorous co-workers in Just Shoot Me!. + There's also the scene in season 2 where Trina and Kendall, aka. Willow and Cordelia, get to snark at each other. Later, Logan says to Kendall: "I thought you couldn't come out during daylight hours." + Logan tells Weevil (Kazaam star Francis Capra) to go rub a lamp. * In Vous Les Femmes, actor Bradley Cole shows up more than once playing a photographer or a well-meaning amateur fiddling with a camera. In France, he is best-known for a long-running role playing professional fashion photographer Daniel, in Les Filles d'à côté. * In the fourth episode of Walker, the main character's son is going through his father's undercover burner phone - one of the contacts listed is Winchester Auto - a nod to Jared Padalecki's fifteen year run on Supernatural. * In the 2019 The Wonderful World of Disney special The Little Mermaid Live!, Shaggy portrayed Sebastian. In the 1998 re-release of the film, he sang the pop version of "Under The Sea". * In the first season of War of the Worlds (1988), Harrison Blackwood carries a tuning fork with him, the sound of which helps him to meditate. Jared Martin, who played Blackwood, had previously played a 23rd-century man who wielded a tuning fork-shaped weapon in the short-lived 1970s series The Fantastic Journey. * In the Warehouse 13 episode "The Living and the Dead", James Marsters plays \|\|an immortal\|\| with an English accent, who's quite offended at the suggestion he might be a vampire. He ends up \|\|being killed by getting stabbed through the heart\|\|. * The Vice President on The West Wing is a recovering alcoholic. A third season episode revealed that he stopped drinking when he was twenty-two because he had a family history of alcoholism and "some experiences in college." This has to be a reference to Tim Matheson's part in Animal House. + In the sixth season, Governor Eric Baker of Pennsylvania shows up as a possible presidential candidate a few times. He's frequently mentioned as being a popular candidate with blue collar voters throughout the north-eastern and north-midwest states. He's played by Ed O'Neill, whose most famous role was, of course, Al Bundy on Married... with Children, the iconic north-midwestern blue collar working slob. * What I Like About You: + The episode "Dangerous Liasons" double-doses the Actor Allusions for both of its leads: Via a flashback and an old VHS tape, we see a standup routine Holly (Amanda Bynes) did when she was little; it's actually the routine that got Bynes hired for her first TV job. She remarks at the end, "That kid should have her own show". Meanwhile, Val (Jennie Garth) has a flashback about her and a guest character; the guest is played by Luke Perry, and the flashback is a direct lift of a Beverly Hills, 90210 episode. + Less notable are the other guest appearances from 90210 alumni, only one of whom even offered a You Look Familiar to Val. And appearances by All That and Popular cast members went entirely unnoted within the show. * In the White Collar episode "At What Cost", Neal makes a metaphorical Deal with the Devil by agreeing to do a favor for Curtis Hagen in exchange for help in keeping Peter from being wrongfully charged with murder. Hagen is played by Mark Sheppard, who plays Crowley the literal King of Hell on Supernatural. * Whodunnit? (UK): + In "A Time to Dye", one of the suspects mentions that she won a trip to London to see Irene in the West End starring "him what's on the telly on Monday night". At the time, host Jon Pertwee was appearing in the West End run of Irene playing 'Madame Lucy'. + The Series 1 episode "A Knife in the Back" featured Pertwee in his very first appearance on the show (as a panelist). He asked a suspect about the letters she posted, and the reply was 'Two bills... and a letter to the Doctor Who fanclub. I wanted to ask for your autograph." (Pertwee was playing the Third Doctor at the time). + HMRC officer Gerald Harvey in "Nothing to Declare" was played by Frank Thornton, who was three years into playing Captain Peacock on Are You Being Served?. This led to an inevitable moment when Patrick Mower, having already handed his solution card to Jon Pertwee, asked if he could ask one final question of Harvey, and Jon asked, "Mr Harvey, are you free?" "No," came the reply.(Similarly, when Mollie Sugden appeared on the panel for the episode "Before Your Very Eyes", the question "Are you free?" came up again.) * In the Who's the Boss? episode "The Babysitter", Angela dramatically hugs Jonathan and says goodbye which leads to Tony quipping “This turn into One Life to Live here?”. Judith Light had previously played Karen Wolek on One Life To Live. * Wilfred: + Ryan is under psychiatric care, speaking with a bearded psychiatrist played by Robin Williams. When said psychiatrist says, "It's not your fault" Ryan catches the reference and eventually realizes that he's in a dream sequence. + As he is played by Elijah Wood, Ryan himself has been the subject of some The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy references. For instance, when he's asked to participate in Jenna's wedding: "Dude, you're a ringbearer now!" * In the Will & Grace episode "Von Trapped" the gang goes to an audience participation showing of "The Sound of Music." When they get in trouble, Rosario shows up to bail them out, dressed in a nun's habit — virtually the same outfit Shelley Morrison wore on The Flying Nun in fact. + Will & Grace do this with some regularity, although celebrity The Cameo in-jokes (as with Kevin Bacon and Elton John's appearances on the show) are more frequent. For example, a character played by Gene Wilder uses the "Strike that, reverse it" line from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. - Eric McCormack (Will) actually cracks Gene Wilder up with one of these during an outtake. > McCormack: "Say 'I am Stein.'" > Wilder: "I am Stein." > McCormack: "Louder! I am Stein!" > Wilder: "Louder! I am Stein!" > McCormack: "Like you mean it! I am Stein!" > Wilder: "I am Stein!" > McCormack: "YOUR NAME IS FRANKENSTEIN!!" > (Wilder loses it) + The best example is when Matt Damon guest-starred as a gay man \|\|who was actually straight and just wanted to get into a gay men's chorus to advance his career\|\| who said that he had a long-term boyfriend named Ben. Which he does. * Without Walls, a Channel Four documentary strand, had an episode called "The Cardinal and the Corpse" about antiquarian booksellers and collectors, including some dramatised or at least staged set peices. One of them features Alan Moore in the role of a Conspiracy Theorist wearing a Rorschach t-shirt. (Notably, he's the only person in them who might not be appearing As Himself.) * The Wire includes several instances due to its penchant for having Baltimore political figures appear in cameo roles. In one instance, the mayor is discussing with several staffers the unauthorized creation of a decriminalized drug zone. One staffer says that if news gets out, people will call the mayor "the most dangerous man in America." The line is uttered by former Real Life Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke, who had been called the most dangerous man in America (by Congressman Charles Rangel) when Schmoke suggested debating the decriminalization of drugs. + When Mayor Carcetti goes to beg for funding from the unnamed, unseen Republican governor clearly based on then Real Life governor of Maryland Robert Ehrlich, Ehrlich appears as a security guard at the governor's office. + Similarly, the show's co-creator David Simon appears in Season 5 as a Baltimore Sun reporter. Simon was a Sun reporter, and his experience writing the crime section led to the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, later adapted into the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street. + Even more confusingly, a character by the name "Jay Landsman" appears on the show, but the real Jay Landsman plays Lt. Mello. + Musician Steve Earle, who performs the theme song for Season 5, has a role as Walon, a recovering heroin addict. Steve Earle himself is a recovering heroin addict in Real Life. Additionally, Walon can be seen wearing a jacket with the art from Steve Earle's Copperhead Road album, as well as a tattoo of said art on his bicep. * In the Wishbone episode "Rushin' to the Bone," the eponymous dog stars in a commercial. The actor who provides the voice of Wishbone in the commercial (seen onscreen) is, in fact, the same actor who voices Wishbone on the show in general. * In episode 12 of the Australian series Wonderland, the gang attends a wedding. At the reception Carlos shows off some moves on the cleared dance floor that are quite... gymnastic for such an event—an allusion to actor Glenn McMillan's time as the Yellow Wind Ranger on Power Rangers Ninja Storm. * Wizards Beyond Waverly Place: "Potions Eleven" features Amir Talai playing an egotistical magical man named Allister Again. * CMT's Working Class stars Melissa Peterman as a divorcee who moves to an upscale neighborhood with her three kids. One episode features her former husband...now married to a woman played by Reba McEntire...the exact opposite of what happened on Reba. * The X-Files: + Jodie Foster voiced a sentient tattoo that drove its owner to murder. It's not hard to find parallels to John Hinckley's obsession with her that led him to try to assassinate Ronald Reagan, though given Foster's famous refusal to discuss the incident it probably wasn't intentional. + In "Never Again", the tattoo's hatred (voiced by Jodie Foster) of Scully is possibly a reference to Scully being initially based on Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs, played by... Jodie Foster. + From Agent Doggett in later seasons: "What are you saying? Ray Pearce has become some kind of metal man? Because that only happens in the movies, Agent Scully." What, as in Terminator 2? (Doggett's actor, of course, appeared on Terminator 2: Judgment Day as the villainous T-1000.) * Yes, Prime Minister: In "A Diplomatic Incident", Nicholas Courtney plays the Metropolitan police commissioner. At one point he fails to recognise the name of UNESCO, thinking it's a "gallant little country". One suspects an allusion to his long-running role on Doctor Who as the officer commanding the fictional UN force UNIT. * In an episode of The Young Ones, the main characters go up against a team from "Footlights College, Oxbridge", on University Challenge. This part of the plot is largely driven by the presenter, "Bambi", and his overwhelming bias towards Oxbridge. Three of the members of the Oxbridge team are played by Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, and Stephen Fry, who were all members of the Footlights Club at Cambridge. Also both Bamber "Bambi" Gascoigne, who was the original presenter of University Challenge, and Griff Rhys Jones, who played Bambi on The Young Ones, are former Footlighters. To top it all off, Stephen Fry actually appeared on University Challenge during his Cambridge years. ---	ActorAllusion	null
MarvelUniverse	# Spanner In The Works - Marvel Universe Marvel Universe =============== A fairly common stock superhero plot consists of bad guys managing to finally defeat or capture the heroes, only to have the entire plan foiled by the appearance of an unexpected new recruit. --- Comic Books ----------- * The Avengers: + In The Avengers #39, the Mad Thinker has nearly defeated the Avengers when Hercules shows up, the Thinker lampshading he could never have calculated the arrival of a legendary demi-god into his schemes. + In The Avengers #52, the Grim Reaper traps the Avengers in a death-like state with plans to finish them off permanently, until he is surprised and defeated by the newest Avenger; Black Panther. * Civil War II: In the one-shot, The Accused, Matt Murdock is made the prosecutor for the trial of \|\|Hawkeye, who ended up killing Bruce Banner.\|\| However, he notices something wrong with how fast the trial is being pushed and, in his Daredevil persona, discovers \|\|a conspiracy to use the trial to push a second Super Registration Act\|\|. In the end, \|\|Matt is able to get Hawkeye proven innocent to prevent this from happening.\|\| * Deadpool: Deadpool is frequently seen as such a rogue element that the guy who can copy someone's fighting style completely (Taskmaster) was still surprised by him. + In Cable & Deadpool #50 (the final issue of the series) the Savage Land mutate Brainchild is countering the moves of every other hero in their attack on his base, but none of his predictions of where Deadpool is are accurate; turns out DP took the "Super Mario strategy" and went through the sewer pipes. * Fantastic Four: + In a strange way this is the hat of the Mad Thinker - he creates amazingly complex, unassailable plans at the drop of a hat, accounting for every possible action of his opponents. But, every time, there is some random variable (what he calls the "x-factor") that doesn't take into account and buggers up his calculations. Marvel Adventures Spider-Man once established that the Thinker hates Spider-Man because his precognitive Spider-Sense makes him the one person on Earth who can effortlessly derail the Thinker's schemes without even deliberately trying. Case in point, his first appearance had his plan foiled by the FF's mailman shutting down the security just in case of a break-in. - A short story placed during the Civil War (2006) has the Thinker putting a Lampshade Hanging on how often this "x-factor" (which more often than not is the "human" factor — as in, he cannot completely foresee how people will react) has come to bite him in the ass and warning Reed Richards that his complicated hyper-mathematics which show that the Super-Human Registration Act is the right thing to do cannot show what will people do if pressed. True to the Thinker's prediction, Reed's Straw Vulcan Well-Intentioned Extremist act ends up hurting his relationship with his wife Sue, who goes turncoat and becomes an important member of Captain America's Resistance, and even after the Pro-Registration side wins and Reed manages to successfully beg Sue to return, their relationship remains severely strained for a very long time. Other stories written much later showcased that in most alternate universes where the SHRA didn't ended up becoming the colossal shit-storm that Universe 616 had to endure, it was because Reed Richards did all the work by himself — turns out "too many cooks spoil the broth" can also apply to Illuminati conspiracies. + This happens to the one-off villain known as the Destroyer in the first Human Torch solo adventure in Strange Tales. He uses the local newspaper to challenge the hero and successfully lures him into a trap –- then he notices that there are also some curious teenagers around, and runs away in fear for his secret identity. + When the Psycho-Man brainwashed Susan Storm to assume the new identity of Malice, Reed, Johnny and She-Hulk initially assumed they were facing some new enemy, but then Daredevil joined the fray and asked for the identity of the "amorphous blob" they were facing, allowing Reed to realise that they weren't facing some unknown superhumanly strong metahuman, but a brainwashed Sue using her force fields to create the illusion of superhuman strength. * The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk once witnessed a gigantic extraterrestrial energy beast materializing. Not knowing how to react, and being himself, he attempted to smash it and temporarily drove it away, thus preventing a properly equipped professional hunter from taking it down. * The Mighty Thor: Somberly discussed in the aftermath of Fear Itself. Kid Loki perfectly pulled off a plan to manipulate a slew of people and ensure Thor destroyed the Serpent. But in private, he reveals that a seemingly accounted-for moment of the plan - an anticipated threat being countered with Thor's goats - was a complete accident on his part. He'd moved them somewhere else completely and they wandered back to their pen in defiance of his instructions. And if they hadn't, he would've been killed by the threat, and the entire rest of the plan would've crashed down. > Kid Loki: My plan only succeeded because of the stubbornness of goats. * Runaways: The series often sees villains' perfect plans ripped to shreds by Badass Normal Chase Stein, who claims to be street smart but as a fellow teammate inquired, "What street? Sesame?" * Spider-Man: + "The Reprehensible Riddle of... the Sorcerer" In Marvel Super-Heroes #14 had the Sorcerer control Spider-Man and force him to fight his Synthetic Man. Spider-Man was almost done for, but his downfall came when a mailman rang the Sorcerer's doorbell, which created such intense feedback it killed him and left the Synthetic Man directionless. + In The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee & Ditko) #24, Mysterio convinces Spider-Man that he's going insane, and then posing as a therapist who offers to help our web-headed hero. Of course, Mysterio then sets up more illusions to make Spidey think he's hallucinating again. Spidey's about to have a complete nervous breakdown when J. Jonah Jameson and Flash Thompson, who had both heard about the therapy session and wanted to support Mysterio and Spider-Man (respectively) wander into the house. When they start seeing and reacting to the same "hallucinations", Spider-Man realizes that he's being conned, and swiftly defeats Mysterio. It's later lampshaded when Jameson realizes that Mysterio was on the verge of making Spider-Man reveal his Secret Identity, and that his own arrival torpedoed the whole plan. After that, Jameson is the one who seems like he needs therapy. * Ultimate Marvel: + Ultimate Spider-Man (2000): The Deadpool arc has the titular mouthy Merc being hired to kidnap the X-Men, fly them to Genoshia, and hunt them on TV. Things hit a bump when Spidey winds up brought along for the ride due to poor timing, which throws Genoshia's whole strategy out of whack. Deadpool himself sums up partway in that the hunt isn't going well because Spidey is the only thing they didn't plan for. > Professor X: I'd like to thank you, Mister Parker. Things might have turned out very different if you hadn't been there to balance the odds in our favor. + Ultimate X-Men (2001): Cyclops in the arc "Return of the King". Let us recap the situation so far. Magneto has regained his memories and is going on a rampage across the world with his acolytes while he waits for Forge to get his Doomsday Weapon ready. All the X-Men are either captured, killed, or on the run and still have no idea where Magneto's base is. It looks like all hope is lost, when Cyclops, who everyone thought was killed by Wolverine a few issues ago, is taken into Magneto's base as an injured mutant in need of healing. After recovering Cyke busts his way out and clues the other X-Men in on where the base is. All of this leads to a truly epic smackdown against Magneto and saving the world. * X-Factor (2006): + Layla joining XF Investigations ruined Damian Tryp's future predictions regarding them. + The "X-Factor" dupe retained the memory of \|\|Tryp killing Madrox's parents and when he kills himself, Madrox absorbs him and gets that memory back.\|\| + Quicksilver is this to the Isolationist on two levels. First, he saves Layla after Nicole tries to kill her which allows Layla to alert Jamie about Huber's intentions(Layla actually didn't know who Huber was. She only knew his name because Nicole mentioned him as her master and when Layla told Jamie about it, he realized Huber was untrustworthy.) Second, the Terrigen Crystals Quicksilver gave to Rictor during the X-Cell arc made him immune to the Isolationist's powers allowing him to defeat the villain. * X-Men Red (2022): The events of Judgment Day manage to be a big spanner to Brand's own plans, with Uranos's attack on Mars being the big one. \|\|His killing Abigail means she has to use Krakoa's resurrection protocols, allowing Cable and Whiz Kid to snoop and find out what she'd been doing. Meanwhile, a smaller, secondary part of her plan is ruined elsewhere because she'd fed a NASA representative bad information, hoping to drive a wedge in Earth-Mars relations, but the disaster manages to let him make a bond with the Arakko inhabitants instead.\|\| Films ----- * The Avengers: + Had Thor not been there to keep the Hulk at bay the Helicarrier would have crashed and Loki's plan would have more than likely been successful. + The arc reactor in Tony Stark's chest. \|\|It prevents Loki from mind-controlling him and turning him against his allies, which would have derailed everything just as much as the Hulk's potential rampage.\|\| Live-Action TV -------------- * On Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Lincoln's severe wounding by James during the fight on the Zephyr put him in a situation where he sees that Daisy has the necklace that she'd foreseen being present in the explosion that kills someone on the team, which clues him into the fact she's preparing to take the warhead up in the Quinjet herself which then motivates him to do it instead, being the only one who has the power to fry the Quinjet's systems so Hive can't stop it. Had James not seriously wounded Lincoln, he wouldn't have had the conversation with Daisy. + In the seventh season, the team finds themselves sent back in time to 1955 and have to infiltrate a SHIELD base. Simmons poses as iconic SHIELD operative Peggy Carter and, thanks to being from the future, has all the details needed to make the impersonation work for the low-level agents who only know Carter by reputation. It's just bad luck that also at the base is Daniel Sousa who just happens to have worked with the real Peggy Carter and thus knows that she is an imposter. * In Jessica Jones (2015), Kilgrave had just been Blown Across the Room by Jessica, who then has him Bound and Gagged. And then Robyn, who harbors a huge grudge on Jessica, knocks the woman who she thinks killed her brother, before releasing the guy who actually did so, thinking he's someone Jessica is abusing. This leads to \|\|her and a few other people nearly being hanged on Kilgrave's command, along with Kilgrave's escape, Hope's suicide, and the abduction of Kilgrave's father.\|\| * In The Incredible Hulk (1977), David Banner is a 2-in-1 spanner: he tends to accidentally stumble into some illegal activity going on. When the bad people in each episode try to get rid of him using violent methods, it leads him to transforming into the titular character, who is a big green spanner that ruins the schemes for good. Western Animation ----------------- * The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: In "Masters of Evil," Baron Zemo is thwarted because he didn't realize Black Panther and Hawkeye had joined the Avengers, and thus failed to take their presence into account when coming up with his plan to destroy the team. * Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends + Miss Lion, Aunt May's dog, in "Seven Little Superheroes". By tagging along with Peter Parker-as-Spider-Man on a trip to a mysterious island, she is able to foil The Chameleon's scheme to separately kill off Spidey, Iceman, Firestar, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Namor the Sub-Mariner and Shanna the She-Devil, particularly when she can sniff out evil drones disguised as various X-Men. + The episode "Spidey Goes Hollywood" had Mysterio's scheme to terminate the Spider-Friends unintentionally thwarted by the Hulk. ---	SpannerInTheWorks	null
LiveActionTV	# What Happened To The Mouse - Live-Action TV --- Works with their own pages -------------------------- * Jeremiah Doctor Who, partly as a result of its Long Runner status, has quite a few characters and plot points that were dropped with no resolution. * The fate of the Doctor's granddaughter Susan, his very first companion and only depicted blood relative, whom he never does return to despite his promise to do so one day at the end of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth". While she came back and met the Eighth Doctor in Big Finish Doctor Who, she hasn't reappeared later in his life, so what became of her after that, whether she was affected by the Last Great Time War, etc. may forever be a mystery — along with why audiences still haven't met other members of his family, in particular his first wife. + "The Empty Child" confirms that Susan is dead when Dr. Constantine says that he used to be a father and a grandfather but now he's neither, and the Doctor replies, "I know the feeling." However, we don't know for sure if she died in the Last Great Time War or if she died at some point before it. + The novelization of "Twice Upon a Time" finally provided some closure by revealing that the First Doctor did go back and see Susan and her family on one occasion between "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" and his regeneration. + Susan rejoins the Doctor in ''The Five Doctors''. Although she is visibly older, all we really know about her life since we last saw her is that she had not yet met the Fifth Doctor. The novelisation says that she had started a family in New London after the end of the Dalek invasion. + Zigzagged in the Fifteenth Doctor's run. \|\|Towards the end, he starts seeing visions of Susan in multiple episodes, hinting at her having some important part to play and suggesting the mouse may be about to return... and then his finale, in which a major plot element is the Doctor having a child despite all Time Lords being sterile, comes and goes without her even being mentioned.\|\| * "The Space Museum" has a scene where the Doctor obsesses about Ian losing a button from his cardigan, prompting Ian to ask the Doctor why he's always so interested in such trivial things. The Doctor tells him in a significant way that trivial things often lead to great discoveries. The button never comes up again. This was observed by Robert Shearman on a DVD special feature, where he called it "brilliant". * "The Time Warrior": We're introduced to the scullions who work in Irongron's castle, who get a significant scene discussing feminism with Sarah Jane. We see the Doctor go out of his way to evacuate Irongron's men, but we never see him go back for the women and they don't appear in later scenes. Sarah doesn't even express any concern about them. Did they get blown up? * In one late Fourth Doctor story, the Doctor puts a half-full cup of tea in his pocket for a Hammerspace gag. Fans at the time were perturbed by the fact that the cup of tea never showed up again. It was eventually turned into a Brick Joke when, in the final Doctor Who Missing Adventures book, the Doctor fished the cup of tea out of his pocket and drank it to reduce his stress! + This is also referenced in "The Witch's Familiar", where the Twelfth Doctor has mysteriously acquired a cup of tea despite being on Skaro at the time, and explains it only with "I'm the Doctor. Just accept it." * At the end of Season 26 Ace leaves with the Doctor, to have many more adventures ... but isn't there when he appears for the TV movie. When or how she left, or what she is doing now, is mostly unknown, though she's briefly mentioned in an episode of the spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures. But that same scene also leaves unanswered the questions of what became of Dodo post-"The War Machines" and Victoria post-"Fury from the Deep"! * Captain Jack's missing memories ... remember those? The two years of his life that the Time Agency stole? They were mentioned once and never again — on Doctor Who, anyway. They are actually mentioned a few times on Torchwood; most notably, Adam held the memories hostage. * "Boom Town": The trope is brought up by Blon while she's talking about the Doctor's habit of saving the day and swiftly departing, suggesting that he's afraid to see the potential consequences of his actions. The next episode would use this theme in a big way. * "The Girl in the Fireplace": Arthur the horse is never seen again after the Doctor leaves him in a Versailles ballroom. * "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood": The entire story falls into this trope. Although "The End of Time" reveals that a descendant of Joan Redfern wrote a book about John Smith and his Journal of Impossible Things, the Family's attack on the village, from the disappearances to an aerial bombardment, seems to have been missed by history. Was it covered up by the Torchwood Institute or the government? Eaten by the cracks in time? We don't know. * Jenny steals a ship and heads off to see the universe. We never see these adventures, and the Doctor doesn't know she's alive. + Jenny is seemingly obliquely referenced in the 2014 episode "Death in Heaven", where Clara, attempting to trick several Cybermen into thinking she is the Doctor, mentions a "non-Gallifreyan genetic daughter", suggesting that the Doctor eventually learned Jenny was alive. Several years later, she would receive her own Big Finish Doctor Who audio plays and meet the Twelfth Doctor in the Titan comic miniseries The Lost Dimension. * "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End": + Of the Doctor's former companions, Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Martha Jones, Donna Noble and Captain Jack Harkness are the only ones involved. The various others known to be alive and active at that time (per The Sarah Jane Adventures) are not mentioned, with it unknown what they were doing during the Dalek invasion. + It's not made clear what was happening on the dozens of other planets stolen by the Daleks. One comic published later in 2008, The Forgotten, provided some detail as to what happened on one of the other worlds. * "The End of Time": + The return of Gallifrey and the Time Lords brings with it a whole host of questions regarding various characters the Doctor left there, most prominently former companions Leela and Romana. Especially Romana, given the Expanded Universe and Word of God having it that she returned to Gallifrey and became Lady President — with possible Fridge Horror if the unnamed Time Lady Rassilon disintegrated was her. + Susan Foreman. The last we're told of her in the TV series is that she vanished, and the Seventh Doctor had no idea where she might be. Next thing, the Doctor's entire family is gone. When did she leave 22^nd^-century Earth anyway? + What happened to Borusa and his bas-relief mates when Rassilon emerged? (Novel Engines of War indicates that Borusa, at least, died shortly before the Time War ended.) + In the dénouement, Martha turns up married to Mickey. Last we heard of her relationship status she was engaged to Dr. Tom Milligan — where'd he go? * "The Eleventh Hour": + The duckless duckpond... which turns out to be Foreshadowing. + Amy's friend Jeff seems to be set up to help UNIT, or something similar, but he's never seen again. + The US airing has this with regards to BBC America cutting the change room scene out — the audience is left wondering where the Doctor got his outfit from. * "The Vampires of Venice": At the end, all the female "vampires" are gone, but there are still 10,000 male ones left on Earth, and neither the Doctor nor anyone else seems to care. * "The Lodger": The Doctor uses a cat in an attempt to safely find out what's going on in an upstairs flat. Many fans wondered about the fate of that cat after the first floor imploded. However, in the scene where the Doctor's seen talking to the cat, it's after the scouting mission upstairs, and the cat's telling the Doctor what it saw. Meaning the cat wasn't upstairs when the faux second floor vanished. * "Let's Kill Hitler": The TARDIS team accidentally saves Hitler's life, and when he proves too annoying, he's shoved into a cupboard and promptly forgotten. The rest of the episode is about River Song being badass. It's possible this is an intentional invocation of this trope, subverting expectations that the story would be yet another Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act affair. > Rory: [completely stunned] Does anybody else find this day just a bit difficult? I'm getting a sort of banging in my head. > Amy: Yeah, I think that's Hitler in the cupboard. * 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor": + The special has two plots; the Time War and a Zygon invasion that ends with a peace treaty being negotiated. The latter is dropped partway through and not resolved until two years later. + The Moment superweapon who had been guiding the War Doctor via Interface with a Familiar Face completely disappears from the plot after the three Doctors agree to not use it for the destruction of Gallifrey as neither the box nor its interface as Bad Wolf are seen again. Word of God is that she was meant to have a chat with the Eleventh Doctor in the wrap-up scene at the National Gallery but once they had secured Tom Baker to make a cameo as \|\|the Curator\|\|, that narrative role was given over to Baker at the cost of dropping the Moment's involvement in the story. * "The Time of the Doctor": At the climax, Clara runs out on her family in the middle of Christmas dinner because the TARDIS has materialized in the field outside her apartment building. At the end of "Deep Breath", the following episode, the Doctor drops her back on Earth — in Glasgow, almost the other end of Great Britain (Clara lives in London), on what is certainly not Christmas Day 2013-ish. Her family's reaction to this is never mentioned. * "The Woman Who Lived": In the climax, Sam Swift the good-natured highwayman is given the second Mire medkit to both save his life and defeat the Monster of the Week with life energy. Afterward, Ashildr/Lady Me and the Doctor discuss what might happen to him — he may or may not have been immortalized the way she was with the first medkit, given the different circumstances of his revival. Later in the season \|\|the Doctor and Ashildr cross paths again centuries and then eons later\|\|, but Sam Swift is never mentioned once, much less his ultimate fate. * "Hell Bent": At the end, \|\|the Only Mostly Dead Clara Oswald and Ashildr/Me, who for bonus points are both functional immortals\|\|, head off to explore the universe in \|\|their own TARDIS\|\|. Although \|\|Clara\|\| appears again in "Twice Upon a Time" in a context implying that \|\|she eventually went to the trap street to meet her death\|\|, we never hear about what happened to \|\|Ashildr and that TARDIS\|\|. * In Series 10, the Doctor is moonlighting as a professor at St. Luke's University in Bristol because he swore an oath to guard the Vault (containing \|\|Missy\|\|) for 1,000 years and has to stay in one place. At the beginning of "World Enough and Time", he takes Bill, Nardole and \|\|Missy\|\| on a trip as a test for the latter. The episode kickstarts a series of events that leads to the Doctor regenerating and seriously unlikely to return to the university. Since the Doctor had been there for decades by then, one wonders what the staff and students thought of the disappearance of that particularly long-tenured professor. * "Arachnids in the UK" ends with multiple threads hanging: + The spiders in Anna's apartment are never dealt with onscreen. + It is never explained how a giant spider ended up in Graham's house, when neither he, Ryan or Grace have any connection to the university lab. How many other mutated spiders were outside hunting when the Doctor trapped the main nest, and how many are still roaming around Sheffield? Given that part of what drove their actions was the mutated pheromones of the mother spider, they may simply die out naturally. + Graham and Ryan go to some trouble to catch a spider for Jade to study. She promptly sends them off to see if there are more spiders of the same size, and the spider they caught plays no further role in the storyline. + There's no indication that Robertson, or anyone else, will do anything about the pile of mutagenic goo beneath his hotel. + We never learn if the Doctor found the Khans' missing package in Anna's flat. * "Spyfall": + It's not entirely made clear if Barton's Frame-Up of Ryan, Graham and Yaz as plane hijackers was cleared up, or how it was done if it was. Game of Thrones * Arya Stark is an in-universe example. While the audience knows where she is, aside from Tyrion's brief mention that they need to keep the Starks thinking she's in their custody, how the Lannisters managed to cover up her escape isn't particularly elaborated on. However they did it, it seems to be working, since despite the overactive rumour mill present in King's Landing, no-one seems to have noticed that Arya has not been seen for about a year and a half now! By Season 4, the secret seems to be formally "out" (there's no way they could keep it from the Tyrells), but nobody cares anymore since the world at large assumes that the Starks have been completely annihilated. Even Arya is said to be "presumed dead". * Rickon Stark, in-universe, after Bran sends Rickon and Osha to the Umbers. Roose on learning of the survival of the youngest Stark children assumes that they must have died since none of the other Northern lords has seen or heard of them. His fate is confirmed both in-universe and out when Smalljon Umber hands him over to Ramsay Bolton. * Ghost disappears and is nowhere to be seen for much in Season 6 after Jon returns to the North. This is revealed to be because of a budgeting issue: they only had enough money for either Wun Wun the giant or Ghost, not both. They chose Wun Wun, so Ghost isn't there for a while. Presumably, now that Wun Wun is dead, Ghost can come back. * Steelshanks appeared in only one series and hasn't been seen since. With the destruction of House Bolton in the Battle of the Bastards, he may be the Sole Survivor of the Bolton leadership. * In Season 2, we at least know the Greatjon is waging war in the Riverlands, but there's been no word on his fate following the Red Wedding. By Season 6, it appears he died somehow. Clive Mantle apparently had serious difficulties meeting the show's schedule, until they finally just killed him offscreen. * Margaery Tyrell mentions a cousin named Allana. In Season 6, Marge and Loras are Mace Tyrell's only heirs. * In Season 6, Sansa and Theon are running from 6 Bolton soldiers and they end up captured by men with tracking dogs. Suddenly Brienne and Podrick arrive and slay 4 soldiers, one is killed by Theon. But... what happened to remaining man and the dogs? It's like they just vanished the moment the fight started. * Later in Season 6, Jon and Sansa try to convince the Northern lords to fight at their side against the Boltons and their allies. For some reason, Howland Reed, who was Eddard's friend and his loyal bannerman, doesn't send any men and we don't even know if the Starks even bothered to contact him. The Boltons don't mention him either. After the battle, Sansa summons all the lords of the North to Winterfell — Lord Reed doesn't show up, but nobody seems to care. * Euron tells Yara in Season 8 that they are the only Greyjoys left alive, save for Theon. What happened to Aeron is not explained. * Tolliver (Littlefinger's gay Honey Trap) is last seen testifying against his lover Ser Loras and is never seen again. There are plenty of these throughout Merlin (2008). The most egregious examples: * Hunith — when Agravaine's men attack Ealdor, the heroes rush off and she abruptly disappears from the story. * Lady Vivian — is she still under that Love Potion spell? * Alvarr and Enmyria — the former escapes Camelot and the latter evades the knights in the forest, but neither are ever seen again. * Tristan — disappears completely after Isolde dies. * Sefa — where'd she go after escaping into the forest? * Aithusa, the white dragon. It would appear that the writers introduced this character without having the slightest idea of what they planned to do with it. It disappeared for long stretches of time without explanation, we never get any clear answer on why it allied itself with Morgana, it never does anything particularly important or interesting, and in the Grand Finale, Merlin banishes it within the first minute of the episode to never be seen or mentioned again. It is, however, useful in that it helped Morgana create the sword used to \|\|kill Arthur.\|\| * There's a literal example in "Valiant". Merlin watches as Valiant gleefully feeds a live mouse to the snakes that inhabit his shield. Valiant realises he's being watched, draws his sword and leaves the room. The mouse just disappears. This is pointed out on the audio commentary, where it's suggested that Valiant ate it himself. * In "The Once And Future Queen", King Odin sends an assassin to Camelot in order to kill Prince Arthur. The assassin is helped in his search for Arthur by an informant who lives in the castle (or at least has easy access to its interior) and feeds him information. Who he was and where he went afterwards is never elaborated upon. * The secret room that Merlin discovers in "Goblin's Gold", which is filled with magical books and paraphernalia, but is never revisited or explained. * In "The Coming of Arthur, Part I", Arthur is hit in the leg with a poisoned dart. Throughout the rest of the episode he struggles with it until finally he gets Gaius the physician to give him a tonic to numb the pain. Gaius warns him that it'll only last for a short while. However, the episode ends before the tonic wears out and the second part of the episode opens a week later. The injury is never addressed again. Presumably Gaius healed it in the interim, but it was still odd that such a big deal was made of it only for nothing to ever come of it. * In "The Hunter's Heart" Agravaine plants a fake letter on the dead body of a scribe he's just killed. It's given to Gaius, who openly states that there's something "very wrong" with it, but this is never addressed. * In "Arthur's Bane, Part I" the tower of Ismere is guarded by several wolves that are apparently controlled by Morgana. One of them somehow manages to render Gwaine unconscious (off-screen), but their presence and abilities are never explained and they disappear halfway through the episode. * In "The Death Song of Uther Pendragon", Arthur prevents an accused witch from being burnt at the stake. She dies soon after, but her status as a witch and the issues raised by Arthur's actions are never questioned. * Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers + Happens in multiple episodes. A random but supposedly powerful McGuffin is introduced, and told to possess magnificent power. But after the plot of the episode is resolved, the McGuffin is never seen of mentioned again. Examples include the Power Eggs and the Sword of Power. + Scorpina after the first season. She seemed to have just left Rita's employ without any explanation, and although she did work once for Lord Zedd after he took over, she was never seen after that. (There was a logical explanation, just not an in-universe one: Saban had intended to keep her as a recurring character for Season 2, potrayed by actress Sabrina Lu — having run out of the original footage of the character — but were unable to retain Lu for more than one episode and were unable to find a replacement in time to film the character's further appearances, so the character was just dropped.) + Whatever happened to Alpha 5's teddy bear? * Power Rangers Zeo + The whereabouts of Trini and Zack, who departed in season 2 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, are never given. However, with Zack (and Billy) indicated to be returning for the 30th anniversary (along with Billy), it's likely that we'll find out. Trini, if the the manual is to be believed, outlived her actress Thuy Trang, who died in a car accident. Given that she shared a power set with Aisha Campbell, it is entirely possible that it's Aisha in the suit. + Ninjor was introduced in season 3 of Mighty Morphin as the creator of the Power Coins and a powerful ally to the Rangers. He is last mentioned as having retreated back to his temple in part 2 of "A Zeo Beginning" and is never seen nor mentioned after that. + Tommy's long-lost brother David disappears from the show even before Zeo ends, being last mentioned in "The Joke's On Blue". His ultimate fate remains unknown, even in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder where Tommy returns as a series regular. * Power Rangers Turbo + After leaving for Eltar with Zordon in Power Rangers, Alpha 5 is never so much as alluded to ever again, even when Eltar is taken over and Zordon captured. Fanon holds he died during the attack, and granted the second-gen Turbo Rangers never met him outside of the transfer of power episode, but still ... you'd figure a character like him would get some sort of closure. + Also happens with Dimitria (from Power Rangers Turbo) and Auric the Conqueror (from Power Rangers Zeo). Auric is driven off by Rita's Impursonator monster and then is never seen or mentioned again. Dimitria leaves Earth along with the Blue Senturion to go save Zordon (whose planet is under attack), but while the Blue Senturion is later shown fighting the Machine Empire during Power Rangers in Space, Dimitria is never seen again. Which is weird, considering that the last episode of In Space heavily implies that she and Divatox are, in fact, sisters-which was a dropped plotline from Power Rangers Turbo, where Dimitria is stated to have a twin sister that vanished when they were both infants. + One other example is the Phantom Ranger — he's present throughout a good amount of Turbo, and a few episodes of In Space, yet after Countdown to Destruction, he seemingly vanishes, despite the fact that Lost Galaxy, which resolves a few remaining plot threads, would've been an ideal time to address his fate. It's worth noting that had Fox Kids not cut the finale of In Space to 2 episodes (it was planned as a 3-parter), his identity would've been revealed. + While Tommy and Kat's absences were explained as them moving to another city or country for further education, Rocky, Adam, and Tanya's fates after they step down as Rangers were never elaborated on. Adam's appearances in In Space and Operation Overdrive imply he never left Angel Grove. We finally get an answer in the 30th anniversary special, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always: Adam and Aisha work for S.P.A., S.P.D.'s predecessor. Rocky became a firefighter (and the Running Gag with his lunch continues). Tanya is a notable exception, though the fact that the Yellow Zeo Ranger is among the captives taken by the villains suggests that she still has her powers. * Power Rangers in Space + The ultimate fates of Goldar, Scorpina, Rito Revolto, Finster, Squatt, and Baboo are unknown. Were they among those destroyed, or among those purified? If they were purified, where are they now? For that matter, while we eventually see that Rita became the Mystic Mother, we have yet to see what happened to Zedd post-purification. (Naturally, some speculate that he became a rabbi) - Like the MMPR example above, a logical explanation exists: some of the monster suits became unusable over time. But an in-universe explanation was never given. - In the Power Rangers Beast Morphers episode "Grid Connection", Jason confirms Goldar's destruction when Devon tells him about him beating down the other Rangers as he states that Zordon's wave destroyed him. - Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon confirms that Finster was turned good by the Z-Wave and began leading a quiet life as a regular artist. \|\|It also shows that Scorpina survived too and is the Big Bad of the comic.\|\| + The video game Power Rangers Super Legends covered Zedd in detail, showing that he was re-corrupted by his past self thanks to a Time Crystal and ended up getting trapped in a Place Beyond Time, where it will take him eons to escape. Another video game indicates that he became an archeologist. * Power Rangers Cosmic Fury wraps up the 30-year shared universe with a neat bow — with one notable exception. Scrozzle ditches Bajillia and vanishes from the story altogether, making him the only villain not to be defeated or killed by the series's end. Stargate is generally known for averting this with Call Backs and reappearances, but with 3 movies and 17 seasons across 3 shows, there are still a number of examples. Characters and entire races/factions/planets have appeared, made an impact with potential for more, then vanished: * The Goa'uld named Lord Zipacna, a minor noble working for the System Lords, shows up in two episodes. In his first appearance (remembered for the atrocious costume he was wearing consisting of a Hawaiian shirt and straw hat), he works for Apophis and his son Klorel. He tries to destroy the Tollan and fails. He's seen a few seasons later, working for Anubis, where he recruits Osiris to be Anubis' Dragon and kills 90% of the Tok'ra, and after that, he's never seen again. A poison is unleashed on his troops on the planet, but as Zipacna was aboard his ship in orbit, even inferring his death seems to be unwarranted. The only major long-term effect was to introduce the fan community to Kevin Durand. * The Nox, who are shown to have been at one point one of the 4 most advanced races in the universe, appear in few episodes (their introductory one, and two others where, incidentally, the Tollan and Zipacna are respectively introduced) and are never seen or heard from again. Evidently, the Nox are so pacifistic they would not lift a finger to fight against their own extinction if they had to, and they are really good at hiding. * The Re'tu are a species of aliens that are naturally invisible, highly resistant to conventional weapons and technologically advanced. After the Goa'uld attacked them, a splinter faction formed which decided to fight back by simply eradicating all suitable potential hosts for the Goa'uld. The episode that introduces the Re'tu ends with a warning that they will continue trying to attack Earth. They never appear again. + Charlie, a little boy created by the Re'tu to act as envoy to the humans. He's sent to the Tok'ra to become a host as he's very sick and would not have survived otherwise. It's never shown if he survived the many massacres the Tokra endured. + Strangely, though the Re'tu are never seen again, they are mentioned practically every instance when someone is attacked by something invisible or when there is a threat of unknown origin. * Nem and the Oannes. A race of creature that look like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Very advanced, and enemies of the Goa'uld, who agree they could help Earthlings fight the Goa'uld. They are never seen again, apparently written off as Early-Installment Weirdness. + The RPG states the System Lords had already basically wiped out or enslaved the rest of his race. + Given that the rest of his race are presumed long-dead and that Daniel regretfully informed him that his mate was dead, which seems to have been the only thing that had kept him going for thousands of years... it's entirely possible Nem might have been Driven to Suicide after the team left. * The Hebridan, a race so advanced they defeated the Goa'uld in their sector of space. Being capitalist, they agree to trade some technology with Earth and show once more for a Race In Space. They are never seen again, except for a brief mention that their planet was conquered by the Ori in Season 10. Nothing is seen of their technology either. * Athar a.k.a. Chaya Sar, an Ascended Ancient whom the Atlantis expedition meet. She was forced by the other ancients to forever protect a planet. She and Sheppard had the ascended equivalent of sex, and she's never heard from again. * The Foothold Aliens from the episode of the same name in SG-1. Their tech shows up again a couple times, but they themselves don't. + Implied during the episode that the aliens were looking for a new home, inviting the possibility that their homeworld might have been dying or wiped out. * There are a few random spaceships clearly controlled by powerful and unfamiliar alien races that help structure the plot of an episode and then disappear, never mentioned again. "Grace" and "Enemies Part Two" are notable examples. * The episode "New Ground" results in Nyan returning with SG-1 to Earth in the episode's climax and becoming Daniel's new research assistant at the SGC. He is never seen or mentioned even once after this. * Furlings. + Though the Furlings were never shown at all, which is Lampshaded a couple times by O'Neill, and culminating with an implied explanation/self parody in "200" where they are basically shown to be Ewoks. The point it seemed to make was that the name Furlings was so ridiculous, nothing the show could come up with would work. + While the Furlings themselves never appear, several technologies the team encounters are attributed to them. Most notably the Touchstone from the episode of the same name, and the portal arch in Paradise Lost. * The Oranians, of whom we only see two specific bounty hunters. * The mysterious aliens from the Stargate Atlantis episode "The Daedalus Variations", who appear in an alternate reality as being at war with Atlantis. Presumably they would have been an enemy in the sixth season, but the show was canceled before they could be explored any further. * Jonas Quinn and his planet Langara are hardly ever brought up after he leaves. It's namechecked as falling to the Ori in Season 10, and eventually shows up in a late episode of Stargate Universe, but Jonas himself is conspicuously absent in an episode that features two prior main characters. Given what they did to his planet in that episode, it's probably a good thing. * Sarah Gardner, an old love interest of Daniel who became the unwilling host to Osiris. She shows up in a handful of episodes, and they catch her and get the symbiote removed. The last scene is of her waking up traumatized and Daniel hugging her. She isn't even mentioned after that. * The Omeyocan in "Crystal Skull". Apparently enemies of the Goa'uld, and possessing a network of crystal skulls that can transport without the need for a stargate. They appear for approximately one episode offering to help mankind, and never appear again. * Star Trek: The Original Series: + "Miri" begins with the Enterprise crew making the astonishing discovery of a planet identical to Earth. They beam down to investigate, and get caught up in a plot about a plague that kills adults and leaves children alive. This presents a mystery and danger that is duly solved. The episode ends without any further mention of the fact that the planet is identical to Earth. + "Identical to Earth" seems to apply to a lot of planets in TOS, down to flyby scenes where the planet model is very similar to earth. The only two that were ever really made a big deal of was a planet that had fought World War 3 in the 1960s rather than the 90s (post-retcon 21st century), and in another episode there's even a human on an "identical to earth" planet, and it's revealed "his" earth (he even calls it HIS) exists mostly in another dimension. It's enough to make one wonder if this was just a plot point the writers liked to throw around or if it was actually just a term for "earth-like." + In "And the Children Shall Lead", a couple of security men are beamed down to relieve the ones left on the planet earlier. When an attempt to beam up the earlier team fails, it turns out that that the ship is no longer in orbit (and we just saw two Red Shirts beamed into empty space). There's no mention of going back to retrieve the men who are still on the planet, and we never do find out what happened to them. * Star Trek: The Next Generation: + In "The Big Goodbye", a minor character is shot while trapped on the holodeck with the main cast, and Dr. Crusher says that they have to get him to sick bay by a certain time or he'll die. We never learn what happens to the wounded man. An especially frustrating incidence of this trope, because one sentence of dialogue could have resolved everything. The character may show up alive and well in one of the novels. + TNG also has Silva LaForge, Geordi's mom. Her ship mysteriously vanished, and Geordi nearly loses his mind to the mysterious gadget of the week in his attempts to find out what happened to her. After the incident, he accepts her loss, in a manner that makes the episode seem like a Know When to Fold 'Em plot. The actual fate of the Hera is not touched upon in any way — no clues, no evidence for them being dead or alive, and it's never addressed again.(Until the Star Trek Novel 'Verse, though that isn't canon to the series.) + In a sense, this trope is deconstructed in the Season 6 episode "Ship in a Bottle". The holographic Professor Moriarty from Season 2's "Elementary, Dear Data" gets accidentally revived, having been fully conscious of waiting in the nothingness of the holodeck's systems and disappointed with Picard not making good upon his promise to extend his life beyond the holodeck, prompting him to seize control of the Enterprise unless Picard conceives of a way to do so for himself and his holographic Love Interest, Countess Regina. - And what happened after the destruction of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek: Generations? Was Moriarty destroyed in the Stardrive Section, or was he in the Saucer Section and later recovered? Or was he simply left behind and doomed to oblivion, as Voyager revealed that without regular maintenance, holodeck programs left continuously running will eventually develop fatal system errors? - Moriarty is mentioned in Star Trek: Picard 30 years after "Ship in a Bottle", but his fate isn't addressed. \|\|The Moriarty in episode 6, played again by Daniel Davis, is a manifestation of Data's subconscious.\|\| + What became of Wesley after he took off with the Traveler? - Wesley's fate is eventually shown with a with a brief cameo near the end of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 where he appears to be a full Traveler. - Star Trek: Nemesis he is at Riker and Troi's wedding in full dress uniform. Meaning that he either relinquished his powers and was forgiven by Starfleet or he was pulling a Q and was simply dressed as an officer to blend in. Which is the most likely? that depends how likely you think it is that an explorer would willingly give up the ability to travel near instantaneously to any point in the universe. - In a deleted scene, Wesley tells Picard that he'll be serving on the Titan as member of the night shift in Engineering, so he really is a Starfleet officer now, despite having resigned from the Academy before graduating. Fridge Logic: During the Dominion War, Starfleet suffered from a manpower shortage and resorted to promoting Academy cadets directly to active duty without requiring them to graduate. Given Wesley's extensive experience on board Enterprise, Starfleet would not have turned him away if he had reappeared and offered to enlist. + Pretty much the case with Sela, the half-Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar. Sela is introduced in the two-parter "Redemption", much to the surprise of Picard and his crew (and the audience, as her reveal was the season-ending cliffhanger between Part 1 and 2), however, by the next episode, she is all but forgotten. She appears once again, in another two-parter, "Unification", where her role could be filled by any generic Villain-of-the-Week Romulan baddie, and is never seen or heard from again afterwards. + "Conspiracy" and "Schisms" ended with suggestions that the aliens defeated in those episodes could return. They never did.(In the case of the latter episode, it was deliberate — the staff was unhappy about how the aliens appeared, due to a budget cut, and so said the hell with it.) - The Conspiracy aliens became a case of an Aborted Arc. The episodes that were originally planned to bring them back instead replaced them with the Borg. + A minor one in Season 2's "The Royale": The away team is trapped in the artificial reality of a 20th Century hotel from a pulp novel about a mobster, a copy of which they find in one of the rooms. Riker mentions that mobster Mickey D shows up towards the end and murders a bellboy, and sure enough, they actually witness that happen later on. He also mentions a subplot about a woman and her lover plotting to kill her husband, but that one never comes up again. Since the novel is supposed to be horrible (so horrible that the dead astronaut whose belongings it was found among felt that his survival in the novel's simulation was A Fate Worse Than Death), this is likely an example of Stylistic Suck. + In "Rightful Heir", the clone of Kahless is said to have become a considerable influence within the Klingon Empire, yet he is never seen or heard from again, except for a short mention in DS9's "The Way of the Warrior" and a slightly longer one in "The Sword of Kahless". + The lonely insectoid child Barash, in "Future Imperfect", who is responsible for Riker's abduction and subsequent imprisonment in various holographic scenarios, is brought back aboard the Enterprise as a guest at the end of the episode, never to be seen or heard from again. + In "The Bonding", Worf performs a traditional Klingon bonding ritual with Jeremy Aster, an orphaned 12-year-old boy, and makes him a member of the House of Mogh. However, he is never seen or heard from again. + In "True Q", Amanda Rogers is revealed to be a member of the Q Continuum, and possess omnipotent powers. At the end of the episode, she promises the crew that she will return, but she is never seen or heard from again. + In "Force of Nature", researchers prove that warp engines could be dangerous to the fabric of the universe, and a warp 5 speed limit is introduced by the Federation. However, except for a few passing mentions in the following episodes, this is never brought up again in TNG or any other Star Trek series on-screen; however, the writer's bible for Star Trek: Voyager reveals that Voyager's hinge-mounted nacelles were to mitigate the damage. * Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: + In "Homefront", we learn that changeling infiltrators have managed to reach Earth when they bomb a diplomatic conference in Antwerp. The plot quickly shifts focus to Captain Sisko trying to prevent a Starfleet coup against the Federation president and the changeling infiltrators pretty much disappear from the story. It's never revealed whether they were eventually caught or not. It's never entirely clear if they were even responsible (although they're definitely present); the episode's human antagonist was launching a series of false flag attacks. + Will Riker's "transporter twin", Tom Riker from the TNG episode "Second Chances" re-appears in "Defiant", where it's revealed that he deserted and joined the Maquis. At the end of the episode, he is captured by the Cardassians, however his fate is never revealed. In fact, the producers told pitching writers they do not accept Tom Riker stories. * This happened many times on Star Trek: Voyager, likely due to the production team simply forgetting about prior plot threads that were set up in earlier episodes: + The Caretaker's "mate" was a plotline that was screaming for a follow-up — at the end of the episode, the mate, Suspiria, vows revenge on Voyager and disappears. She never appears again in the rest of the series. + Neelix's sensor data from "The Voyager Conspiracy" is never elaborated or followed-up on (which concerns a fully-armed Cardassian warship gallivanting around in the Delta Quadrant, and the tractor beam which pulled the reactor room out of the Caretaker's array before it exploded). That information was chalked up to Seven simply going crazy from trying to continuously process data. + The Borg baby, picked up (along with several other assimilated children) midway through the series, and promptly forgotten about after a scene where the Doctor runs a diagnostic scan on her. According to DVD Commentary, the show's writers apparently thought they had delivered the baby back to her parents right afterwards, even though this was never stated in the episode (or the later-season episode where Icheb stays and the three other children are reunited with their parents). + The Vaadwaur, introduced in the Season 6 episode "Dragon's Teeth" were originally planned to be recurring antagonists, however, they never appeared again on the show. + Ensign Samantha Wildman played a major supporting role in the early seasons, as she gave birth to a daughter named Naomi, who would grow to school age within a year or two thanks to Bizarre Half-Alien Biology and become one of Voyager's most enduring recurring characters. The same could not be said for her mother: in one episode, Naomi must deal with the uncertainty surrounding a dangerous mission her mother may not survive. Happily, she does survive and the episode ends with mother and daughter reunited, but in a weird situation, Samantha never appeared again; while her daughter mentions her with some regularity as being alive, Naomi is basically treated like a ward of the crew, and Seven of Nine in particular. Samantha is not entirely forgotten: she is mentioned as having returned to Earth with the rest of the crew in the finale, and she even appeared in a flashback to the first year of Voyager's journey. This last point is perhaps the oddest one of all, since the actress was still available for the flashback, it almost seems like the show's staff couldn't always remember whether she was meant to still be alive. + An interesting subversion occurred with Joe Carey, the former chief engineer who was replaced by B'Elanna Torres in the third episode of the series. Carey is last seen confined to his quarters during an investigation before disappearing altogether (with the exception of appearances in time-travel episodes focusing on Voyager's past, similar to Wildman above). There are several episodes where Torres is absent and someone else is in charge of engineering, leading the assumption that he'd died or was confined to his quarters for several years. Then, in Season 7's "Friendship One," he is revealed to have been onboard the ship the whole time just before he's killed to establish the threat of the week. + Fairhaven, a holodeck program that Voyager ran without stop for one episode. After the characters in the program became aware of their true nature and of Voyager's crew, it was promised that the program would be kept running and that they would still all be friends. It is never seen or heard from again. Possibly forgotten on purpose in order to avoid turning into a clone of the infamous Vic Fontaine from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. + One could infer that in-universe, Neelix was left wondering this after Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant and Seven never contacted him for their game of Kadis-kot. + In "Equinox", Voyager encounters the Starfleet ship Equinox, the crew of which ends up screwing Voyager over, using a sentient alien race as a power source to get home faster, and in general acts disgracefully. At the end, Janeway strips the surviving crew members of all rank, tells them their privileges will be restricted, they'll be closely supervised, and they'll have to earn trust from then on. They apparently disappear forever, and no mention is made of them or whether they eventually redeem themselves or get pushed out an airlock or what, although given how quickly the Maquis were integrated into the crew it's likely the same happened with them, only into much more junior unseen positions. + The show ended with no permanent solution ever having been found to the matter of the gaseous creature the crew housed in one of the lower decks (that is, if it even existed; Neelix may well have made it up). The episode in question does, however, imply they released it into a nebula similar to the one it came from. + One episode ends with the EMH finding out that Janeway has a fever, but she convinces him to solve his existential crisis before treating her. In the next episode, she seems fine, so we never find out what was going on there. * Star Trek: Enterprise; + In the pilot episode, the crew acquire a Suliban cell-ship, which is used once in the later episode "The Communicator" to rescue captured officers on a pre-warp planet, and is never mentioned again. + In the episode "Damage", Archer is forced by circumstances to steal a warp coil from an Illyrian ship, leaving them stranded 3 years from home. That the Illyrians' fate is unresolved in that episode is dramatically necessary. Oddly however, once diplomatic relations with the Xindi improve in future episodes, Archer apparently doesn't bother to ask them to assist the Illyrians. + In "Singularity", a nebula makes everyone except T'Pol and Travis obsess over something — Archer with writing a prefix, Trip with fixing his chair, Malcolm with making an alarm system, Phlox with trying to find out why Travis has a headache, and Hoshi with trying to perfect a soup recipe. When they go back to normal, Phlox treats Travis and the other men finish their projects, but we never find out if Hoshi perfected her recipe or why Travis had a headache. + In "The Seventh", Phlox tells Trip, who is in command, that a virus is on the ship and the only vaccine causes gastrointestinal symptoms and headaches. We never find out if Trip okayed the vaccine, or if the virus spread. * To defend the franchise, some of these issues were addressed in spin-off novels; at least one of the Earth-like planets was an alternate Earth taken from its own parallel universe by accident, Thomas Riker spends some time in prison before becoming part of some Starfleet black ops missions, Amanda Rogers makes return appearances, environmentally-safe warp drives were invented (with Voyager one of the first ships to use such systems), Sela and Emperor Kahless pay key roles in various later storylines, etc. * Two of the iconic iterations of the starship Enterprise currently have their fates undisclosed in canon— the Excelsior refit Enterprise-B, and the Sovereign class Enterprise-E. The former only appeared in Star Trek: Generations and never again after that, with only soft-canon novels claiming she was lost in 2329 when her crew contracted a plague. As for the E, aside from a very brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in Star Trek: Prodigy, she hasn't been seen in full since Star Trek: Nemesis, and Star Trek: Picard had already replaced her with the Enterprise-F by the time the show wrapped. Geordi implies Worf was responsible for her fate, but doesn't go into details. * 24 did this constantly, due at least in part to the fact that it was tough to resolve every problem over the course of a single day. Then again, it's partly just that the writers don't really seem to care about their secondary characters (and most fans reasoned that they would reappear later in the series, given that the producers had a tendency for doing this with other characters). Major examples include: + Martin Belkin, the assassin hired to kill David Palmer at an early-morning rally in the first season. Belkin is apparently so hardcore that he had plastic surgery to make himself look like a recently-deceased amateur photographer. Belkin is stopped by Jack Bauer, who uses a diversion to get Palmer out of the building. Belkin, who is later seen identified by CTU, is never found again. There was nothing stopping him from getting plastic surgery and going after Palmer again anytime thereafter, in any of the seasons that followed. + In Season 5, Wayne Palmer and Jack discover that a key piece of evidence is kept in a bank's safe deposit box. Since there is a curfew, the banks are closed and time is of the essence, they decide to pretend to be bank robbers and kidnap the manager. They get to his house, take him hostage and tie up and gag his wife. Later, the manager recognizes Wayne, prompting them to reveal the actual plan, and then get his support. Once they get the evidence, a bunch of Mooks working for The Dragon storm the bank and the manager is killed in the crossfire. The question is: what the hell happened to his wife? * In the final episode of The 10th Kingdom, the trolls are knocked out, and just disappear from the story. In the novelisation (based on an earlier version of the script) Tony speaks up for them and they just get sent home, presumably to reappear in the sequel that never happened. * The 4400: Throughout the first season, Diana drops hints about her bad relationship with her father. She even calls him in the pilot episode when she thinks the world is ending. You never find out what happened between them, and he is never mentioned again. * According to Jim: In "The Cat Came Back" the family acquires a new dog Jim names Gary Sinise. He appears in a few episodes and then disappears without any explanation (although a bag of dog food can be seen in the background of several episodes after that) * The Addams Family has the Amnesia Episode "Amnesia in the Addams Family", in which Gomez acquires amnesia from accidentally hitting himself on the head with a club. He is cured by \|\|being chased by Fester, who ends up accidentally being hit on the head, being knocked out and in the process, knocking out Gomez and curing him. At the end, Uncle Fester can be heard saying, "Who's Fester?" He identifies as Fester in the next episode, so it's unknown how he got better, or if he was joking.\|\| * In American Horror Story: Asylum, Pepper vanishes partway through "Nor'easter". No one comments on this, or really seems to notice. \|\|She shows up again in "The Coat Hanger". It turns out she was abducted by the same aliens who abducted Kit, Alma, and Grace.\|\| * In the Angel episode "Quickening", a minor character working in Wolfram & Hart's mail room is revealed to be a follower of a powerful rival demon who, unlike the higher people in the corporate hierarchy, knew ahead of time that the baby Connor was the fulfillment of an apocalyptic prophecy. After the scene in which he makes this phone call, we never see him again, nor is the demon ("Master Tarfall, Underlord of Pain") ever mentioned outside this one incident. * In As Time Goes By, Lionel's father, Rocky, is diagnosed as terminally ill during the third series; Lionel says "he'll be lucky to last a year". However, the writers apparently decided they'd rather not kill him off. The program lasted several more years, but the possibility of Rocky's death was quietly dropped. * In The Avengers (1960s) episode "Too Many Christmas Trees", the individuals involved in the elaborate psychic espionage scheme are Martin Trasker, Jeremy Wade, Jenkins the butler, visiting psychic Janis Crane, and "Father Christmas" (who turns out to be \|\|publisher Brandon Storey\|\|). Wade is killed off when he gets cold feet about the scheme and plans to spill the beans to Mrs. Peel. In the final showdown with Steed and Mrs. Peel, Trasker is knocked out, while Jenkins and "Father Christmas" are shot. We never find out what happens to Janis Crane. * Babylon 5: + Lennier abruptly departed from the show in the penultimate episode. He is the only major character whose fate at the end of the series remains unknown. The fact that in "Sleeping in Light", Sheridan lists him as an "absent friend" alongside Londo, G'Kar and Marcus suggests he's apparently dead. The plot outline for the Telepath War bluntly states that Lyta and Lennier die during it. \|\|The Crusade episode The Path of Sorrows was originally scripted with Lyta playing the imprisoned telepath who died destroying the Psi Corp base, but budget constraints made employing Patricia Tallman impossible.\|\| + Lt. Commander Laurel Takashima, the station's first executive officer in the pilot episode, just vanished without a trace and was never referred to again (except once, not by name and obliquely). + Possibly the ultimate example is Justin, an apparently major and important character, an old human man who is Sheridan's opposite number amongst the Shadows and revealed to be the more familiar recurring villain Morden's boss, as well as the originator of the plan to use Sheridan's wife against him. Justin not only vanished without explanation (presumed killed in the nuclear blast, but since Morden survived Justin may have as well) but showed up with absolutely no explanation either except the foreshadowing dream that mentioned "the man inbetween". He is one of the show's biggest outstanding mysteries. According to Word of God, it was planned that Justin would make more appearances, but Real Life intervened. Legendary character actor Jeff Corey, who played Justin, was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments for lung cancer, which rendered him too weak to work. By the time Corey was back in (relatively) good health, the show was off the air. Corey succumbed to the cancer five years later, in 2002. + Sinclair's fiancée (who he proposed to at the end of Season 1!), is never seen or mentioned on the show again. The supplemental material provides a fate for her. * Battlestar Galactica (2003): + Leoben, the first humanoid cylon ever revealed to the colonial fleet. Leoben initially had a pivotal role in Starbuck's character development. It's Leoben who first claims Kara is "special" and that she has great importance to the future of human and machine kind. Kara and Leoben's relationship goes through many phases as Leoben tries to convert her to his personal religious theories. Starbuck even has a vision of Leoben that results in her finding the way to Earth. Then halfway through Season 4, Leoben gets kicked to the curb. Starbuck remains important, but Leoben is not seen again except for a brief line in the final episode, and at that point there's no telling if that was even the same Leoben. Leoben and Starbuck are never seen together after the discovery of "Earth." Although the scene was deleted, there was an occasion where the \|\|rebel\|\| Cylons are discussing things and Leoben says "The Sixes and I are in agreement," leaving the viewer with the implication that \|\|the other Leobens have all been killed by Cavil's forces and that Leoben is the last of the model, which is why there are no Leobens seen elsewhere in the fleet until the finale.\|\| + Bulldog, a recon pilot that was involved in an incident which may or may not have triggered the second Cylon war is released and allowed to escape to Galactica. It is implied that the Cylons let him escape so he'd find out the truth and kill Commander Adama. After his debut episode, Bulldog is never seen again. + Boxey, a boy Boomer rescues from Caprica. He managed to last all the way into the first episode, with deleted scenes in the next. Plots for him attached to Sharon/Tyrol were derailed when Sharon's Cylon plot was jumped forward as soon as episode two, and the writers just seemed to not care about a possible artful dodger/black marketer idea. He very quickly disappeared never to be seen again. * Better Call Saul: What happened to the goldfish in Jimmy & Kim's condo? * The Big Bang Theory: Whatever happened to Stephanie? Her relationship with Leonard got a whole arc of episodes devoted to it, and just when their relationship troubles had been resolved... she disappeared and was never seen again. * Boston Legal is a terrible offender: characters are constantly thrown away without any resolution at all. One of the worst examples is when the new guy had been thrown away from his own office by an old lady, both of the characters were regulars and had been central to several plots, one episode ends with the new guy making a resolution to get his office back from the woman, we never heard of them again (and this was midway through a season). * Breaking Bad: + What happened to Jane's dad \|\|after he caused the plane crash\|\|? The last the audience heard from him was when a newsradio station announced his \|\|attempted suicide.\|\| + \|\|Did Huell ever leave the basement?\|\| - \|\|Answered in Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 11 "Breaking Bad".\|\| * Bridgerton: What happened to the necklace the Prince gave Daphne? Seriously, she apparently just left an extremely valuable object lying around and never came back for it. * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: + The show often did this at the end of early "Monster of the Week" episodes: - The monstrous praying mantis is shown to have laid eggs in a school storeroom at the end of "Teacher's Pet", but the consequences of this are never explored. - Marcie Ross, the invisible girl from "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", never appears again despite being taken by the government to be trained in assassination and espionage at the end. Fan outcry about her was so great that the writers of the comics suggested they might include her in a future plotline, but this did not end up happening. + Willow and Tara's cat Miss Kitty Fantastico appears a couple of times in Season 4, before disappearing for the rest of the series. A throwaway line in Season 7 suggests Dawn accidentally killed her with a crossbow (though it could also mean Miss K. F. wrecked something by stepping on a crossbow that Dawn left lying around cocked). + After Oz leaves the show, the fate of his band, Dingoes Ate My Baby, and its members (including its lead singer, minor recurring character Devon) is never revealed. + Although Tara is healed prior to Glory's defeat, no mention is made of her other victims. + Drusilla, in the TV show. Finally appears in the Angel and Faith comics. + Unless it's an art error, Buffy stabbed Kumiko with a knife, not a stake, which would not kill a vampire. Nonetheless, this is the last we see of Kumiko. + Nearly literally true in the case of Amy Madison. Amy turns herself into a rat near the middle of Season 3 ("Gingerbread"), there is one attempt to turn her human again shown soon after, then she is forgotten in shown continuity until the middle of Season 4, then again until near the end of Season 6. * Californication: + The second season finale saw Becca and her boyfriend Damien proclaim their love for each other; Damien is, in fact, the reason Hank and Becca stay behind while Karen goes off to New York. Damien is never seen in the third season, however, is never mentioned and has no bearing on the plot whatsoever anymore. This is never explained. + What happened to the dog Hank steals as a minor plot point in the first season? He's in two episodes, and no further mention is made. * Castle: While Captain Gates' exit on Season 8 got an explanation, the same can't be said about recurring character Tory Ellis, who was dropped in favor of the new character Vikram. * Charmed (1998): In Season 3, it was hinted that Cole was working for the Triad for something in return. At the end of the season, it was revealed to be his father's soul, which they had somehow acquired years earlier. However, after obtaining his father's soul, it is never stated what Cole did with it and is never mentioned again. * Cobra Kai gives us Cheyenne Hamidi, Terry Silver's new girlfriend. Once he embraces Cobra Kai and begins working on the new dojo, she's not seen, heard from, or even so much as mentioned. \|\|Not only is she not even present when Johnny, Mike, and Chozen attack their home, but she's also not heard from when Terry is eventually arrested.\|\| * Control Z: It is never revealed what Rosita's secret is and many fans have been theorizing whether or not she had arranged the NONA party all by herself or was aided by someone else. Also, it isn't revealed what exactly happened to Bruno after \|\|Raúl\|\| was unmasked as the hacker. * Crown Court: + All stories are self-contained, so once a case is finished we may never hear about it again. That means that some mysteries are never solved. For example, the case of \|\|Who Was Kate Greer?\|\| ends with a hung jury and a retrial that we never see. + We don't know the consequences on wider society, such as \|\|whether the acquitted defendant in Just Good Friends actually published his book and therefore caused problems for the people mentioned within\|\|. * This happens frequently on CSI. + Mia Dickerson and Riley Adams get a passing mention in the season following their respective disappearances, but two others simply vanish. Ronnie Lake was a CSI on swing shift who worked closely with Sara Sidle. When Sara quit, Ronnie was never seen again. + The biggest one was Sofia Curtis. She had a substantial character arc from Seasons 5 through 7. She appeared in the first episode of Season 8, then poof. Gone. Not even mentioned by those who were apparently close friends and co-workers. That is, until Season 11, where she did finally re-appear in an episode. She's Brass' boss now. * CSI: Miami: During the first season, detective Adelle Sevilla was usually the one accompanying Horatio and the others to the crime scenes, but she just stopped appearing without explanation and her role was eventually taken over by Frank Tripp. * CSI: NY is no stranger to it either. + In the Season 2 episode "Run Silent, Run Deep," Danny Messer's brother, Louie, is badly beaten and left in a coma by Tanglewood Boy Sonny Sassone, who discovered him wearing a wire to try and get information about an old murder case recently discovered by the CSIs. Louie was mentioned three times in passing (once each in Seasons 3, 5, and 6) but nothing was ever said on his condition, nor was he ever brought up in earnest again. + In Season 6, around three and a half years after Mac and Peyton broke up, he began a tentative relationship with Aubrey, a doctor he meets by chance at his favorite deli. She's in two episodes, then skips two. The next episode, "Point of View," is the one where Peyton shows back up. Mac is at home recuperating from injuries. Although she herself isn't seen, Aubrey had sent Mac a "get well" arrangement, which Peyton notices and she teases Mac about Aubrey. It's patently obvious that she's jealous...even tho she's the one who had dumped him...and apologizes for the way she went about it. Aubrey is back for one final episode next. After that, neither woman is so much as mentioned again. It was actually an Aborted Arc due to one of the stars leaving the show and the writers wanting to focus on introducing the new female lead. + Also in season 6, due to having a date with Aubrey, Mac takes a rain check when Reed invites him out for a green beer at the end of the St. Patrick's Day themed "Pot of Gold." Despite being Mac's stepson, the young man is never even mentioned again. By the end of Season 9, one has to wonder if Christine already knew about him since Mac had told Reed in Season 3 that Claire had talked about him all the time. * Curfew is about a race across a dystopian England overrun by mutant monsters. Twenty-five vehicles start the race and a few are taken out at Tower Bridge when the army launches missiles at them. Over the rest of the race, a few more can be confirmed to have crashed out or been taken out by opponents. A few even make it to the finish. Despite this, there are at least three vehicles (a dune buggy, a Ford Granada, and a chopper-style motorcycle) seen after the missile strike at the bridge, not seen at the finish, or confirmed to have been taken out of the running. * Dark Desire: The case behind the rape and murder of Leslie Delgado never got solved. * In Dead Like Me, at George's funeral she, as a ghost, watches her father hug one of his male students long and hard. She even asks Rube if it's normal for two men to hug that long. There were obvious implication of a homosexual affair, but it's never brought up again and towards the end of the series' run, it's revealed that he had an affair with a female student, not a male. Word of God is they were planning to have his affair be with a male student, but it was dropped due to Executive Meddling. * Degrassi's first half of Season 12 had episodes revolving around Clare taking an internship at the Toronto Interpreter and trying to impress her boss Asher Shostak with her great journalism skills. She is then sexually assaulted by him in his car and keeps the incident a secret. Clare all of a sudden gets fired from her job because Asher accuses her of making false accusations about him and making her the bad guy in all of this. In the last episode of the first half, Asher's former intern tells Clare that she too was sexually assaulted by him and agreed that they both should go to the police together about the matter. We never find out if they did go to the police and Clare's former job at the Toronto Interpreter, even Asher's sexual assault on her, is never mentioned again throughout Season 12, nor in Season 13. * On Desperate Housewives we learn that Susan's ex-husband Karl re-married. In a later episode the audience finds out Karl's second wife abandoned him and their young son Evan because she couldn't handle being a mother, thus making Karl a single parent. After a couple of episodes Evan vanishes and is never mentioned again. Not by Karl, not by Evan's half-sister Julie, not by Bree the woman Karl wants to marry \|\|and then Karl dies and Evan still isn't mentioned.\|\| * Dexter: + The first half of Season 5 has several episodes dedicated to Miami Metro investigating the Santos Muertos murders, which leads to \|\|Deb shooting one of the Fuentes brothers dead. The fact that there is still one running around somewhere is never followed up on.\|\| + From the same arc, Officer Cira Manzon is never seen nor heard from, despite being promoted to detective at the end of it. * In the third episode of Dirk Gently, Gently injects a microchip into McDuff's hand that allows him to control a university campus' computers and other electrical equipment, but carries side effects including diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. McDuff has one attack of diarrhea almost immediately, after which the side effects neither recur nor are mentioned again. * ''Dollhouse': Because the show was Cut Short, there are a couple of examples: + Lawrence Dominic. Partway through Season 1, he gets \|\|Put on a Bus (well, in the attic, actually).\|\| Echo meets him again a whole season later, when \|\|she gets sent to the attic — but when she escapes, he decides to stay in the attic and help the people there. He manages to escape in the next episode, but Adele sends him back, reasoning that it will be useful to have someone on the inside.\|\| And then the season ends without ever mentioning him again. He does show up once in "Epitaph One" to confront Adele, but he is never shown with the group again, and we neither find out what happened to him nor \|\|what happened to Clyde or any of the other human computers in the attic.\|\| + There's a brief mention that Whiskey/Dr. Saunders gets taken out of the building before it explodes, but we don't know in what state, how she gets to her totally different "Epitaph One" state (and how her \|\|scars get removed\|\|), or what happens to her afterward, since she isn't in "Epitaph Two". * Most of the side characters from The End of the F\\\ing World* (Teri, Eunice, Alyssa's dad) all disappear without a trace in season 2. * In Endeavour, we never find out whether or not DCI Ronnie Box survived being shot at the end of the sixth series. * In ER, several of Dr. Elizabeth Corday's elderly patients die from a mysterious infection, and she is suspected of spreading it. As she investigates, trying to clear her name, she comes to suspect that she is being set up by another doctor who has been cold and somewhat hostile toward her. This plot thread, involving three episode, culminates with her being caught snooping for clues in the office of the doctor whom she suspects is the guilty party. The scene ends with her awkwardly apologizing to the doctor and walking out of his office, leaving him standing there, bewildered. It is probable that the cluster of infections was simply a statistical anomaly and that the seeming mystery was used to develop the character of Corday, showing her becoming a bit paranoid under intense psychological pressure, but this is just speculation, as the show never revisits this particular plot thread, even indirectly. * In The Facts of Life, there are a few: + In "Starstruck", the episode begins with Jo putting on a fund-raiser for a scholarship student. By the end of the episode, the girl is never mentioned again. + In "The Four Musketeers", the girls have worked off their debt to the school and are told they have to move out of their room to make room for four more girls who are being punished. By the end of the episode, Blair, Jo, Natalie, and Tootie are in trouble again and must stay in the room as punishment again, but no mention is made of the other girls who were to be punished. * Father Ted: If Jack ended up wiping his nose with that puppy after his once-in-a-leap-year good mood, we can only shudder to think what happened to that little girl. * In French sitcom Les Filles d'à côté, central character Fanny has two children. Seven year old Wendy is a regular supporting character. However, Fanny's second child, eight-month-old baby David, appears in exactly three out of 170 shows. He is occasionally referred to as an off-screen presence (the implication is that this happens when the scriptwriters belatedly remember Fanny has a baby son, as this is not consistently done and when it happens, it feels like any mention of the baby is an afterthought.).. Otherwise, something the viewer might expect to be fairly near the centre of Fanny's life and a constant presence... isn't. * The Flash (2014): In the second season, Team Flash battles the Dr. Light of Earth-2, a version of an ex of Barry's who a metahuman criminal. She's defeated and placed inside the pipeline, only to escape, buck naked. She's never seen again, meaning that it's possible she streaked until the universe was shaken up by Crisis. * Flashpoint has quite a few of these, especially early in the series, since their job is pretty much done as soon as the dangerous situation is resolved, meaning that longer-term questions, if they exist, can go unanswered. Later episodes had a tendency to avert this by providing large amounts of context and backstory in the beginning and/or writing the final scenes in such a way that loose ends were tied up. + The most blatant example is "The Fortress", in which a young nanny is critically injured and it's never even revealed if she survives. + In "Never Kissed a Girl", we never find out whether the subject in the episode was exonerated of murdering his friend. + Both averted and played straight with the case of Goran Tomasic, the subject from the series premiere. Tomasic's son continues to cause problems throughout Season 1, becoming a subject (and, consequentially, a casualty) himself in "Between Heartbeats", but the context for the original incident remains completely unexplained. * Frasier: + In one episode, Roz says she accidentally ran her car into a limousine that happened to have four high-powered lawyers in it, and that she'll be paying for the damages for a very long time. It never gets brought up again after that. + In another episode, it's revealed that Martin regularly goes to \|\|the parole hearings of the man who shot him\|\|. The episode ends on an unusually somber note, when Martin \|\|is asked if he wants to make a statement, he stands up and says, "I've got nothing to say," then leaves. He does this even though both the man and his mother had told Martin he's changed his ways and now repents his criminal actions\|\|. This subplot is never followed in later episodes, and Martin is never shown going to \|\|the parole hearing\|\| again. Then again, how often are \|\|parole hearings for someone convicted of shooting a police officer\|\| anyway? * Freaks and Geeks: Did Nick win the dance competition in the final episode? * Friends: + In the two-parter at the beach house, \|\|it's revealed that Phoebe's biological mother is very much alive. After this two-parter and one Season 4 guest appearance, she never appears again and arguably came down with Chuck Cunningham Syndrome.\|\| + Phoebe's father Frank (played by Bob Balaban) who made one appearance and was never seen or heard from again. + The fact that Rachel is a single mother is something that should, in theory, weigh in hugely on her decision to move to Paris or not. Emma should probably be on the plane with Rachel when she makes her dramatic exit to come back to Ross at the end. Yet, she's never even mentioned or seen in the finale. Rachel has a throwaway line stating that her mother will be bringing Emma along to Paris a few days after she herself arrives, but it's still pretty weird that she's nowhere to be seen for the entire episode, particularly in the very last scene with everyone together. + Sometimes the writers would introduce a random relative into an episode but then never mention him/her again afterwards. Two examples are Monica (and Ross') Aunt Iris from "The One With All the Poker" and their cousin Cassie from "The One With Ross And Monica's Cousin". * Full House has a number of these, one of which featured Uncle Joey getting a job as a cartoon voice actor with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, but unlike his other television jobs, this one is never discussed or referenced again in the entire series. * Gilmore Girls: Near the end of the series, Luke's sister Liz and her husband T.J. have a daughter, Doula. Come the revival, A Year in the Life, Liz and T.J. have an offscreen subplot where they accidentally join a vegetable cult. Doula is never mentioned, and neither Luke nor Jess seem concerned about their nine-year-old niece/half-sister respectively getting caught up in a cult. * A rather literal meta-example from The Goldbergs: In the episode "Mini-Murray", after Adam's mother refuses to allow him to go see Poltergeist on his own, Adam tricks his grandfather into taking him, telling him that they are going to see The Great Mouse Detective. After a few short clips of the two watching the movie and being visibly terrified by it, finally they cut to the movie having just ended, and Adam's grandfather exclaims, "Where the f\_\_k was the mouse?!?" * Happy Days: During one episode, Howard Cunningham sneezes several times and states that he "feels a cold coming on." It is never revealed if he actually did catch a cold. * Heroes: + In Season 2, Peter accidentally leaves his girlfriend Caitlyn in a plague-ridden future. This is a major motivation for him to prevent the plague. In the season finale, he stops the release of the virus, and afterward doesn't seem the slightest bit interested in what happened to Caitlyn. The real reason for this is that before the writer's strike, the virus was going to be released, and when they reshot the ending, they didn't have enough time to shoot a resolution to Caitlyn's story. Word of God makes it clear she'll never be seen or heard of again either. The series finale of the reboot Heroes Reborn finally answered this question by explaining what happens to those who are in the future timeline when the present is changed to rewrite it: They blink out of existence. + Also, the writers have apparently forgotten about Nathan's ex-wife and children. + What happened to Audrey Hanson? She walked away from the scene of Ted Sprague's death and off the face of the earth without further mention. + Who healed Nathan in Season 3!? They revealed it to be Linderman, but then, a few episodes later, we learn that Linderman was just an illusion. BUT THEN WHO HEALED HIM!? + What happened to Angella Petrelli's sister after she left Coyote Sands? + Whatever became of the police officers who wanted to question Sandra Bennett after \|\|Claire's immune system suddenly fails in hospital when her healing powers disappear, prompting suspicion on the part of the doctors\|\|? Claire recovers and they leave the hospital, but the question of her powers being revealed to the police isn't addressed afterwards. + Hana Gitelman, Claude Rains, Monica Dawson, Maya Herrera, Molly Walker, Flint Gordon, Claire's friend Zach and many others simply disappeared from the series. If they were lucky they got a fate in the comics. - Molly is Back for the Dead in Heroes Reborn. * In the Hogan's Heroes episode "Everyone Loves a Snowman", the latest scheme involves pretending to work on a snowman to hide the fact that the group is digging a tunnel underneath/inside the hollow snowman in order to smuggle a group of airmen back into the regular tunnels. When Schultz sees someone going inside the snowman and reports it, they quickly move the snowman so that Hochstetter will investigate it and find no tunnel. So...what did they do with the now-undisguised tunnel opening in the middle of the prison yard? * House: + A literal example is Dr. House's pet rat "Steve McQueen". After an episode devoted to his capture and some time as a proverbial coal mine canary, he made background appearances until he and his cage suddenly disappeared from the apartment. Following fan speculation, Word of God finally admitted that he'd died. + Less literal but more major: Once House has woken up and recovered from being shot at the end of Season 2, no more mention is made of the guy who shot him. Less significantly, his patient "Harpo" with the swollen tongue is never mentioned again either. * House of Anubis has a ton of examples. + The cat in Season 1. Caused a bunch of drama for the characters for about three episodes, then was never seen or mentioned again. + The tear of gold from the Season 2 finale. It was even the cliffhanger, and ... was never even mentioned in Season 3. + A lot of characters have disappeared between seasons with no given explanation. The most notable will have to be Jason Winkler, who was a pretty major character and actually had a suggested romance with one of the main characters despite being a teacher. Then Season 2 came, and ... gone. Granted, with him he WAS dying of a degenerative illness but they never specified a death so much of the fandom refuses to believe he really died. * iCarly: "iWon't Cancel the Show" has Sam get arrested and put in juvie for assaulting an ambassador with a hot dog or shoving it down his pants or something. Whilst she'll get out of juvie in a day or two, the case wouldn't just be dropped. It's never mentioned again. * Jeremiah: The statuses of various One Shot Characters, allies and enemies alike, are sometimes unclear after their sole episodes. + The white power groups from the pilot and the various warlord factions further off that Michael mentions in the fourth episode are strangelyabsent during the conflict between the Western Alliance and Daniel in season 2, with no sign of them either fighting to stay independent or joining the Western Alliance. This is especially pronounced since a Deleted Scene from the pilot has the white power gang leader musing over his encounter with the heroes in a way that implies he will return. + In "And the Ground, Sown with Salt", it is unclear if two prisoners who Kneel Before Zod and are enslaved (while others are executed) escape with the fleeing prisoners at the end, are away from the base on a scavenging mission (the primary put pride of the work crews), or are still at the base when it is blown up. + In "To Sail Beyond the Stars", William is never seen again after he and Kurdy split up while running from the Burners. + The Mook who Kurdy catches trying to lead a group of pilgrims into a trap in "Journeys End at Lovers Meeting", beats up, and interrogates, is never seen again afterward. + In "The Touch", the fate of the murderous Wasteland Warlord isn't shown after his people learn of his crimes and stop listening to his orders. + Many episdoes show Jeremiah and Kurdy trying to recruit the leaders of various towns (such as a Black militiant in Moon in Gemini and Jeremiah's former lover Michelle in "Mother of Invention") for The Alliance, only for those people to never be seen or mentioned again in episodes where different local leaders debate joining the Western Alliance or decide how it will be run. + In "Things Left Unsaid Part 1", Valhalla Sector soldiers attack the Brotherhood of the Apocalypse (an order of monks who were helping track rumors the Big Death is returning) and shoot everyone they find. Jeremiah, Kurdy, Ezekiel, and a wounded Elizabeth escape, but it is unclear whether any of the Brothers (particularly the two with the most Exposition) do. + In "Things Left Unsaid Part 2", Thunder Mountain informant Wylie is with Jeremiah when they are spotted and chased by Valhalla Sector soldiers, but while Jeremiah is captured, Wylie's fate is unrevealed. + The last known remaining Valhalla Sector collaborators decide to join Daniel at the end of "Strange Attractions", but are never seen or mentioned again. + The nomads who briefly shelter Dr. Monash in The Face in the Mirror are last seen being questioned by Sims, and it is unclear if he lets them go after one of them reluctantly tells him where to find Monash. + At the end of the finale, the Founders, the leaders of Daniel's government, are exposed as the callous, manipulative Not So Well Intentioned Extremists they are, with this revelation coming while one of them is surrounded by angry soldiers, but it is never shown what punishment he faces, or if his three colleagues are also caught. * Kamen Rider: + About two thirds into Kamen Rider Kabuto, the Red Shoes system is introduced, which is built into the Kabuto and Gatack Rider suits. This system will cause said Rider suits to take over the mind of the user, making them attempt to kill every Worm in sight. Even the peaceful ones. After the episode which introduced it, the Red Shoes system is never referenced again, despite it being a potential danger to one of the friendly Worm side characters. + Kamen Rider Decade has the Alternate Self of Otoya Kurenai appear in the World of Negatives as Dark Kiva. He effortlessly manhandles Decade in his debut appearance, gets his ass handed to him in the very next episode by Decade's Super Mode, we see a shot of him fleeing, clearly alive...and then we don't hear from him again. Even in the World of Rider War, where it would have been natural to have him make a return appearance. + Kamen Rider Fourze plays a rather horrific version of this trope. In the show, the Horoscopes don't really die, and the people that turn into them can still fight. How do they get taken out for good? Well, one of them sends the failures to the Dark Nebula, a dark place that horrifies some of the most loyal of Horoscopes. There were only three people trapped in there in the series' run: \|\|Sonada, due to her failing Gamou for the last time, Kijima, due to Libra tricking Virgo into thinking he was a nosy police officer, and Sugiura, who went against the Horoscopes\|\|. It's eventually revealed that \|\|Virgo, the Horoscope that summons the Dark Nebula, was just putting them into suspended animation on the M-BUS satellite. When he is killed by the Big Bad, the three that were sent to the 'Dark Nebula' were never seen again after that revelation, nor was there any telling that the heroes ever got around to saving them, even in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue movie which has a five-year timeskip. Rather unnerving for a fun show about friendship\|\|. + The official sequel novel Kamen Rider Fourze: Ama High Graduation reveals that Fourze used Cosmic States and its ability to open wormholes to rescue those characters shortly after the events of the TV series. * Law & Order: Criminal Intent: + At the end of "Blasters" after Logan arrests the killers of the episode, The Mafiya's dangerous leader threatens him that he is now "in the blood", or marked for death. Even though Logan's tenure on the show didn't last much longer, nothing ever came of the man's warning. + The Serial Killer's backstory in "A Murderer Among Us" had his hatred of Jews come from how his mother was apparently raped by her Jewish boss when he was a child , although the reality is that it was a mutual affair that lead to her becoming pregnant by him and his angry father beating her to the point of breaking her arm. Although in the present day both the mother and boss are long-dead, we never learn the fate or consequences for either the father or the unborn child. * In one episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the initial plot is set up based on a serial rapist known for carjacking his victims — it's quickly discovered the case they're investigating isn't actually his work, though, and the subject turns entirely to that. The fact that they're focusing countless man hours on a solitary case while there's a serial rapist on the loose isn't brought up, and no closure is made on that plot. * The League of Gentlemen: In the first episode of series 3, one of the plotlines featuring a woman who had to play party games with a Doctor in order to get her medication had the final scene of her plotline cut from the final draft, so we never saw if she actually won the game or not and got her medication. The woman mystery is explained in the commentary as a scene that was cut for time (The 4 creators/main actors actually express disbelief that the scene was never included as they hadn't been informed/realised it was cut). In the last episode of series 3, there's a variation on this with a mouse that reappears without explaining what it did in the meantime, where Dean Tavalouris has his camera stolen from him by some two-bit louts and then used to make a seedy striptease video. The next time we see him, Dean has his camera back without showing how he managed to steal it back. * A fairly minor one occurs in the Leverage episode "The Carnival Job": the original mark is discussed as mourning for his dead wife by neglecting his daughter and spending lots of money on their house — he's $3 million in debt. By the end of the episode, he \|\|has come to his senses, reunited with his daughter, and returned the MacGuffin he stole, so everyone acts like this is a happy ending. There's no mention of the fact that he's still deeply in debt and probably won't be able to pay it off\|\|. * In the second season of Life on Mars (2006), we never find out what happened to DCI Frank Morgan and the rest of Hyde's C Division. * Isn't it obvious what happens to the mouse? + Didn't this episode show a newspaper article about the mouse being the bane of cats all over the world? + At least a later episode showed the power transfer isn't permanent. * Lost: + "Tailies" Cindy, Zack and Emma. They joined the Others and appeared occasionally during Seasons 2 and 3 before becoming regular recurring characters in the sixth season. They join MIB's group, which gets bombed, but some survivors scatter into the jungle. It's never resolved what happened to these three. You never see clearly if they were in the group that got bombed, and the ones that scattered are never seen. Especially bad since Cindy was one of the few guest characters left over from the pilot. + On the night of the crash, the Others abducted 3 Tailies. A week later, they abducted 9 more, including Zack and Emma. Finally, on the 48th day, they abduct Cindy. So that's actually 13 characters unaccounted for. When Cindy, Zack, and Emma first appear with the Others, they're part of a small group that one might assume are the other abducted Tailies, but it's never spelled out. So that's 10 characters that get even less resolution than Cindy, Zack, and Emma. + Benjamin Linus has a childhood friend named Annie that appeared in one episode's flashback to his youth. The creators claimed she was going to be very important to him, but she was never brought up again on the series, and it is never explained why she is no longer on the island when Ben grows up. + Sun conceives Jin's baby while they're on the island together. She's rescued, thinking Jin's dead, and gives birth to their child in their native Korea. Three years later she learns Jin's still alive and goes back to the island, leaving the baby in the care of Sun's mother. Jin and Sun are finally reunited \|\|and die together\|\|. Which led millions of viewers to ask (including people who'd accost Daniel Dae Kim on the street), "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BABY???!!!??" + Many viewers complained about the final episode never telling us what happened to Walt. There actually is a short film on the Lost DVD that covers this up. \|\|He went back to the island with Ben and Hurley.\|\| + The background extras from the core group themselves. There were about 20 still alive when the flaming arrow attack occurred. Only three are actually seen being struck by arrows, and the wide shot of the beach at the end of the scene shows only a few bodies. In fact, most can be seen running ahead of Sawyer and Juliet and clearly reached the safety of the tree line. Eloise later confirms that only a handful of people were killed in the attack. But whatever happened to the rest of the minor survivors (Steve/Scott, Craig, Tracy, etc.), they failed to show up at the beach camp when the main characters reunited there. + In the fifth season episode "The Little Prince", Sawyer and his group get shot at by mysterious assailants. We never learn the identities of the attackers. * The L Word: Max is last seen at the end of the original show, pregnant and single. Generation Q, the Sequel Series, explains what became of the characters who don't reappear aside from him. * Characters who left Mad Men usually came back later, even if it was just for one scene. A notable exception was Sal Romano, the closeted gay art director who was fired for refusing the advances of Lee Garner, Jr., and was last seen on the phone with his wife letting her know he'd be home soon before heading into the woods for some anonymous sex. Whether he ever returned home to her or not, or whether he was able to find a job at another firm is never revealed, and he is never mentioned again. * In the Magnum P.I. (2018) episode "The Cat Who Cried Wolf", the titular cat Max is last seen in a car with Rick and TC. What happened to the cat? * The After School Special from The '80s Maricela, about a young El Salvadorian refugee whose mother works for a middle class WASP family with a teenage girl of its own, it is established that the title character's mother is possibly an illegal immigrant who could face deportation, and that Maricela's father is trapped in the middle of a Salvadoran civil war. However, both of these potentially interesting plot points are forgotten at the climax of the special, when the WASP-y girl learns an important lesson about tolerance and rescues Maricela. * In M\A\S\H, both Spearchucker and Ugly John disappear without any notice or mention again. Likewise, Lt. Dish, who was in the theatrical feature and in the TV series' pilot, plus one other episode a while later. After that, she was gone. Justified, in that it's the Army where people come and go a lot as they get rotated between various posts. The unstated reason for the removal of Spearchucker was that the show's creators learned that there were no black surgeons (working as such in MASH units) in the Korean War. Except there totally were. The Mathnet episode "The Case Of The Calpurnian Kugel Caper": In the beginning, we find out the old king of Calpurnia was killed in an car crash that the CIA believes was sabotaged. Then nothing else. It's not even brought up in the mugshot sequence at the end. Our best guess is that \|\|Kaboom Pickens or his accomplice Carl Eiken-Meister (or possibly both) did it\|\|. * Maverick had an recurring plotline in early episodes about the Maverick brothers' search for an entity they only knew as "The Tall Man" (played by Paul Savage). The Tall Man was the only witness to the Mavericks having been ambushed by a gang of hired guns — the Mavericks were able to kill their would-be assassins purely in self-defense, but The Tall Man (who had called out warnings to the Mavericks as the gunmen approached) vanished before he could corroborate the Mavericks' version of the story. With no other witnesses, the man who hired the killers swore in a deposition to the San Saba County Attorney's office that he had seen the Mavericks kill his men in cold blood. The Mavericks then fled Texas one step ahead of the law (and the death penalty). If the Mavericks could find The Tall Man, he could exonerate them ... but until then, they had to avoid Texas if they wanted to stay alive. So it went through the first season, with the Mavericks almost catching up to The Tall Man at least twice, and avoiding Texas even if it meant going hundreds of miles out of their way to go around it rather than through it. Then, without explanation, the whole plot line was completely dropped with no futher mention, and the Mavericks happily rode through and stayed in Texas on numerous occasions. * An infuriating one in Miami Vice: At the end of the second season, Tubbs rekindles his relationship with Angelina Medera, daughter of murdered crime lord Esteban Calderone, and discovers that they have a son together. However, Calderone's son Orlando captures and kills Angelina and manages to convince Tubbs that his son was killed as well, when in fact he is secretly being kept alive. In Season 3, Tubbs managed to get revenge on Orlando, but never discovered that his infant son's death was in fact faked, and this was never brought up for the remainder of the series. * Midsomer Murders: In "Electric Vendetta" it's never explained who moved the body of Eddie Field from the foundry to a crop circle. * The Monkees: At the beginning of "Monkee See, Monkee Die", before the plot gets underway, the boys' landlord tells them that he is kicking them out. Once the actual story begins, this plot thread is completely forgotten about and never addressed further. * Moses the Lawgiver: Dathan's wife. Her victimization by the Egyptian overseer leads to Dathan's attack & subsequent discipline, causing Moses to kill said Egyptian. For such a catalyst, she is last seen with Dathan in the celebration of the Sea passing, making no further appearances as Dathan causes trouble. The Burgess novelization has her captured during a raid, never to be seen again. * In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "Double Life", we never learn why Miss Moss needed $400 or who killed \|\|the private eye\|\|. According to the Murdoch Mysteries wiki, Word of God is that \|\|Miss Moss' killer also killed the detective\|\|, but as the episode is presented, it actually seems more likely that \|\|she did it herself, possibly because he was blackmailing her, which is why she needed the money\|\|. We also don't learn how \|\|the Port Credit constable was involved the cover up of Gladys killing her husband — he obviously knows about it, and is keeping the secret even though he was her husband's friend, but in her Motive Rant Gladys specifically says they couldn't tell the police what happened.\|\| * Mystery Science Theater 3000: + In "Space Mutiny", Brain Guy brings CPA Mike Down to Roman Times. He's not killed or even seriously hurt, but he's never seen again after the host segment he appears in. Presumably he's trapped in Ancient Grome with no way back to the modern era, since Pearl isn't exactly known for her helpfulness. + Also, in the last episode, the SOL crashed to earth. Mike, Crow, and Servo rented a one-room apartment, and Gypsy is mentioned as starting her own company, but neither Cambot, Magic Voice or the Nanites are shown. Cambot might still be the camera, still recording Mike and the bots for no reason. * The first few episodes of MythQuest set up David as a romantic interest for main character Cleo. After the fifth episode, he's never seen again. * NUMB3RS: + At the beginning of Season 2, a prosecutor named Nadine was set up as a potential love interest for Don. She shows up twice more and then disappears and is never so much as talked about for the rest of the series. + The Season 5 episode "Animal Rites" teases a possible budding relationship between Larry and another professor named Lorna. Lorna is never seen or mentioned again. * Odd Squad: + The Mathroom (also known as Carol), a place where agents traveled to in order to solve complex problems (always involving math), wasn't seen again after the Season 1 episode "Not So Splash". Come Season 2, it was replaced by snazzy smartwatches that serve a similar function but without needing to go to a separate room. + Whoops, Oprah's dog which she got in the Season 1 episode "Puppet Show", doesn't appear again after that episode, and is never brought up again. + In the Season 3 finale "End of the Road", O'Shaughnessy, the Tube Master General located at the Tube Central Station in Australia, makes no appearance during The Shadow's enactment of her Evil Plan, with her only appearance being in "Down the Tubes". * The Office (US): + One resolution was deleted: In the episode "Drug Test", you don't find out where the joint came from. The deleted scene shows that it was from two of Vance's deliverymen who commonly deliver things to the office. + In an episode in a later season, Jim is being interrogated by Dwight via a drug store blood pressure machine, when it is revealed that Jim has high blood pressure. Pam finally drops her obsession with getting Jim to admit that he's attracted to the temp and worries about his health. Jim's blood pressure is never mentioned again. Did he treat it? Did it ever go down? Did it lower when he was away from Dwight's interrogation? * Once Upon a Time: + The series is chock full of these, sowing plot seeds that are rarely returned to (presumably so they can find a new arc quickly). Among them being the Dragon (implied to be from a realm other than the Enchanted Forest,) Victor Frankenstein, (and an entire steampunk black-and-white world,) Oscar/Walsh (how the heck did he get to Oz?), and the Genie/Mirror (Agrabah implies and Aladdin storyline). + The last we see of Lily was in the Season 4 finale, when she said she was sticking around Storybrooke to try and figure out who her father is. Two seasons later, this has yet to be followed up on. \|\|In the series finale, Regina mentioned in passing to Zelena that Lillith found her father, who turned out to be Zorro.\|\| + Season 5's Camelot storyline was quickly wrapped up with Arthur being arrested and locked up \|\|then being killed by Hades and finding redemption in the Underworld\|\|. The rest of the Camelot cast isn't shown reacting to this, let alone do we get resolutions on Guinevere being brainwashed or Lancelot being thrown in Arthur's dungeons. * Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: + We never find out what happened to the Red King. It's implied he's dead but we'll never know how exactly he left the Red Queen's life. + Tweedledee \|\|who works for Jafar\|\| is last seen in episode 9 in present day. His fate as of the finale is unknown. + The finale does not indicate the ultimate fate of \|\|the Jabberwocky, even though she switched sides near the end. Although last we saw, she had once again been pinned to a wall by the Vorpal Blade.\|\| * The Path: Where is Alison Kemp??? She left the Meyerist Community because she believed her husband was murdered by them, but his Secret Diary proves that his death was accidental. Once she is re-welcomed into the community at the end of Season 1, she is never seen again. Fan reviews often bring this up and point out that her character could be extremely useful as Eddie Lane struggles with whether or not he's The Chosen One. * Planet of the Apes: The computer disc played a major role in the first two episodes, "Escape from Tomorrow" and "The Gladiators", but was never seen nor mentioned again after that. * In Primeval, there are a couple of these, especially after its return for series 4 and 5: + What happened to the Diictodons, Sid and Nancy? + While it could be case of "Nobody likes her anyway and she abused Connor, tried to get in the middle of some serious shiptease, and \|\|helped Leek and Helen with their evil plot before having a case of Heel–Face Turn\|\|" Caroline plays a major part in series 2's arc, appears at \|\|Stephen's funeral\|\|, and then disappears off the face of the Fandom. + What happened to Connor's front door key after it disappeared into the anomaly? + What ever happened to Abby's little brother Jack? How did the ARC explain his older sister \|\|getting trapped in the Cretaceous for a year? Pretty sure Abby would want to tell him she's still... you know, alive.\|\| * The Regime: The first season ends without revealing the fate of Oskar, whom Elena and Herbert left behind in the palace during the Christmas Eve coup. He was last seen hiding under the table as armed rebels break into the palace. * Robin Hood (BBC): + Will Scarlett and his brother Luke are saved by Robin from the gallows. Will escapes with Robin, but what happens to Luke? This is answered in a later episode in which Will tells a fellow outlaw that Luke went to Scarborough. But in the second series Luke and his father Dan Scarlett return to Sherwood to visit Will, and during the course of the episode \|\|Dan dies.\|\| The episode closes with Will and his brother standing beside one another...but in the next episode, Luke has completely disappeared again. + Like Luke Scarlett, Benedict and the man who claims to be a clergyman also disappear without a trace, as do all of Little John's gang except Roy + A similar fate happens with another guest-star: the Fool. He was one of the more interesting and useful allies to the outlaws, but after the episode is finished (during which the Fool has actually been brought into the outlaw camp), he's never seen or mentioned again. + In the third season a lion (don't ask) is set loose on Sherwood Forest in order to kill the outlaws. After the outlaws throw mustard powder at it (please don't ask) it disappears entirely. It's real shame that it never reappeared when least expected in order to eat someone. * Rome: + Before his assassination Caesar is shown to have appointed several long-haired Gauls to the Senate, much to the consternation of his rivals. No mention is made of what happened to them after, so one is left to assume that they left Rome and returned to their homelands. + Rubio the slave boy who was brought back by Vorenus from Gaul. There's even indication that Rubio and Vorena the younger like each other, only for him to disappear after a couple episodes. * Roseanne: + Many of her close friends like Crystal (a recurring character who appeared in the opening credits and later married Dan's father) and Anne-Marie stopped appearing with no further mention. + Crystal and Anne-Marie both appeared in the opening episode of Season 8 where Roseanne had a baby shower. It was explained when she was making a video for her unborn child that Dan and his father just can't get along, and that's why Crystal isn't seen around as much. + In Season 3, when Roseanne starts working at Rodbell's diner, she works her first shift with a newlywed. She's a young African-American woman. Bonnie appears soon after, and the first waitress is never seen nor mentioned again. * In the second season of The Shield there is a subplot where Danny accidentally kills an Arab man feuding with a neighbor under the belief that he was going to shoot a gun at her. The dead man's wife promises that she will pay for what happened. For several episodes after this Danny is repeatedly harassed by an unknown party, and while she suspects the widow is behind it she can't come up with any concrete proof. About two thirds through the season this is abandoned, as \|\|Danny winds up having her job in jeopardy when the murder of criminal Armadillo Quintero occurs under her watch while he's in custody\|\|, and it completely takes over as her character arc for the remainder of the second season while the question of who was harassing her is never mentioned again. There is a deleted scene on the Season 2 DVD set that somewhat resolves the subplot, but even that doesn't 100% confirm if the widow was truly the one harassing Danny or not. * Sky Med: + After Hayley and Crystal get the confession video of Brad Maloney, they say they'll give this to the police. He's never seen again, so presumably they got him. + Bodie meets his birth father and bonds with him. Kingsley becomes a part of his life, and Bodie's son's as well. However, no one asks much about Bodie's birth mother, and her location. It's left unknown if she's alive or dead. * Sliders: + The final scene of "Double Cross" implied that Quinn's evil female double Logan St. Clair would be a recurring villain as she swore that she would have her revenge. However, she is never seen or mentioned again due to Executive Meddling. Fox did not think that Zoe McLellan was attractive enough. + Quinn's double from the pilot who helped him solve the equation to sliding is another example. Quinn later reunited with him in "The Other Slide of Darkness", and it was revealed he had taught the Kromaggs about sliding. The two of them got into a brawl, which our Quinn won, but he could not be persuaded by his ashamed double to finish him off, and he was left in the dust, never to be seen again. + Quinn is also technically gone, having been merged by the Mad Scientist Dr. Oberon Geiger with another Quinn Mallory (henceforth known as Mallory). A few episodes deal with the fact that he's still partly inside Mallory, but the attempt to separate the two in the penultimate episode reveals that it's too late. + Ryan Simms, who joined the group in the Season 1 finale "The Luck of the Draw", along with a dog named Henry who Wade had adopted. Word of God has it that Ryan was supposed to join the main cast, but the producers feared the audience would forget who he was during the hiatus, so they had him casually written out in the Season 2 premiere "Into the Mystic" with only a vague explanation. No mention was given to Henry. + An actual one to question is the "Real" Arturo. Near the end of "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome", we get a Shell Game where the two Arturos, the Slider and the native to that dimension, are fighting one another... after one Slides with the others, the Arturo that was left behind in the dimension reacts as if he is worried for his friends, implying he was the Slider Arturo. Eventually the Arturo that slid with the others goes through an arc where he has cancer, has a limited time to live, and sacrifices himself to save Quinn, but that still leaves the What Happened to the Mouse? of what happened to the other, potentially 'real', Arturo. He had the resources available to him, he knew how the Sliding device worked, he had many reasons to try to chase after the others... so what ever happened to him? + In "El Sid", the sliders are joined by a new member, a young woman named Michelle, who seemed to show an interest in joining the adventures of the group. However, she disappears by the next episode with absolutely no explanation or even a mention. + In "Love Gods", a married couple named David and Dianne slid off their world with our group at the end. Likewise, we never find out what became of them. + In "The Fire Within", the group is followed to the next world by a sentient ball of flame of all things. They take it with them at the end of the episode, apparently intent on helping it get home, but nothing ever came of this. The flame indicates that if they take it into a wormhole, it will be able to navigate its way back to its own dimension, so presumably that's what happened. + There are actually a few other endings that left potential What Happened to the Mouse? moments, like the dimension where Arturo helped Conrad Bennish of that world fix the A-Bomb to save it from the Asteroid, at the end Arturo tried to take key schematic pages with him to protect the dimension from Bennish's meglomania, but we see Bennish stole them back, leaving us to wonder about that world. + Conrad Bennish in many worlds brings up this question, as several incarnations of him are shown, given more then a little detailing, and then we never are sure what happened, especially the A-Bomb Bennish and the Blind Kromag Captive Bennish... * Stranger Things: + Troy and James don't return for Season 2, and what happened to them after Troy tries to rat out Eleven is never remarked on. According to the creators, Troy and James are older than the Party, thus it's possible they've moved into high school by Season 2. However, the tie-in comic "The Bully" reveals that Troy moved away. + In the Season 2 finale, Dustin gets Steve to help him stuff a dead Demodog into Joyce Byers' freezer, calling it a major scientific discovery, and it's never mentioned again. + Apart from a single brief mention, nothing is said of Kali and her gang after they flee near the end of Season 2. + The possibility presented in Season 2 that Dr. Brenner is alive is not brought up even once in Season 3. It's however addressed in Season 4, proving that he's still alive. + The last we see of Angela or her friends in Season 4 is when the former is being treated by a paramedic in the aftermath of a clobbering that she was, more or less, asking for. * Supernatural: + Yellow Eyed Demon mentioned other generations of children he'd given his blood to; they're never brought up and none of them ever appear, which is very strange for a show with such a complex myth arc. + Castiel's wife Daphne from "The Born-Again Identity" not only never appears again, but no indication is given that anyone bothered to call her to let her know the fate of her husband — it seems as far as she knows, he drove off with a complete stranger and was never seen again. Partially justified however, in that the Winchesters probably didn't know how to explain the situation (or didn't want to) and Castiel was a little busy \|\|going insane\|\|. In fact, by the time Castiel would have been in a position to return to Daphne and explain anything to her, around two years had passed and he may have decided not to bother. + A couple of episodes had them let the child of a human-eating monster survive. + After giving the Winchesters his blood to help them defeat the Leviathan in season 7, the Alpha Vampire says "See you next season." As of Season 11, he has yet to be seen again. - As of Season 12, \|\|he has returned and his storyline has been officially wrapped.\|\| * Sweetpea: After Jeff is hit and killed by a garbage truck in the penultimate episode trying to bike away from Rhiannon after learning she is the killer, it is as if his character simply vanishes from the plot. None of his co-workers at the Carnsham Gazette in the final episode seem upset or worried by his death, in fact, he is never even mentioned once. * The Terror: In the first season, it is never shown what happened to the crew members who chose to remain on the ship rather than attempt the journey south. * The Thick of It: Malcolm's Axe-Crazy second in command Jamie, after playing a fairly prominent role in the post Season 2 specials, vanishes without explanation for Seasons 3 and 4. Given the he was last seen siding against Malcolm in the leadership contest, though, it seems safe to assume that he probably doesn't have a job any more. * Titans (2018): + Dick escaping from prison is forgotten by Season 3, despite that he'd be wanted for this (along with helping some other inmates escape) and he's now working with the Gotham Police. + Conner assaulting cops gets ignored after Season 2, though it happened right in public and isn't the kind of thing they'd just forgive. * Too Old to Die Young: While performing a vigilante execution, Martin rescues a woman who'd been left for dead by psychopaths in the desert. Traumatized and paranoid, she stabs him and flees. We never find out what happened to her. The only clue is that Martin's girlfriend Janey believes the whole stabbing incident was "some gang thing". * Ultraseven Episode 17 features a literal example of this trope. In the beginning a miner named Jiro, who is identical to lead character Dan Moroboshi \|\|because Ultra Seven saved Jiro's life and based his human appearance on him after the latter nearly died performing a similarly selfless act\|\|, runs back to save a miner's pet mouse from death during a mysterious cave-in. Both are trapped in the mine, and the plot of the episode centers on the Ultra Garrison attempting to free him. Throughout the episode Jiro talks to the mouse (named Lucky) for comfort and yet when Ultra Seven rescues Jiro towards the end of the episode ... we never see what happens to the mouse. Ultra Seven didn't even know it existed, so in all likelihood it was just left to die in the mine \|\|or killed in the explosion that follows\|\|. Which means that not only does the audience (many of whom would have been children) never receive any resolution to that character arc, but for all we know the entire point of Jiro becoming trapped in the mine, and thus the entire point of the episode's plot, has been negated. * The Umbrella Academy (2019): The identities or fates of the other 36 superpowered babies from spontaneous pregnancies are never addressed in the first season, although it is mentioned that not all of them survived past birth. \|\|And Leonard/Harold isn't one of them.\|\| * Underground (WGN): Young Boo makes it to Canada (without either of her parents), and Rosalee—after getting her there—decides she's going back to free other enslaved people. Boo is never seen again, as the second season focused on Rosalee's work on the Underground Railroad and multiple other plots and never got a chance to return since the show was cancelled. * Unforgettable: + Carrie's main motivation during Season 1 is to find out who killed her sister, but thanks to the retool from Season 2 onwards, that arc is dropped without any resolution. + Carrie also used to visit her mom frequently during Season 1 and she never appears again from Season 2 onwards. She could've passed away or completely forgotten about Carrie due to her Alzheimer, but not even a mention of her is made. * The Vampire Diaries: + In an episode of Season 2, a witch named Lucy appears working for Katherine, but commits a Heel–Face Turn upon realizing she is related to Bonnie. As she leaves, she mentions that Bonnie will see her again. She doesn't, and \|\|Lucy suffers a Bus Crash a few seasons later.\|\| + Season 3 introduces Jamie, a young man who'd been taken in by Bonnie's mother. He and Bonnie clearly have feelings for one another, going back to her home after a dance and falling asleep together. In the next episode he's gone without any explanation, leaving his relationship with Bonnie unresolved. * Van Helsing (2016): The back half of Season 3 rather prominently features a group of survivors that Vanessa, Scarlett, and Axel encounter in San Francisco and then escort to the Denver safe zone. During the season finale, they're seen running for their lives as the Daywalkers overrun the city, but do not appear in the Season 4 premiere. Presumably they're killed when Blak-Tech nerve gases the city to deny the vampires fresh converts, but this is not shown and they're never mentioned again. * Done at least twice by Veronica Mars. In Season 1, Weevil breaks into the Kane house to steal a note he wrote to Lilly before she died. At the end of the episode, Veronica confronts him and asks what the note said. Weevil refuses to tell her, and the show never explains, or even mentions, the note again. And in Season 2, when \|\|Grace Manning's abuse is discovered by Sheriff Lamb\|\|, we never find out what happens to her or her parents. * An episode of Victorious ends with Cat being locked up in a padded room in a straitjacket. No one from the rest of the cast notices. * Walker, Texas Ranger: + One episode where Cordell Walker was supposed to rescue a girl who was trapped in a Christian cult camp ended up having the last several minutes of it focused on Walker rescuing Alex Cahill from the cult camp, leaving the intended rescue target's status in question. + Many of the team partners that joined Walker seem to simply disappear with no explanation. + One episode "Deadly Vision" involves a man attempting to abduct children by luring them over to him with puppies, the puppies are never seen again after he successfully captures a girl and brings her to his home. * The Walking Dead (2010): + Humorously averted in "Guts". Glenn and Morales are going down a storm drain, following after a rat while looking for a way out of the city only to discover large and impenetrable bars in their way. It's explicitly shown that a walker made a meal of the rat after it passed through the bars. + The Mexican family who Merle and Daryl rescued on the bridge in Season 3 are never seen again. + Neither are the young couple who Morgan saved in the forest in Season 6. + One of Randall's buddies escaped in the pickup truck and presumably returned to their group, but nothing more came of this. + In the episode "Vatos", Rick, Glenn, Daryl and T-Dog find a group of survivors living at a fortified nursing home in Atlanta. This group is never seen again within the show itself, \|\|although a deleted scene has Rick and the group return, only to find they've since been massacred\|\|. + The Governor recruited his second army for the final attack on the prison from a group of survivors living at a remote trailer park. However, some stayed behind rather then take part in the attack and it was never shown what became of them. + Two kids from the prison, Luke and Molly, are last seen running away when the prison comes under attack from the Governor. Beth later finds Luke's shoe, implying their deaths, but it is never clarified. + A few survivors from Woodbury, such as Dr. Stevens and the Governor's mistress Rowan, are neither shown being killed or moving to the prison. + The group from Grady Memorial Hospital haven't been heard of since Rick's group left Georgia. * Walking with Dinosaurs: "Time of the Titans": At the end of the episode, two Allosaurus are shown stalking the female Diplodocus, but only one actually attacks, and the second one disappears. * Warehouse 13: MacPherson's wife plays a role in the last episode of Season 1, and then ... is never heard from or mentioned again. Including when Mac is, well, getting his mack on in the first episode of Season 2. * The West Wing is somewhat infamous for this. For example, Mandy disappears with not a single reference afterwards after the first season. She was even retroactively erased, failing to appear in flashbacks where the character should have been present. * Wizards of Waverly Place: + The Alpha Bitch, Gigi, supposedly set to be Alex's arch enemy appeared twice in the first season, then once in the second and hasn't been heard from since. + Alex and Justin acquired an enchanted dragon disguised as a beagle named Dragon in "Curb Your Dragon". After that episode, Dragon never appeared again. It was lampshaded at least twice, once by Max and once by Zeke, who coincidentally debuted in the following episode. * Yes, Minister: Dr. Cartwright (played by Ian Lavender of Dad's Army fame) is a mid-ranking civil servant in the DAA who plays a significant role in two episodes, both times making trouble for Sir Humphrey by giving Hacker unbiased advice or accurate information. He never appears or is mentioned again, so Sir Humphrey presumably managed to get him pushed out of the department. * The Young Ones, "Bomb". This example goes hand-in-hand with Nobody Poops. The students have a TV detector man on the doorstep and no TV licence. Low on ideas they come up with a desperate idea... "Vyv — eat the telly!" However, once the man from TV licencing barges into the living room and sees an electrical flex protruding from Vyvyan, he decides to go and wait for the unknown contents to work their way through. Once he heads upstairs, falls through the hole in the floor and wakes back up, we never hear from him again. + The man can be seen in the background while Dexys Midnight Runners performed their cover of Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said", as Mike had told the band to set up in the lavatory. * Zero Zero Zero: The two surviving Senegalese mercenaries who drive the trucks vanish at some point between the jihadist camp and Casablanca. It's not clear if they're gone by the time Omar is buried or if they drive the trucks as far as Morocco. Presumably Emma paid them and they returned to Senegal. ---	WhatHappenedToTheMouse	null
SmashMasterShow	# Missing Episode - NearChris(aka: Smash Master Show) Over the years, Chris has unlisted, privated, or even outright deleted a large number of videos from his channel. Some of them can be seen over on his second channel SmashMasterStuff, however most of the videos that have been removed can only be viewed through previously existing downloads. SmashMasterShow Segments / Numbered Lists --------------------------------------------- * Chris' first video was a review of the first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. It was deleted some time ago, and he has stated on stream that he can no longer find the file for the video. The only known piece of info on the video besides that it was a review is that it had a joke regarding Fluttershy being quiet, as referenced in his Rosario+Vampire video. * As Chris discussed on his March 8th, 2019 birthday livestream, he once made a video on the first episode of Highschool of the Dead sometime between 2013 and 2014. He deleted it as it - in his own words - "sucked dick". He also revealed it was intended to be a series where he reviewed every individual episode of the anime with an ongoing story and his friend playing the villain, however those plans were scrapped upon his decision to delete the first video. * Top 10N Jon Tron Videos - Chris lists his favorite videos by internet creator JonTron.(Can still be viewed on the Top 10N Lists playlist) They were:(Bold Text denotes a now removed video) + 10. Final Hallway XIII + 9. Drunk Gaming: The *Castlevania* Adventure + 8. JonTron's Minecraft**** WORLD!!'' + 7. Top 10 Mario Party Minigames + 6. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts + 5. Daikatana review (Parts 1 and 2) + 4. *Sonic Colors*? - JonTron Game Reviews? + 3. Malkovich's Gaming Game Show + 2. Top 20 SNES Games (Parts 1 and 2) + 1. The Leagüe and I (Lady Gaga Parody) * Top 10N *Kingdom Hearts 3D* Music (TEXT) - A list of Chris' favorite music from Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance presented almost entirely in text boxes. They were: + 10. La Cloche((La Cite Des Cloches Field Theme)) + 9. Xehanort - The Early Days((Young Xehanort's Theme)) + 8. All For One((Country Of The Musketeers Combat Theme)) + 7. Access The Grid((The Grid Field Theme)) + 6. Distant From You + 5. Rinzler Recompiled((Rinzler Boss Theme)) + 4. A Night on the Bare Mountain((Chernabog Boss Theme)) + 3. Untamable((Traverse Town/Country Of The Musketeers Boss Theme)) + 2. L'Impeto Oscuro((Young Yehanort Boss Theme)) + 1. L'Oscurità dell'Ignoto((Xemnas Boss Theme)) + Bonus: Sweet Spirits((Spirits Menu Theme)) * Most Anticipated Videos of 2013 - Chris talks about the 10 games(plus a trailer) he was most excited for that were coming out in 2013. They were: + Project Versus J((later renamed J-Stars Victory VS))(The game ended up being delayed to 2014 for Japan, with the North American version of the game ended up being released in 2015) + BioShock Infinite + Tomb Raider (2013) + Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon + Deadpool((later put on his list of Top 10 Marvel Video Games)) + Rainbow Six Patriots((later cancelled)) + Pokémon X and Y((later mentioned in Top 10 Scary Moments in Video Games (As A Kid), where it was stated he still didn't have it)) + The Last of Us + A trailer for Super Smash Bros. 4((later revealed as Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U))(Released in 2014) + BlazBlue: Chronophantasma(Later reviewed in an Adrenaline Shot) Reaction Videos --------------- * Paultena's reveal for Smash + E3 2014 Nintendo Digital Event REACTIONS - A heavily edited version of Chris' live reactions for Nintendo's 2014 E3 conference. * Hyrule Warriors Direct REACTIONS - A heavily edited version of Chris' live reactions of the 2014 Hyrule Warriors Nintendo Direct. * Mewtwo's reveal for Smash + 50 Fact Extravaganza REACTIONS - A heavily edited version of Chris' live reactions of the Smash Bros. for Wii U 50 Fact Extravaganza. * Nintendo Direct 11/12/15 + CLOUD Live Reactions! - Chris' unedited livestream of his reactions of the Nintendo Direct from November 12th, 2015. * Luffy in Super Smash Flash 2 Live Reaction - Chris' recording of Monkey D. Luffy's reveal for Super Smash Flash 2. Adrenaline Shot ------------------- A series of fast-paced video game reviews. * *Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed* * *Grand Theft Auto V* * *Super Mario 3D World* * *Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze* * *BlazBlue: Chronophantasma(The thumbnail◊ of which appeared in Smash Masters of YouTube) Top 10 *Mario Kart 8* Courses(Can still be viewed in the Top 10N Lists playlist) - They were: + 10. Water Park + 9. Yoshi Valley (N64) + 8. Mount Wario + 7. Sweet Sweet Canyon + 6. Sherbet Land (GC) + 5. Grumble Volcano (Wii) + 4. Twisted Mansion + 3. Rainbow Road + 2. Sunshine Airport + 1. Cloudtop Cruise * *The Jackbox Party Pack* * *Five Nights at Freddy's 3* * Top 10N *Mario Party* *10* Minigames - They were: + 10. Foo Me Once + 9. Mega Monty Mole's Maze Mischief + 8. Shy Guy Shuffle + 7. Shape Up + 6. Found It? Pound It! + 5. Boo Burglars + 4. Rapid River Race + 3. Mega Cheep Chomp's Shell Shock + 2. Bob-omb Bogey + 1. Bowser's Tank Terror Smashing Fiction -------------------- Chris reads the most bizarre and poorly written fanfiction from across the internet. * Alucard and the Goblet of Fire - Alucard and his friend Harry Potter go to kill Alucard's father, Dracula. * A Classic Tale Of The Coolest Raider - An incredibly cool raider goes through the Wasteland to show off how cool he is. * Bidoof and Bidoof - Two Bidoofs take a walk together. * Keyblade Rosario Evil Hearts - Sora attends Redemption Academy, where he ends up meeting Moka Akashiya. * Fart Stories: Lady Urbosa (Breath of the Wild)(The attempted reboot of the series) - A man named Cameron meets Lady Urbosa and becomes fascinated with her rear. Kingdom Hearts 2 VERSUS --------------------------- A let's play series where he and his friend Badman Reviews would play Kingdom Hearts II at the same time to see who would get to the end first. * Part 1 - Rox Ass * Part 2 - Getting Down to Business * Part 3 - Mom's Spaghetti * Part 4 - Sephiroth X Bambi's Mom * Part 5 - Rising Sun Over Paradise * Part 6 - I WON'T GIVE UP! (...yet) Miscellaneous Videos ------------------------ Random videos of Chris' that don't fit under any other category. * Chris had once made a video that had a sitcom-esque skit in it involving a married couple. The skit involved the husband entering the living room and announcing that he made lemonade to his wife. The wife points out that he came from the bathroom, and the husband states that he knew that before giving a thumbs-up to the camera. The only reason the video is known of is because Chris used the above skit in Top 10N Game Overs in order to avoid the copyright issues that would've come with using a clip from an actual sitcom. The full context of the video is unknown. * Blooper Reel 2012 - A compilation of Hilarious Outtakes from Rosario+Vampire through to Winter Wonderlands of Games released as a 1,000 subscriber special. * 2000 SUBSCRIBERS DOODZ (oh and also i made a new small channel yaaaaaay) - Chris' celebration of 2,000 subscribers where he notes he didn't have a plan for getting the amount that early, plus an announcement of his second channel. * Hard News Audition - Chris' audition to be the new host for ScrewAttack's old Hard News segment. * Normal Bears - Chris messes around with the icon for The Completionist on Normal Boots's old website. * Normal Bears 2: The Beardening - Chris complains that the That One Video Gamer website did not have an icon for The Completionist in the same vein as Normal Boots'. * #BurnSonic06 - Chris' submission into The Completionist's (now removed) video on Sonic the Hedgehog.(Turns out he misunderstood the requirements and ended up shooting a copy of Shadow the Hedgehog instead) * Super Mario Galaxy ALS Twitch Stream THIS SATURDAY! ...oh also, ice buckets - After being nominated to do the ALS ice bucket challenge, Chris announces a 24 hour livestream where he completed Super Mario Galaxy.(Except for the Luigi portion, as completing the game as Mario took longer than expected) * Fastest Online Match Ever - Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS - A short screen recording of Chris as Mario beating Little Mac in Smash for 3DS in under 20 seconds.(A similar event occurs in his TOTALLY HARDCORE PROFESSIONAL MONTAGE, except in Smash for Wii U) * Street Fighter V - A video making fun of Capcom's copyright policy regarding Street Fighter V. * The Final Smash - An old school project where Anthony (played by Chris) gets annoyed at his roommate Brad (also played by Chris) for being loud while he is trying to work on an assignment. * Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - Fiddles - The first episode of a cancelled series where Chris would give his unscripted opinions on the first hour of a video game, with the game in question here being Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. * Inner Shmvoo - Chris' response to his friend JTheVlogMan challenging him to find his “inner Shmvoo.” Livestreams --------------- Many livestreams of Chris' have been lost for various reasons, with most of them only having confirmation of them existing through clips on his Twitch page: * Chris forgot to mark his 8th Paper Mario: Color Splash stream he did on Twitch as a highlight, causing it to be automatically deleted. The only confirmation of this happening is in the title◊ to the 9th Color Splash stream(which is labeled as "Day 8" since the actual 8th stream was lost). * A similar situation occurred with his Persona 5 The Royal reaction/Monkey Ball 2 custom levels stream. Only three clips remain, which can be seen here, here, and here. * The first half of Chris' reaction stream for Bethesda's E3 2017 conference was deleted as it mostly consisted of Chris drunkingly ranting about his chat and the stream's technical issues. * Chris has stated◊ that he only tends to save playthroughs and reaction streams, leading streams where he plays games with viewers(such as Jackbox and Use Your Words) to be deleted. Only a handful of clips of these streams exist, examples of which can be seen here, here, here, here, and here. * A birthday stream of Chris' entitled "SMASH'S INSANE BIRTHDAY BASH (which is literally no different from any other stream lol)" where he played Use Your Words, Overwatch, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has also been lost with only 7 clips of the stream existing. * An Elgato test stream of his was deleted automatically, although 17 clips of it do exist. * Multiple Mario Party streams where he played with his friend Brittany were never saved. * A Kingdom Hearts III Critical Mode stream was removed, as elaborated on in Trivia. Three clips remain, which can be seen here, here, and here.	MissingEpisode	null
LastManStanding2011	# Actor Allusion - Last Man Standing (2011) * To Tim Allen: + In "Last Halloween Standing", Mike passes by a trick-or-treater dressed as Buzz Lightyear. > Mike: Those are the wrong wings. + Bill McKenzie (Richard Karn a.k.a. Al ) asks Mike how his three boys are doing. Mike reminds him he has three girls despite Bill distinctly remembering three boys. He also uses the phrase "I don't think so, Mike". + On "Private Coach" Mike says "Never give up, never surrender!" He also does the hand gesture. + In "College Girl," when Mike notices Jon's (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) car, Jon mentions that it was souped up for "more power." Not only does Mike do the grunt, but he remarks that "That kid was raised well." + Later when Jon Baker (JTT, again) is serving them at his restaurant, he tells them how business is doing in "Ryan vs. Jon Baker", Mike says, "I'm proud of you, son. Can I call you son? That just feels right." + On a Christmas episode, when it's suggested that Mike take over for Ed as Santa: > Mike: Me? In a Santa suit? I don't think so! + Ed has a Toy Story 1 poster in his basement. + The episode "Helen Potts" is chock full of allusions to Home Improvement, most of which were shoehorned into the first act following the opening titles. Patricia Richardson plays the titular character whose ex-husband loved tools and was always breaking things worse when he tried to fix anything. Chuck appears for a scene as an homage to Wilson, including a similar hat, his face mostly obscured by the fence, and having a weird tale from his travels. Helen's son even comes by the end to pick her up for lunch, and it's JTT. Mike makes similar quick comments about him being familiar. There's even a scene transition that uses a Suspiciously Similar Song to the Home Improvement theme. + In "Halloween", Mandy mentions that Toy Story freaks her out because one of the characters sounds like her dad. + In "Gift of the Wise Man", Mandy and Eve change their family's Christmas newsletter to say Mike joined a biker gang. Mike is amused by this. + In "Tanks for the Memories", Vanessa, after seeing Mike obsess over Helen Potts' husband's tank collection, tells her that it's "like they married the same man". + In several episodes, Mike's toolbox is shown with a Binford logo on it. + "The Fixer": When Ryan sees the amount of tools Mike brought to fix his sink, he says they should call Mike "The Tool Man." + In "The Bride of Prankenstein," Mike says he knows all about Santa's naughty and nice list, just don't ask him how. + In "Heavy Meddle", Mike mentions "a weird dude on the other side of the fence who's always giving him advice" while holding a hand over his mouth and nose. + In "Baked Sale," Mike mentions that he'd like to have a superhero movie made about him, preferably an animated one. Tim Allen also starred in a live action superhero movie, Zoom Academy For Superheroes, which is another allusion. It was not successful, preferring an animated one would be a good thing. + During a time skip in the season nine premiere, in which Mike goes without shaving, at one point he says that with his beard he could easily pass for Santa Claus. + "Dual Time": - Mike and Vanessa hire a repair man to fix their garbage disposal. The repair man happens to be Tim Taylor, leading to a number of references. - Tim references Wilson, but Mike initially thinks he's talking about the volleyball in Cast Away. When Tim says he loves Tom Hanks, Mike remarks that he considers Hanks to be "the second-best guy in some of those films." * To other cast members: + The girls watch Paranormal Activity 2 in a season one episode. Molly Ephraim, who plays Mandy Baxter, played Ali in the film. + Nancy Travis gets one in "Ping-Pong" when Eve reads Vanessa's copy of The Feminine Mystique and sees that she wrote "Mrs. Tom Selleck" all over it. Travis co-starred with Selleck in Three Men and a Baby and Three Men and a Little Lady; their characters married in the latter. + Bill Engvall guest stars as the new church minister in "The Marriage Doctor". Travis previously played Engvall's wife in The Bill Engvall Show. + The ironic last line that Molly Ephraim (Mandy #1) had in the season 6 final episode, "This is my house!" * To guest stars: + In "Mike and the Mechanics", Joe (Jay Leno), reveals he once dreamed of having a career as a stand up comedian before becoming a talk show host. + In "Outdoor Woman", Mike's ex-girlfriend Billie (Reba McEntire) praises Eve's music, leading to this exchange: > Mike: I'm just trying to let her know how difficult it is to get in the music business. > Billie: Well, some people pull it off and with a voice like Eve's, I think she's got a pretty good shot at it. But what do I know about the music business? ---	ActorAllusion	null
Film	# The Bus Came Back - Film Examples of The Bus Came Back in live-action films. --- Subpages: --------- * Marvel Cinematic Universe Examples: --------- ### Animated * Cars 3: Bob Cutlass, the announcer alongside Darrell Cartrip from the first film who hasn't been seen since then, finally returns in this movie. * Ice Age: + Buck, who debuted in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, returns to the franchise for Collision Course (after a cameo in Continental Drift). + The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild: Momma T. Rex from Dawn of the Dinosaurs returns to assist Buck and the herd once again. * Patlabor: The Movie: Kanuka Clancy returned to New York City following the end of Mobile Police Patlabor: The Early Days, due to her training assignment with the Tokyo police ending. She's briefly mentioned fairly early on in the film, then arrives in Tokyo in the third act to help out with the final battle. This is her final appearance in the OVA and film continuity. * Toy Story 4 marks the return of Bo Peep, Woody's Love Interest and their subsequent reunion, after being absent from the third movie (In real life? Bo Peep last appeared 20 years earlier). * Winx Club: The Mystery of the Abyss: After a brief appearance in "The Shark's Eye" in season 5, Politea comes back as this movie's Big Bad. Live-Action =========== * Dad's Army (2016): Private Walker, who was written out of the original series following the untimely death of his actor, James Beck, is shown to have returned to Walmington-on-Sea by 1944 and resumed his duties with the platoon, now played by Daniel Mays. * Doctor... Series: Doctor at Large sees Tony Benskin, Joy Gibson, Sir Lancelot, and the Padre all return from Doctor in the House (1954) after missing Doctor at Sea. * The Flash (2023) makes the momentous return of \|\|Michael Keaton's Batman who hasn't been seen since Batman Returns a whooping 31 years ago. To a much lesser extent General Zod played by Michael Shannon returns having been last been seen a decade previously in Man of Steel where he got a Neck Snap from Supes, but is alive again along with the rest of his army thanks to a Timey-Wimey Ball.\|\| * God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness: Josh reappears in this movie, after having not been seen since the first one. It seems he chose not to pursue a legal career, and went into the ministry with Dave. * Godzilla: + In Godzilla: Final Wars, they basically rounded up every monster design from Toho's history, including ones who hadn't been seen in twenty or thirty years - Anguirus, Ebirah, King Caesar, Hedorah, Kamacurus, Kumonga and so on make appearances, and Gigan plays a significant role, even getting a new design when he gets scraped up and rebuilt with chainsaw hands. + Dr. Serizawa, not seen since the first film, is back in Godzilla (2014), being portrayed by Ken Watanabe. However, the character is a descendant instead of the original (to be fair, the original also died), and he's for Godzilla instead of against him. * James Bond: The Daniel Craig era Felix Leiter, Jeffrey Wright (introduced in Casino Royale), was last seen in Quantum of Solace in 2008. 2021's No Time to Die brought him back \|\|and killed him off.\|\| * A constant in Jurassic Park; as most of the appeal of the series is rampaging dinosaurs, the main human cast has seldom remained consistent: + Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) were absent from The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which starred Breakout Character Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum); the pair returned in Jurassic Park III, with Grant regaining his role as protagonist. + In Jurassic World only one (human) character from the original trilogy appeared: Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), who had one scene in the first film. World also saw the return to the series of "Rexy", the same Tyrannosaurus rex who appeared in the first film. + Malcolm, after sitting out the third and fourth films, returned in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. + Jurassic World Dominion, third installment in the second trilogy and sixth in the saga as a whole, united Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm for the first time since the first film. Also returning from the first film is Dodgson, which crosses over into Unexpected Character territory (though played by another actor, Campbell Scott, since the first actor, Cameron Thor, became a convicted sex criminal in the meantime). * Mission: Impossible Film Series: + Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), the IMF Director in Mission: Impossible (1996), returned in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023), the seventh installment of the Mission: Impossible film series. + Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning brings back CIA director Sloane from Mission: Impossible – Fallout, now being elected as President of the United States. + The same movie also brings back William Donloe, the poor CIA analyst that got Reassigned to Antarctica at the end of the first movie, and even gives him a crucial role in taking down the Big Bad. * Mythica: Egan, Marek's friend and fellow slave, is not seen after A Quest For Heroes after she escapes while he stays behind, too afraid to join her. He returns in Stormbound nineteen years later, when Marek is dead, having grown into a brave hero following her example while regretting not going with her. * Ray - Ray Charles' mother was active through much of Ray's life but the film makes it appear as though she didn't have an active role in his young development. She died before he met his first wife. In fact, Ray's life is portrayed as a rotating support circle. Different bandmates and managers guided him along different steps of the way and then he outgrew them and moved onto a new support circle. In reality, Ray kept in touch with a lot of his earlier band mates and Ahmet Ertegun (Curtis Armstrong) knew Ray until the end of his life. Once Ray dropped him as a manager, he didn't appear again in the movie though. * Star Wars: Weazel (Warwick Davis), one of the people to watch Anakin Skywalker win the Boonta Eve Classic, is now a member of Enfys' gang in Solo. * Played for Laughs in Summer School: \|\|Jerome is excused to use the restroom on the first day, and isn't seen again until the Final Exam six weeks later.\|\| * The Three Stooges has a prime example: A duo of con-men (portrayed by Lew Davis and Nick Copeland) once appeared in "Cash and Carry", then had another appearance in "Playing the Ponies".(Unlike the Stooges' shorts, there were always one-time characters that never return in another short whatsoever.) * X-Men Film Series + X-Men: Days of Future Past: Toad finally returns for his first appearance since the original X-Men movie. He was in the military, and after Mystique saves him from Trask Industries, he's working in a kitchen somewhere. + X-Men: Apocalypse: Moira MacTaggert returns after being absent in Days of Future Past. ---	TheBusCameBack	null
AnimeAndManga	# Good Is Not Soft - Anime & Manga --- * Belldandy of Ah! My Goddess is the sweetest, kindest, most nurturing person imaginable. She'll go out of her way to help anyone and would never raise her voice in anger. Oh, and she's also an unspeakably powerful being and the very incarnation of Beware the Nice Ones, so don't get any ideas about taking over the world or harming her loved ones. Ever. * Hanji from Attack on Titan is generally a sweet, friendly, and funny person. But any senior officer of the Survey Corps is not someone to trifle with as \|\|the Female Titan\|\| found out and Pastor Nick learned the hard way. * Julius Novachrono from Black Clover is certainly nice to his allies and is a Reasonable Authority Figure, but he won't hesitate to kill his enemies by reducing them to dust. Then it's revealed that his magic revolves around using the time of enemies he's killed, and Julius notes that he's killed countless people. * Shunsui Kyouraku of Bleach is easily the friendliest and most laidback of the captains. Despite that, he will do his job, even the more violent parts, when it comes down to it. In his very first arc, after giving Chad an opportunity to run away from the fight, he cuts him down. \|\|He kills Starrk, who was actually a Reluctant Anti-Villain. When Wonderweiss stabs his best friend Ukitake through the chest, his whole demeanor turns murderous and he doesn't waste a second in trying to kill the young Arrancar. And he pushes back against the Central 46 when he thinks they're hindering the Gotei's military readiness.\|\| * Ran Mouri from Case Closed is all sweet, kindness and gentleness and is willing to help people, whether they're friend or foe. But being a national-level karateka, she won't hesitate to take anyone down when her loved ones are in danger. * Team Touden from Delicious in Dungeon are all heroic characters, but they don't hesitate to cut down the monsters of the dungeon, including demi-humans. Laios even lectures Senshi about how no one can ever know what a monster is thinking and so to try and treat them gently is suicidal. \|\|He's immediately proved right when Annie, the kelpie Senshi had become close to, tries to kill and eat the dwarf. Laios and Senshi kill her and they make her into their next meal.\|\| * In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Tanjiro Kamado, the series protagonist, is an extremely sweet and kind person who goes through great lengths in order to make friends and make others become friendly with each other. That said, he is not a total pacifist; if Tanjiro sees a situation where someone is being blatantly bullied or flat out abused, he gets violent pretty quick towards the aggressor without any remorse. When it comes to his actual demon slaying gig, Tanjiro has never refused to kill a demon with blood in their hands, but Tanjiro will offer a last minute of empathy towards the felled demon if the creature expresses real regret for their actions and pitiful nature as a human devouring monster. * Denjin N: The Sudou deduce that Misaki is Tadahiro's Morality Pet and blatantly threaten to kill her if he doesn't obey and do injure her a few times during the investigation despite his promises on destroying the world if she's hurt. Tadahiro ultimately decides to hear Sudou out. Sudou are polite to others when Tadahiro isn't nearby though. * Played with regarding Takeru Digimon Adventure 02. He is normally nice, friendly and level-headed, but he can be far less pleasant towards an enemy that's pissed him off, The most poignant angry moments had his coldly suggestion that they should kill a dangerous Dark Digimon and physically beating up Ken/the Digimon Kaiser. However, this is addressed in the series, with Takeru recognizing that these tendencies weren't exactly healthy, and with Iori being pretty conflicted about teaming up with him \|\|specifically, when they realize they're Jogress partners, but Iori doesn't know if they're up to the task\|\|, so he's more in control in the latter half of the series. * Dragon Ball: + Future Trunks is a Nice Guy that is very polite, and values life having come from a Bad Future where all the protagonists have died. However, he's a Combat Pragmatist who is very serious in battle aiming to kill his opponents and even willing to fight his own allies if the situation calls for it. Such as when his father Vegeta wanted to aid Semi-Perfect Cell to become perfect. Trunks warns Vegeta that he will blast him to stop Cell but Vegeta thinks Trunks is too soft to shoot at his own father. Trunks proves Vegeta WRONG. + Goku when he was a kid/teen. This is especially demonstrated when he mercilessly kills King Piccolo and his children for murdering his friends. He also destroys the Red Ribbon Army with his own hands and kills his foes even when they're fleeing for their lives. He downplays this trope as an adult, due to the combination of him showing mercy to his enemies, thus making them into friends and mostly enjoying fighting for the competitive aspect. Although, some traits of this remains like him letting Frieza live with the shame of being defeated by a mere monkey and blasting Frieza when he shot him in the back. \|\|After accepting that Frieza is irredeemably evil and too dangerous to live, he atomizes him with a Kamehameha\|\|. He was also more than willing to kill Cell and Buu, not offering them the chance to walk away; in fact, in the case of Cell, while the other Z-Fighters were horrified at the sight of Gohan basically torturing Cell to death, Goku was more concerned that Gohan was taking too long and wanted him to finish Cell off before he got desperate. And when properly enraged, he will beat his enemies to a bloody pulp. + Gohan when his Berserk Button is pressed. When he loses control, people tend to get seriously hurt or killed. Just ask Frieza, Cell, and Super Buu. + Zen'O seems to be this. While he's generally friendly and reasonable, instantly befriends Goku because he treats the former so casually, he \|\|or rather, his future counterpart, doesn't think twice before destroying fallen god Zamasu (and the whole timeline) after the guy kills everybody in the multiverse except the heroes.\|\| \|\|Unfortunately, he also suffers from a case of Blue-and-Orange Morality, as the Tournament of Power arc shows.\|\| + In fact, it can be said that most of the heroes (except Vegeta) are this at some way or another. * Celty Sturluson is — underneath her fearsome reputation as the Headless Rider of Ikebukuro — easily the most sympathetic and benevolent figure in Durarara!!. Nonetheless, her fearsomeness is fully justified whenever she's dealing with lowly street thugs. * The main characters of Everyday is Sunday are just two normal, well-meaning people who support each other when in trouble, but they won't hesitate to catch or get back at criminals who've done wrong. * The heroes in Fist of the North Star all have this trait in spades. Are you good, a woman or a child? They'll protect you and nurture you with a smile on their face. Are you evil? You Are Already Dead. * Henkyou no Roukishi Bard Loen: For The People's Knight, Bard isn't above killing unarmed opponents or using trickery. If his life is in danger, anything goes. * Arslan in The Heroic Legend of Arslan is often seen by others as being a weakling due to his effeminate appearance, naivete and compassion for others. However, he is a capable fighter by his own right and he is fiercely dedicated to his friends, including outright threatening someone for the first time because they had placed Daryun in danger. + And for that matter, Daryun himself. Absolutely heroic to his own side, consistently kind and gentle with Arslan (if a bit overprotective), but when in battle he is utterly terrifying: intense, utterly badass, and without a single shred of mercy for those foolish enough to stand against him. * Houtarou Oreki from Hyouka. As an individual, Houtarou is introvert, aloof and apathetic, but hardly a bad person. However, he's not above blackmailing others if it will save him energy in the long run. * Kabane in Kemono Jihen is something of an Extreme Doormat who only cares about the well-being of those close to him. He's a good listener, amiable, and fiercely loyal, if socially awkward. He's also more than happy to try to tear apart your throat with his teeth or use the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique if you make an enemy of him or someone he cares about. He also doesn't get the notion of pity and will be totally remorseless if he utterly dismembers you after you tried to kill him. * Toale from The Legend of the Legendary Heroes is one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet, especially in a world full of Anti-Heroes and Sociopathic Heroes. Don't think for a moment, however, that he doesn't understand war or that sometimes, you have to be harsh to get things done. * Lyrical Nanoha: Nanoha is one of the nicest people around and always tries to communicate with her enemies first. That does not mean she won't blast her opponents hard, if necessary, which may include students, friends or even her own daughter. The fandom tends to refer to this behavior as a kind of "Listen or be shot. Fail to listen, be shot again." mentality. * This is a common trait among some of the most powerful people in Magi: Labyrinth of Magic. + Aladdin is a very sweet and friendly boy who goes out of his way to help others and detests war, but hurting his friends or innocent people will cause him to deliver a beatdown and even then he will not kill you. + Sinbad cares for the people of his country deeply and treats everyone with respect. However, anyone associated with Al-Thamen will be mercilessly annihilated, and he will resort to any measures to protect his country. + Scheherazade is a benevolent ruler of Reim and she has a naturally kind disposition to those she meets. That being said, she can be utterly ruthless in protecting the affairs of her country and making sure that the Reim empire continues to expand. + Muu is friendly to everyone he meets by default, but anyone who threatens Scheherazade or Reim should be prepared to face him first. + Ugo was initially presented as a protector and friend of Aladdin, but when Judar was about to seriously injure Aladdin, Ugo stepped in and destroyed him with raw physical power. In an earlier episode, when Aladdin rushed to save Kou;s princess, he was ambushed by renegade Kou empire soldiers. Ugo completely obliterates about 30 of them upon arrival (All that was left of them were rocks covered with blood). Aladdin either does not notice this or does not care. * Dr. Kenzo Tenma from Monster (1994) is an excellent example. While a genius neurosurgeon, he's a humble, principled and compassionate doctor, loved by his patients. His only obvious flaw is his habit of manhandling those who offend his sense of justice. But when it becomes clear that he must go on a manhunt in order to save innocents from the monster he unwittingly unleashed on the world, he soon takes a level in Badass and becomes a fearsome vigilante. * My Hero Academia: + Izuku Midoriya is a gentle-hearted soul to all his friends and anyone who is in need of help or comfort. That kindness doesn't extend to villains however, and he won't pull punches with them. He'll stop at nothing until a villain is down on the ground, especially if they intend to harm a child. + Present Mic is a big goofy DJ styled hero who, despite his sometimes annoying Large-Ham Announcer tendencies, is otherwise a genuine Nice Guy. He's best friends with the gloomy Aizawa and generally supportive of the kids at UA. However, all that cheerful irreverence masks an unflinching brutal streak, most notably when it comes to people who hurt his friends. When Aizawa is brutally beaten in the USJ arc, he sees the result and calmly steps forward and unleashes a sound loud enough to level half the building and wreck the villains still on the scene. When he finds out that \|\|Dr. Ujiko was the traitor and had been harvesting kids for their quirks for at least fifteen years, including Mic's best friend Shirakumo and that Aizawa had also been targeted for harvesting\|\|, Mic flies completely off the handle and lays into the culprit with his bare hands. He also threatens to \liquefy\ the culprits with his quirk and \make a stew\ with their organs. + Aizawa himself is a reclusive, introverted guy who can at times come across as lazy, depressed, gloomy and looks a bit like a homeless guy with his shaggy, stringy hair and Perma-Stubble. He's known for bring quite a grump and a killjoy teacher who won't waste time on anyone without potential. But deep down he cares for his students, fights nearly to the death for them and will ferociously put down anyone who deserves it. He's a rugged underground hero who has hates the spotlight and flashy heroes, likely seen things that would sicken other heroes and has shades of Batman influence. * Naruto has several characters that fit this trope, given that most of the named characters are or were members of their respective nation's military. + Naruto Uzumaki himself often has shades of this. He is genuinely friendly to most people and is incredibly kind to his friends. This doesn't mean, however, that he can't kick your arse hard should you prove to be an enemy, and god help you if you hurt one of his precious people. + Perhaps the best example is Kakashi Hatake. He is kind and laid back with his students and colleagues; yet is capable of instantly becoming a pragmatic, efficient, and ruthless fighter should you be an enemy of his nation or worse yet if you try to harm his comrades or loved ones. + Kakashi's childhood friend Might Guy is a prime example as well. On the surface, he is an overly energetic and naive fitness/martial arts fanatic who constantly calls upon the power and goodness of youth; yet he is shown on several occasions to be a warrior of near equal skill to Kakashi and willing to fight to the death to defend his allies. In later arcs, he \|\|Sacrifices himself by fighting Madara to the death, after the latter had essentially become a physical god, in order to buy time for Naruto and the reinforcements to get to the battlefield to save his allies\|\| + Choji Akimichi also qualifies. He is one of the more laid back and personable people in the entire series, and has a rather strong moral compass, but he is still a Konoha shinobi and is willing to die defending his comrades. In the Sasuke Retrival Arc, he \|\|volunteers to stay behind to block Jirobo's persuit of Team Shikamaru, and not only manages to defy the odds and win the fight but absolutely destroys Jirobo when the latter insults Shikamaru, becoming the first member of Naruto's generation to kill an opponent outright\|\|. * Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece. He's generally an oblivious person with a good heart, but has shown quite capable of taking on anyone, even his friends, if he feels they've done wrong. + In the first chapter, when Shanks and his crew approach Higuma and his mountain bandits, who have beaten Luffy up and are planning on killing him, one of them points a gun at Shanks' head, only for him to be unfazed and ask if the bandit would risk his life. Lucky Roux then quickly appears near the bandit and kills him with a headshot. The other bandits are shocked and outraged, but Ben Beckman says they're not dealing with saints and Shanks says that he can ignore being insulted, spat on and having drinks poured on his head, but he will not stand for anyone threatening his friends. + This is the usual attitude the followers of Moral Justice in the Marines show, notable examples being Smoker and Kuzan. * Ash Ketchum and his companions in Pokémon the Series are thoroughly altruistic and playful, and tend to be forgiving to even villains or jerks....when they seek it. When you act like a douche or try to steal or harm Pokemon however, expect them to unload their most powerful Pokemon onto your team or even you. It isn't rare for them to be so infuriated by the scheming of the likes of Team Rocket that they'll get a beating from their Pokemon after being defeated. * Reborn! (2004): That Yamamoto is all the wholesome goodness of the world does not mean he won't take foes out, katana sword style, if the need arises. Tsuna's strongest friend is the hero who wins the battles that need to be won. Expect Yamamoto to be his cheerful self in his epic victories as well. * The titular Rurouni Kenshin is a Nice Guy and is known to go out of his way to help others. But if you manage to tick him off by harming innocents or his friends, you will be in a world of pain. * While the Outer Senshi and the Sailor Starlights of Sailor Moon fall more into the realm of Good Is Not Nice, the Inner Senshi are heroic, kind-hearted young girls who value The Power of Friendship and they abhor the idea of putting innocent people at risk. They have also taken down countless youma and have actually killed the main villains of the manga upon transforming for the first time. + Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon) may be the forgiving, selfless, pure heroine of the series, but she is rather terrifying when genuinely angered. In the manga, she is far more likely to just off the villain than try to forgive them if they bring harm to her friends and family. Even in the anime, she actually wanted to kill Katarina when she was forcibly turned into a youma rather than heal her, because Katarina was the reason for Minako being a Heartbroken Badass. + Makoto Kino (Sailor Jupiter) is a nurturing, generous girl who wouldn't hurt anyone that didn't mistreat others. She just wants to be accepted by her peers, and she is strongly encouraging of those who wish to pursue their dreams. But for the people she does witness bullying others, she will threaten them, and do her best to rough them up. Being an Empowered Badass Normal who is freakishly strong without becoming a Senshi, this means trouble for those who do get on her bad side. She is the Senshi of Courage, after all. + Minako Aino (Sailor Venus) is friendly and cheerful, and willing to be late for class to stand up for people she sees getting picked on. She is also willing to fight bullies in the same manner as she fights youma, just barely shy of killing them. As Sailor V, she often beat youma to death with her fists and feet, and even her own high heels. She is also the one who disemboweled Queen Beryl for attacking Sailor Moon, and even kicked Makoto into unconsciousness for trying to harm Usagi (mind you, Makoto was brainwashed). Hell, she even killed \|\|her love interest\|\| for being an enemy in disguise. Minako is brutal when it comes to her mission and dealing with enemies of the Senshi. * The main crew of Snow White and Seven Dwarfs are either made up of those falling on the Anti-Hero end of the spectrum or characters who are this. They're great and honestly nice people, and Takeru in particular averts What Measure Is a Mook?, but that still doesn't mean that he won't blow you up if you attack his friends. * The nation of Jura Tempest in That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is built around kindness and understanding. That said, if you launch an attack on their nation, they will retaliate by wiping you out down to the last man. * In Tokyo Shinobi Squad, the Narumi-kai is a group of all-around Nice Guys in a profession filled with sadistic, psychopathic criminals. But they're still Professional Killers by trade and will respond to threats with lethal force. * Vash the Stampede of Trigun may be a pacifist, and he's usually very kind, but if someone does something to sufficiently piss him off, he can be outright scary and will find a way to make them suffer without actually killing them, especially in the manga. * Despite her tender heart, Mikako Nagamine from Voices of a Distant Star shows no hesitation whatsoever in Goomba Stomping a tarsian so she can finish it off with close-range gunfire or bloodily cutting them to bits with her Tracer's Laser Blades. * YuYu Hakusho: Poltergeist Report is a spinoff movie that basically turns all the protagonists into hot-blooded shonen versions of this. Even the Jerkass or more annoying characters like Genkai, Hiei, and Keiko have shades of it or at least take a level in kindness. + Kurama, being a demon who merged with a human infant, combines the compassionate nature of his human side with centuries of experience telling him that letting an enemy live to fight another day is a stupid thing to do. He's very friendly and kind-hearted, but as Hiei once stated, "He's even more cutthroat than I am when it comes to battle." One of the most chilling ways they showed this was when he had a demon who threatened his mother under his power and begging for his life. > Roto: You believe in mercy, don't you? > Kurama: No. [causes a plant to bloom and erupt from Roto's body] - Kurama extends this to his friends, if being harsh will do them more good than being nice. See when he trains Kuwabara for the Dark Tournament. > Kurama: Hiei cannot prepare you for the viciousness of the fights. Your weakness and his honor make him go easy on you. I will not. ---	GoodIsNotSoft	null
LaDolcezzaNonEsiste	# It Sugar Wiki - Esiste Davvero(aka: La Dolcezza Non Esiste) Benvenuti nel lato Più Cupo E Crudo di TV tropes. La sezione Darth Wiki è stata creata Giusto Per Divertimento per ospitare quelle cose che sono l'inverso dell'obiettivo della wiki. La disinformazione e le bugie più maliziosamente divertenti sono la nostra specialità. Se la TV tropes principale è giusto nel mezzo della Scala Graduata Di Idealismo Contro Cinismo, noi sicuramente ci siamo accampati nel punto più cinico della scala. Sì, qui le cose sono brutte, strane e grottesche. Ma non giudicateci dall'aspetto. Beh, a parte per Eversion, Irisu Syndrome, Powerup Comics, o Nightmare Doors. Contrastante con Sugar Wiki. Anzi, sentitevi liberi di torturarla. L'Indice Oscuro * Zona Degli Esperimenti Mortali * Wall Banger * Tv Tropes Ha Rovinato La Tua Vita * Tutto Ciò Esiste / \|\|Tutto Ciò Non Esiste\|\| * I Tropi Sono Strumenti * Tropi Che Non Succederanno Mai * Tanto Brutto Da Essere Orribile * Rovinato PERSEMPRE * Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal * Rapporto Con Te * Raccomandazioni Per Una Fiction Inesistente * Quel Troper * Programmazione Idiota * Powerup Comics * Peggio Di Quanto Sembri * Opere Inedite * Not Safe For Work * Nightmare Doors * Mortasheen * Mi Infastidisce Davvero * Wiki Tech Wish List Lista Desideri Della Wiki Tech * Legge Dei Tropers * Il Lato Oscuro * Irisu Syndrome * Illiteracy Communist * Giorno Del Contrario * Friends Of Really Kool Sobriquet + Medaglia FORK * Fatto Di Fallimento * Eversion * Esposizione Di Belve Addomesticate * Entry Tutta Rossa * Distorci Quella Morale * Dipingere L Eroe Di Nero * Detronizzante Momento Di Schifo * Deathened Black Metal * Creatore Decaduto * Coronante Momento Di Indifferenza * Come Non Scrivere Un Esempio * Come Non Scrivere Una YKTTW * Come Non Scrivere Una Pagina Di Un Tropo * Canzone Malvagia Di Tv Tropes * La Canzone Di Evangelion Di Punisher E Ora Devo Urlare, uno spinoff di + Avatar E La Leggenda Della Compagnia Degli Ammazza Vampiri * Candle Cove * Appunti Inutili * Ai To Yuuki To Kashiwamochi * Agenzia Viaggi Malvagia * Ad Del Fallimento La Wikistrega Del Web: Ora, prendetevi un po' di tempo per voi e fate un respiro profondo. O andate ad accoppare qualche Padawan. Una piccola nota preventiva: Se un admin dovesse imbattersi in una pagina che contiene qualche forma di stupidaggine razzista o messa lì per inveire contro qualche altra religione, probabilmente saranno costretti a tagliare tutta la pagina. Quindi, se vi capitasse di trovarne qualcuna, è meglio per voi che la rimuoviate prima che arrivi qualcuno dei pesci grossi, se volete che il resto della pagina sopravviva. ---	ItSugarWiki	null
Television	# Channel Hop - Television Television: ----------- * Production Company Examples * The Danny Thomas Show (aka Make Room for Daddy) jumped from ABC to CBS in 1957. * My Three Sons went from ABC to CBS in 1965. * T.J. Hooker was cancelled after four seasons by ABC, CBS picked up season five and aired the new episodes in its 11:30PM Crimetime After Primetime slot. * Sister, Sister from ABC to The WB. * Family Matters from ABC to CBS. * Step by Step made the ABC to CBS move at the exact same time as Family Matters. Neither lasted more than one season on the new channel. * The Critic from ABC to FOX (Lampshaded: "I used to have a big show on ABC — for about a week!") to Comedy Central to "webisodes" on the Internet (also made fun of on the first "webisode"). * Rocky and Bullwinkle started on ABC in 1959 as Rocky and His Friends, then moved to NBC in 1961 where it was retitled The Bullwinkle Show. It ran in prime time for two years and Saturday morning for one more. It then moved back to ABC in 1964 for eight years in reruns until it was syndicated and given the title it is now best known by. It was also syndicated in 30-minute components as Rocky and His Friends and in 15-minute components as The Rocky Show. * The first three seasons of Beetlejuice (1989) aired on ABC's Saturday morning block. The fourth season premiered on the Fox Kids weekday block in fall 1991, with the third season episodes premiering on ABC at the same time, a truly unusual situation. * Whose Line Is It Anyway? (American) from ABC to ABC Family. Although all of its content was taped before the move, there were unaired episodes still in the can, as well as enough raw footage that the producers could create "new" shows several years after taping ended. + The new run of the show airs on The CW. * Clueless the TV series moved from ABC to UPN after its first season. * ReBoot from ABC to Cartoon Network, with 6 years or so between them. Apparently ReBoot was canceled solely because ABC was bought out by Disney, who wanted purely Disney-owned programming. The third season was produced in syndication through Canadian channels and the US didn't get that season until Cartoon Network picked it up two years later. Being Vindicated by Reruns, that paved the way for a fourth season. * The Hughleys moved from ABC to UPN in 2000. * When Taxi was cancelled by ABC, NBC picked it up; it ran for one more season. They kept it at Thursday nights at 9 pm, and ran ads with Danny DeVito saying "Same time, better station!" * After Muppets Tonight did badly in the ratings, the show moved to the Disney Channel. * Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) moved from ABC to The WB. * Webster moved from ABC to first-run syndication. * It's a Living from ABC to syndication. * Monday Night Football moved from ABC to ESPN in 2006 after NBC bought the rights to the primetime game-of-the week package and moved it to Sunday. Because both ABC and ESPN are owned by Disney, the occasional Monday night game has shown up on ABC in the years since. * Cougar Town moved to TBS in 2013. * Wonder Woman (1975) started on ABC, until the network decided it was too expensive to keep producing a historical series set in the 1940s. It was immediately picked up by CBS, who also changed the setting to the (then) modern day. * The Naked Truth from ABC to NBC. * The Wonderful World of Disney is an interesting case. It moved from ABC to NBC, then to CBS, back to ABC, then back to NBC, and then ABC again, though permanently this time since it's owned by Disney. * Teamo Supremo, Teacher's Pet (2000) and Lloyd in Space began on ABC, but all three shows moved to Toon Disney in 2002 once One Saturday Morning became ABC Kids. The Weekenders would move to Toon Disney the following year. * Clerks: The Animated Series sadly only aired two of its six episodes on ABC following its swift cancellation. In 2003, Comedy Central picked up the series and aired all of the episodes. * When soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live were canned, they attempted to move to internet syndication. However, problems with the distributor, Prospect Park, caused both productions to shut down. * Family Feud began on ABC and after its cancellation was revived by CBS. Each version had a concurrent syndicated version, the second of which stayed on for a few years after CBS cancelled it. The series was revived again strictly for syndication. The two primetime Celebrity Family Feud runs were also on NBC and ABC respectively. * Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? went from ABC to syndication, coinciding with Meredith Viera replacing Regis Philbin as host(Viera would leave in 2012, with Cedric the Entertainer taking her place the next season. Cedric was then replaced by Terry Crews afterward, and then finally by Chris Harrison for the remainder of the run). During its run on syndication, ABC aired two one-off special events (in 2004 and 2009 respectively) with Philbin returning for both. After the syndicated run ended in May 2019, ABC renewed the series for an eight-episode twenty-first season, this time celebrity-focused and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. * In May 2016, ABC cancelled Nashville after four seasons. Just under a month later, CMT picked up the series for a fifth season. * The Bionic Woman moved from ABC to NBC for its third season. In a situation that remains unique for US network TV, Richard Anderson and Martin E. Brooks continued to play their characters Oscar Goldman and Rudy Wells on both Bionic Woman and the parent series, The Six Million Dollar Man, which continued to air on ABC. However, ABC would not allow Lee Majors to appear as Steve Austin on the NBC show, ending those crossovers until three reunion TV movies were later produced. * Twin Peaks was revived by Showtime for its third season 26 years after the second season. * Last Man Standing ran on ABC for six seasons before being canceled. A year later, the show was Un-Canceled by FOX, who had always produced it anyway. * Designated Survivor from ABC (USA) and CTV (Canada) to Netflix. However, the series was already billed as a Netflix original outside of the USA and Canada. Entertainment One, the show's non-US distributor; which also owns co-producer The Mark Gordon Company, produced Season 3. * The Arthur Murray Party is not only one of the few 1950s U.S. TV shows to air on all four networks, it's probably the only one to air on all four at least twice. Starting on ABC, it went to DuMont, then ABC again, then CBS, then DuMont again, then CBS again, then NBC, then CBS again, then NBC again, all of that within 1950-60. That the program was basically a 15 to 60-minute-long infomercial for the Arthur Murray dance studios probably contributed to its ridiculously nomadic nature. * During the 1999-2001 period, several cartoons had their episode premieres flipped to and from One Saturday Morning to its companion, the UPN-based Disney's One Too. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Recess, Pepper Ann, Sabrina: The Animated Series and The Weekenders each had episodes premiere on both blocks. * Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (based on the Robert A. Heinlein novel Space Cadet) has had multiple hops, having started on CBS, moved to ABC, then to NBC, then to DuMont, then back to NBC all from 1950-1955. * The 1950s game show Pantomime Quiz had it just as bad. It started on CBS, moved to NBC, went back to CBS, moved to DuMont, went back again to CBS, then to ABC, then back a third time to CBS before finally ending its run on ABC. Then there are the revivals under the titles Stump the Stars (one season on CBS and a couple of short-lived syndication runs in the 1960s) and Celebrity Charades (a syndicated run in 1979 and on AMC in 2005). Pantomime Quiz, along with Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, enjoy the distinction of appearing on every national network available in the US at that time. A modern program would have to conduct dozens, if not hundreds of channel hops to match that today. * Bachelor Father from CBS to NBC and finally to ABC. * Charles in Charge from CBS to syndication. * The Joker's Wild and Tic-Tac-Dough from CBS to syndication. * Hee Haw from CBS to syndication. * Search for Tomorrow from CBS to NBC. * The Edge of Night from CBS to ABC. * Password started on CBS, then was canceled and revived on ABC. It was canceled and revived again on NBC as Password Plus, then later Super Password. It came full circle back to CBS, revived as Million Dollar Password nearly 20 years after Super Password was canceled and over 40 years since Password first debuted on CBS. Then it was revived yet again, finding itself back on NBC under its original Password title over a decade after Million Dollar Password's brief run. * Ghost Whisperer was supposed to jump to ABC for the 2010-11 season but Jennifer Love Hewitt turned down an offer to return for another season so the show was canceled instead. * Flashpoint moved from CBS to Ion effective October 18, 2011. * Airwolf from CBS to USA Network for its final season. * The $10,000 Pyramid to ABC. It was later retitled The $20,000 Pyramid and returned to CBS as The $25,000 Pyramid. + It returned to ABC as part of a prime time game show revival that includes Family Feud and To Tell the Truth. * Scooby-Doo originated on CBS then moved to ABC in 1976. Episodes have since premiered on The WB, The CW, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and even home video. * Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures to Fox. The new DIC-produced episodes were received so poorly that Fox replayed the far better Hanna-Barbera episodes aired the season before on CBS. * Forever Knight started out as part of CBS's "Crime Time After Prime Time" rotation. When deals were made for Letterman to move into that timeslot, the first season was rerun for almost a second season's worth of time to keep the slot occupied. The show then moved to syndication for its second season, and to a rare combination of airing in syndication \and\ on USA for a third season. + Many fans came to regret that third season seal, as USA reportedly demanded younger cast members be added and focused on, to the detriment of the established cast. (Jon Kapelos stated at the time that \he\ left because from the original pilot to the end of the second season, he'd been playing his character for six years and wanted a change.) * CBS's American version of The Great British Bake Off (titled The American Baking Competition)- had a summer run for a single season in 2013. In 2015, ABC produced a new version for its Christmas lineup, The Great Holiday Baking Show, which returned the following year as The Great American Baking Show(The British version is syndicated to PBS, but as The Great British Baking Show because Pillsbury owns a trademark on "Bake-Off" in relation to its own baking competition (which, coincidentally, was broadcast by CBS from its inception in the late-1940s to the early 2000s). After several seasons on ABC, the show later hopped to The Roku Channel in 2023.) * Supergirl (2015) moved from CBS to the CW for its second season, and filming moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver. * Tiny Toon Adventures aired its pilot on CBS, who turned the cartoon down, then was deferred to syndication for the rest of the first season and the second, before its third and final season moved to Fox Kids in Fall 1992, after which they added "The Fox network executives" as a new pair of villains. > Buster: It could be worse. We could be stuck on the Peacock Network. * After 17 years, Lassie moved from CBS to syndication where it aired for two more years. * Rescue Heroes from CBS after its first season to Kids' WB! beginning with season two, complete with a revamp and higher budget. Averted in the show's home country of Canada, where it aired on Teletoon for its entire run. * Silk Stalkings is a unique case in that the rights were initially shared between CBS and the USA Network for its first two seasons, with USA airing the episodes a few days after they aired on CBS' late-night "Crimetime After Primetime" block. Then in 1993, CBS cancelled the entire "Crimetime" lineup, Silk Stalkings included, to make room for The Late Show with David Letterman, and the show became a USA exclusive for the remainder of its run. * The Twilight Zone (1985) aired on CBS for its first two seasons from 1985 to 1987 and moved to syndication for its third season from 1988 to 1989. * Alfred Hitchcock Presents aired on CBS for its first five seasons from 1955 to 1960 and on NBC for its sixth and seventh seasons from 1960 to 1962. After being retitled The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, it returned to CBS for its next two seasons from 1962 to 1964 before again switching to NBC for its final season from 1964 to 1965. * Strike It Rich is an odd example. It began on CBS radio in 1947 and moved to NBC in 1950 where it lasted until 1957. In 1951, CBS adapted it for daytime television with a primetime version starting later that year. The primetime run was cancelled in 1955, and the daytime version ended a week after the NBC radio version went off the air. * CBS had the airing rights to most Peanuts specials, like A Charlie Brown Christmas, from the point of the specials' respective debuts until 2000 when the airing rights were moved to ABC. ABC would hold the airing rights to the specials until Fall 2020 when they were acquired by Apple exclusively for its Apple TV+ streaming service. This exclusivity lasted for all of two seconds before the immense backlash over the beloved specials no longer being aired on broadcast television lead to Apple loaning out A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving to PBS for the holiday season. This only lasted two years, however, and the Peanuts specials would remain exclusive to Apple TV+ from 2022 onward.(which would would mark the first time A Charlie Brown Christmas did not air on network television since its 1965 premiere). * First two seasons of the Ace Ventura: Pet Detective cartoon aired on CBS, with the third and final season airing on Nickelodeon. * Evil (2019) and Seal Team were shifted from CBS to the newly-minted Paramount+, with disproportionately high digital viewership being cited as a key reason for the moves. * Magnum P.I. (2018) was shifted from CBS to NBC, which picked it up for two seasons consisting of twenty episodes. * Non-show examples: CBS' NBA coverage (which they started on in 1973, and ended in 1990) moved to NBC for the 1990-91 season (NBC lost it to ABC starting in 2002). Also, CBS' original NFC football coverage ended in 1994 (it had started in 1956), and moved to FOX; CBS got the NFL back in 1998 with the AFC rights, and has held those rights for a quarter-century (basically, ever since). * Frosty the Snowman' decades-spanning run of annual CBS airings ended after NBCUniversal's purchase of the special's owners, Classic Media, resulted in the broadcast rights transferring to NBC in 2024 (the same year as Frosty's 55th anniversary). * JAG from NBC to CBS, where it ran for nine more seasons and spun off the even more successful NCIS (and the rest is history). * Baywatch from NBC to syndication (like JAG above, a rare instance where the series took off after its Channel Hop). * The early game show Masquerade Party may hold the record for most channel hops. It started on NBC, then it moved to CBS. After a brief hiatus, it returned to CBS, then it moved to ABC, returned to NBC, moved to CBS, then it went back again to NBC, then back yet again to CBS before ending its run on NBC. Fourteen years later, it was revived for one season in syndication. * Concentration from NBC to syndication. Then later, back to NBC as Classic Concentration. * After several decades on NBC, in September 2022 Days of Our Lives moved from NBC to the network's streaming service Peacock. * Diff'rent Strokes from NBC to ABC for its final season. * For Your Love from NBC to The WB. * In the Heat of the Night, from NBC to CBS for the last two seasons and four movies. * In the House, from NBC to UPN. * The Hogan Family, from NBC to CBS in its final season. * Scrubs moved from NBC to ABC in 2008. Apparently some people were confused because ABC owned the show anyway, so it was a strange instance of being owned by one network and aired by another (see also Caroline in the City, which though shown on NBC was made by CBS Productions). * Medium from NBC to CBS in September 2009, cozied between Ghost Whisperer and NUMB3RS; before it moved, it was the last CBS-produced show that wasn't on CBS or The CW (which CBS owns half of). * Passions and Friday Night Lights both went from NBC to The 101 on DirecTV (a US satellite provider, for those non-US tropers here). * Get Smart moved from NBC to CBS for its fifth and final season. * The Snorks was on NBC for two seasons. After a year-long hiatus, it jumped to syndication for two more. * Southland from NBC to TNT. * After being snubbed by Jay Leno as Johnny Carson's replacement on The Tonight Show (despite Carson actually having favored him over his regular guest host and eventual successor, Jay Leno), David Letterman left Late Night and moved from NBC to CBS in 1993 to create a direct competitor to The Tonight Show, Late Show, while kept Late Night as its own and gave it to Conan O'Brien. In its early years Late Show was very similar to Late Night (except with some Writing Around Trademarks), but as Letterman grew into the timeslot, the show began to emulate the Johnny Carson-era Tonight Show. * I'll Fly Away had a Made-for-TV Movie produced for PBS after cancellation by NBC. * Law & Order: Criminal Intent's ran on NBC for its first six seasons before moving to USA in it's seventh season, where it ran for another four seasons. * What do Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and The Little Drummer Boy have in common? They were both Rankin/Bass Productions specials that aired originally on NBC, and their rebroadcasts all moved on to other networks when NBC lost the licenses to the specials. Rudolph would move to CBS in 1972 and remained there into the 21st century, while The Little Drummer Boy moved to CBS in 1985, to ABC in 1989, and finally to ABC Family (now Freeform) in 2006.(At one point, General Electric (who became the parent company of NBC in 1986) held the rights to these specials, but Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels bought the library from GE two years later. The pre-1974 catalog would change hands over the years before ultimately ending up with DreamWorks Animation, through their 2012 purchase of Classic Media. The library from 1974-onwards is owned by Warner Bros.) However, NBC got the last laugh in the end. Come 2016, and NBCUniversal reached a deal to acquire both specials' rights-holders, DreamWorks Animation. Thus, not only does NBC own the rights to these specials along with other pre-1974 R-B works, but CBS was put in a situation that lead to them losing the broadcast rights to both Rudolph and R-B's Frosty the Snowman in 2024. Fortunately for Freeform, they managed to hold on to the specials they had, and got the cable rights to Rudolph and Frosty, likely to make up for the loss of the post-1974 R-B specials to AMC. * Silver Spoons and Punky Brewster both jumped from NBC to syndication (both shows, along with ABC to CBS jumper Family Matters, were produced by David Duclon). In the case of Punky, the move was a lot more complicated (see "Production Company Examples") * Conan O'Brien from NBC to TBS after some serious Executive Meddling. * Father Dowling Mysteries from NBC to ABC. * The Ghost and Mrs. Muir from NBC to ABC. * The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd from NBC to Lifetime. * The Price Is Right (original version) and Missing Links to ABC. Seven years after ABC canceled Price, it returned on CBS daytime (where it's been to this day) and syndication nighttime. * Match Game landed on CBS four years after NBC canceled it, had a syndicated daily edition in 1979 (a nighttime edition ran concurrently and started in 1975), then it reappeared on NBC in 1983 as The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, then on ABC in 1990 as simply Match Game, then another syndicated edition appeared in 1998, followed 18 years later by a new primetime series on ABC. * You Don't Say! was rebooted for ABC six years after NBC dropped it. * Mama's Family went to first-run syndication after one year on NBC. * The daytime version of Wheel of Fortune moved from NBC (where it began in 1975) to CBS in 1989, then back to NBC for a few more months in 1991 before it was canceled. (The current syndicated version began in 1983.) * Community from NBC to the Internet (Yahoo! Screen) after season 5. * Hallmark Hall of Fame started airing on NBC in 1951, then the network cancelled it in 1978 and the program alternated with ABC and CBS for the next 36 years. However, in the summer of 2014, it was announced that the series would end its run on broadcast television and would become a Hallmark Channel original program. * Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was picked up by NBC for the 2015 midseason, then suddenly hopped to Netflix when it was offered a two full-season deal from the get-go. Though it's not quite the trope since this happened before the show even began production. * The Miss USA Pageant, which was broadcast on NBC for many years, moved to the Reelz Channel (on cable) for 2015 after NBCUniversal cut ties with the pageant's owner, Donald Trump, over derogatory comments he made towards Mexican immigrants. After the Miss Universe Organization was sold to the marketing agency IMG, Miss USA and Miss Universe moved to Fox. * Fame from NBC to first-run syndication after season 2. Ironically, only the NBC seasons have been released on DVD to this day. * The US versions of The Weakest Link and Deal or No Deal went from NBC to syndication. * Underdog ran for two seasons on NBC, then two seasons on CBS, then went immediately back to NBC for reruns. The belated final season also aired on NBC. * The daytime version of Let's Make a Deal moved from NBC to ABC. Later on in the ABC run, the series had a weekly syndicated version which would be revived twice after the network show went off the air. Two brief revivals were tried on NBC before CBS picked it up. * Matlock from NBC to ABC starting with its seventh season. * VeggieTales on TV showed the first season and season two on the network's qubo block. 6 years after it was removed from qubo, it showed up in syndication with six episodes unaired by NBC. (However, a handful of NBC stations showed the episode "Gideon: Tuba Warrior" in August of 2008 during the middle of the day on a weekday afternoon, to make up the time lost for the qubo block due to the Beijing Olympics.) * The docudrama series The Big Story aired on NBC for eight seasons (1949–57) before moving to first-run syndication for its ninth and final season. * The Revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents aired on NBC for its first season from 1985 to 1986. After it was cancelled by NBC, it was picked up by the USA Network and three further seasons were produced from 1987 to 1989. * The television run of Queen for a Day started on NBC and moved to ABC after four years. * Unsolved Mysteries moved from NBC to CBS to Lifetime. After a six-year absence, the series was resurrected by Spike in 2007, but then cancelled again in 2010. In 2020, Netflix resurrected the show once again. * Eerie, Indiana moved from NBC to Disney Channel for reruns with one unaired episode debuting on said network and was revived by Fox Kids as Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension in 1998 after the reruns of the show under the block fared well with their audience. * A.P. Bio was cancelled by NBC after its second season, sparking a campaign by the show's stars to encourage viewership of the series on Hulu. NBCUniversal took notice and decided to grant a third season via the then-upcoming Peacock service. * Manifest was cancelled by NBC after three seasons. By coincidence, just a short time earlier, the first two seasons of the show arrived on Netflix, which brought the series a legion of new fans just as the news of its axing hit. Although Netflix initially denied interest in rescuing the show, and NBC stood firm in their decision, it was later revealed both were looking to resurrect it. After the third season arrived on the service and surged interest further, Netflix announced they had secured the series for an extended fourth and final season. * Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom started on NBC in 1963 before moving to syndication in 1971. * Bill Nye the Science Guy went from PBS to Disney Channel, before finally retiring to Noggin. * Liberty's Kids premiered on the PBS Kids slot on PBS affiliates in the early 2000s, before going into syndication. In 2012, repeats started airing on CBS affiliates as part of the Cookie Jar TV slot. * In January 2016, Sesame Street began premiering new episodes on HBO, ending Sesame Workshop's long-running primary allegiance with PBS (and its forerunner, NET). The series still airs in reruns on PBS Kids, with the HBO episodes premiering on their stations after a 9-month window. In 2020, first-run episodes moved to the streaming service HBO Max instead of HBO's linear channels, though the 9-month arrangement with PBS Kids is still in effect. The latter deal is set to expire after 2025, after which Sesame will need to find a new home for first-run broadcast. * The various installments of the Noddy franchise have aired on various networks in the United States. The Noddy Shop and Make Way For Noddy both aired on PBS Kids. Noddy In Toyland went from PBS to being exclusive to Amazon Instant Video. Noddy, Toyland Detective channel-hopped to Sprout a year before it became Universal Kids. * In the US, Sherlock debuted as part of PBS's Masterpiece Theater in 2010. The show started airing on BBC America in 2014, though new episodes continue to be broadcast on PBS. * The original version of Teletubbies aired on PBS Kids. When it was rebooted seven years after PBS dropped the show, the rights went to Nick Jr. * Thomas & Friends first aired on PBS Kids in the United States as part of Shining Time Station. When PBS' rights expired in 1998, the show moved that fall to Fox Family, where after a year of Shining Time Station repeats, Thomas got a new show called Storytime with Thomas. During the same period, Nick Jr. briefly aired repeats of Shining Time Station to promote Thomas and the Magic Railroad. When Fox Family ended Storytime with Thomas in 2001, Thomas was not seen on a broadcast network until 2005, when it returned to PBS. (Only a handful of stations did so that year, and it didn't get shown nationwide until 2009. PBS Kids Sprout also showed it during this time.) In 2017, PBS' contract to the show expired and it returned to Nick Jr. Nick Jr held the rights until 2020, when it jumped to Netflix. The franchise would not return to broadcast television until Cartoonito acquired the rights to the revamped series. * Timothy Goes to School went from PBS Kids (as part of a Sunday morning block "Bookworm Bunch") to TLC's weekday morning block "Ready Set Learn" and Discovery Channel as part of their afternoon block (Which also had the "Ready Set Learn Block") and later aired on Qubo. + The same goes for two other Bookworm Bunch shows: Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse and Elliot Moose * Jay Jay the Jet Plane used to be on TLC until 2001, where it went to PBS, and then flew over to Qubo years later. * Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks went from PBS to Qubo, though PBS still owns distribution rights. * PBS aired Caillou for 20 years on end until they retired it from the lineup in January 2021. In September of that year, the series returned to American television via the US Cartoonito block. * While it technically was never a part of PBS' main schedule, Zula Patrol aired on certain PBS stations as a program syndicated through American Public Television. Starting in 2008, the series began airing on Qubo. However, some PBS stations still continued to air the show even after Qubo acquired it. * Wall Street Week went from PBS to Fox Business to Bloomberg Television. * 9-1-1 was cancelled by FOX in 2023, but was immediately picked up by ABC for a seventh season. * Arrested Development, after airing in reruns on G4, was uncancelled after three seasons, and its fourth season premiered worldwide on Netflix in 2013, with another season premiering in winter 2016. + It was evidently trying to hop to a cable network after abuse by the execs at Fox, as evidenced (and Jossed) by this veiled joke in Season Three: > George Bluth, Sr.: Well, I don't think the Home Builders Organization is going to be supporting us. > Michael Bluth: No, the HBO's not gonna want us. What do we do now? > George Sr.: Well, I think it's Showtime ... we have to have a show during dinner. * Futurama is an interesting example. From FOX to [adult swim] was only reruns, but it was then picked up by Comedy Central for new episodes, with reruns being added to Syfy in 2017, and being put on Hulu in 2019. Meanwhile, it also briefly returned to FOX for a crossover episode with The Simpsons. + Syfy and Comedy Central lost the broadcast rights to Futurama in November 2021. Later the same month, the series began airing reruns on FXX, and in December 2021... and against all odds, the series returned to Adult Swim, with the former channel sharing syndication rights. In addition to all that insanity, reruns ended up returning to Comedy Central in mid-2022, and another reboot started airing on Hulu in 2023, meaning that the series currently airs on three different networks every weekday. * The PJs from FOX to The WB in its third and final season. Warner Bros. also took over production from Disney for said season, though it would end up selling that season to Disney in a legal settlement over ownership of the IP. * Sliders from FOX to the Sci-Fi Channel. * Animaniacs from Fox Kids to The WB when the latter first formed. Lampshaded in several of the earliest promotional spots for the block. In 2018, Hulu announced that they were bringing the show back, resulting in Animaniacs (2020). * Digimon: Digital Monsters from Fox Kids to UPN. The dubs of Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02, and Digimon Tamers first aired on Fox Kids, while the Digimon Frontier dub first aired on UPN's Disney's One Too block. * Medabots from Fox Kids to ABC Family, although Fox Kids reran the first 26 episodes until its shutdown. * Power Rangers Wild Force from Fox Kids to ABC Kids. Power Rangers entries would concurrently air on both the ABC network and ABC Family/Toon Disney while Disney owned the franchise. After Disney sold Power Rangers to Saban, entries started airing on both Nickelodeon & Nicktoons. It remained on Nicktoons until mid-2017 when it became exclusive to Nick. However, series owners Hasbro chose not to renew their contract with Nickelodeon after the 2021 season. The series would move to Netflix shortly thereafter. * When 4Kids acquired the CW's Saturday morning airtime, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) and Dinosaur King moved their premieres over there. * Grounded for Life from Fox to The WB. * America's Most Wanted went to Lifetime beginning Dec. 2, 2011, after Fox canceled the show for a second time. Although both series are technically owned by Disney, Fox still owns the IP and continued to air quarterly specials during the Lifetime run. In January 2020, Fox announced it would revive the series once again, this time with a new host and a global reach. * Bridezillas began as a special on Fox and spent some time on the New York-only MSG Metro Network before finding its current home at WE (where it became Adored by the Network). * COPS moved from Fox to Spike TV, later rebranded Paramount Network, in the fall of 2013. Paramount later cancelled COPS in the summer of 2020 after criticisms of the show for allegedly glamorizing police brutality was taken seriously after the killing of George Floyd. The show continued to produce episodes for international syndication before eventually being picked up by the Fox News-controlled streaming service Fox Nation. * American Dad! moved to TBS in the fall of 2014, where it aired new episodes until Spring 2025, thus moving back to Fox for a potential season 20. * One Piece from Fox Box (later 4KidsTV) to Cartoon Network. Partway through their broadcast, 4Kids just stopped airing the series on their block (allegedly due to content restrictions). The remaining 4Kids dubbed episodes later aired on Toonami (who was already airing reruns), leading to the eventual Funimation dub. In 2013, the FUNimation-dubbed episodes returned to premiering Toonami, now a part of [adult swim], then for a second stint in 2022. * The Mindy Project from Fox to Hulu for the fourth season. * Animation Domination HD moved from FOX, where it was cancelled in June of 2014, to FXX, though FOX briefly aired a version of the block that was 100% reruns of previous shows and segments. Neo Yokio was produced for and was originally going to air on the block, but after ADHD's collapse it was picked up by Netflix. * Hole In The Wall from Fox to Cartoon Network. * After FOX cancelled American Idol, ABC picked it up for a revival. * Brooklyn Nine-Nine from FOX to NBC. Similar to Scrubs, people were confused since NBC owned the show. * The Billboard Music Awards first aired on FOX in 1990 and lasted until 2006, ABC brought the show back in 2011, then the show left ABC for NBC starting in 2018. * Lucifer from FOX to Netflix. * Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? ran its first two seasons on Fox, then went into syndication for Seasons 3 and 4 before being cancelled. Season 5 aired on Fox in 2015, after which the show was quietly cancelled again. In 2019, Nickelodeon brought it back for a 6th Season, with John Cena replacing Jeff Foxworthy as the host. Nickelodeon quietly cancelled the show after just one season (likely due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, but their reasoning has never been made public). That being said, a new video game version of the show for the 8th and 9th-gen consoles was released by THQ Nordic in August of 2022, but neither Foxworthy nor Cena was brought back as the host. * Shortly after its second season was completed, it was announced that season 3 of The Orville would premiere on Hulu instead of Fox. * Averted with Family Guy, as the show has always been a Fox program. That being said, the Banned Episode, "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", ended up on Adult Swim first. * The DC Animated Universe started with Batman: The Animated Series/The Adventures of Batman and Robin on Fox in 1992. It then moved to The WB, starting with Superman: The Animated Series in 1996 and continuing with B: TAS revivial The New Batman Adventures, Sequel Series Batman Beyond, Static Shock, and Beyond Spin-Off The Zeta Project. Finally, it ended up on Cartoon Network with Justice League/Justice League Unlimited in 2001. In addition to the listed examples, all shows retained by The CW after the WB/UPN merger switched stations in some markets, as The CW inherited stations from both UPN and The WB. * Buffy the Vampire Slayer moved from The WB to UPN after its fifth season. This temporarily put a halt to crossovers with its spinoff Angel, which remained on The WB. * Johnny Test left The CW at the end of the third season and went to Canada's Teletoon and Cartoon Network in the U.S at the same time. Warner Bros. lost all distribution rights to the franchise (Cookie Jar now owns the entire series) but retained trademarks on the character names. * Roswell moved from The WB to UPN after its second season, at the same time as Buffy. * Mission Hill, The Oblongs, and Baby Blues, respectively. Only eight of each series' single 13-episode seasons ((although Baby Blues has a second season which remains unaired to this day)) aired on The WB. Thanks to managerial changes following the AOL Time Warner merger which caused the Turner networks to "play nice" with The WB, [adult swim] managed to air the remaining episodes of each series in 2002. * Xiaolin Showdown moved from Kids' WB and Cartoon Network to Disney XD when it was revived as Xiaolin Chronicles. This is due to change of studios from Warner Bros. Animation to France-based Genao Productions along with most of the cast members being replaced in the English dub as well (with the notable exceptions being Tara Strong, who voiced Omi and Jennifer Hale, who voiced Katnappe). Not only that, some of the Shen Gong Wu had to be renamed due to Warner Bros. still owning the names of them from Showdown. + Averted in the UK and Ireland as Chronicles aired on Cartoon Network, like its predecessor. * Veronica Mars was one of many UPN/The WB shows to jump to The CW, before getting Un-Cancelled eleven years later on Hulu. * After debuting in syndication, Pokémon the Series aired on the Kids WB Saturday morning block from February 1999 to September 2006, when 4Kids Entertainment lost the license to Pokemon USA. From 2006, starting with the ninth season, new episodes of Pokémon the Series aired on Cartoon Network (which had been airing reruns of the show since 2002). The original series aired in reruns on Boomerang, while Cartoon Network continued to play new episodes of the current series. * Semi-example with Yu-Gi-Oh!. While the original series aired in its entirety on Kids' WB, its spin-off Capsule Monsters aired on the 4KidsTV block on FOX after the former block moved to The CW. 4KidsTV also picked up reruns of the original series at the same time. + The spinoffs always changed hands. GX aired on 4KidsTV and entirely on Cartoon Network, 5D's kept switching between CW4Kids and Cartoon Network. Zexal aired on CW4Kids and its sucessor blocks. ARC-V aired on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons. VRAINS aired on Pluto TV. * As mentioned with Fox, The DC Animated Universe moved from Fox to the WB, starting with Superman: The Animated Series. However, after it, The New Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond wrapped production and running concurrently with fellow DCAU series Static Shock and Beyond Spin-Off The Zeta Project, it ended up on Cartoon Network with Justice League in 2001. * Doug from Nickelodeon to Disney's ABC. * Contrary to popular belief, Donkey Kong Country was always a Fox Family program in the United States. However, several episodes were aired as specials on Fox Kids during the series' first season. Averted in Canada and France, where Teletoon and France 2 respectively aired the series in its entirety. * Super Why! had its stop motion pitch pilot offered to Nickelodeon in 1999, but they declined. PBS Kids picked up the pilot for a full series in 2007. * This happens with a lot of sister/parent networks, as they often show the same shows at the same time. Kappa Mikey was produced solely for Nicktoons Network, but because it was controlled by their larger parent network Nickelodeon, new episodes sometimes premiered there first. When episodes stopped airing on Nick but continued on Nicktoons, some took this to mean it was canceled. The show did in fact end after the second season. + There has been a common practice by Nickelodeon over the past two decades of burning off new episodes of cancelled Nicktoons on the Nicktoons channel. Examples include CatDog, As Told by Ginger, The Fairly OddParents!, Invader Zim, My Life as a Teenage Robot, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, Back at the Barnyard, The Mighty B!, The Penguins of Madagascar, Fanboy and Chum Chum, Planet Sheen, T.U.F.F. Puppy, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Robot and Monster, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Breadwinners, Harvey Beaks, Pig Goat Banana Cricket, Bunsen Is a Beast, Welcome to the Wayne, It's Pony, and Mr. Meaty. * Much of the Nick Jr. shows during the 2010s (Shimmer and Shine, Rusty Rivets, Nella the Princess Knight, Sunny Day, Top Wing, Butterbean's Cafe, Abby Hatcher and Corn & Peg) had new episodes air on the Nick Jr. on Nick programming block before being moved to the Nick Jr. channel later into their runs. * In its native Canada, Degrassi: The Next Generation hopped from CTV to MuchMusic, MTV Canada, and now, Family Channel. In the US, the series started out on Noggin's teen block, "The N," before being carried over to TeenNick (and later to Netflix). * WWE Raw from USA Network to TNN/SpikeTV, and then back to USA before leaving for Netflix in January 2025. + WWE SmackDown itself is probably their biggest example of network hopping, from UPN to The CW, then to MyNetworkTV, and again to Syfy, yet again to the USA Network (meaning that both major weekly primetime WWE series were scheduled on the same network), and once more to Fox (during MLB World Series season, sister network FS1, which carries reruns on Tuesday nights, airs the series in lieu of Fox) before heading back to USA in September 2024. + Sunday Night HEAT went from USA to MTV, then it joined Raw on Spike for a few years before becoming an international and internet-only show for the last three years of its life. + NXT started out on SyFy before leaving TV altogether, becoming a Hulu exclusive. It was rebooted as WWE's revamped developmental promotion during its time solely on Hulu, it became shared with WWE Network once that got off the ground and in September 2019 it would later move to USA Network in a weekly live format. For the first two weeks of the move, USA would air the first hour of the show while WWE Network streamed the second hour due to USA's contractual obligations to air Suits, which had two episodes left to broadcast. NXT moved to The CW in October 2024. * TNA/Impact Wrestling went from Fox Sports Net to a brief period of being Web Original, to Spike TV, to Destination America, to Pop TV, to Pursuit Channel at the beginning of 2019 and has since aired on AXS TV after parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment acquired AXS in September 2019. * A Loud House Christmas: Behind the Scenes aired its first three episodes on Nickelodeon US and simultaneously had them uploaded to Nick's official YouTube channel. The final three episodes were exclusively uploaded to YouTube and never aired on television. * The Outer Limits (1995) also moved from Showtime to the Sci-Fi Channel for its seventh and final season. (The producers of SG-1 were already known for the 90s Outer Limits when the show started) * Project Runway moved from Bravo to Lifetime after the fifth season. Thanks to A&E Networks terminating its contract for the show thanks to The Weinstein Company's bankruptcy, it will return to Bravo for its seventeenth. * 6teen, in America, had a brief stint on Nickelodeon before being booted over to Cartoon Network. * Star Wars: The Clone Wars moved from Cartoon Network to Netflix for its sixth season as a result of Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm. The seventh and final season then debuted on Disney+. * Naruto, from Naruto on Cartoon Network to Naruto Shippuden on Disney XD and then, to much rejoicing, [adult swim]. * Phineas and Ferb is a rather odd example. From the second season onward, new episodes would alternate between premieres on Disney Channel and Disney XD. By the end of its run, it had been rebranded as a Disney XD original series. + The Suite Life on Deck is officially considered a Disney Channel series, but episodes actually premiered on Disney XD. * Pokémon the Series moved from Cartoon Network to Disney XD in 2016, starting with the back-to-back premieres of the 19th movie and the Sun and Moon season. Then in 2020, the dub for the following series, Journeys, debuted on Netflix for U.S. audiences only. * Starting in May 2018 with DuckTales (2017), after having spent the past few years with Disney XD as their animation network, all non-preschool programming produced by Disney Television Animation was moved to Disney Channel for premieres. The other shows that made the switch were Big Hero 6: The Series, Big City Greens, Milo Murphy's Law, and Star vs. the Forces of Evil. + Big Hero 6: The Series moved back to premiering on Disney XD midway through its second season. DuckTales would end up doing the same for its own third season just a few months later. * Episodes 3-5 of the first season of The Ghost and Molly McGee appeared simultaneously on Disney+ and Disney Now/Disney Channel On-Demand before their linear Disney Channel premieres. The same thing happened to episodes 2-5 of the show's second season. * Damages from FX to The 101 on DirecTV. * Madeline from HBO to The Family Channel (now Freeform) to ABC to Disney Channel. It then moved to CBS' KOL Secret Slumber Party slot. * American broadcasts of Doctor Who moved from Syfy to BBC America (who had repeat rights previously) after New Series 4. Following the conclusion of the 2022 specials and Jodie Whittaker's tenure as the Thirteenth Doctor, the show moved over to Disney+ everywhere outside the UK and Ireland (contrary to popular belief, this did not give Disney the rights to Doctor Who, only the rights to air it internationally). * The Wiggles from Disney Channel to Sprout. This was due to the Imagination Movers slowly becoming more popular, and Sprout's own block Musical Mornings With Coo failing to bring in ratings the channel wanted. As a result, Sprout gave them Sprouts Wiggly Waffle. * American broadcasts of Torchwood moved from Syfy to Starz with the Starz co-produced Miracle Day. Starz saw a big subscriber jump as a result of the move. * Stargate SG-1 moved from Showtime to the Sci-Fi Channel after its fifth season. * Nashville Star hopped from USA Network to NBC for its sixth and final season. * In Mexico, Garfield and Friends channel hopped from Cartoon Network to Boomerang. This is technically a minor example since Boomerang is usually where old Cartoon Network shows end up, and both channels are owned by Time Warner / Warner Media. * The American rights to broadcast the English Premier League went from a joint venture between ESPN and Fox to NBCUniversal, beginning with the 2013 season. Most matches are shown on the NBC Sports network, with a few shown on NBC proper, and Spanish language on Telemundo. * It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League, Legit (2013), and Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell all made the hop from FX to its fledgling comedy-oriented spinoff channel FXX in Fall 2013. + Wilfred followed suit in 2014, followed by You're the Worst in 2015. + Archer was originally meant to move to FXX in 2016, with the plan being to pair it up with a new show called Cassius and Clay. When that show was cancelled before it even aired, they ended up keeping the show on FX for its seventh season. After being renewed for three more seasons, it finally moved to FXX in 2017. * In America, Braceface went from ABC Family (Which was still known as Fox Family when the first few episodes premieres) to Disney Channel. * Totally Spies!, from ABC Family to Cartoon Network after the second season, then Universal Kids with the sixth season, with the upcoming seventh season set to return to Cartoon Network. The same thing happened in South East Asia, where it aired on Disney Channel then moved to Nickelodeon in the 2010s. * Digimon Fusion, which marked a shift of the Digimon franchise from the now defunct Toon Disney, moved to Nicktoons after Nickelodeon tried the show and gave up after two episodes. Reruns aired concurrently on The CW's Vortexx until that block ended, and the second season aired solely on Nicktoons. * Transformers: Prime aired on The Hub Network until the channel was bought back by Discovery from Hasbro and rebranded into Discovery Family. Prime's sequel series, Transformers: Robots in Disguise, premiered on Cartoon Network. The companion series Rescue Bots and reruns of The Transformers still air on Discovery Family. * Dragon Ball Z Kai went from airing on Nicktoons and The CW to Toonami and [adult swim], which had the fortunate side-effect of reversing much of the censorship. Toonami also premiered The Final Chapters along with Dragon Ball Super. * Sonic Boom, which originally aired on Cartoon Network, had its season 2 episodes aired on Boomerang, with the sole exception being the first season 2 episode, "Tommy Thunder: Method Actor". This was to raise popularity for Boomerang, which was sadly required a paid upgrade for most cable plans. + Interestingly, some season 2 episodes were posted on the Cartoon Network site. * In Asia, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Sesame Street started out on Hallmark Channel Asia in the early 2000s. Then the channel got screwed when NBC pulled out of the deal. However, they've since found a new home on Playhouse Disney Asia (however Clifford got screwed when they changed over to Disney Junior Asia). * Around 2014-15, Cartoon Network began moving multiple shows off-network (even shows that hadn't premiered yet) in order to free up timeslots to show reruns of Teen Titans Go!: + The decision to air Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production and Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! on Boomerang caused much backlash from Comcast cable customers, since they don't get the channel. Reruns of the original Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies shorts, as well as the original Tom and Jerry shorts, also moved off-network to Boomerang, but in this case, they were already airing on the network. Cartoon Network eventually changed their mind, as both shows would premiere on the network first. Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies and Tom and Jerry shorts also stayed on CN. * Overhaulin' originally aired on TLC from 2004 to 2008. The series was Un-Cancelled on sister channel Velocity four years later. * Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs moved from Cartoon Network to Qubo in the US. * Double Dare (1986) briefly tried a spinoff on the Fox Network called Family Double Dare before producing their own on Nickelodeon. * The pilot episode of The Get Along Gang aired on Nickelodeon. The series itself would later be picked up by CBS. * Mina and The Count first aired on Cartoon Network's What A Cartoon! Show as a standalone short and later appeared as a series of shorts on the Nickelodeon animated anthology show Oh Yeah! Cartoons. * The fifth season of Samurai Jack aired on [adult swim] instead of primetime Cartoon Network. While in the US this is technically an example (as Adult Swim is considered a separate network for ratings purposes), it is a full-throated hop in the UK, where Adult Swim airs on Fox instead of Cartoon Network. * Total Drama was aired on Disney XD in the UK and Netherlands. + While the UK ended its Disney run with "Action", the series continued on Kix. + In the Netherlands, Cartoon Network picked up the show where "Island" ended and aired "Total Drama Action". * Guess How Much I Love You, for its first season in the United States, the show aired on Disney Junior. They eventually ditched the show, but then Starz picked up both the first and second seasons. However, the second season uses British voices, having apparently never been dubbed using U.S. American English sounding voices. This season was also made available on a streaming service available to some American libraries called Hoopla, but not in high-definition. * Wander over Yonder originally premiered on Disney Channel, but after March 2014, it moved to Disney XD for premieres, and was eventually branded as a Disney XD original series. It eventually stopped airing on Disney Channel all together, thus officially assuming the Disney XD name. This eventually caused it to be Screwed by the Network and eventually cancelled to fans' chagrin. * Young Justice aired its first two seasons on Cartoon Network before suddenly being cancelled. After finding success on streaming, the revival was shown on DC Universe and later HBO Max. * After Chelsea Lately ended on E!, Chelsea Handler launched a similar show, Chelsea, on Netflix. * Likewise, a few years after E! ended The Soup, Netflix began The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale. * RuPaul's Drag Race went from LOGO to VH1, in a move to broaden its exposure. Even though it was the highest-rated show on LOGO for years, many cable/satellite providers don't carry the LGBT-centric channel, whereas VH1 has been a staple of basic cable for decades. * After many years on Freeform (formerly ABC Family) as part of the 25 Days of Christmas lineup, all of the post-1974 Rankin/Bass Christmas specials (most notably Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, and The Year Without a Santa Claus among others) moved to AMC as part of a multi-year deal with library owner Warner Bros. effective 2018. Since 2018, AMC would air some of the specials during the weekdays of November (post-Thanksgiving) up till Christmas Day. Around the same period, during the weekends of December, AMC would host an all-day marathon of every post-1974 Rankin-Bass Christmas special up till Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July called "Rankin/Bass Weekends''. However, AMC didn't bring back "Rankin/Bass Weekends" for the 2021 holiday season (much to the annoyance of old school Christmas fans). * Twelve Forever was a pilot created for Cartoon Network among several others in 2015, but the show was never picked up for a full series. In 2017, Netflix got the show and gave it a full series contract set to premiere in 2019. * You (2018) went from Lifetime to Netflix for its second season. * Shortly after Longmire was cancelled by A&E following its third season, Netflix commissioned a fourth season. It lasted two more additional seasons before being cancelled again. * Summer Camp Island and Infinity Train, two Cartoon Network originals, were rebranded as HBO Max original series and moved to the streaming service in Summer 2020. However, this had the side effect of abruptly making both shows a case of No Export for You over a year, until overseas versions of the service were established. + Both these shows (and a few others) were intended to be on HBO Max from the start. Issues regarding the merger of AT&T and Time Warner caused the creation of the HBO Max streaming service to be delayed, resulting said programs airing on Cartoon Network instead. + Ironically, for its final season, Summer Camp Island moved back to Cartoon Network. Then the show was moved to Discovery Family on the first day on July. * "Steven Universe" aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, but was put off the air on May 29th, 2024, along with multiple other Cartoon Network Originals, and ended up moving to Discovery Family. * Glitch Techs: The show was originally planned to air on Nickelodeon, before the channel decided to release it through Netflix as part of several programming deals made with the streaming company. * [adult swim] held cable rights to Family Guy for about 18 years, sharing them with sister network TBS. For season 16 onward, Disney-owned channels FXX and Freeform took over syndication duties, with seasons 1-15 moving to those networks in 2021 after Adult Swim and TBS lost the rights. + FX also started airing the show around the time Seasons 1-15 switched networks. + In 2024, Comedy Central would pick up a syndication deal in-tandem with the FXX deal. And against all odds, the show would return to Adult Swim after four years. As of 2025, you can catch Family Guy reruns on four separate channels. * Like the aforementioned Family Guy example, Adult Swim had held cable rights to Bob's Burgers since June 2013 and has shared with TBS since 2016. For season 9 onward, FXX took over syndication duties. Adult Swim now shares re-run rights with FXX, while TBS lost the rights in exchange for sharing. * The revival of Beavis and Butt-Head would move from MTV to Comedy Central, with planned Daria spin-off Jodie also being pitched to Comedy Central instead of MTV. * The Ren & Stimpy Show went from Nickelodeon, then to Spike TV as the infamous Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", and then to Comedy Central for another revival without involvement from its rather controversial creator John Kricfalusi. * Bellator MMA spent seven years on Spike, and stayed on there even as the network underwent an Audience Shift and later relaunched as Paramount Network in 2018. Then, in October 2020, Bellator moved its cards to CBS Sports Network as a result of the re-merger between Viacom and CBS and Paramount Network electing to relaunch as a movies-based network to finish off its Network Decay. In April 2021, Bellator moved its telecasts to Showtime, which brought that network back to mixed martial arts after a nearly decade-long absence from the sport. In 2024, following the merger with PFL, "Bellator" moved its telecasts to the streaming service Max. * A few shows produced by Nickelodeon were originally intended to premiere on the actual television channel, but instead had new episodes released onto Paramount+ (formerly named CBS All Access), then aired on linear television via Nick approximately six months after their Paramount+ release dates. These shows include... + Kamp Koral, a prequel series to SpongeBob SquarePants + Rugrats, the reboot of the series of the same name that originally aired on Nickelodeon proper + Big Nate + The Fairly OddParents!: Fairly Odder, a sequel series to The Fairly OddParents!, which also originally aired on Nickelodeon proper before getting booted over to Nicktoons for its final 10 episodes (amusingly, this series would briefly continue airing on Nickelodeon after it was purged from Paramount+ in March 2023) * Mr. Mercedes was left stranded after its second season when AT&T's Audience network, which was exclusive to DirectTV and other AT&T-owned platforms, was sunsetted in May 2020; in September of that year, it was announced the show would be carried instead by Peacock. * Raised by Wolves was originally produced as a TNT original series. After the network elected not to air it, sister entity HBO Max picked it up and rechristened it as a Max Original. * Mickey Mouse (2013) aired its first five seasons on Disney Channel. When the show was retooled into "The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse", it moved to Disney+. * Vikings: For most of the series, it aired on The History Channel. For the second half of the sixth season, it's airing on Prime Video. * In the United States, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2017) originally aired on Cartoon Network. It moved to Paramount+ for future seasons of the show. * The Halo TV adaptation was initally intended to air on Showtime, but got moved to Paramount+ due to executives at ViacomCBS wanting a tentpole show for the streaming service. * Gangs of London was slated to make its U.S. premiere on Cinemax, until upper management at WarnerMedia decided to end scripted original programming at the channel in favor of prioritizing HBO Max. With Cinemax's blessing, the producers shopped Gangs of London to other outlets, eventually landing at AMC's brand-new streaming network AMC+ as its first exclusive original. * Starting with Henry Hugglemonster , every single Disney Junior original would move eventually move their premieres from the Disney Junior block on Disney Junior to the lesser available Disney Junior channel. The only exceptions are Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (which is a Disney Plus original, though reruns are usually only on the Disney Junior channel after having TV premieres on the block and channel), both The Chicken Squad and Eureka! (2022) (which only had premieres on the Disney Junior channel), and Kindergarten: The Musical (which aired all of its episodes on the Disney Junior block). * After WarnerMedia wound down Cinemax's original programming lineup, its new corporate sibling HBO Max took over production duties on a third season of the network's final original series, Warrior. * Close Enough was originally developed for TBS, but ultimately aired on HBO Max. It is later set to air on TBS as well. * Final Space was originally a TBS original, before shifting to [adult swim] for its second season. * Legends of the Hidden Temple was originally a Nickelodeon production. Quibi announced a revival in 2019, but it didn't get anywhere after the casting call. The CW then picked it up and started airing new episodes in October 2021. * Scream: The TV Series moved from MTV to VH1 for its third season. * The Shannara Chronicles moved from MTV to Spike for its second season. * Dragons: Riders of Berk moved from Cartoon Network to Netflix from the third season onwards. * The Hitch-Hiker from HBO to USA. * The short-lived Onion Sports Network started out as a feature on ESPN's Sports Center before jumping to Comedy Central. * Slasher went from Chiller to Netflix for its second and third seasons, then Shudder for its fourth season. * The Killing went from AMC to Netflix for its final season. * Miraculous Ladybug originally premiered new episodes in the United States on Nickelodeon for only a single season in 2015. The series moved new episodes over to Netflix for seasons 2 and 3 from 2016 to 2018, with those seasons also getting their first television airings on the syndicated KidsClick block beginning in 2017. When KidsClick ended its run in March 2019, the series moved reruns to Disney Channel, who has always been the primary home to the series internationally, and new episodes of the series were also moved over there the following year. + Season 4 (the first season to premiere in the United States on Disney Channel) was added to Disney+ instead of Netflix when it was ready to be added to a streaming service. Seasons 1-3 later shifted to Disney+ after Netflix lost the rights to those seasons. * Pennyworth was moved from Epix (now MGM+) to HBO Max for its third season with the addition of a subtitle, The Origin of Batman's Butler. * AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite moved from TNT to TBS starting on Jan. 4, 2022. * Following the closure of NBCSN on Dec. 31, 2021, all of its surviving programming was moved to either NBC proper, USA Network, CNBC, or Peacock. * Various programs that used to air on HBO Family were later reaired on Qubo. These included The Adventures of Paddington Bear, the Babar TV series, George and Martha, and I Spy. + The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures, also formerly airing on HBO Family, later moved to the syndicated Cookie Jar Toons cartoon block, and then on the now-defunct Light TV network. * Reno 911! went from Comedy Central to Quibi for its 2020 revival. The show was left stranded afterwards when Quibi shut down, but Roku purchased the streamer's content library and released an additional revival season, Defunded, as a Roku Original. * Resident Alien, moving from Syfy to USA Network for its fourth season. * The Sunday Night Football NFL telecasts moved to NBC in 2006 after having been on ESPN since 1987. * Steven Universe , Steven Universe: The Movie, and Steven Universe: Future all debuted on Cartoon Network. Steven Universe Lars Of The Stars will debut on Amazon Prime Video. * When DIY Network was converted into Magnolia Network — run by Chip and Joanna Gaines of Fixer Upper fame — in 2022, some former DIY shows were retained, including Maine Cabin Masters, Barnwood Builders and Building Off The Grid. * Auf Wiedersehen, Pet went from ITV (in the 1980s) to the BBC (the 2000s revival). * Not a true Channel Hop, but Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), a 1960s ITV show, was remade in 2000 as Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) by the BBC. * The Broadcast Rights of Batfink, Dangermouse, Pinky and the Brain, Rugrats, Scooby-Doo, Taz Mania, Tom and Jerry Kids, Tots TV, Uncle Max and Yoko! Tokamoto! Toto since 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010 have moved from ITV to the BBC. + Similarly University Challenge is an ITV show that (after moving to Channel 4 for a while) was revived on the BBC (all versions produced by the ITV company Granada. Granada's production department is now [2014] part of ITV Studios, so the Vanity Plate reads "ITV Studios production for BBC"). * Men Behaving Badly first appeared on ITV, but was dropped by them after two series due to disappointing ratings, Harry Enfield having left after the first series and its production company, Thames, having lost its London weekday franchise. It wasn't until the BBC got it and transmitted it in a later slot that it became a massive hit. * Ronnie Barker's Hark at Barker on ITV had a more-or-less direct sequel, His Lordship Entertains, on the BBC, featuring the same cast. Unfortunately His Lordship Entertains was wiped (though the scripts have appeared in a book by Barker). * Hill Street Blues, Scarecrow and Mrs. King and Newhart were let go by ITV, but picked up by Channel 4. * As Channel 4 didn't exist in the 1960s, Wagon Train moved to BBC tv(the lower case is intentional.) * Upstairs, Downstairs was originally an ITV show that is now receiving a modern BBC sequel (ironically, as a Duelling Show with ITV's Downton Abbey). * Blockbusters moved from ITV to Sky One, to BBC 2, back to Sky, and is now on Challenge. * Magic Adventures of Mumfie aired its' first thirteen episodes on CITV, then aired 66 new episodes on Nick Jr.'s UK channel four years later. * In its original run on British TV, Mission: Impossible went from ITV to BBC1. * Sesame Street was originally broadcast in the UK on ITV (from 1971, although it was over a decade before all regions were showing it). It then moved to Channel 4 when that channel opened in 1987 and ran there until 2001. There were then two co-productions broadcast on CBeebies: Sesame Tree (2008-2010, originally shown on BBC 2 Northern Ireland) and The Furchester Hotel (2015-date). Meanwhile, from 2015 actual Sesame Street is finally appearing again on Cartoonito. * The UK version of The Price Is Right went from ITV to Sky One, then back to ITV. The host changed on each hop, from Leslie Crowther on the first ITV run, to Bob Warman on the Sky One run, to Bruce Forsyth on the second ITV run. * Survivor aired on ITV from 2001 to 2002, before being picked up for another shot by the BBC in 2023. * The 1990s sitcom Is It Legal? moved from ITV to Channel 4 for its third and final series. * Gladiators was shown on ITV between 1992 and 2000. It was revived by Sky One in 2008 before its second cancellation the following year, before a second resurrection in 2024, this time by BBC One. * Blockbusters went all over the place: ITV between 1983 and 1993, Sky One between 1994 and 1995, to BBC Two in 1997, back to Sky One in 2000 and 2001, a one-off special on ITV in 2007, then Challenge in 2012 before ending up on Comedy Central in 2019. * In the UK, The Simpsons moved from BBC1 to BBC2 to Channel 4. * BBC Two's Red Dwarf was put on hold during Development Hell of The Movie but eventually — after a surprise ratings success of reruns on the channel Dave — in 2009 the channel aired a three-part Easter Special Back to Earth. A new six-part series, Red Dwarf X, began airing on Dave on 4 October 2012, followed by Red Dwarf XI in 2016 (although on a commercial channel, the new episodes are the same length as the BBC episodes and shown in 40-minute slots.). * The Goodies was dropped by the BBC in 1981 and was picked up by London Weekend Television (now ITV London), but dropped after only one season. * Formula One had always been on the BBC until it was sold to ITV until it went back onto the BBC and was in turn sold to Sky Sports. Technically they are currently split between the two, but the terrestrial rights moved to Channel 4. + On the other side of the pond, after being on SPEED Channel for many years, F1's moved to the NBC Sports Network. * Long-running school drama series Waterloo Road moved from BBC One to BBC Three in early 2015 for the final 10 episodes of its final series. The show was a huge hit for BBC One in its heyday (2006-2011) until the show moved to Scotland in 2012. Ratings began to dip since the move and it was announced that Series 10 would be its last before it was revived in 2021, when it moved back to BBC One. * The Voice swapped from the BBC to ITV in 2017. In 2015, ITV bought Talpa, the format's production company, and simply sold the show to itself. * Spot the Dog went from The BBC's CBeebies to ITV's CITV. * The first four seasons of Parks and Recreation aired on BBC4; the rest of the series moved to Dave. * Clifford the Big Red Dog went from The BBC's CBeebies to Tiny Pop. * Both Family Guy and American Dad! moved from BBC3 (when BBC3 became an internet-only channel, losing the rights to imported shows(In 2020 the channel acquired Katy Keene and The Fosters spinoff Good Trouble, although The Fosters wouldn't be shown in the UK until Star was launched. In 2021 the channel acquired Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists after Netflix removed the parent series, which the channel acquired.)) to ITV2 (the former's second UK Channel Hop, as it used to be on Channel 4.. .and in 2021 The Griffins had a third UK Channel Hop, to Star (Disney+)). * The Thick of It aired on BBC Four before moving to the more mainstream BBC Two for its fourth and final season. * Similarly, Torchwood season 2 moved from BBC Three (with a BBC Two repeat) to just being shown on BBC Two. Children of Earth and Miracle Day were on BBC One. Because Miracle Day was a co-production with Starz, the US broadcast went to that network rather than BBC America. * CBBC is a rather unusual variant in that it didn't so much hop channels as become a channel, with the children's programming bloc and a bunch of Edutainment Shows that are broadcast mainly so teachers can record them to screen in class being moved from BBC 1 and 2 to a dedicated channel all of their own some time after the digital switchover. * The Partridge Family flew over to ITV when the BBC dropped it after they ran the first season... and David Cassidy's music career took off with The British Hate Tingle being decidedly averted. * Birds of a Feather (1989) ran from 1989-1998 on BBC 1, ending with "Holy Ground", a Christmas Episode that doubled as a Grand Finale. It was surprisingly revived by ITV in 2014, running for another three series up to 2016, plus another three Christmas episodes. * Only Connect is another show that moved around the BBC, with Victoria Coren-Mitchell claiming in her humorous introductions to find BBC Two a shock after the rarified atmosphere of BBC Four. * The Last Kingdom moved from BBC Two to Netflix from the third series onwards. * Shaun the Sheep moved from CBBC to Netflix for its sixth series. * Blankety Blank originally aired on BBC 1 from 1979 to 1990, was revived by ITV which aired it from 1997 to 2002, only to end up back on BBC 1 in another revival from 2020 to present. * Little House on the Prairie moved to ITV after the first season. * Top Gear, The Great British Bake Off, The Apprentice (2004), and Dragons' Den all have made the move from BBC Two to BBC One. * Quiz show Eggheads was originally shown on BBC One, before moving to BBC Two in 2005. In 2022, it moved from BBC Two to Channel 5. * The Trouble With You Lilian: The radio series was transmitted on BBC Radio 4, but the TV series was aired on ITV1. * Rugrats moved from The BBC to CITV in 2005. * Law & Order first shown in the UK on BBC One before moving to Sky.(Most of the spinoffs went to Channel 5) * Never Mind the Buzzcocks started off on BBC Two in 1996 before its cancellation in 2015. It would be revived for Sky Max in 2021. * WWF Superstars (distributed in Canada as Maple Leaf Wrestling, also the name of a Toronto-based promotion purchased by the WWF in 1984) was on in syndication for about a decade before it hopped over to Sunday morning on the USA Network to replace Action Zone. It would hope one again five years later when WWF moved all their programs to Viacom channels and it landed on TNN for about a year before it was canceled. The show later had a revival on yet another network, WGN America, where it stayed for 2 years but its contract was not renewed; until its end in 2016 it was aired only in overseas markets and was streamed online in the US. * Babylon 5 did four seasons in syndication before TNT ponied up the caysh for a fifth season plus ALL those TV movies (including the Re-Cut Pilot Movie. It later made it to Sci Fi, which is the channel responsible for the first widescreen presentation (which eventually made it the format used on the DVD's. * Oddly, Beakman's World from syndication to CBS. * Trollz and the Sabrina: The Animated Series both went from syndication to CBS (though this had to do with CBS's block renter DiC needing educational programming for said block). * In the United States, the first season of Pokémon the Series premiered in syndication in September 1998, then was picked up by Kids' WB! in January 1999 with episodes premiering on the network the following month. Despite this, reruns would continue airing in syndication in most areas until September 1999. * In the United States, Sailor Moon started out in syndication in 1995, but only the first 65 episodes were shown before the show went into re-runs and was ultimately pulled. It was then picked up for cable by Turner Broadcasting and spent a few months being re-shown on USA Network before it was moved to Cartoon Network's Toonami action block where it found new life and premiered 94 new episodes, and 3 movies. + Also, a few early (and non-consecutive) S episodes were shown on The WB's Toonami block before they were pulled after 9/11 (although this was supposedly a coincidence). * In the United States, The original Dragon Ball series was in syndication for only 13 episodes in 1995 before it was canceled. It was eventually picked up by Toonami in 2001 (with an all-new English dub), due to the success of Dragon Ball Z, where it ended up finishing its 153 episode run. + Likewise in the United States, Dragon Ball Z itself began in weekly syndication in 1996 before Cartoon Network famously picked it up and added it to its Toonami block in 1998, where it finished and was in reruns for almost ten years. In addition, The WB's Saturday morning Toonami block premiered the Garlic Jr. Saga episodes in the Summer of 2000 before they were rerun in Cartoon Network. * Gargoyles from syndication to ABC; ReTooled as Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles. But the fans like to think The Goliath Chronicles never happened. So does the creator, who declared it non-canon. * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 version): went from syndication to CBS in 1990. * Inspector Gadget had a brief run on CBS in 1992 after runs in syndication and Nickelodeon. * Dennis the Menace had two new seasons on CBS after its first season aired in syndication. * The Super Mario Bros. cartoons are an interesting case. The first adaptation, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! aired in syndication and the two subsequent series, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World (1991) aired on NBC as part of Captain N: The Game Master. * 101 Dalmatians: The Series had an interesting example: it was syndicated and shown on ABC's One Saturday Morning at the same time! * Possibly the first instance of this trope, Quick Draw McGraw premiered in syndication in 1959 before becoming part of CBS's Saturday morning lineup in 1963. * Mister Ed spent its first half-year in syndication before CBS picked up the series. * Strawberry Shortcake (Classic) started out by being syndicated out to The CW, before the first three seasons found a home in CBS on its Kewlopolis block. Then came the 4-way lawsuit between DiC, Moon Scoop, American Greetings and Cookie Jar, which left the show in a horrible limbo for a couple of years before all four seasons were finally picked up by Kabillion. * My Little Pony 'n Friends, the first animated series based on the My Little Pony toyline premiered in syndication in 1986. Next came My Little Pony Tales which aired on Disney Channel in 1992. It would be another eighteen years before a new animated series based on My Little Pony would air on television, this one being My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic on The Hub Network (later rebranded as Discovery Family). * The entire Care Bears franchise has aired across multiple networks in the US. Care Bears (1980s) started out at DiC as a syndicated series, until ABC picked it up and brought Nelvana on board to produce it. The subsequent series, Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot, also started out being on CBS' Kewlopolis slot before being moved to Kabillion. Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot then jumped to The Hub alongside Hasbro's acquisition of the toy rights for the franchise, where the franchise promptly got mistreated, and then rescued by Netflix, who commissioned a sequel series, Care Bears & Cousins, but then gave up on the series in 2018, and subsequently the series hopped to Hulu. + The franchise's most recent incarnation, Care Bears: Unlock the Magic, first aired in the United States on Boomerang, who has always been the primary home to the series internationally, only for its parent channel Cartoon Network to move new episodes over to their own schedule as part of the new U.S. version of Cartoonito (due to the series getting subpar ratings as a result of Boomerang not being available on many cable providers). Boomerang still airs reruns for the time being, however. * The sports-themed quiz game Sports Challenge started in syndication in 1971, went to CBS in the summer of 1973 Sunday afternoons, then went back to syndication. * Star Search from syndication to CBS. * In the late 2010s and early 2020s, an explosion of new streaming services led to shows being pulled from Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video and moved to first party services created or owned by the producers of said programming: + Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, the prior show's movie, the franchise's saga movies, and a host of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, among other Disney-owned media, were pulled from the service to debut on the House of Mouse's own streamer, Disney+, in late 2019. (Though only The Clone Wars series and movie had been available on the service in the US on a long-term basis, due to Netflix having aired the show's sixth season.) - Following Marvel Studios' contract with Netflix expiring on Feb. 28, 2022, all of the Netflix Original Series(Daredevil (2015), Jessica Jones (2015), Luke Cage (2016), Iron Fist (2017), The Defenders (2017), and The Punisher (2017)) and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were all FINALLY added to Disney+ on March 16th of that year. The Moral Guardians didn't like the TV-MA content being added to the "Child-friendly" Disney+ library.(Outside the US it wasn't that big a deal due to international versions of Disney+ already hosting more adult-oriented content through the Star hub.) + The Office (US) left Netflix for NBCUniversal's own in-house streaming service, Peacock, in a deal that was negotiated for $100 million and became available to all Peacock subscribers starting January 1st, 2021. + Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and the DCAU shows (to name just a few notable examples) moved to HBO Max upon that service's launch in 2020. + All of the older Star Trek shows and movies have been moved from Netflix and Prime Video to Paramount+ as of July of 2022. + The US streaming rights for Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods moved from Netflix to what is now Paramount+ in 2019. Hulu still has the first nine seasons of the latter, but Seasons 10-13 are only on Paramount+. + In response to some of the above moves, Netflix acquired global rights to Seinfeld in 2020; the series left Hulu in May 2021 and arrived on Netflix in October. * The new series of Doctor Who has jumped from one streaming service to the next in the US (while still airing regularly on BBC America). It was first available on Netflix, then it moved to Amazon Prime in 2016, then the new series jumped to HBO Max in 2019. It is slated to leave HBO Max for Disney+ at some point in 2023. The classic series, meanwhile, found a home on niche streaming service BritBox and also has a Pluto TV channel. * One Day at a Time (2017) became the first cancelled Netflix Original to move to a cable network after its cancellation in 2019, when it was rescued by CBS subsidiary Pop TV. (It would later be cancelled again there after one season.) * Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot went from Netflix to Hulu in 2018. This is especially embarrassing given Netflix's pledge when they rescued the show from The Hub screwing the franchise over. * Tuca & Bertie's Season 1 aired on Netflix, but Netflix cancelled it shortly after. Nearly a year later, [adult swim] picked it up for a second season. The show became the first cancelled adult animated series from Netflix to move to a cable network. Streaming rights to seasons 2 and beyond are held by HBO Max. * The DC Universe originals were moved to HBO Max when DC Universe was relegated to featuring digital comics: + Season 2 of Doom Patrol was simultaneously streamed on HBO Max and DC Universe. Season 3 onwards will stream exclusively on HBO Max. + Harley Quinn (season 3 onwards) + Titans (season 3 onwards) + Young Justice (season 4 onwards) * Stargirl moved from the DC Universe to The CW for its second season. The CW had previously secured the rights for season 1, airing the episodes one day after each new ones debuted on the streaming service, but from the sophomore season onwards, the show will air on The CW from the get-go. Streaming availability shifted to HBO Max following DC Universe's demise. * Cobra Kai moved from YouTube Originals to Netflix from the 3rd season onwards, due to the former platform's lack of success. * Archibald's Next Big Thing had its first 2 seasons come out on Netflix. Starting in season 3, the show moved to Peacock. * The entirety of the output of the short-lived mobile-centric streaming service Quibi (excluding news programs that aged out of relevancy) was sold to Roku following the service's demise. Roku rebranded the content (some of which had not been released on Quibi at the time of its shuttering) as "Roku Originals" and began releasing the shows on the Roku Channel in May 2021. * Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee moved from Crackle to Netflix from the tenth season onwards. * The Girls on the Bus, a series adaptation of the memoirs of a journalist chronicling Hillary Clinton's two presidential campaigns, was dropped by Netflix midway into development and subsequently picked up by The CW before ultimately ending up on Max. * Don't Look Deeper: Originally part of the Quibi streaming service, it was purchased with the rest of Quibi's works by Roku after that company folded. It was then available as a Roku Original until being removed, and is now free to watch with ads on other services. * Hemlock Grove: Originally one of the first Netflix originals, Netflix later removed the show from their service in 2022 (about seven years after it finished it's final season). The rights were quickly picked up by the company Film Rise, and through them the first season can be streamed on Hoopla and the entire show on Tubi (but only in Canada). * The Really Loud House was originally developed to be released exclusively on Paramount+. In September 2022, it was announced that its premiere would move to the main Nickelodeon channel. * Star Trek: Prodigy was cancelled by Paramount+ midway through post production on its second season, and the first season was unceremoniously removed from the service as well. Four months later, Netflix picked up the show for season 2 and gained the streaming rights to season 1. * Girls5eva moved to Netflix after airing its first two seasons on Peacock. * Season 1 of Monsters at Work was released first on Disney+. Season 2 aired first on Disney Channel in April before receiving its Disney+ release in May, with the first two episodes of the season also released on Disney Channel's YouTube channel before Disney+. Australia * Kath & Kim (the Australian one) from The ABC to the Seven Network. * Neighbours from the Seven Network (for one season) to Network Ten. In January 2011 it then switched from Ten to its secondary channel Eleven (now 10 Peach). * Rove moved after its first year from the Nine Network to Network Ten. * Thank God You're Here moved from Channels Ten to Seven. * In Australia, Winx Club didn't just hop between channels (from Network Ten and Cartoon Network to Boomerang), they also hopped dubs for season 4 (necessitated by 4Kids not having the rights to dub that season). After Nickelodeon acquired the show and started producing its own episodes, it moved once more to Australia's Nick feed. * Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood aired on The ABC for its' first few seasons, and then moved to the local feed of PBS Kids * Barney & Friends first aired on Australian TV from April 1994 on the Nine Network, in 1997/98 it moved to Channel 10, airing seasons 1 to 4. In 2000, it moved back to the Nine Network, airing seasons 5 and 6 and later season 7 onwards. * A Country Practice finished a 12 year run on the Seven Network in 1993, it was then snapped up by Channel 10 (after the final episode was filmed) for a less than successful one year run in 1994. As well as a channel hop, it had a production base hop, moving from Sydney to Melbourne. * Some Australian reality TV shows flit between the networks: + Australian Idol ran for Ten for seven seasons and was later rebooted by Seven. + Australias Got Talent launched on Seven but aired two seasons on Nine + The Australian version of Big Brother has aired on all three commercial networks (on Ten 2001-2009, on Nine 2012-2014, and on Seven 2020-2023), and so has Australian Survivor (Nine and Seven aired one season each, but Ten has been airing it since 2016). Brazil * Brazilian sitcom Sai de Baixo ran for six years in Rede Globo. In 2013 it got a four-episode revival on its cable subsidiary Canal Viva, where one of the characters even lampshaded: "We couldn't get a break for five seasons in broadcast prime time! What makes you think that in paid TV will be any different?" Canada * In Canada, some U.S. late-night talk shows tended to do this. There was some stability for a time; The Tonight Show and Late Night typically aired on CTV Two (dating back to its time as A-Channel and The New XX), and Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show aired on Omni in Toronto (except for Kilborn's run, which aired on Global, as well as Craig Ferguson for a period before moving back). The 2014-15 re-alignments of NBC and CBS's late-night lineups caused some changes; Late Night with Seth Meyers moved to CTV (sandwiched between The Daily Show and Conan), The Late Late Show with James Corden was picked up by CTV Two, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is on Global. In February 2016, Corden was promoted to CTV amid its viral success, and Late Night moved back to CTV Two. + Out of all of them, Jimmy Kimmel Live! can't seem to stay in one place, having been on CH, Citytv, Bite TV, The Comedy Network, CMT (We can explain that one), and most recently back to Citytv. * America's Got Talent started out on CTV, but later moved to Citytv. The Champions spin-off in 2019 aired on CTV 2 instead, but it is unknown if they simply passed for some other reason, or it was because it would conflict with their acquisition of CBS's rival, The World's Best. * In Canada, the revived Doctor Who initially aired on the CBC, as did its spin-off, Torchwood (the CBC also contributed funding to the revival series for a time). After Series 4 of Doctor Who and Series 1 of Torchwood, both shows moved to the cable network Space (though the CBC's cable spin-off, Bold, continued to air reruns for a time). * The fifth series of Murdoch Mysteries was set to be the last after the show was cancelled by Citytv, but CBC since picked up the rights and the show continues in production. * A weird example happened with The Noddy Shop in Canada: the show aired on TV Ontario and CBC at the same time. * The Office moved from Citytv to the now-defunct CH/ E! network to Global. * The Price Is Right has hopped a few times in Canada, starting on CH (dating back to when CHCH had branded itself as ONtv). When CH turned into E!, it moved to Sun TV. When Sun TV got turned into the ultimately unsuccessful Sun News Network, it moved to Omni and was then promoted to Omni's parent network Citytv, where it has remained since (alongside Let's Make a Deal). * The Red Green Show began on CHCH, who cancelled it two seasons in, though the show was quickly picked up by CFPL (London) and YTV (for national distribution) for a third season. The show then moved to Global Television Network in the fourth season and eventually to CBC starting in the seventh season. * Two and a Half Men moved from Global Television Network to CTV, where it has remained ever since. * Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have also been shuffled around a lot in Canada; for a time it was split between CTV and A-Channel. In 2008 (by then the two networks had become sisters due to the CTV/CHUM merger), both shows moved to CBC (but Wheel was shunned to the afternoon to put larger prominence on the one that happens to be hosted by a Canadian, and because Coronation Street is the network's traditional 7:00 p.m program). A few seasons later, CBC unceremoniously dropped both. CHCH (Hamilton/Toronto) and CHEK (Vancouver Island) would acquire Wheel and Jeopardy in 2012 (they were former sisters before Canwest divested them to Channel Zero and a local group respectively, but they've still had some ties and common programming). The two shows were then acquired by Yes TV (a rebranding of the religious Crossroads Television System) in 2014; however, this only led to a channel hop in Toronto, as the system syndicates its acquisitions to other independents in markets where it doesn't have a station, which includes CHEK (this move also restored the two programs to Alberta). * Trailer Park Boys ran for seven seasons on Showcase, then revived by Netflix in 2014 for an additional five seasons. * Starting in the early 2010s, several shows that originally aired on Teletoon started airing reruns on YTV, usually airing during the daytime hours on weekdays while kids are in school or late night timeslots. These include Wayside, 6teen, and Braceface'', among others. * Fox's "Animation Domination" lineup (The Simpsons, Family Guy, and other Sunday night Fox cartoons) originally aired in Canada on Global until 2015, when they moved to City. City continued airing them until 2021, then dropped them to focus on them premiering on Disney+ in Canada, only for the shows to return to the channel in the fall of 2023. Then in 2024, they started airing on CHCH. China * Chinese animated series Happy Friends has jumped from channel to channel quite a bit, with CCTV-14 and Hunan TV's Aniworld being among the channels which have aired it. * Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf has jumped channels often, having aired on CCTV-14, Aniworld, and ZJTV, among others. France * Oggy and the Cockroaches moved from France 3 (for the first 2 seasons) to Canal+ Family (seasons 3 and 4) to Gulli (seasons 5-7). Gulli also broadcasts seasons 3 (remastered) and 4. India * For its first three series, the Baalveer franchise aired on the channel Sony SAB. Its fourth season shifted it to sister channel SonyLIV. * The first season of Simple Samosa debuted on Disney Channel India, but later had reruns moved mainly to Disney Junior in 2019. The second season, which aired in 2020, premiered on Disney Junior. Israel * Israeli children television host Tal Mosseri left Arutz haYeladim after his 18-year tenure there (the longest a host has been there, ever) for the Israeli Nickelodeon (though some speculate he was actually let go as part of the channel's attempts at renewal and rebranding). Naturally, many Israelis, who grew up watching him on Arutz Ha Yeladim, were shocked by the news, but wished him good luck; soon, however, people started calling him a traitor for this at every turn. At first he was very alarmed and hired protection before he realized it was a Running Gag and even started joining in on it, e.g. uploading a photo of himself next to a Stormtrooper, with the caption, "I'm just here for the comments..." Italy * In Italy, it's almost a trend for certain cartoons to hop from one channel to another, back and forth, with each channel promoting it as a brand new show never seen before. Some examples: + The Penguins of Madagascar initially aired on Boing, but later on, it was moved on Super! TV (a channel that mostly airs Nickelodeon shows). It later moved to POP in late 2017, but after that channel died it was moved on Cartoonito until early 2020 when Super! TV got it back. + Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness was first aired on Rai Gulp, but at a certain point, it was moved to Super! TV. After a while, it came back to Rai Gulp. + Gravity Falls originally aired on Rai Gulp... for a single week, then it was dropped until a year later when it was taken by K2. + For a long period, Season 1 of Zig & Sharko aired on Cartoonito, while the later seasons aired on K2. In 2018, K2 got the rights to Season 1 too. + The Mr. Bean cartoon aired for years on K2, but in 2015 it was moved to Boing, where they also aired the second season. + Thomas & Friends aired on Cartoonito since its launch in 2011, but in 2019 it was suddenly moved to Frisbee. + Totally Spies! originally aired on Italia 1, and later it was moved to Boing. In 2012 Super! TV got the rights to air the later seasons, with the older ones still being aired on Boing for a while until Super! TV got the rights for those too. In 2017, POP came by and got the rights for the first four seasons, which were aired in the exact same timeframe Super! TV aired seasons 5-6. By late 2018, the show vanished completely from both channels and came back on air only in 2021 on Cartoonito. + Shimmer and Shine moved from Cartoonito to Super! TV in late 2019. + Pokémon the Series aired on Italia 1 until the first Diamond and Pearl season, with Boing airing reruns. After that, the show was entirely moved on both Disney XD and K2 and, outside of a brief stint in 2018 when POP aired a rerun of Pokémon the Series: Black & White, stayed there until 2023. The show then hopped back on Boing starting with Pokémon Horizons: The Series, while Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon got a rerun on Cartoon Network. * Power Rangers had a very messy story in Italy. + The first two seasons of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers aired on Italia 1, with Season 3 being moved to Canale 5. + The series came back to Italia 1 from Power Rangers Zeo to Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. + Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue and Power Rangers Time Force aired on Fox Kids, alongside reruns of Power Rangers Turbo, Power Rangers in Space and Lost Galaxy. + Power Rangers Wild Force and Power Rangers Ninja Storm were once again on Italia 1, but they were later rerun on Fox Kids (which by then became Jetix, with its free TV counterpart getting the name K2), which also aired Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. + From Power Rangers S.P.D. to Power Rangers Jungle Fury, the series moved on Rai 2. + The franchise came back to Italia 1 for Power Rangers Samurai, but was interrupted before the last 3 episodes. The franchise was then moved to Boing for the last episodes of Samurai and everything from Super Samurai to Power Rangers Dino Charge, while K2 aired reruns of Power Rangers Mystic Force and Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, plus the until then skipped Power Rangers RPM. + Power Rangers Ninja Steel was aired on POP, alongside reruns of Operation Overdrive, Jungle Fury and RPM. + As POP closed in 2019, the franchise came back to Boing for Power Rangers Beast Morphers and Power Rangers Dino Fury. * Big Time Rush aired on Rai Gulp until 2016, then it was moved to Super! TV. * The Italian version of Survivor was aired on Italia 1 in 2001. In 2003, it moved to Rai 2, where it was retooled into L'isola dei famosi ("The island of famous people"), which had the same premise but used only celebrities for its cast. The show was cancelled in 2012, only to come back in 2015 on Canale 5, where it's still aired nowadays. Japan * Only episodes 2-3, 7-15 and 18 of Cowboy Bebop premiered on TV Tokyo (along with a special) in early 1998 due to the show's excessive violence for its timeslot; the remaining episodes would premiere as part of a full run of the series on pay-TV outlet Wowow from later that year to early in 1999. * Digimon Fusion ended the Digimon franchise's longtime home at Fuji TV, moving over to TV Asahi. This may have been justified in how Dragon Ball Z Kai was occupying its traditional timeslot on Fuji TV. The franchise moved again for Digimon Universe: App Monsters, this time on TV Tokyo, and then came back on Fuji TV for Digimon Adventure: (2020). * Most Gundam series aired in native Japan on TV Asahi until After War Gundam X. ∀ Gundam was aired on Fuji TV instead. From Mobile Suit Gundam SEED onwards, the main Gundam series aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System and/or Mainichi Broadcasting System. The TV edition of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, named Mobile Suit Gundam UC RE:0096 aired on TV Asahi though. + Its Gunpla-based spin-off series also has seen a shift in homes. Gundam Build Fighters, Gundam Build Fighters Try, and Gundam Build Divers all aired on TV Tokyo, as well as the SD Gundam titles SD Gundam Force and BB Senshi Sangokuden: Brave Battle Warriors. Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE, however, moved to YouTube via official Gundam channels. It will also air on Tokyo MX, beginning on January 28, 2020. * My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic recently got this trope, years after the TV Tokyo airing of the first 2 seasons. The series now airs on the Disney-owned Dlife channel and later on to Disney Channel Japan, making a jump from terrestrial TV to Pay TV in Japan. It's unknown if the Disney Japanese broadcasts are new versions or the Edited for Syndication one the former did. * Stitch!: The first season aired on TV Tokyo but later moved to TV Asahi for the next two seasons, but it's not known why. * The Ultra Series had aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System since its inception in 1966, but since 2009, TV Tokyo broadcasts new entries in the franchise. * Sailor Moon Crystal was originally streamed worldwide on the Nico Nico Douga service. Just before the final episodes were taken off the website, the remastered versions of the episodes from the Blu-ray release were picked up by Tokyo MX. * Midnight Diner had a three-season run on MBS, a sister station of TBS. It was then revived by Netflix for two more seasons. * While Voltes V was originally on TV Asahi, its Foreign Remake Voltes V: Legacy will air on Tokyo MX on November 2024. Malaysia * Barney & Friends: The show has practically been shown on every single network in Malaysia except 8TV (which has almost no children's programming anyway since it was relaunched, its former incarnation as MetroVision did air children's programming) throughout its entire run in Malaysia, and then some (Astro's Ceria, and then Playhouse Disney, before finally settling down in HiT Entertainment's own channel, JimJam—which is only available over cable provider ABN). * Doraemon went from RTM1 for the pre-2005 revamp episodes to NTV7 for the post-2005 revamp episodes. Unlike the Pokemon and Winx Club examples, this one is this trope played straight as RTM and Media Prima are competitors (RTM is government-run while Media Prima is a private conglomerate). + Later, Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan got taken off NTV7. However in mid-2019, the 1979 anime adaption of Doraemon aired on Astro Ceria for a while, before returning with the Malay dub of the 2005 anime series much later. * Pokémon the Series was originally aired on NTV7 in Malaysia with Malay subtitles. By the time of Master Quest (season 5) the show moved to tv9 and was now dubbed. Slightly subverted is that both channels are owned by the same parent company (Media Prima). * In Malaysia, Sesame Street went from being a long-runner on RTM-TV1 in the 80s to RTM-TV2 in the 90s, before disappearing off Malaysian terrestrial to appear as part of the Hallmark Kids block on Hallmark Channel Asia. When that channel's partnership got royally screwed by NBCUniversal however, the show went into limbo for three years before resurfacing on Playhouse Disney Asia, and going on to become a long runner that still aired after the transition to Disney Junior Asia, at the time where other PBS shows on the channel that Disney rescued from Hallmark Channel Asia got the pink slip. * In Malaysia, Winx Club moved from TV3 to NTV7. Like the Pokemon example above, slightly subverted is that both channels are owned by the same parent company (Media Prima owns TV3, NTV7, 8TV, and TV9). * Yo-kai Watch aired on Toonami Asia and the Southeast Asian feed of Cartoon Network before the former's shutdown in 2018. A few years later, in 2020, Astro Ceria aired it. Mexico * Averted with Mexican public TV: all the programs created and broadcast (including foreign-made series and movies) in the two only Mexican networks (Televisa and TV Azteca) belong to those networks and those networks only. Those programs cannot be switched over to the rival network (especially network-created shows like soap operas, TV shows, etc), but there are a few exceptions to the rule: + The Real Ghostbusters was originally broadcasted by Imevision (TV Azteca's predecessor), but since Imevision was privatized by the government and become TV Azteca later, they lost the Mexican broadcasting rights of the show and Televisa bought the show later. + The Simpsons was originally intended to be broadcasted by Televisa, but after one single episode, the owners cancelled the broadcasting due to its subversive content and TV Azteca bought the series from them. + In 1998, all the Disney catalog (movies, series, etc) went from Televisa (who was Disney's client for decades) to TV Azteca. + In recent years, it no longer seems to be the case for animated series and children's shows, for example: Barney & Friends and Bob the Builder premiered and aired on Televisa for years, but in 2008 TV Azteca signed a deal with HIT Entertainment that allowed both series to move to Azteca. The deal also gave Azteca the rights to Thomas & Friends, but after the deal with HIT expired in 2012, that series was acquired by Televisa. Likewise LazyTown premiered on Televisa but it was cancelled almost immediately, and later acquired and aired by Azteca. - Smaller and local Mexico City channel Cadenatres has acquired several classic sitcoms and anime series formerly aired on Televisa/Azteca since their rights were eventually lost, among them Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Nanny, The Munsters, Heidi, Girl of the Alps and Candy♡Candy. In a strange subversion, the Stuart Little animated series premiered on Cadenatres and years later resurfaced on Televisa. The channel became a nationwide network in 2016 and changed its name to Imagen Televisión, picking up reruns of series seen on Televisa for decades such as The Flintstones and ThunderCats. - Saint Seiya, who was broadcasted in TV Azteca from years since the earlier 90s, switched to Televisa in 2017, just to return again at 2022. - The Dragon Ball franchise, which was broadcasted in Televisa since 1995, switched to TV Azteca at 2022. This is especially relevant, since Dragon Ball has been one of Televisa's main non-Mexican multimedia franchises they had shown in Mexico since 27 years. Netherlands * Degrassi: The Next Generation has made several channel hops in both the Netherlands and Belgium. Initially, the series aired on The Box in the Netherlands and Ketnet in Belgium, but it moved to MTV at the start of season 8 (The Netherlands and (Dutch-speaking) Belgium both receive the same MTV feed, so the hop was simultaneous). After a run of several seasons on MTV, the show moved to Nickelodeon, where it ran for several seasons on the TeenNick block, until TeenNick was scrapped to make room for the Dutch / Belgian version of Spike TV. * KaBlam! moved from syndication in the Netherlands to their Nicktoons (the channel) branch, however subtitled now instead of dubbed. * After 20 seasons on the same channel, Pokémon the Series made several channel hops throughout the last few years. The first hop (starting from Sun & Moon: Ultra Adventures) saw the series move from Disney XD(which had inherited it from predecessors Jetix and Fox Kids) to B.O.Z., the children's block of RTL 7. The second hop (starting from Pokémon Journeys: The Series) moved the series from B.O.Z. to Nickelodeon only a few years later, after the cancelation of B.O.Z. by its parent network. Ironically enough, B.O.Z. and Nickelodeon only bought part of the rights to the series (mainly the rights to the newest seasons and the movies), leaving Disney XD open to run repeats of the older seasons (predominantly Pokémon the Series: XY and Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl). * The seasons of Power Rangers have hopped channel regularly in the Netherlands, moving between Fox Kids/Jetix/Disney XD, Nickelodeon and RTL 7 quite often. The last seasons in the original continuity appeared on Netflix. New Zealand * In New Zealand, The Simpsons began on TVNZ2 in 1991 before moving to Three in 2004, FOUR (now Bravo New Zealand) in 2011 before moving back to TVNZ2 in 2016. * Home and Away in New Zealand has channel-hopped four times. It first premiered on TV3 when the channel launched in November 1989. It moved to TVNZ in 1993, initially on TV One then on TV2. In 2002, it moved back to TV3, and then in 2013, it moved back to TV2! + The same goes with Neighbours. It started on TVNZ2 in 1988, despite episodes being a few years behind Australia, so it aired back to back. Then it aired on TV 4 in 1997, before it was removed in 2001. By 2002, Neighbours returned to TVNZ2, where it's stayed since. * Thomas & Friends began on Three, before the American version, Shining Time Station, aired on TVNZ2. It aired on TVNZ1 until 1996, moved back to Three in 1997, moved to FOUR (now Bravo New Zealand) in 2011 before moving back again to TVNZ2, this time as its own show in 2016. * Criminal Minds debut on TVNZ2 in 2005 before moving to TVNZ1 in 2006 (making it the most popular show on TVNZ1) * New Zealand's Got Talent debuted on Prime in 2008 before moving to TVNZ1 in 2012 * New Zealand's version of Sale of the Century debuted on TVNZ2 in 1989 before moving to TVNZ1 a couple of months later. Three later revived the series in 1994 after TVNZ1 axed it in 1993. SOTC was finally cancelled in early 1995 due to competition with the news on TVNZ 1 as well as the Current Affairs series Holmes. * Brooklyn Nine-Nine had a really bad time when it debuted on TVNZ 2 in 2014. The show then enjoyed a period of adorement on TVNZ Duke. * Some of FOUR's adult animated series, including South Park and Family Guy, moved to TVNZ Duke in 2016 prior to the closure of FOUR. Philippines * Due to ABS-CBN's Network Death in 2020, its in-house programming has been dispersed to different outlets, including its pay television service Kapamilya Channel, A2Z Channel 11 (A joint channel in partnership with Zoe TV) and even on TV5. The other shows that were acquired however, wound up abandoned, though that slowly changed, with Doraemon being an aforementioned example. * 1979 and 2005 anime adaptions of Doraemon originally aired on GMA in 1999 before the 2005 anime series moved to Yey, a kid-friendly channel affiliated with ABS-CBN. With the channel's closure in 2020, it is unknown if Doraemon would return to Philippine television someday. That changed in 2021 as A2Z Channel 11 was given the rights to bring back Doraemon on air. * Long-running variety show Eat Bulaga! initially debuted on RPN-9 in 1979, and aired on said network for ten years before handing over the franchise rights to ABS-CBN in 1989. ABS-CBN infamously attempted to acquire the broadcast rights to the show, to which Bulaga's producers declined. This led to Bulaga and its cast moving to GMA Network, which was then heavily promoted with the catchphrase "9-2=7, Totoo ang Sie7e" ("Nine minus two equals seven, Seven is really true"), both alluding to the move from Channel 9 (RPN) to Channel 2 (ABS-CBN) and finally to Channel 7, and also as a possible Take That! to ABS' attempted takeover of the series. + In 2023, Eat Bulaga! producer TAPE underwent a change in management, which would replace its CEO, cut its employees' salaries, and replace popular cast members and segments in an effort to relaunch the show. On May 31, 2023, the show's original hosts Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, and Joey de Leon (hereafter TVJ), as well as a number of other long-time cast members, resigned and left the company. TVJ proceeded to file copyright and trademark complaints against TAPE and GMA Network, seeking to cancel TAPE's trademark on the Eat Bulaga title. TVJ asserted copyright interests over their creative contributions to the show — with one sticking point being that Joey de Leon had originally coined the title, and the trio implicating that the result of TAPE's Executive Meddling was pretty much Eat Bulaga In Name Only. They also made accusations of unfair competition, as GMA had aired reruns of prior episodes involving TVJ during a brief suspension after the resignation. In June 2023, TVJ reached an agreement with TV5 for a stake in their new production company; on July 1, following the expiration of its agreement to simulcast the ABS-CBN-produced rival It's Showtime (leading it to channel hop to GMA's sister network GTV), TV5 premiered E.A.T... (a reference to Eat Bulaga! having originally been styled in its logo as Eat... Bulaga! Lampshaded by the hosts referring to the acronym with different phrases)), which was basically a Creator-Driven Successor to Eat Bulaga! with most of the cast members who left TAPE (the "Legit Dabarkads"), and Alternate Company Equivalent versions of some of its segments at the time. In January 2024, after a court ruling, GMA and TAPE lost the rights to Eat Bulaga and its associated intellectual property to TVJ, and E.A.T... was renamed to Eat... Bulaga! Meanwhile, the TAPE-produced Eat Bulaga! on GMA was retitled Tahanang Pinakamasaya (Happiest Home — which came from the lyrics of the show's new Title Theme Tune), but would be cancelled due to low viewership a few months later. And as a result of that, It's Showtime! began to also be simulcast on GMA proper beginning April 6, 2024. * The local version of Pop Idol has bounced around, initially on ABC as Philippine Idol in 2006, and then on GMA in 2008 as Pinoy Idol, and then to ABS-CBN in 2018 as Idol Philippines. Russia * South Park had a short stint on REN TV, where it didn't work out, then MTV Russia picked it up for a more successful run, later splitting the coverage with 2x2 (both had the same owner), and gradually moving it to 2x2 outright. Out of nowhere cable channel Paramount Comedy (at the time fully owned by Viacom, but now they have only 20% share due to Russian laws) got the rights, and in an interesting variation of Dueling Dubs, ordered a new dub with the same voices and almost the same script (allegedly because Viacom wasn't thrilled with quality of decade-old MTV tapes). Nowadays both 2x2 and Paramount Comedy are airing the series, with Paramount getting premier runs. * The Simpsons moved from REN TV to 2x2, then cable channel FOX got simultaneous rights and ordered a completely different dub. FOX and 2x2 ran for it a while, but strangely this time 2x2 usually had premieres, with FOX lagging behind. * Futurama and Family Guy went from REN TV to 2x2. King of the Hill had one season on TV3, then went to 2x2. Pretty much every piece of adult animation that's been on some channel would end on 2x2, because they were positioned as the adult animation channel at the time. * French production Jet Groove jumped from 2x2 to MUZ TV. Spain * El Hormiguero moved to Antena 3 after five seasons on Cuatro. * Money Heist moved from Antena 3 to Netflix. * Operación Triunfo aired its first three seasons (2001-03) on TVE, then had a five-season run on Telecinco (2005-11), then returned to TVE after a lengthy hiatus for three more seasons (2017-20). It returned yet again on 2023... on Prime Video. * Game show Pasapalabra debuted on Antena 3 in 2000, moved to Telecinco in 2007, then returned to Antena 3 in 2020. * Paquita Salas moved from Flooxer (a Spanish streaming service) to Netflix after its first season. * Factor X, the Spanish version of The X Factor aired its first two seasons on Cuatro between 2007 and 2008, then was revived by Telecinco in 2018 and again in 2024. * Humor Amarillo, the Spanish Gag Dub of Takeshi's Castle had a first run on Telecinco between 1990 and 1995 and a second run on Cuatro between 2006 and 2007. Despite being far shorter, the Cuatro stint is the most popular of the two. * Comedy show Me resbala (based on the French format Vendredi tout est permis that was also adapted in the US as Riot and in Australia as Slide Show) aired on Antena 3 from 2013 to 2021, then was revived by Telecinco in 2023. * The Spanish version of Survivor seemed to channel hop (and change its name) all the time in the mid-2000s. It was originally picked up by TVE, who pulled the plug on Los Robinsones at the last moment, then was Un-Cancelled by Telecinco in 2000, who retitled it Supervivientes: Expedición Robinson. In 2003 it made its way to Antena 3, retitled La isla de los famoS.O.S.(then La selva de los famoS.O.S. the next year, and then finally Aventura en África in 2005). For 2006 it swapped back to Telecinco, where it has since remained, once again as Supervivientes. Turkey * Ezel was transferred to channel atv after being dropped by Show TV midway through its first season. * Magnificent Century hopped from Show TV to Star TV between its first and second seasons. + Magnificent Century: Kösem likewise moved from Star TV to FOX for its second season. United Kingdom * Unlike many imported series dropped by Channel 5 — and there are many: 30 Rock, JAG(but not the spinoffs, which have Adored by the Network status)), Xena: Warrior Princess, Once Upon a Time (2011) and so on (basically any American series that isn't a law enforcement show or doesn't have CSI in the title) — Charmed found another terrestrial home for its final season, moving to Channel 4 (repeats of the earlier seasons have since aired on sister channel E4 - which has also shown Charmed (2018)). * Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful both jumped from Channel 5 to cable channels — Sunset Beach notwithstanding, American daytime soaps (unlike their nighttime counterparts) have never had much success in Britain. * Both Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place moved from Channel 5 to ITV, while SpongeBob SquarePants went in the other direction, following after Viacom's acquisition of Channel 5. * In the UK, both Hot in Cleveland and Drop Dead Diva moved from Sky Living to Sony Entertainment Television. * Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. took their battle with Hydra from Channel 4 to E4 from season three.(The series was dropped by the channel after season six.) * Big Brother (UK) went from Channel 4 (who felt the series had been taken as far as it could) to Channel 5 (who arguably proved them right). It then moved to ITV2 for the 2023 revival, although ITV1 hosted the launch show. * British fans of Breaking Bad had to put up with the show being dropped by two broadcasters (FX and FiveUSA); like Pretty Little Liars below and Once Upon a Time above, the later seasons premiered on Netflix UK (as did Better Call Saul). Fast forward to 2015, and Breaking Bad was picked up as a launch show for the new British version of Spike TV (which is operated by Channel 5, now owned by Viacom), which will broadcast every episode. * British fans of Community, which began on Viva at the same time as Pretty Little Liars and was also dropped, had to wait until April 2012 for the second season to begin on Sony Entertainment Television (given that the series is a co-production of Sony and Universal it was that or the now-defunct Universal Channel, and the Universal Channel doesn't show comedies). The channel has also shown every season since then, including the sixth (which is lucky for UK fans, as Yahoo! Screen wasn't available in Britain). * The final series of Count Duckula aired after Thames Television had lost their ITV franchise in 1993, so Central presented the ITV broadcast of that season on behalf of Thames, now an independent production company. * This trope was averted in a situation involving Dallas in the UK. When the BBC announced it would not pay a raised licencing fee to carry new episodes beginning in Autumn 1985, Thames Television, ITV's London service, announced that they were willing to pay the asking price. Thus Dallas was snatched by Thames, which violated a "gentleman's agreement" between BBC and ITV which prevented situations like this. Betrayed, BBC pulled the remaining Dallas episodes it had the rights to and announced that they would air them simultaneously with Thames' broadcasts. Ultimately, the negative publicity caused Thames to back out and Dallas remained on the BBC. Curiously, ITV didn't acquire its competition, letting the BBC have both series. (Times have changed since then, as British fans of series like 24 and Glee can testify.) * Empire moved from E4 to 5Star from season four. * The first season of Ghost Whisperer was on E4, but from season two it was shown on Living (a better fit, given that Living is known for running ghost-themed shows like Most Haunted). * Gilmore Girls made its British debut on Nickelodeon, but only the first three seasons were shown (and were prone to being censored); it later moved to the Hallmark Channel (where seasons four and five premiered) and ultimately to Channel 4 (which has shown all seven seasons). * Jane the Virgin went from E4 to Netflix from season three. * Although David Letterman has a cult following in Britain, Late Show With David Letterman has run on four different channels — Sky One, Paramount Comedy Channel, ITV4 and Diva TV - and never lasted longer than a year on any of them. (If you count BBC2 running the episodes for the week the show was in London — its only appearance on British terrestrial television(However Late Night with David Letterman was on Channel 4 in The '80s) — he's been on five.) * Masters of Sex, meanwhile, aired on Channel 4 in its first season but moved to More4 come its second. * From season five The Middle changed its UK home from Sky to Comedy Central. * My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic was first shown in Britain on Boomerang, but only the first season - presumably because it didn't quite fit in among its lineup; the series moved to Tiny Pop (and its sister channels Pop and PopGirl) in 2013. * Nashville, on the other hand, moved from More4 to its sister channel E4 from its third season... and then it followed Scandal onto Sky Living from season four onwards. * New Girl began its UK run on Channel 4 but moved to E4 from season two. * Once Upon a Time (2011), dropped by Channel 5 after the first two seasons, was eventually taken by Netflix UK in 2015, with said first two seasons and every episode thereafter on the streaming service. * In the UK and Ireland, Pokémon the Series was initially aired on Sky One up to around the Johto era, before their version of Cartoon Network picked up new episodes of the show. Later, reruns, new episodes, and the movies could be found on the CITV channel, as well as Pop after the UK version of Disney XD dropped the anime following the end of XY. The show then moved further to CBBC, though Pop still airs the show as well. The same thing happened in the US and Southeast Asia too, see "From The WB / The CW to..." above. * The Practice was on ITV for a grand total of three weeks in 1997 before the channel pulled both the show and any support for American shows in primetime whatsoever.(It would be 11 years before a US show returned to primetime, with Pushing Daisies, which they skipped the 2nd episode of.) It eventually resurfaced in 2001 on BBC One before being demoted to BBC Three, returning to ITV in 2004 on ITV3 when it launched, before ending up on More4 for a brief period in 2007. Oh and season 1 premiered on Sky One before ITV. + By comparison, Boston Legal had a much more consistent UK run, on Living. * Pretty Little Liars moved from Viva to the sister channel MTV thanks to Viva beginning the series a few months after it launched on ABC Family (the series premiered in June 2010 in the US, and in October of the same year in Britain) and falling afoul of its long mid-season gap; by the time the series began again from the beginning on MTV in 2011, the first season was complete. But MTV dropped it after the first two seasons, leaving UK fans of Aria and Co. high and dry - until Netflix UK took it, with the entire series available from January 1st 2015 (each new episode arrives on the streaming service after its US premiere). * Given that Scandal didn't go down as well with More4 viewers as its stablemates The Good Wife and Nashville, from season three Olivia Pope moved to Sky Living. * South Park has been on Channel 4 terrestrially since 2000 and used to be on Sky One on cable/satellite; both channels ended up dropping it and it moved to Comedy Central (in the days when it was still called Paramount Comedy). * The first four seasons of Supernatural were shown in the UK on ITV2; it then went to Sky Living for seasons five to eight, after which it was dropped. Eventually, E4 picked it up and screened season nine from January 2015 (a year behind North America) - by pure coincidence, the first episode of season nine is called "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here." * In Britain, the first season of This Is Us aired on Channel 4, but the second season ran on its sister channel More4. The Pearsons moved to Prime Video. The service shares the series with Disney+. * In Britain, the first two seasons of Totally Spies! were shown on Channel 4, often in the early hours of the morning with little publicity. It moved to ITV from season 3 who aired at more respectable times of the morning with more publicity. * The first two seasons of Veronica Mars were on Living in the UK and Ireland, but the third season was on Trouble. The Hulu season aired on StarzPlay(via Prime Video) in the UK. * As part of the launch of AMC in the UK, the entire run of Weeds was shown - including the final two seasons, which never ran on British television due to Sky dropping the series. * White Collar moved from Sky Living to Alibi. * The West Wing originally aired on Sky One, because Sky Atlantic not been invented yet, the Bartlet Administration moved to Channel 4 and flourished. * Winx Club has had several homes in the UK: GMTV (ITV), Nickelodeon UK, and most recently Pop Girl. + Nickelodeon's acquirement of the Winx property necessitated a Channel Hop in several countries where Winx wasn't already on a Nick channel, including the UK, where it moved from Pop Girl back to Nick. Now that Nick has sold the series off, it could potentionally hop again. * Barney & Friends is rather complicated when it comes to its British broadcast history. It started off in the UK on GMTV in April 1994, while the now-defunct TCC picked up the pay TV rights around the same time. When TCC kicked the bucket, the show moved to Living TV (now Sky Witness)'s Tiny Living programming block, lasting until its closure. Going back to terrestrial, it hopped from GMTV to Channel 5 in 2002. When Tiny Living was discontinued, the pay TV rights hopped over to Cartoon Network Too, via its Cartoonito programming block. In 2007, Cartoonito became its own channel, with Barney moving over to the channel. * In the United Kingdom, TNA Wrestling moved from Bravo to Challenge because Bravo got shut down by their new owners. * Not just a Channel Hop, but a Country Hop: the first two series of Black Mirror aired on the UK network Channel 4, but after talk of a third series got bogged down in budget negotiations, the US-based streaming service Netflix, who already owned the American streaming rights to the show, picked up the tab for new episodes. It was the first time that a "regular" TV network was outbid by a streaming service for the rights to a show that it wanted to renew. * Top Boy similarly moved from Channel 4 to Netflix after its first two series. * Lovesick moved from Channel 4 to Netflix after its first series. * The British version of Deal or No Deal was on Channel 4 from its start in 2005 until 2016. ITV brought it back in 2023. United States * All of the shows on The CW's first season hopped over from The WB and UPN, except for Runaway and The Game. Depending on the market, some shows may not have really hopped at all (if the former WB or UPN station landed a CW affiliation). And The Game has since hopped to BET. * You Don't Say! (NBC), Seven Keys (ABC), and Beat The Odds (syndication) all began as local shows in Los Angeles before going national. * In the mid-2000s, HiT Entertainment's programs on PBS switched station affiliations from Connecticut Public Television to WNET New York. * In 1970, Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood both moved from National Educational Television to its successor, PBS. * The original presenting stations for Castle and Cathedral (Documentary) were WTVS in Detroit and WGBH in Boston, respectively. WHYY in Philadelphia picked them both up for a marathon rebroadcast of programs based on David Macaulay's books which followed the premiere of Roman City. * For its fifth season, Fit 2 Stitch moved from National Educational Telecommunications Association to American Public Television, with KERA picking it up as the presenting station. * At some point late in its run, as late as 1992, The Frugal Gourmet hopped from WTTW in Chicago to KQED in San Francisco. * Holmes on Homes was the only show with a pulse on the US Discovery Home network. When Discovery decided to make that network Planet Green and mothball the entire Discovery Home lineup, HGTV quickly snapped up Holmes for their own channel; an easy call as HGTV Canada is actually the one that produces the show. It got a timeslot upgrade to Sunday evenings and continues to do just fine for HGTV, and outlived Planet Green, which became the American-centric Destination America on Memorial Day 2012. * Home Movies from UPN to [adult swim]. * The Invisible Man had a rare deal where is aired both on the Sci-Fi Channel and in syndication the same week which persisted for both seasons it aired. Unfortunately when SFC pulled out, syndication alone wasn't enough to keep the show going. * Jail from MyNetworkTV to Spike TV. * The show famously known as Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, and later as Live! with Kelly and Michael was originally a weekday morning news and lifestyle show on ABC flagship station WABC-TV in New York that Regis Philbin co-hosted and which debuted in 1983. Sister station WLS-TV in Chicago is where The Oprah Winfrey Show debuted as a similar local show before it became a similar nationally syndicated talk show, debuting in 1984. * Mystery Science Theater 3000 from independent KTMA in the Twin Cities (now The CW affiliate WUCW) to Comedy Central to Sci-Fi Channel to Netflix. * When Nightly Business Report moved from WPBT Miami to NBCUniversal... it stayed on PBS stations, with American Public Television continuing to distribute. However, it did switch station affiliations from WPBT to Washington D.C.-based WETA some time later. Additionally, it was distributed by PBS itself from 2005 to 2011, when APT picked it back up after PBS dropped it. + Similarly, Off Beat Cinema from WKBW in Buffalo, New York to WBBZ and the Retro Television Network. * Three Sheets started on HD channel MOJO HD before it closed. Fine Living Network picked it up for its fourth season, where it obtained Adored by the Network status until that channel was rebranded into Cooking Channel. The show then hopped to co-owned Travel Channel briefly, then to Spike TV before its run ended in 2011. * Subverted with This Old House. When it was acquired from WGBH by the spin-off magazine's publisher Time, Inc., it stayed on PBS, with WGBH still distributing the show to PBS member stations. The move also resulted in production relocating from Boston to Manhattan (and later to Stamford, Connecticut, the same city that The People's Court and the NBCUniversal conflict talk shows had production relocated to), though Ask This Old House is still made in the Boston area. In 2019, the show switched presenting stations from WGBH to Washington D.C. station WETA. * Game show Down You Go, which debuted on DuMont in 1951 and stayed there until the network cancelled most of its programs in 1955, survived one more year with a summer run on CBS in 1955, then a one-season run on ABC in 1955-56, finishing with another summer run on NBC in 1956, making it one of the few TV shows of the 1950s to air on all the then-available networks. * After A&E cancelled Live PD in 2020, the show would move to Reelz Channel in 2022 under the name On Patrol: Live. * Another DuMont survivor was Life Is Worth Living, the surprisingly popular religious program starring Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, which went to ABC in 1955 and stayed on until 1957. Sheen returned to TV twice, first with The Best of Bishop Sheen on the NTA Film Network in 1958-61, then in syndication with The Fulton Sheen Program in 1961-68. * After Digimon Frontier aired on UPN's Disney's One Too block, the next Digimon series to air, Digimon Data Squad, would air on Toon Disney's Jetix block, which had previously been airing reruns of the earlier series. Venezuela * Venezuelan Talent Show Cuanto Vale El Show began in Venezolana de Television as a segment of Fantastico a variety show, then it hopped to RCTV, a full program, and then it landed in Venevision. All the versions of the show were produced and host by its creator, Guillermo González; he eventually got tired and left show business to fund his own network, just before Musical Realities like the X Got Talent series and the Idol series emerged in English-speaking countries. Multinational * Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears in Asia: Both went from Playhouse Disney Asia to Boomerang Asia, and then later to Cartoonito Asia thanks to Hasbro's meddling (which also caused the shows to become unavailable in a lot of parts of Asia) when Boomerang Asia was split into Toonami Asia and Cartoonito Asia. And then both went back to Boomerang Asia when Cartoonito Asia was retooled back to Boomerang Asia (Toonami Asia is still broadcasting separately in the region).	ChannelHop	null
LiveActionTV	# The Bus Came Back - Live-Action TV * 24 had Milo Pressman, who inexplicably disappeared after Day 1, suddenly return in a major role in Day 6, his absence explained as him having been working in another CTU division. He is eventually killed. This caught several people by surprise since 24 is notorious for its rampant Chuck Cunningham Syndrome. + Mike Novick was written out of the show at the end of the second season after being fired by President Palmer. He returned midway through the fourth season as the assistant to Charles Logan, lasting all the way to the end of season five where he aided Jack \|\|after discovering that Logan was the Big Bad.\|\| + Jack's ex Audrey Raines and her father James Heller were announced to be returning in the upcoming Live Another Day miniseries(aka "Season 9"), after both characters were written out at the end of the sixth season. Heller is the new President of the United States (and suffering from Alzheimer's) while Audrey is married to the new Chief of Staff, who wants Jack out of the picture in any way possible. + Also in Live Another Day \|\|Tzi Ma\|\| returns as \|\|recurring antagonist Cheng Zhi\|\| in the final three episodes. + Charles Logan returns for last 8 episodes of season 8. + Before a lot of these every series regular (and every recurring character except for Chloe) was either written out at the end of season 3 or got Put on a Bus in the interim between it and season 4. Of those series regulars, Tony, Michelle and Palmer all returned in season 4 (\|\|with the latter two eventually dying in season 5's first episode and Tony dying in the middle of season 5 and eventually coming Back from the Dead to create a particularly convoluted version of this trope\|\|) and Kim returned in seasons 5,7 and 8, while Wayne Palmer returned in seasons 5 and 6. Chase Edmunds though stayed on a Long Bus Trip. + 24: Legacy has the return of Tony Almeida. * More actress-wise than character-wise, but Rachel Dratch returned to 30 Rock for the first time since the first season for its season 5 Live Episode, this time playing a wacky foreign janitor. Liz even comments, "Haven't seen you in a while." * After being written out at the start of season 5 of Alias, Weiss returns eight episodes later in S.O.S. to help sneak APO out of Langley. + Will Tippin's bus returned twice after he was written out at the end of season 2. Once in the third season and again for the 100th episode in season 5. * When René and Edith of 'Allo 'Allo! accidentally travel to London, they meet Hans, who had been stolen away by the Communist Resistance to England a few seasons previously. He now works for the British government and speaks English. * After leaving The Andy Griffith Show as a regular, Don Knotts returned as Barney Fife for at least one episode in each of the remaining seasons. Not quite often enough to be Commuting on a Bus, but still a notable variation of the trope. * Angel: + Cordelia got one in the last season, though it was something of a mixed visit. + Kate comes back in After The Fall. + The Groosalugg returns in After the Fall, long hair and all. + After leaving Wolfram & Hart toward the end of Season 2, Lindsey makes a surprising reappearance about a third of the way into Season 5 and recurs throughout the rest of the show's run. * Annika (2021): Jake, Morgan's therapist and Anika's boyfriend in Season 1, pops back up in episode 2.4 when Annika runs into him at a conference. They start things back up again. * Young Mr. Grace returned for a very brief cameo during a birthday celebration for his older brother in the episode of Are You Being Served? titled "Roots". * The Army Game: The characters of Maj. Upshot-Bagley and Sgt. Maj. Bullimore left at the end of season 1, but returned for the fourth (and final) season. * This happens on Arrow with Roy Harper, who has to leave Starling City after Season 3, due to faking his death to protect Oliver Queen's identity as the Arrow. He later returns in a Season 4 episode. * Dr. John Dixon on As the World Turns was written out without explanation after actor Larry Bryggman left the show over a salary dispute. Several years later, when the soap was canceled, Bryggman returned, remaining the last couple of weeks through the final episodes, with the explanation that Dr. Dixon had taken a position at NIH. * From Babylon 5: + Jeffrey Sinclair returns for the season 3 two-parter "War Without End". + Susan Ivanova is put on a bus at the end of the fourth season, and returns for the finale. An odd example, since the finale was originally intended to air at the end of the fourth season as well; the show was unexpectedly renewed, and so the finale was held off until the end of the fifth season. * In the original Battlestar Galactica, Dirk Benedict's character Starbuck returned in a single episode of Galactica 1980 after being put on a bus (due to Galactica 1980 being set at least 20 years into the future. * In Bones, Zack only really comes back once after being Put on a Bus \|\|to a mental institution\|\|, in "The Perfect Pieces in the Purple Pond". (He appears in two other episodes, but one is a hallucination and the other is a Whole Episode Flashback.) He returns at the end of season 11 and then season 12. * In Boy Meets World: + The bullies' leader, Harley, was sent to military school near the end of the second season and almost immediately wound up being replaced by Griff Hawkins. Harley returns for one third season episode which pits him against Griff (after which neither are seen again). + During the last episode of the high school part, Minkus makes a return, lampshading the Put on a Bus trope while he's there. * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: + Oz and Riley both get these. For Oz, it's "New Moon Rising"; for Riley, it's "As You Were". They both appear again in Season 8 for a bit. + Whistler appears in Season 9 and reveals he was behind Angel's actions in Season 8. + Actress Elisabeth Röhm (Kate Lockley) left to be on Law & Order and vanished without explanation in Angel from season 2 onward, but makes a comeback in the Season 8 comics because of course, comics aren't hindered by pesky things like acting contracts. (She appears in Angel: After The Fall as a new member of AI in Aftermath.) + Simone in Season 9; last seen executing the general at war with the Slayers, is driving around San Francisco, armed to her back teeth, promising that she won't let the world forget about the Slayers. This...this can't be good. * Season 13 of Canada's Worst Driver had one of Season 11's bad drivers \|\|and winner of the unwanted title\|\| return as a nominator for one of that year's bad drivers. Which Andrew points out every chance he gets. * On Charlie's Angels, Jill Munroe returned for several guest appearances after leaving as a regular following the first season. These return appearances were actually contractually obligated, as part of a settlement to a lawsuit brought by producer Aaron Spelling against Farrah Fawcett over her early departure from the show. * El Chavo del ocho: La Chilindrina's absence from the show was explained as her living with her aunts in Guanajuato. In reality Maria Antonieta de las Nieves left to work on a series for another network. The series was unsuccessful so for the next season La Chilindrina came back. + Don Ramón also returned to the "El Chavo" for the 1981 season of Chespirito. It was not to last, but at least the series reprised many of his classic episodes. * Characters who are Put on a Bus in Chuck seem to come back more often than not. That's including \|\|Jill (arrested early season 2, returns towards the end), Daniel Shaw (twice: in the penultimate Season 3 episode, and then again in season 5), and Alexei Volkoff (arrested mid-season 4, returns for the finale)\|\| * Community: After disappearing after the second season, Professor Duncan returned for Season 5 with an explanation that he'd been looking after his sick mother in the meantime. * Both A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster were forced out of Criminal Minds by Executive Meddling (reportedly because CBS needed to free up funds to bankroll the spinoff) during the sixth season. Outcries from the fans, the actors and even the writers (if one reads between the lines in "J.J.") led to the producers agreeing to bring the two of them back for Season Seven (though the cancellation of the spinoff helped there). Brewster left after Season Seven on her own accord before returning again in Season Twelve, while Cook consistently remains to this day. * Jorja Fox as Sara Sidle on CSI; eventually, this turned into a borderline between this and Commuting on a Bus. She's listed as a regular, but always misses a handful of episodes each season. William Petersen was rumored to be returning as well, but though he had a brief cameo in one ep, it was decided he wouldn't return for more yet, so as not to take the focus away from \|\|Catherine getting put on the bus\|\|. + Sophia Curtis got a one episode return as well. * CSI: NY sort of did with Aiden Burn, but it was more a Bus Crash—she only showed up in a couple of flashbacks and got Stuffed in the Fridge in the main plot ep itself. + Mac's ex-girlfriend Peyton, who returned in one episode a few seasons after her departure. * Desperate Housewives: After leaving Wisteria Lane in the first episode of seventh season, Orson Hodge appeared once again in "Assassins". However, it was just for that episode and his storyline with Bree wasn't resolved. He later returned again in the final season. * The Doctor Blake Mysteries: Danny Parks, who left at the end of season 1, returns in "Family Portrait" at the end of season 5 as a sergeant in a Melbourne station. * With characters coming and going on a regular basis in the British sitcom Doctor in the House and its sequels, it is inevitable that a few buses returned. + Robin Nedwell as Duncan Waring left after Doctor in the House to appear in The Lovers, but returned for Doctor in Charge as the new central character; Waring was said to have been a research doctor in Baltimore during the events of the previous series. + Martin Shaw as Huw Evans left Doctor in the House after one series, but returned as a nervous expectant father in the Doctor at Large episode "Mother and Father Doing Well". + Jonathan Lynn as Danny Hooley left after the second series of Doctor in the House, and returned for the Doctor in Charge finale "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot?", having been struck off (unbeknownst to his friends at St. Swithin's). + George Layton as Paul Collier left after Doctor in Charge to start in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum (Collier was said to have gone out for coffee and not come back until after his friends Waring and Stuart-Clark had also left the hospital to become ship's doctors), but returned as a regular for the final series in the franchise, Doctor at the Top. * Doctor Who: + Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's bus came back three times after the "UNIT era"; "Mawdryn Undead", "The Five Doctors" and "Battlefield". Other buses that came back for "The Five Doctors" included Susan, Jamie and Zoe (except it wasn't really them), Sarah Jane and K9, and Romana. + Jamie really did return in "The Two Doctors", as did the Second Doctor, if that counts. (If it does, then "The Three Doctors", "The Five Doctors" again and "Time Crash" also qualify). + Sarah Jane's bus returned again in "School Reunion", which led to The Sarah Jane Adventures. Which featured another return for the Brig in Series 2, and Jo Grant in Series 4. (The Brig was also supposed to pop up once more in Series 3, but Nicholas Courtney sadly suffered a stroke at the time of filming... and the episode he was going to appear in was the one in which David Tennant guest-starred as the Doctor!) + Martha Jones was put on a bus when she left the TARDIS at the end of "Last of the Time Lords", but then returned twice in series 4 ("The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky" and "The Doctor's Daughter"; "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End") for some more adventures. She also appeared in three episodes of Series 2 of the spin-off Torchwood. + "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" also features the return of \|\|Dalek Caan from "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks", having turned Mad Oracle after coming out the worse for wear from an unprotected jaunt through the Time Vortex.\|\| + The Master has a habit of showing up for a while, then going on a bus trip. Between "Frontier in Space" and "The Keeper of Traken", his only appearance was "The Deadly Assassin". Following the TV Movie, he didn't show up in the revival until the end of Series 3, and after that not until \|\|Series 8\|\|. + Almost every appearance of Davros's after his introduction in "Genesis of the Daleks" is a bus trip, the exception being "Revelation of the Daleks", which took place a season after "Resurrection of the Daleks". + Omega had a 10 year bus trip between "The Three Doctors" and "Arc of Infinity". + \|\|The Great Intelligence had an almost 35 year bus trip between "The Web of Fear"\|\| and "The Snowmen". + \|\|An on-screen example, at least: The Eighth Doctor returns to the screen for the first time in 17 years for the\|\| 50th Anniversary prequel, "The Night of the Doctor". + "World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls" features the decidedly unexpected return of \|\|John Simm's Master\|\|, who shared screen time with Missy, resulting in the first \|\|multi-Master story\|\|. Which, due to its ending, is technically also the first \|\|multi-Master-multi-Doctor story\|\|. + The Christmas special at the end of Series 10 also features the return of the First Doctor, along with brief cameos from Ben and Polly. + "Resolution" not only features the appearance of \|\|a Dalek, after no recurring antagonists for the whole of Series 11\|\|, it's also the first time since \|\|"The Magician's Apprentice"/"The Witch's Familiar" that the species has served as the primary antagonist\|\|. + "Spyfall" \|\|ends its first part on a dramatic Cliffhanger involving the triumphant return of the Master, last seen two-and-a-half real-life years before. It was made especially effective by a successful effort to keep the return completely under wraps.\|\| For bonus points, \|\|he's armed with a Tissue Compression Eliminator, his iconic Shrink Ray weapon from the classic series that previous new series Masters didn't use.\|\| + "Fugitive of the Judoon": - The episode is the first major role for the titular species of brutish Space Police (on the series proper; they'd also had a major role in one story from Spin-Off The Sarah Jane Adventures) since their debut 13 years before in "Smith and Jones", with all of their appearances in-between being mere cameos. - \|\|Captain Jack Harkness returns after his last appearance on the show a decade before.\|\| + "Survivors of the Flux" features the return of Kate Stewart, who had last been seen three series previously. + "The Power of the Doctor", being both the Thirteenth Doctor's swan song and a celebration of the BBC's centenary, naturally features several returning characters. The Master, Tegan Jovanka, Ace, Kate Stewart, and Vinder had their appearances in the special announced ahead of time. Within the special itself, \|\|Graham O'Brien plays a significant supporting role; the First, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors appear as manifestations of the Doctor's consciousness; the Fifth and Seventh Doctors also appear as holograms, as does the Fugitive Doctor; Mel Bush, Jo Grant, and Ian Chesterton appear in brief cameos (the last of which set a world record for TV bus trips, with his last appearance being 57 years earlier); and David Tennant returns to the series, this time as the Fourteenth Doctor instead of the Tenth.\|\| * Most famously on The Dukes of Hazzard, with Bo and Luke returning after being absent for most of the show's fifth season due to contract issues with actors John Schneider and Tom Wopat. (Unlike most examples of this trope, the bus brought them back not just for a visit, but for good.) + Deputy Enos Strate, who'd left Hazzard in the third season for his own short-lived spinoff show, returned at the start of season five (just as Bo and Luke were leaving). He also stuck around for the remainder of the show's run. * Earth: Final Conflict has Liam Kincaid, the main character for seasons 2-4, disappear under strange circumstances in the season 4 finale in a case of Never Found the Body. He finally comes back, just in time for the Grand Finale. * ER had Carter return for four episodes in season 12. Susan Lewis, absent from seasons 3-7, returned as a regular in seasons 8-12 before leaving again. Jeanie Boulet showed up in an episode of Season 14. In the show's 15th and final season, all of the departed regulars from the original cast, including the deceased Mark Greene, came back for guest appearances. + Specifically, in the final season: - Carter ends up essentially becoming a member of the main cast as the series closes, appearing in "The Beginning of the End:, "T-Minus-6", "What We Do", and "Old Times", and "And in the End...". - Doug Ross and Carol Hathaway reappear together in "Old Times". - Mark Greene and Robert Romano (who had both previously been killed off) show up in a flashback in "Heal Thyself". - Abby Lockhart and Ray Barnett reappear to help send Neela Rasgotra off in the series' antepenultimate episode. - Kerry Weaver, Elizabeth Corday, Peter Benton and Susan Lewis all come back for the series finale to specifically meet up with John Carter's character, and all of them (minus Lewis) had made additional appearances earlier in the season. - Finally, several recurring characters reappeared throughout the season, including Jerry Markovic, Lydia Wright, David Morgenstern, Kem Likasu, Reese Benton and Rachel Greene (the latter, Mark's daughter, done to help to bring the series full circle). * On Eureka, you'd think sacrificing himself to save continuity would be enough to get Nathan Stark out of Carter's life for good. Nope; he comes back. \|\|Turns out he was just a technology-induced hallucination. But this is Eureka, after all.\|\| + Taggert was a regular recurring character throughout seasons 1 & 2, then he inexplicably disappeared after the season 2 finale. He finally made a return for 1 episode at the end of season 3, in which he alluded to his sudden departure as a Walkabout. He then returns twice more for the season 4 and 5 Christmas Specials, but never manages to make a full return to the cast. + Dr. Trevor Grant was the major Arc Character for season 4's first half, leaving once his arc was concluded. He makes a much welcomed (by the cast) return in the series finale as \|\|the new owner of Eureka, buying the town and GD at Fargo's pleading after the government decided to pull all funding and shut them down.\|\| * Richard Dawson, host of Family Feud from 1976 to 1985, returned to host the final season of the 1988 revival (1994-95 season). * Father Brown: In "The Winds of Change", Now Chief Inspector Sullivan returns to Kembleford after a run-in with a corrupt superior in London, and at the end of the episode finds himself transferred back there indefinitely. * Janette was brought back for one season 3 Forever Knight episode, though that ep is not well liked by fans. * A French Village: Kurt is shipped to the Eastern Front after it's found he was in a relationship with Lucienne, as she's French (forbidden by German military regulations). Müller is also transferred to Kiev. In a later season, both return. * Happens frequently in the final two seasons of Friday Night Lights, with Lyla Garrity, Tyra Collette, Landry Clarke, and Jason Street returning for one or two episodes apiece after departing Dillon, and Matt Saracen for an impressive six, including the series finale. In fact, the only main character not to return for a sendoff at some point after their departure was Smash Williams. * Fringe: after his appearance in the first season finale, David Robert Jones was never brought up again, before suddenly making a comeback in the middle of the fourth season. * From Frontline, Geoffrey Salter reappears 19 years later in a fourth season episode of Rake. * Game of Thrones: + Hot Pie returns in Season 4 when Brienne and Pod stop by the inn where he works. It turn's out he's gotten much better at making wolf-shaped bread. + Rickon Stark and Osha come Back for the Dead in Season 6 after going off on their own at the end of season 3. * On Gilmore Girls, Jess apparently has several round-trip tickets. His whole slew of issues came together and he ran away from town, only to be grudgingly dragged back to town to reclaim his car and attend his mother's wedding. He leaves town again when Rory impulsively rejects him and then resurfaces in Rory's life again to see how she's doing only for Rory to sadly reject him again. * Glee: Sam moved away between the second and third seasons due to contract issues with Chord Overstreet, only to return for good in "Hold Onto Sixteen". * Gossip Girl (2007): + Georgina seems to have several round-trip tickets. + Jenny also returned briefly for a couple of episodes in season 4 after being Put on a Bus in the season 3 finale. * Grey's Anatomy has been using this infrequently as part of when current characters need to be put on a bus themselves: + \|\|Cristina\|\| leaves by running into \|\|Preston Burke\|\| and \|\|being recruited to run some magic sci fi hospital in Switzerland full of 3D printers.\|\| + \|\|Arizona\|\| ends up moving to ease the tension regarding \|\|her custody dispute with Callie\|\| and it's at minimum hinted \|\|the two might get back together.\|\| + \|\|April\|\| leaves after getting back together with \|\|Matthew Taylor\|\| and \|\|does non profit work with the homeless.\|\| + When it's time for \|\|Jackson\|\| to leave, He gets back together with \|\|April (who conveniently has broken up with Matthew again)\|\|, and \|\|the whole family as a unit moves to Boston so Jackson can run the family foundation.\|\| + Technically the bus doesn't come back at all since the character's never on screen, but \|\|Alex\|\| leaves by telling everyone via letter that \|\|he got back together with Izzie who secretly had the frozen embryo babies from they froze during her chemo ages ago to raise their kids together.\|\| * In Growing Pains, Luke (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns briefly in the final episode. Oddly enough, he didn't technically interact with the cast face-to-face. He simply spoke to Mike on the phone in one scene. He was only a part of the cast towards the end of the series so there wasn't a long time between his departure and return. * Hannah Montana: + Dantzig disappeared after season 1, and then randomly reappeared for a season 3 episode. He was never seen again afterwards. * On Happy Days: + Richie and Ralph Malph returned for an episode (with Richie coming back again for the series finale). + After having departed for their own ill-fated spinoff, Joanie and Chachi made a few guest appearances during the season they were absent before finally returning for good in the series' final season, once their spinoff had been axed. * Janice on Head of the Class came back for graduation (the final episode), despite having gone on to college. * Highlander did this with three characters. Charlie DeSalvo left the series in late season 3, then returned in the second ep of season 4, where he was Killed Off for Real. Fitzcairn and Richie were variants of it. Richie was an alternate universe Richie in Duncan's visions, and Fitzcairn showed up only in flashbacks. (Fitzcairn, having been killed off in his second appearance, is in the unusual position of having shown up more often after the bus than before.) Tessa did once as well, with Alexandra Vandernoot playing her in a season 2 ep in flashbacks and playing a different character made to look like Tessa via Magic Plastic Surgery in the main plot of the ep. * Randy returns for the last Christmas special of Home Improvement. * On House, Cameron leaves both Princeton Plainsboro and Chase. She later comes back to finalize her divorce from the latter in a nice way. + To a lesser extent Chase and Freeman also qualify. Never completely leaving the show, but taking new jobs and making only cameo appearances while House builds a totally new team. Both end up finding their way back onto his team and retaking their full cast member status. * How I Met Your Mother: Ted's first serious girlfriend in the series is Victoria, a baker he meets at a wedding. They break up near the end of season 1, and she's not seen again for 5 seasons. Ted finally runs into her again in season 7. * Kamen Rider: + In the original series, after star Hiroshi Fujioka's leg was shattered during a stunt gone wrong, protagonist Takeshi Hongo went overseas to foil more of Shocker's plans while Hayato Ichimonji, the second Kamen Rider, took care of Japan. Hongo returned almost 30 episodes later and the two heroes fought side-by-side for 12 episodes, but then Ichimonji himself went overseas for training. He eventually returned for the final five episodes, and the Double Riders (as they're officially known) have been an inseparable Dynamic Duo ever since. + In Kamen Rider OOO, Akira Date goes abroad in episode 38 to get the shrapnel in his brain removed, but returns in the final three episodes to fight alongside his former apprentice, Goto. + Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, in a special focusing on Hiiro Kagami/Kamen Rider Brave, brings back three villains representing each era of the franchise: King Dark from Kamen Rider X, Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja from Kamen Rider Ryuki, and most notably, \|\|Foundation X from the first three post-Decade seasons\|\|. * In Knight Rider, after Patricia McPherson had a disagreement with producer Glen A. Larson by the end of the first season, she was written off the show, and her character Bonnie was never seen through Season 2. Due to lobbying by her co-stars, David Hasselhoff and Edward Mulhare, she was brought back to the show for Season 3. In the Season 3 opener, where we learned that she decided to continue her studies upstate in San Francisco. After that, she would return to the Foundation to stay for the remainder of the series. * Last of the Summer Wine: + In Series 12, Foggy Dewhurst, who had left at the end of Series 8 to run an egg-painting business, returned. The bus quite literally came back, as the first time we see him, he's riding into town on a bus. Seymour, the character he was replaced by (and is now replacing), had just left town (and the series) on a different bus. + After Series 12, Barry had been reduced to The Ghost after Mike Grady left to work on other series. Grady returned to the series in Series 17, so Barry was once more part of many episodes. * Brian Cassidy of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit transferred out of the unit in mid-Season 1 and was pretty much forgotten until he showed up as an undercover officer working a case — in the finale of Season Thirteen. + If this applies across an entire franchise, then Captain Cragen counts, with his casting in SVU being his return bus trip. He was Lt. Anita Van Buren's predecessor on the mothership show for the first three seasons. + In other cross-franchise examples, Executive ADA Michael Cutter make four appearances in Season 13 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit after his own show, the original Law & Order ended in 2010, and Lt. Alexandra Eames makes two appearances in Season 14 of L&O: SVU, her first appearance since the ending of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in 2011. - Eames and Goren also get this in the Season 10 premiere of Criminal Intent, after both departing in the second episode of the ninth season. + On Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Alex Cabot came back. - \|\|But then she left again.\|\| And there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. + Recently Casey Novak also came back for an episode. * Mad Men gives us a few examples. + Of the former Sterling Cooper employees who didn't jump ship for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce at the end of Season 3, Ken Cosgrove returned for good while other characters reappear occationally - Ken Cosgrove shows up for one episode, disappears again, and then joins SCDP after coming to a truce with Pete. He is a regular character in season 5. - Duck Philips shows up twice, both times not only hammered drunk but obviously far, far Off the Wagon. Ranting and raving, he fights Don, because Don is also drunk, and came in with Peggy. At the end of season 5, Peggy meets him in a restaurant to get some career advice and this time he is actually sober. + Paul Kinsey returns in season 5, really down on his luck and a member of the Hare Krishna. He is subsequently given a bus ticket to California so he can get away from the cult and start a new life as a movie scriptwriter. + Two other more minor former Sterling Cooper employees show up again; both had left well before the sale of Sterling Cooper to McCann Erickson. - Smitty Smith resurfaces at the agency of Don's (self-declared) rival's Ted Chaough (pronounced "Shaw") in "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword". - After being let go for drunkenly pissing himself at a meeting with Samsonite in Season 2, Freddy Rumsen reappears in Season 4, a member of AA. + Rachel Menken popped up in one episode after her affair with Don ended to let the viewers know she got married. Don uses her husband's name (Tilden Katz) to get into a seedy underground casino as part of Freddy Rumsen's send-off. She also has a brief appearance in a Season 7B episode as the result of Don having a case of mistaken identity with a waitress who resembles her. + Midge (the commercial artist and the first of Don's mistresses that we see) shows up again in Season 4, having since become a heroin addict and prostitute. + Glen, the creepy son of the Drapers' neighbor, returns in Season 4 as a key player and Sally's friend. * Cynthia, the girl who liked Malcolm, on Malcolm in the Middle. She moves to Europe in that episode. Another episode she comes back more developed. * The Mandalorian: + From Star Wars in general: - Boba Fett himself is revealed to be alive in Episode 9, and makes a full return in Episode 14 to reclaim his armor. - Bo-Katan Kryze returns after her most recent appearance in Star Wars Rebels, revealing she survived the Great Purge and is working towards finding Moff Gideon. She's later recruited in Chapter 16 to help save Grogu. - Ahsoka Tano reappears following Ezra's rescue of her in Rebels, searching for \|\|Grand Admiral Thrawn\|\|. - Luke Skywalker himself comes in to rescue Mando and his allies from the Dark Troopers in Chapter 16, bringing R2-D2 along with him. This is only a year after his last appearance in The Rise of Skywalker, but his first appearance as a young man in live action in 37 years since Return of the Jedi. + From the show itself: - The Mythrol whom Mando captured in Episode 1 returns in Episode 12, spending his time paying off his debt by working for Greef. - Fennec Shand, who was last seen in Episode 5, is revealed to have survived thanks to Boba Fett himself. - Koska Reeves, a member of Bo-Katan's Night Owls, is recruited alongside her leader to help rescue Grogu. - Mayfeld, who was captured and imprisoned in Episode 6, is brought back in Episode 15 to help rescue Grogu. * Married... with Children: The actor playing Steve Rhoades left in season 4, but made 4 guest appearances in later years (3 in-character, 1 as a pirate). * The Mentalist had CBI Director Gale Bertram leave at the beginning of season four so his actor Michael Gaston could join the main cast of Unforgettable. After Unforgettable was cancelled after its first season, Gaston got his old role back. * Several characters return in series 5 of Merlin, most notably Mordred (with a Time-Shifted Actor) but also Queen Annis, Princess Mithian, King Odin and the sorcerer Alator. * Midsomer Murders: + Troy makes a brief guest appearance at the end of "Blood Wedding", as a guest at Cully's wedding. + Jones, having left after the end of Series 15, makes a guest appearance in "Last Man Out"; operating undercover as member of a semi-professional cricket competition. This is a Continuity Nod to Jones' skill at cricket as displayed in "Secrets and Spies". * Mimpi Metropolitan: + Alexi stops appearing after episode 12 since Melani no longer works in Alexi Show after that episode. Alexi comes back to Melani's life anyway in episode 23. + After last being seen antagonizing Alan and Prima in episode 26, Wawan starts visiting Pipin again in episode 36. + Juna leaves the dorm for a while when he gets casted in a movie in episode 38 and returns in episode 43 after the filming is done. * Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: + Lee Shaw. After his original debut as a Monarch figure and mentor figure to Serizawa's father in the 2014 graphic novel Godzilla: Awakening, he wasn't seen or heard from in the MonsterVerse franchise for another nine years (out-of-universe), four newer MonsterVerse motion picture works, and another four graphic novels, before the character was finally announced to be returning in the Monarch: Legacy of Monsters TV series; and even then, it's clearly a completely different continuity version of Shaw than the original. + Bill Randa returns as a major character in the series' 1950s-set segments, and even his original portrayal by John Goodman makes a major cameo in the series premiere's Distant Prologue, marking his first appearance in the MonsterVerse franchise since the Kong: Skull Island movie in 2017. * Sharona returns for an episode of Monk in season 8. + As well as for one of the novels, aptly titled Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants. * Mystery Science Theater 3000: + Joel Robinson and TV's Frank both returned for the tenth season premiere, Soultaker. + The Season 12, Episode 4 episode The Day Time Ended featured the return of Dr. Erhardt, who had been reported missing at the start of the second season. + The Magic Voice returns in Season 13, Episode 9, The Million Eyes of Sumuru after 25 years of absence. * We get this in NCIS: Ziva, who'd left in season 10 and was later presumed dead 3 seasons later, when Tony DiNozzo leaves due to her leaving behind his daughter, eventually comes back in season 16 to warn Gibbs that he's in danger. She was eventually put on a bus again after her role in Season 16 was done. * Coach was on New Girl for exactly one episode before being written out; the actor, Damon Wayans Jr., only shot the pilot, then couldn't join the show after it got picked up because his current show Happy Endings was renewed. After Happy Endings did finally end, Coach was written back in. * Presumably out of respect for Phil Hartman, Khandi Alexander returns as her character Catherine Duke (who had left the show in the previous season) in the NewsRadio episode in which Hartman's character Bill McNeal dies. * Nightwatch (2015): Holly's former partner Gavin (who appears in the first two episodes of S1) comes back in S3. * NUMB3RS + Larry comes back in The Art Of Reckoning after being in space as Peter MacNicol returned from his stint on 24 and fully returns to full cast in the season four premiere. + Megan comes back in the season three finale after Diane Farr returns from maternity leave. * Odd Squad: + Olive and Otto depart in the Season 1 finale "O is Not For Over", but briefly return in the Cold Open of "First Day" as part of a video that Professor O is showing to promising Odd Squad Academy agents-in-training. They would later go on to appear in Odd Squad: The Movie in major roles, with Olive also making a voice-only cameo in the OddTube episode "Interview with Olive". + Similarly, Oscar departs in the Season 2 episode "Oscar Strikes Back", but returns for Odd Squad: The Movie. + Odd Todd, the Big Bad of Season 1, returns in the Made-for-TV Movie Odd Squad: World Turned Odd after being defeated in "O is Not For Over". He then returns in the Season 2 finale before departing from the show entirely. + While Otis leaves the show entirely after the Season 2 finale, Olympia returns as a voice-only cameo on the second season premiere of OddTube. + Oona also leaves the show in the Season 2 finale, but makes a voice-only cameo in an episode of Odd Squadcast, the show's podcast. + Oprah is a zig-zagged example. The Season 2 finale, presumably the Grand Finale, had her leaving for the Big Office upon \|\|her being promoted to the position of the Big O.\|\| Then Season 3 was announced, and she returned to the show as the Big O before the mid-season finale "End of the Road" became the presumed Grand Finale. However, 13 more episodes were ordered for the season, and the mid-season premiere "Odd Off The Press" showed her being Put on a Bus to help the Odd Squad Space Unit, ending her run on the show for good. * One Tree Hill: + Haley returns from being on tour to work things out with Nathan in the final moments of the second season finale, "The Leavers Dance", after quite literally being put on a bus in "The Hero Dies in This One", ten episodes beforehand. Although technically Haley is still a main character throughout these ten episodes, she only makes limited appearances. * The Outpost: Naya vanished after Season 2, but in Season 4 it's revealed she just moved to another town and reenters the story. * Power Rangers: + Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Tommy, the original Green Ranger left the show two times, due to his powers being drained. During his first return, near the end of the first season, Zordon temporarily recharges his powers. His second return in the second season has him take on the mantle of the White Ranger. + Power Rangers Zeo - Jason, the original Red Ranger, left the series during the second season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers along with Zack and Trini. He returns in Zeo, when he briefly inherited the powers of the Gold Ranger. - Rita, Zedd, Finster and the Tenga Warriors, left at the start of the season, but came back halfway for an Evil Versus Evil against the Machine Empire. (Rito and Goldar don't count because they never left the series at that point) In the Tengas' case, it'd count as Back for the Finale if the Power Rangers franchise ended with Zeo. - There was also a two-part episode featuring the Alien Rangers from the previous season teaming up with the Zeo Rangers. + Jason and Kimberly appeared in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. + Power Rangers Turbo featured Zordon and Alpha 5 returning to Eltar and leaving Dimitria and Alpha 6 in charge of the Turbo Rangers. They returned for the ceremony where Tommy, Kat, Tanya and Adam passed their turbo powers to another set of rangers. Zordon also appeared in the two-part finale. + Power Rangers in Space: - Justin and Adam return for one episode each to team up with the Space Rangers. - Almost all major villains from previous seasons are revealed to be part of the United Alliance of Evil. Their impending conquest of the universe is a major threat to the heroes. + Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: - The Space Rangers return for a two-part episode in which they team up with the Galaxy Rangers to fight against their evil counterparts, The Psycho Rangers. - Karone, the true identity of Astronema in the previous season, returns to become the new Pink Ranger after the death of Kendrix. + Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue sees the return of Trakeena, who wans to destroy the earth as revenge on the Galaxy Rangers. Said Galaxy Rangers join the Lightspeed Rangers to stop her. + Power Rangers Time Force has Vypra return from the dead to team up with Ransik. The Lightspeed Rangers join up with the Time Force Rangers to stop this alliance. Dr. Fairweather also makes a cameo, revealing she married Joel. + Power Rangers Wild Force: - The Time Force Rangers and former enemies Ransik and Nadira help the Wild Force Power Rangers against a trio of Mut-Orgs, unholy fusions between Mutants and Orgs. - The episode "Forever Red" features a Milestone Celebration episode with every prior Red Ranger up to that point (with Rocky being the only omission, Aurico appearing in his morphed form only, and counting Quantum Ranger Eric) returning for a battle against the Machine Empire. Bulk and Skull also appeared, running a resort called Bulkmeier's. + Original Sixth Ranger Tommy returned in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder as both the new team's mentor and as the Black Dino Ranger. The Ninja Storm Rangers, as well as their allies and their enemies from their season returned for a two-part episode. + Power Rangers S.P.D. had villain Zeltrax and the Dino Thunder Rangers (Tommy only appeared morphed because Jason David Frank was absent). + Power Rangers Mystic Force had Piggy from S. P. D. appear. + Similarly to the one in Wild Force, the show's 15th anniversary episode (in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive) features a mishmash team of past Rangers returning for a special two-parter, consisting of Tori, Kira, Bridge, Xander, and Ensemble Dark Horse Adam, who hadn't been on the show in nearly a decade. + In Power Rangers Samurai, - One half of Those Two Guys, Bulk, is back for the first time in nine years, and as a recurring character rather than a short cameo for the first time in thirteen to fourteen years. The other half, Skull, appeared in the finale for a cameo. - The Red RPM Ranger appeared as well for an extended episode. Though JUST The Red RPM Ranger, and even then it was an instance of Fake Shemp as he appeared masked the entire time(Eka Darville, Scott's actor, had joined the Screen Actors Guild, which necessitated him only providing the voicework under an alias). + Power Rangers Megaforce rectified that with a lot of past heroes as guest stars, but it was mainly for the finale. + Power Rangers Ninja Steel's crossover special "Dimension In Danger" featured several returning rangers, namely Tommy, Rocky, Kat, TJ, Wes, Trent, Gemma, Antonio, Gia, and Koda. + Power Rangers Beast Morphers had perhaps the biggest number of returning buses in the franchise: \|\|All three Dino Ranger teams, Sledge and his gang, Goldar, Dr. K, and most shockingly of all, *Venjix, who is revealed to have been the true identity of Evox all along\|\|. + Power Rangers Dino Fury* has Big Bad Lord Zedd get resurrected. On a more minor note, Mick Kanic from Ninja Steel makes a brief reappearance in the first part of the show. + Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, being a Reunion Special, has multiple rangers return for the 30th Anniversary. The most notable return is that of Aisha, who hadn't been seen since the end of the original series when the rest of the Mighty Morphin rangers had made a reappearance either unmorphed or through a Fake Shemp beforehand(Even Trini, whose actress had passed away back in 2001 and whose death did not impact the fate of her character until the release of the special). + Power Rangers Cosmic Fury features the return of Heckyl from Dino Charge, now as the Dark Ranger. * Primeval: Jenny Lewis leaves the A.R.C. team partway through series three. She shows up towards the end of series four when an anomaly forms at her wedding. + Danny Quinn returns \|\|just in time to stop his brother Ethan\|\| in season five. * Ranczo: + After two seasons of absence, priest Robert comes back to Wilkowyje in the premiere episode of the eight season. + After leaving Wilkowyje in the second episode of the ninth season, Stasiek the police officer returns for the last two episodes. * Red Dwarf: + The hologram Rimmer is Put on a Bus in the second episode of Series VII, going off to become the next Ace. Although the next series adds a nanobot-created human Rimmer to the cast, Word of God has since stated that the Rimmer seen in Back To Earth onwards is the original one, although why he returned and the fate of Nano-Rimmer (last seen on the seemingly collapsing Red Dwarf) remains unclear. + After not being seen since Series 2 back in 1988, with the character (post-Hattie Hayridge) lost and presumed destroyed, Norman Lovett's version of Holly returned at the very end of Series 7 in 1997, in preparation for a full-time return in Series 8 (1999). In fact, one of Holly's first lines upon his return is, "He's back. Kicking bottom or what?" * Resurrection: Ertuğrul: Having been absent since the beginning of season 1, \|\|Yigit and Dundar\|\| finally reappear near the beginning of the next season. Bamsi Beyrek also counts (Though he returns far earlier that season). + Dogan returns to the spotlight a few episodes into season 3, having been disguised as a merchant in the Hanli Market. + \|\|Sungurtekin Bey\|\|, who previously appeared in season 2, shows up a good way through season 4, helping his brothers eliminate \|\|Sadettin Kopek\|\| as he begins to spread his influence in Karacahisar. + \|\|Selcan Hatun\|\| reappears midway into season 5, after having not been seen since the end of season 2. Likewise, \|\|her husband Gundogdu\|\| shows up a while later, and he even helps Ertugrul fight against \|\|Albasti/Beybolat\|\|. + An example from season 1, Emir Al Aziz. He seemingly disappears from the picture after \|\|Titus cuts all ties with him and murders Al Aziz's uncle, leaving him a sobbing wreck\|\|. Toward the end of the season, he makes one last appearance visiting the Kayis as they prepare migrate to new territory before vanishing permanently from the script. * Sanford and Son: Good ol' Grady returned, then, seemingly not learning his lesson, did an equally short-lived spinoff after the parent show was cancelled. * Smallville: + Pete Ross returns for an episode... With powers! ... and for Product Placement. + Subverted with Whitney's supposed return. \|\|He was actually shapeshifting villain Tina Greer.\|\| + After being Put on a Bus at the end of Season 7, Lana Lang returns in Season 8 for a five-episode mini-arc. + Brainiac returns, sans evil, after what we thought to be his final defeat. He's been reprogrammed into Brainiac 5 by the Legion of Super-Heroes (instead of a descendant, he is the fifth iteration of the same very-hard-to-kill machine). + Lex Luthor \|\|was widely believed 'dead' after the events of the Season Seven finale, but returned for a couple of episodes of Season Eight as a crippled figure in a hospital bed who was later blown up by Oliver Queen, and finally returned in the series finale, where his body has been restored to full health via a series of transplants taken from his own clones to create a fresh new body for himself\|\|. * Stargate SG-1: + After Jonas goes back to his home planet, he returns in "Fallout" and then never again. His home planet was mentioned in passing as one of a number of planets captured by the Ori, so it's possible he had a Bus Crash. + Also Daniel Jackson, who Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence in "Meridian", then gets fed up with the Ancients' Alien Non-Interference Clause and descends back to human form in "Fallen". * Saturday Night Live Chris Parnell got fired or "not renewed" as they say on the show and then was bought back and had a career on the sketch show that lasted a full eight seasons. * In Star Trek: The Next Generation: + "Yesterday's Enterprise" was originally supposed to be a Back for the Dead episode for Tasha (using ripple-effect time travel to get around the fact that she was already dead), but it got a Cosmic Retcon into the more general version of this trope in order to allow her to have a Romulan daughter who was a fully grown adult in the present. + Next Generation also has Wesley Crusher himself, who gets Put On A Shuttle to Starfleet Academy before returning for three episodes: one where he fights the spread of a brainwashing game aboard the Enterprise, one where the group of stunt pilots he's part of is charged with and reprimanded for trying a dangerous maneuver that killed a member of the team and a third where he returns to the Enterprise on leave, only to resign from Starfleet in order to save a Magical Native American settlement from getting kicked off their planet due to a Federation-Cardassian treaty. A Wesley cameo at Riker's wedding was filmed for Nemesis, but mostly didn't make it into the final movie (he is visible at the edge of one scene at Riker and Troi's wedding). He also had an appearance in an episode where Worf visited a parallel universe where Wesley had the role of a tactical officer because he'd never left in this timeline. * The Star Trek: Voyager episode "Fury" features Kes returning to the crew, \|\|harboring some sort of Irrational Hatred for them\|\|. * St. Elsewhere: Nurse Shirley Daniels returned to St. Eligius twice after \|\|going to prison for shooting doctor-turned-rapist Peter White\|\|: once for an appendectomy, and once in the series finale. * Storage Wars has Dave Hester, who departed the show under murky but acrimonious circumstances, with him even filing a lawsuit against the A&E network. A couple of seasons later, the lawsuit was settled and Hester returned to the show, his Jerkass persona now cranked up to eleven. * Strike Back: + In Retribution, Scott and Stonebridge reappear to assist the team in Episode 9 after having been last seen at the end of the previous season with no further mention before. + In Vendetta Zarkova returns to help Section 20 again. * Suits has Trevor, who leaves for Montana to escape angry drug dealers... only to return at the end of the season. On learning Mike has gotten together with his ex, Trevor, being the good Toxic Friend he is, promptly heads to the law firm to reveal Mike's lies. * Supernatural: Death Is Cheap on a long-running fantasy show, so it happens quite a bit. + Castiel \|\|has a Face–Heel Turn in Season 6, goes power-mad and dies early in Season 7 in a Heroic Sacrifice that was widely believed to be permanent. But ratings tanked, fans rebelled and it turned out he was Not Quite Dead by the end of the season.\|\| + Ellen and Jo are introduced in Season 2, disappear, and then return to help the boys stop the Apocalypse in Season 5. + Ellen and Jo \|\|die in Season 5, but Ellen returns in an alternative universe episode in Season 6 where she is happily married to Bobby. Jo returns in Season 7 as a ghost to confront Dean.\|\| + Bobby Singer \|\|dies in Season 7. However, the character was so popular, he returns in either ghost form or alternate universe form, at least once in all subsequent seasons.\|\| + Charlie Bradbury \|\|dies pointlessly and is brought back as an alternative universe Charlie.\|\| + Many one-off characters like Lenore the friendly vampire, Missouri Mosely, Sarah return in Back for the Dead stories. * Taskmaster: After appearing Once a Season for the first few series, Fred the Swede stopped appearing (due to moving back to Sweden and otherwise getting on with his life). \|\|He returned "by genuinely popular demand," by means of a video call on an iPad strapped to the head of a patriotically coloured dummy, in the Series 13 episode "You Tuper Super."\|\| * The Ropers guested in a Three's Company episode following the death of their self-titled spinoff show. * Top Gear (UK): in a special episode marking the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise, Richard Hammond briefly interviews one of the stunt drivers on the set of Skyfall, Ben Collins, formerly The Stig. * Tracker (2001) did this with Jess, a few eps after her departure. * Rose of Two and a Half Men manages to return twice. The second time offers no explanation as to where she came from and where she ended up after the episode, but that's not unusual for Rose... she's a little loopy. * The Traitors: \|\|The contestants are asked to place themselves in order from Most Likely To Win to Most Unlikely To Win in Episode 1. Amos and Kieran are removed from the show after placing themselves at the Most Unlikely To Win end of the line. They return to the show in Episode 5, where Claudia Winkleman reveals they were never eliminated from the show, and that the only ways to be eliminated are banishment or murder.\|\| * Ultra Series: + Ultraman Tiga: Near the finale of the show, the return of the original Ultraman is featured, as he teams up with the titular Ultraman Tiga in 1965 due to a time-travel incident. + Ultraman Max: Among the returning kaiju and aliens of the Showa Era are Zetton, Red King, Gomora, Alien Baltan, Alien Zetton and King Joe. + Ultraman Mebius: The series featured the return of several more kaiju and alien from the Showa Era such as Twin Tail, Astron, Femigon, Muruchi, Alien Mates, Vakishim, Verokron, Doragory, Lunaticks, Ace Killer, Birdon, Mukadender, Alien Valky, Alien Magma, Alien Babarue, Nova and Salamandoras and Ho it also features the return of all Showa Ultraman (the original Ultraman, Seven, Jack, Ace, Taro, Leo, 80, Zoffy, Father and Mother of Ultra) along with the entirety of Ultraman 80's cast of students, now as grown-ups. + Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga: The series features the return of kaiju such as Gazort and Kyrieloid (both which hadn't appeared since their main outings in Ultraman Tiga and cameos Ultraman Dyna), the Powered Dada variant (not seen since Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero) and even \|\|Ultraman Tiga himself (albeit without his human host, Daigo)\|\| * The Untamed: After Mianmian tells off everyone who slandered Wei Wuxian at Golden Qilin Tower, she leaves the Jin Clan and isn't seen again... until some time after the Time Skip when Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji encounter her while heading for the Burial Mounds. She appears for long enough for the audience to know that she's fine and doing much better living as a rogue cultivator than as a disciple of the Jin Clan. * Vicki and Anna return as ghosts that can only be seen by Jeremy in The Vampire Diaries. Later, Matt can see Vicki. * Having fled to Australia halfway through the second season of Veronica Mars, Duncan returned for a brief cameo in the finale. * The Walking Dead Television Universe: + The Walking Dead: Rick Grimes was believed to be dead in Season 6 and was last seen being carried away in a helicopter... until the Series Finale, where he briefly showed up. His fate is elaborated upon in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. + Fear the Walking Dead: Madison Clark was presumed dead in Season 4. She returned in the finale of Season 7. * Basically everyone who'd been Put on a Bus to Mandyville (except Mandy) came back for Leo's funeral in one of the last episodes of The West Wing. Ironically, one of the few departed cast members not to put in an appearance was Sam Seaborn, who would return an episode or so later, and appear in several more remaining episodes. * Every living former main cast member and all but one living recurring character (Ziggy Sobotka from season 2) made some sort of return appearance in the last season of The Wire. * Wizards of Waverly Place: The Wizards of Apartment 13B story arc loves this trope. So far, Mason, Gorog and other Wizards who've played large parts in certain episodes come back, and in the final episode, revealed thanks to a commercial on Disney Channel, Juilet comes back, although it may or may not be her, since it is Gorog they're dealing with here. + On could also say that they came back because of Executive Meddling, in that they didn't want to lose the Alex/Mason shippers to another franchise - and because TPTB wanted to stamp any hint of anything un-Disneylike between the siblings. * You Me Her: Andy left Nina offscreen between Season 2 and 3, returning near the end of the latter... just as Nina's moving on.	TheBusCameBack	null
AnimeAndManga	# Shadow Archetype - Anime & Manga --- * The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: Hakari's mother and Shizuka's mother both have had beefs with Rentarou over their daughters' interactions with him, and Rentarou has confronted them over problems with the girls. They view Rentarou as a bad influence on their daughters until he gets them to see things from their daughter's perspective. Where they're different is the fact that \|\|Hakari's mother is also one of Rentarou's soulmates\|\|. * In Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution the character Yoriko has two distinct personalities for two of the five different factions in the show, Aryashiki (the side she grew up believing she had to take command of) and Darklore. It turns out that her Darklore persona (which has been causing havoc for most of the series) was as much a part of her as her Aryashiki one and it just took a while for her to realize. She embraces her other half and takes her back. > Yoriko: I kept thinking... I'm not doing those awful things to Kyouta. It's not me. But it was. > It was a little scary there for a while. But it's going to be okay now. * Area 88: Shin and Nguyen are both Asin pilots stranded in a foreign country. Unlike Shin, Nguyen enjoys committing acts of brutality. * In Attack on Titan, this is the case with Eren Yeager and Reiner Braun. Both are Eldians raised with what they learn to be falsified history and lose their innocent view of the world at a young age, resulting in them becoming driven with their goals and more cynical. However, Reiner was the heroic leader and protective big brother to everyone, when in reality he was one of the Titans that attacked the Wall in the beginning and was fighting for a hostile country, intending to kill everyone living in Paradis. Eren was a misfit and mostly shone through his determined attitude, who turned out to be a Titan himself, but decided to use his powers to keep the people in Paradis safe. This gets thrown on its head post-Time Skip, as Eren becomes more corrupt \|\|(or rather makes himself look like a monster to give his friends an opportunity to face him and put an end of the long lasting cruel history)\|\| and even admits that he and Reiner are very much the same, and Reiner shows that he has become guilt-ridden from his previous actions and genuinely wants to do better now. They are displayed like the same character, but viewed from 'the other end' of the war. And then it becomes more ambiguous which one of them is the other's Shadow, due to the growing Grey-and-Gray Morality. * Beastars: + Riz is what Legoshi could become if he let his predatory instincts consume him so much that he'd kill someone he cares about. To say Legoshi did not take seeing this dark reflection of himself well would be an understatement. + Melon is the shadow archetype of Legoshi's and Haru's future children. As the offspring of a carnivore and a herbivore, Melon has suffered from debilitating health issues all his life, which the children of Legoshi and Haru would inevitably suffer from as well. Legoshi resolves that even if he can't protect his children from having to suffer as Melon did, he can at least treat them with love so that they won't turn into axe-crazy serial killers. * Black Jack: + Dr. Kiriko (aka "Mozart"). A doctor who served in wartime, he believes in helping patients die painlessly when there is no chance for recovery. He's not evil, as such, but where Black Jack will do anything possible to make a patient live, Dr. Kiriko will choose euthanasia rather than prolong the patient's suffering. Naturally, the physicians clash at times but must cooperate at others. To his credit, if he discovers that the patient has a chance of recovery, guess who he turns to? + Black Jack actually had three shadows, though Kiriko was the only one who stuck. An acupuncturist who disdained traditional medicine appeared a few times, and an idealistic doctor who worked within the system appeared exactly once. * Black Lagoon: + The protagonist Rock serves as a shadow for later character Yukio, who chose to take leadership in her yakuza family \|\|not that she had much choice\|\|. Later, Yukio even calls him out on his motivations for saving her, citing that he only sees her as his old self, but is unwilling to let go of his past. + Within the main cast are Rock and Benny. Both are among the nicer members of the Lagoon Company and aren't much for physical confrontations. But while Rock still (mostly) has a sense of morals and wants to save others, Benny has become completely desensitized to the violence that his fellow Lagoon members commit. * In Bleach, \|\|the Inner Hollow is Ichigo's true Zanpakuto spirit Zangetsu\|\|. Treating it as an invasive parasite instead of merely being his more aggressive side manifested is one of the reasons his power has fluctuated throughout the series. In the final arc, he at long last accepts that it \|\|along with the manifestation of his Quincy heritage the Old Man\|\| are not his enemies or his allies — they are him. * Blood+: Diva essentially represents what Saya could have become had Saya been the one confined to a tower. Saya is fully aware that she and Diva's positions could been reversed, and in the Japanese dialogue, acknowledges Diva as her other half. * A Certain Magical Index: Besides Accelerator, Tsuchimikado Motoharu serves as the Anti-Hero counterpart to Touma. Despite his good intentions, he is almost always willing to take more deadly measures to achieve things. While Touma has no organization affiliations, he tries to help any of his friends regardless of their loyalties. Tsuchimikado has multiple affiliations but is only really loyal to his younger step-sister. While Touma's Blessed with Suck powers are played for laughs, Tsuchimikado is in danger of dying from using his powers. * Code Geass has Lelouch Lamperouge and his half brother Schneizel. Lelouch is a Rebel Prince who leads the Black Knights and fights to take down the Holy Britannian Empire (due to the heaps of abuse he suffered under his father, The Emperor of Britannia), while Schneizel is the Prime Minister of said Empire and wants to eventually take his father's place on the throne. Both are highly skilled manipulators who are masters of faking emotions, and widely shown to be the best strategists on their respective sides. Perhaps most surprisingly, for all the atrocities they cause, both genuinely desire to create a better world for non-selfish reasons. The main difference between the two is that Lelouch had to spend seven years living in a nation that was invaded and crushed under Britannia's heel while caring for his blind and paraplegic sister, while Schneizel spent most of his life in the imperial court. Consequently, Lelouch has an understanding of the trials the average person suffers and what change society needs to become better. Schneizel's upbringing left him extremely sheltered, so his methods to try and create a better world are shown to be sociopathic and rely mainly on fear to work. * In Cowboy Bebop, it's heavily implied that Vicious is what Spike would've turned into without Julia's influence (and vice-versa). Vincent, the main antagonist of Knockin' on Heaven's Door, is convinced that he living in a dream, a world-view eerily similar to Spike's. * Death Note: + Light Yagami - Kira is this to Light, becoming all the things he claims to hate, even as he's punishing the world for being them. - L and Light have a whole reciprocal shadow thing going. Light is the social one, who not only understands but really cares about proper socialization and not being indecorous, but as Kira he's also the one who's the most prolific serial killer in history. L is antisocial and willfully unsocialized, and he doesn't really care about little things like illegal detainment, mock executions, and torture, but he's the one trying to enforce that you don't go around killing people, and he means it. Enough to be unwilling to test the Note. They're certainly both liars. The primary difference between L and Light — two childish geniuses who hide behind their claims of justice and have no idea how to be wrong — is that L is capable of accepting and coping with his own and the world's flaws, two concepts that Light will never even grasp. > Light: The world was too rotten, with too many rotten people... Somebody had to do this! The world had to be fixed! * In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, + Kaigaku ultimately represents what Zenitsu would be like if the latter had completely given up on nurturing basic care for another person as consequence of living a harsh childhood as a wandering orphan, and failing to recognize the few good things that actually happened later in their lives, resulting in a completely selfish person and borderline sociopath, who only has one way of walking through life: what is best for me defines good, what is not defines evil. Zenitsu summarizes this himself with his Box of Happiness ideology. + Muzan is this for one of his underlings, Rui. Their character and motivations are derived from their shared past as Delicate and Sickly. And while both commit atrocities from left to right, Muzan is what Rui would be if the latter has no love left for anyone. + Gyutaro and Daki are basically what Tanjiro and Nezuko would have been if they let their despair and dark impulses drive them. Tanjiro even acknowledges this when Gyutaro confronts him. * Digimon: + Digimon Adventure has Devimon and his later forms like Daemon or Murmuxmon representing what would happen if Angemon, HolyAngemon or Seraphimon ever gave up hope or gave in to Wrath. + Digimon V-Tamer 01 also has Neo Saiba, who represents what Taichi would be like if he let his guilt and anger devour him. This is an odd case, as the Taichi that shows up in this manga is NOT the one from the anime, but anime!Taichi and Neo have a number of very interesting parallels. As is, Manga!Taichi and Neo Sabai are instead foils. * Dragon Ball: + The Crane Hermit is a shadow of Master Roshi. He represents what Roshi would be like if he became corrupted. Supplementary guides expand on this, by stating The Crane hermit took the death of his master at the hands of King Piccolo much worse than the turtle hermit did, giving into more harmful sadism and one track minded pursuit of power than comparatively harmless lechery and educational pursuits. + Before his Heel–Face Turn, Tien represents what Goku would be like if he allowed his arrogance and natural talent for fighting to go to his head. This also highlights the difference between the Turtle and the Crane Schools. Master Roshi went out of his way to teach his students humility and that there was always someone better. The Crane Hermit bloated his students' egos, telling them that there was no one stronger than them. Roshi also taught the value of learning things other than fighting and killing. + King Piccolo is a shadow archetype to Goku. Given their similar backstories, Piccolo is what Goku would have become if he embraced his ruthless Saiyan nature. Or even if Goku had learned the worst lessons from humanity rather than the best. + Turles. In fact, Turles was originally supposed to be the result of what Goku would have been like if he hadn't lost his memory. He's still a low class saiyan warrior who desired to improve himself, but ultimately decided to rely on shortcuts at the expense of other people rather than hard work and experimentation. Goku has felt pressed to use short cuts or endanger others on occasion, these are just things he refuses to make habitual. + After character development, Frieza to Vegeta. Frieza is everything Vegeta would have become if he succeeded in taking his place as ruler of the universe instead of settling down on Earth. + Cell serves as this to different characters in his evolutionary line: - In his Imperfect form, he represents what Piccolo would be like if he never met Gohan and became a friend. - In his Semi-Perfect form, he is Vegeta if he never settled down on Earth and became completely ruled by his pride and arrogance. - In his Perfect form, he is what Goku would be like if he chose only to live for fighting and used his natural talent to terrorize people instead of protecting them. In fact, Cell sought out the means to gain his perfect form purely for the sake of it, himself not realizing that of all the genetic material he is made up of that particular path is most invokative of Goku. One could even say Cell is Goku without the childhood head injury (or, as of Retcon by Toriyama, no influence from a good-natured parent like Gine). - When he reaches his Super Perfect form, he is Gohan if he embraced the rage of a Super Saiyan and became an uncaring monster who only lives to destroy. + Majin Buu to Goku. If Goku lived only to eat, to satisfy his need for battle, and cared for no one outside of himself, he would be similar to Buu. + Beerus is what Goku would be like Goku had a vocation that played to his true talents, fighting others and causing destruction, and if Goku didn't have anyone around to act as his moral compass while he worked it. + Goku Black. With all of Goku's power at his disposal and none of his kind-heartedness, Black is living proof of just how terrifying and unstoppable Goku would be as a villain. Goku is pure in his desire to always improve, to always better himself. Black is also pure, but bettering himself is a means to an end. His purity is in his desire to change the world as he sees fit, with no regard for anyone else living in it. + Jiren is Goku if Goku had been able to achieve all of his power without help from his friends, and if all of Goku's loyal friends had died without a way to bring them back to life. As such, he continuously seeks to gain greater strength with even fewer distractions than Goku -be they family, vocation or the well-being of general public-, he absolutely refuses to form any connection to those who gravitate towards him to the point that when he reconsiders he doesn't even know how to anymore, plus he is deeply disturbed and haunted by the past trauma and failures. One could say Jiren is what Goku thought he wanted to be, but really doesn't when he sees it; and Goku is what Jiren would like to be like, but couldn't afford to. * Fairy Tail has Jiemma, guildmaster of Sabertooth, where only the strongest wizards are allowed and failure is not tolerated. His mentality is very similar to Laxus's way of thought before he Walked The Earth and Tamed His Anger. * In Food Wars!, Momo Akanegakubo is also born with The Gift, heir to a wealthy family but was adored and spoiled rotten by her parents. She became a Womanchild Elitist obsessed with cuteness. She represents what Erina could have become if she was spoiled and used her gift carefreely. * In Fruits Basket, Tohru is an incredibly sweet and selfless girl who always puts others before her own happiness. Akito is an angry emotional and mental mess who selfishly clings to the Zodiac curse, out of fear of rejection. While Akito envies the unconditional love Tohru receives, Tohru herself has deeply-repressed selfish urges (mainly her desire to have her mother all to herself, hating her father for "taking" her mother even though she knows such hatred is wrong). Over the course of the manga, Tohru comes to terms with the idea that it's okay to be selfish once in awhile, and Akito \|\|is able to let go of the curse, believing that there will be people out in the world who will still love her\|\|. Akito essentially represents the person Tohru could have become if she'd been raised by an abusive mother like Ren instead of the wise and nurturing Kyoko. * Fullmetal Alchemist: + Certain amoral alchemists are fond of telling Edward Elric that he's just like them for trying to bring his dead mother back to life, something he really doesn't want to hear but sometimes acknowledges is true. Izumi reacts with anger when she finds out \|\|because Ed represents her own guilt at her own attempts to bring her child back to life\|\|. - Shou Tucker in particular embodies what Ed would have become if he hadn't recognised the consequences of "messing around with somebody's life". Like Ed, Tucker commited a grave sin through alchemy, \|\|fusing his own loving family with animals and turning them into talking chimeras\|\|; but unlike Ed, he refuses to admit that he did anything wrong and feels no remorse for what he did. + The creepy creature that sits outside the Portal of Truth and selectively reveals ugly truths is a proper, Jungian shadow archetype, and tells Ed "I am also you." Interestingly, he's visually inverted, so he's bright light and not the traditional shadow. \|\|When he appears to Al, Truth is nice and ceases his abrasiveness he shows around Ed. He is openly contemptuous towards the Big Bad after he is defeated.\|\| + \|\|Hohenheim and Father\|\|, the Big Good and Big Bad respectively, down to their identical appearances. + Greed \|\|may eventually pull his Heel–Face Turn act, but he\|\| is this to Ling as well. Both expressed interest in Alphonse's nature as a disembodied soul attached to armor, both are power-craving individuals inclined to do anything to get what they want, and both have a strong unwillingness to lose anything of value to them, which extends to their comrades. Ling however is good-natured and has an openly declared willingness to serve his people, compared to his Jerkass Homunculus counterpart who tries to center absolutely everything around himself. \|\|Their similarities foreshadow Ling merging with Greed.\|\| + Most of the homunculi fit the bill for someone or another: Pride for Edward, Envy for Mustang, Sloth for the Armstrongs, Wrath for Scar, and, as has already been covered, Greed for Ling. Interestingly, \|\|Pride is the only one who isn't killed by the hero\|\|. + In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Wrath is a shadow archetype to Envy. They're both Artificial Humans of Ambiguous Gender, with the same bad taste in fashion, vindictive streak (\|\|watch Wrath kill Lust and say there's no sadism there\|\|), impulsive tendencies (although Envy's are slightly more controlled due to his greater experience), abandonment issues and fondness of displaying a Slasher Smile in combat. The difference is that Wrath has people who genuinely care about him, and is eventually able to lose that anger and pull a Heel–Face Turn, whereas Envy, after 400 years of nurturing his spite, has nothing but deep-seated rage left to him; all that remains is psychosis and self-loathing. * Ironfist Chinmi: Oudow was what Chinmi could've become if he wasn't kind-hearted. When Oudow was younger, he studied under Master You Sen who only gave him menial tasks (the same ones You Sen would give to Chinmi until he actually started teaching him) and never really taught him anything. Why? Because Oudow has evil heart and is too arrogant and impatient to learn anything from You Sen. Eventually Oudow mastered Tsuuhaiken by himself without You Sen ever taught him that, left for a lone journey, and eventually returns to Dai Rin as dreaded villain who menaces everyone in the temple. * The title character from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has three in fact. + The first one is \|\|her cousin\|\| Maki, who is basically what she would be if Shirogane was dating Fujiwara, right down to the same birthday, reactions, facial expressions, and lines of thought. Even her hair and eye colors are a more muted version of Kaguya's (brown and pink instead of black and red). Fittingly enough, this is partly why the two don't like each other. + According to the bonus content in Volume 19, her third eldest brother Unyo is basically what she would have been if she embraced her harsh family upbringing. \|\|His past life of befriending a Hayasaka and has a different mother from the rest of his brothers is no different from his little sister, except that befriending Shirogane and the student council members changed her into a better person, something that even Unyo acknowledges\|\|. + As revealed in Chapter 208, \|\|the relationship between Shirogane's parents played out in the same way as Shirogane with Kaguya. Both Shirogane and his father pushed themselves to their limits to win the girl they liked, but while Shirogane's mother is an implied Gold Digger who judged her family members with their talents, Kaguya fell for Shirogane due to his kindness and accepting the flawed person he is\|\|. * Kenichi and Kanō in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. Kenichi embodies the light aspect of martial arts, and Kanō embodies the dark aspects. They are opposites in every way, personality and appearance-wise, yet they are also very similar in that both are students of multiple Master-class fighters and partly because of this, they are viewed as the best fighters in their individual peer groups. * Done subtly in Major with Joe Gibson Jr. in relation to protagonist Goro Shigeno. Both of them become rivals during the Minor Leagues arc, and part of the rivalry is fueled because both want to challenge and defeat Joe Gibson Sr. in the Majors. Gibson Sr. played a part in a childhood tragedy for both of them (for Goro, he accidentally killed his father Shigeharu with a dead ball to his head, and for Junior he drove his wife to divorce and leave with their daughter back to the United States, where they'd die in a car accident). While Goro forgives Gibson Sr. for his father's death as early as his childhood, Junior continues to blame his father for the death of his mother and sister still as an adult, and his main reason to play is to eventually crush his father as revenge for destroying his family. In fact, Junior assumes at first that Goro is also motivated to play against Gibson Sr. for revenge too, and is shocked to learn that Goro holds no ill will towards him. It's even reflected when they play against one another: Goro is mainly a pitcher, while Junior plays second base and is primarily a slugger. * Neon Genesis Evangelion: + Gendou gives a good idea of how disillusioned, cynical and bitter Shinji could grow up to become. It's even lampshaded in the Angelic Days manga, which shows Gendou as a Troubled, but Cute (in Yui's eyes!) "nobody loves me so I hate everybody!" teen. + The actual shadow archetype from Jungian psychology shows up, as a shadowy Shinji on a train that reveals truths Shinji doesn't want to face. However, since Shinji frequently suffers from negative opinions of himself he rather likes his shadow and feels it to be much better than he is. This projection of positive value judgements makes his shadow contrast with the typical 'dark' and 'evil' depiction of this archetype. + It is also invented with Kaworu, who as a character is pretty much an embodiment of all of the qualities Shinji lacks, but rather than being his Evil Counterpart or The Rival, Shinji's extremely low self-esteem means that he quickly deems Kaworu much better than he is because of this, and the two get along extremely well. * One Piece: + Among the adversaries Monkey D. Luffy has had throughout the series, some witnessed a horrible incident and either became disillusioned with the world, resorting to unethical means to get what they want (Crocodile, Doflamingo), or outright snapped and went insane (Moriah, Arlong); and some others (Kuro, Don Krieg, Hody Jones) represent basically what Luffy, as a pirate himself, simply is not and would not do. Luffy himself had almost lost his optimism when \|\|his brother Ace was executed by the Marines in front of him\|\|, but he had close friends to lift his spirits during his darkest moments, whereas several of those villainous characters were alone during theirs; and while believing that pirates do not play fair, he usually stands firm in the face of death —never begging for mercy out of cowardice—, always cares for his crew to the point of being akin to a big family —never abandoning them when things go south—, and while not calling himself a hero and his crew being a close circle he always helped the people he befriended in his journey with no ulterior motives. Trafalgar Law is an Anti-Hero case, who is Luffy's equal in potential and influence but let the tragic events in his past consume him, causing him to become moody and unconcerned in the present. Same with Eustass Kid, who has the same passion and dreams as Luffy and even respects Luffy for that but won't hesitate to kill bystanders who disagree with him. + Of special note is Blackbeard, who is the one character as jolly and idealistic as Luffy, and even shares the same philosophies about life as Luffy, but whereas Luffy spreads his joy to everyone around him and cares deeply about people, Blackbeard cares only about himself and his social status. Marshall D. Teach is who Luffy could become if he prioritized his dream of becoming King of the Pirates above all else. \|\|Most of\|\| his crew is also composed of people with similar abilities to Luffy's crew, only with their positive personality traits removed: Both Zoro and Shiryu live to fight, but Zoro duels only people who accepts his challenges whereas Shiryu is a Blood Knight who fights anyone he feels like and will kill anyone in his way; Sanji and Burgess are both very loyal to their captains and are martial artists, but Sanji is careful and keeps Luffy in check whereas Burgess is reckless and always genuinely agrees with Blackbeard no matter how wrong it is; etc. * Paranoia Agent is ultimately about what happens when someone's Shadow Archetype gets out and starts breaking everyone else's shadows free. * In Pokémon Adventures, Lance is this to Yellow. Both \|\|were born in Viridian Forest\|\|, and both have \|\|the power to heal Pokémon and listen to their thoughts\|\|. While Yellow is a pacifistic Friend to All Living Things who just wants everyone to live in peace as a result of this, Lance is a brutal Well-Intentioned Extremist who plans to wipe out all of humanity because he believes Pokémon and humanity to be completely incompatible with each other. (And when they clash? Good. Lord.) * The Prince of Tennis has a few as well. Fuji originally did not care as much for winning as enjoying the thrill of the game. Shiraishi, on the other hand, finds his own tennis boring but is committed to winning no matter what. Both are also considered the most formidable members of their respective teams, even more than their captain/lancer. * In Puella Magi Madoka Magica Madoka represents selfless love, sacrificing herself to save everyone, while Homura represents selfish love, sacrificing everything to save Madoka. This is blatantly apparent in Rebellion, \|\|where Madoka is God and Homura is The Devil.\|\| * Revolutionary Girl Utena being a complex psychological piece has plenty of examples. The elevator in the Black Rose arc is all about getting in touch with one's shadow. All the Black Rose duelists become Black Rose duelists by entering the elevator and confessing something, usually that they secretly hate some other character. * Rurouni Kenshin: + Big Bad Shishio is the assassin who succeeded to Kenshin. He represents what Kenshin could have become if not for a certain incident in his past. + Seta Soujirou is the naive, emotionless killer to Kenshin's Obfuscating Stupidity cheerfulness and pacifism. They're both heavily influenced by the ideals of their respective masters, but while Kenshin eventually learned from his experiences, Soujirou was only ever guided by Shishio's ideals. + Saitou Hajime is the ruthless Anti-Hero to Kenshin's atoner. Like Kenshin, he operates on his own sense of justice and does what he thinks is right. However, he's willing to kill for his beliefs and doesn't believe in people changing in spite of his changing affiliations of over the years. * The incredibly freaky first appearance of Dark Sonic in Sonic X, in response to the sight of his friends being injured and imprisoned (and exposure to the negative energy of Fake Chaos Emeralds) Dark Sonic emerges from the normally far-calmer (by comparison, anyway) Sonic and proceeds to beat the living begeezus out of a couple of Metarex testing robots. Ironically enough, he was snapped out of it by Eggman. * Inverted in Tales from Earthsea. Throughout the movie, Arren is pursued by a shadow in his form. As a matter of fact, the Arren we watch for most of the movie is actually Arren's shadow, and is fleeing in fear from the noble and courageous self he refuses to acknowledge, instead blaming it for all the violence and fear he's lived through. * Tiger & Bunny It's shown that Kotetsu and \|\|Kriem\|\| both had very similar histories. Both were NEXT that grew up during the height of NEXT prejudice and had come to hate themselves before encountering someone that inspired them to embrace their abilities and follow in their new idol's footsteps. The key difference is that Kotetsu's encounter was with Sternbild's first superhero Mr. Legend, while \|\|Kriem\|\| ran into NEXT-supremacist supervillain Jake Martinez. * Trigun: + Vash's brother Knives, instead of having an extreme aversion to killing, sees humans as pathetic and inferior, and has no compunction about killing them for any or no reason. Knives has serious self-control issues which occasionally cause him difficulties and turn out to have shortened his lifespan, while Vash being The Fettered is... ubiquitous. His twin isn't just everything-bad-that-he-isn't, he's everything Vash refuses to be. Even more in the manga, where Vash almost flipped out the same time Knives did, and had a suicide attempt and accidentally almost killed Rem, which was met with maniacal laughter, and then he pulled himself together and chose to not give up on people. + Wolfwood is Vash's foil, though Vash may be viewed as the idealism-shadow of either Knives or Wolfwood, who wear Jade-Colored Glasses. * Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle: + Fugil serves as one to Lux. While Lux is an Ideal Hero who tries to save his enemies, Fugil is ruthless and calls such ideals foolish. This is emphasised by the later revelation that Lux once nearly lost his own idealism but was saved by his childhood friend and eventual love interest. \|\|On top of that, Fugil is heavily implied to have once been like Lux, later becoming cynical after the death of his love interest.\|\| + Yoruka is this to Lux in a different way. Both are royalty of now-fallen countries, both lacked the right to inherit(Lux because he was the seventh son; Yoruka lost hers because of being a born killer) and both suffered because of the Old Arcadia Empire. However, Lux played a pivotal role in destroying the Empire by non-lethally defeating its army, while Yoruka became an infamous assassin for the Empire (albeit in a failed attempt to save her country) and remains loyal to it after its destruction. Both are subservient to others, but Lux helps out anyone who asks while Yoruka devotes herself to a single master at a time. They have near-identical fighting styles, having invented the same techniques independently, but Yoruka's is naturally more lethal. Finally, they both have younger siblings of the opposite sex who can't fight, but Yoruka's brother was killed prior to the start of the series. * Valvrave the Liberator: Haruto and L-Elf. Haruto winds up as the titular mecha's pilot for brash, emotionally driven, but overall selfless reasons. L-Elf does everything he does for a cold, carefully calculated purpose, and that included attempting to steal the Valvrave — which he would have succeeded at if not for being unaware of the changes it puts its pilot through. Haruto is rather emotional and kind, thinks with his heart, and generally only takes the short-term into account with his actions. L-Elf plans out his strategies literal years in advance and his only moral code can be summed up as successfully \|\|bring revolution to my country\|\|, nothing else matters. Whereas Haruto is an super-powered being due to his status as a Valvrave pilot, L-Elf is technically a normal human being, but is still widely known as the One-Man Army. Haruto attended a normal high school until the war between their countries, and L-Elf graduated from an elite military academy meant to train Child Soldiers. Yet, amidst all of this, L-Elf is completely hellbent on forcing Haruto to join him in his efforts as Haruto can potentially \|\|help L-Elf achieve his revolution as much as five years earlier than he'd originally predicted\|\|. * Among the many interpretations of \|\|Fuuma\|\|'s strange anti-Christ character in X/1999 is that he is a Shadow Archetype born out of the dark side of Kamui's nature. In the TV series this character claims to be Kamui's "Gemini" and its implied that if Kamui had been consumed by his own rage and grief, this character would have instead become a Messianic Archetype in Kamui's stead. * This is the entire premise of Yu-Gi-Oh! (well, besides the card game) and was the whole plot of the beginning manga. There are three doubles: one of the main character and two of the main antagonists, respectively. For the main character, Yugi, his double, which in the American fandom is called a yami ("darkness") evolved into a protagonist, but is still a Darker and Edgier version of Yugi. The antagonists are a classmate of Yugi's whose body is taken over by a vengeful spirit (the second yami) and a revenge-obsessed teen with an actual Split Personality (the third). A good deal of conflict in the series revolves around the magic of the Shadows wielded by them and others. + Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Sherry Leblanc acts as one to Aki, one can imagine had Aki never met Yusei and instead remained loyal to Divine. The fact that Sherry's desperation to find answers of her parents' whereabouts led to her joining forces with Z-One, eerily similar to how Aki was brought into the Arcadia Movement by Divine where he exploited her Psychic Powers for his own personal gain. + Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V has Big Bad \|\|Zarc\|\| be one for the protagonist Yuya. \|\|Though it might be more accurate to say Yuya is the shadow archetype for Zarc as Zarc is Yuya's original self. Both Zarc and Yuya wanted to make people happy by dueling but had opposition to their ideals. While Zarc focused on the audience happy at the price of his own happiness, Yuya kept reaching for ideals by changing himself till he was able to wow the audience. The difference led Zarc to grow bitter at humanity for their bloodlust and kill everyone while Yuya was able to fulfill his ideals and while keeping his sanity.\|\| ---	ShadowArchetype	null
WesternAnimation	# Spanner In The Works - Western Animation > "Who'dve imagined Scratch would actually show up to help? \sigh\ I suppose no one is completely imperfect." > > — Grounder, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Grounder the Genius" --- The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU * Marvel Universe --- * Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: In the episode Grounder the Genius, Grounder installs Robotnik's Genius Chip by accident, and becomes both genre savvy and almost psychic with his intelligence. He employs what is functionally a Xanatos Gambit from his angle wherein he knows what Sonic will do, how to stop him, what his friends will do, and even how to stop them. He even admits to knowing they'd break Sonic free and anticipated that ahead of time. The only reason he fails is because Scratch hears an explosion and concludes Grounder isn't calling him because he thinks Scratch is unhelpful, which somehow causes Scratch to decide to rush up immediately to help to prove Grounder wrong. He then trips on a trap made by Sonic that Grounder had just chucked aside, accidentally knocks Grounder's head off, and Grounder is surprised Scratch would actually show up to help at all. Thanks to this Robotnik gets the Genius Chip, Sonic swaps it for the Stupid Chip, and Robotnik undoes everything Grounder put together (who, himself, has returned to being a moron without the Genius Chip). * In Aladdin: The Series, Sadira uses a magical sand to rewrite the memories of everyone in the kingdom so she's now the Princess and Jasmine believes herself to be a "street rat" thief. Even the Genie is affected as Sadira prepares to marry Aladdin at last. However, she doesn't realize until the spell is cast that somehow animals are unaffected by it. Thus, Iago, Abu and Rajah are quick to realize what's happening and go to find Jasmine to set things right. * In Amphibia season two finale "True Colors", Grime and Sasha's Toad Rebellion \|\|turns out to be this for Andrias's true plans for the Calamity Box, having gotten the drop of him and taken over Newtopia just before Anne could give him the box. Upon discovering proof of Andrias's actual nature, the pair even lampshade how their coup ended up being a good thing. Unfortunately, Anne and the Plantars, not knowing the truth, thwarted their rebellion and put Andrias's plans back on course, leading to the third season's events\|\|. * Arcane: Act 1 ends on such a note: Vi, Claggor, and Mylo go \|\|to free the captured Vander from Silco, and while it predictably turns out to be a trap, the four were very close to escaping, albeit by the skin of their teeth. Then Powder arrives to "help" by setting off one of her bombs utilizing the magic crystals she stole from Jayce in the first episode, creating a massive explosion that does flatten much of Silco's operation... and kills Mylo and Claggor, and forcing Vander to make a Heroic Sacrifice to buy Vi time to escape, turning what would've been a successful rescue mission into a massacre of Vi and Powder's adopted family\|\|. Small wonder \|\|that this directly led to Powder's Start of Darkness into the Ax-Crazy Jinx\|\|. * Archer: In the two-part Season 3 finale, Pam and Cheryl stow away on the spaceship, causing them to miss their trajectory for Mars and land on the Intrepid. Later, when Pam, Malory and Cheryl are held up on the ship, Pam decides to lock out the bad guys to stall for time until Archer rescues them. her plan is foiled by Cheryl, who opens the door and lets the bad guys in so she can become their Martian Queen. + Often, Archer himself is the spanner to some scheme that would normally work except his combination of skills and bumbling ruin it. + On at least two occasions, Mallory fakes a big bombing threat (once for an exclusive restaurant, the other for a private airship) just to get a free meal/trip via the "investigation." As fate has it, there really is a bomb plot underway each time that would have worked had Mallory's selfishness not gotten the team involved. * Avatar: The Last Airbender: + Long Feng's plan to trick Team Avatar into leaving Ba Sing Se would have worked out perfectly if Smellerbee and Longshot hadn't just happened to cross their path and inadvertently reveal that \|\|Jet had been brainwashed.\|\| + Katara and Sokka's mother, Kya. For some context, the Fire Nation had been on a campaign to capture all of the Southern Water Tribe's benders because one of them would be the Avatar after Aang (who was believed dead after the massacre of the Air Nomads). They succeeded in capturing all but one- the young Katara. In the final raid, the Fire Nation knew that there was one bender left but not their identity, so the leader of the raiders asked Kya. Kya, of course, lied to protect her daughter, and the man bought it, killing her but leaving the tribe alone as he thought his mission was complete. And while Katara wasn't the Avatar because Aang was still alive, she did accidentally use her waterbending to break the iceberg he was stuck in, so in either case, the Fire Nation once again had an Avatar to deal with. All because Kya lied. * Lydia occasionally serves as this in the Beetlejuice cartoon, especially when the title character's assorted enemies are up to no good. One episode in particular, "The Neitherworld's Least Wanted," has a Villain Team-Up plot; the bad guys successfully trick Beetlejuice into physically falling apart, which causes him to lose his powers. What they didn't bank on was him being able to contact Lydia in time for her to come to his rescue and help him pull himself together (literally). * Happens every time Crusher cheats in Blaze and the Monster Machines. Crusher's cheating to stop Blaze from following him would've worked if a) Blaze hadn't turned into something to get past it, and b) Blaze didn't discover a slight downfall in his plan, allowing him to get right past. * Castlevania (2017) has a truly epic one at the end of season 2. Throughout the season, Carmilla has been plotting her betrayal of Dracula, placing his teleporting castle in the perfect location, getting an ally in his inner circle and building her forces. It comes to a head when she manages to wipe out most of Dracula's army in one strike, and is bringing in her forces to take control... Right at the moment when one of our heroes, Sypha, puts her plan into action by hijacking the teleportation abilities of Dracula's castle. Not only does it rip away Carmilla's prize from right in front of her, but the shockwave caused by the castle's teleportation wipes out most of her army. Afterward, she's just left wondering what the fuck just happened. * Used explicitly and spectacularly in the second C.A.K.E.D. episode of Codename: Kids Next Door. At the episode's climax, Nigel responds to the Delightful Children's five-person-unison speech about having planned every last detail by declaring that they forgot one thing: "MY CRAZY GIRLFRIEND!" * Dee Dee from Dexter's Laboratory is almost always the one to ruin her little brother's scheming. Dexter turns this into Flaw Exploitation when he learns about his Arch-Enemy Mandark's crush on Dee Dee, and turns her loose in his lab. * As deranged as some of Zordrak and Urpgor's schemes to steal The Dreamstone are, some of them almost do the job were it not for Sgt Blob and his soldiers' blundering. The odd occasion Urpgor plays an active part in a mission he usually proves to be just as detrimental. * Ed, Edd n Eddy. The Eds' scams might have worked if Ed weren't so stupid to break them. + Eddy's own overzealousness, greed, and big mouth have meant he's been the Spanner to his own scams just as frequently as Ed, if not more. Even Edd will do something to get in the way on some rare occasions. In truth, the friends are in a bit of a Catch 22: one of the Eds is going to be the spanner on any given scam, but none of their scams would even get close to success without them working together in the first place. In the very rare event that none of the Eds screw up, the Kanker Sisters will show up and ruin everything. * Family Guy: Stewie appears on Kids Say the Darndest Things intending to hypnotize the viewers with a mind-control device. This plan gets foiled when Bill Cosby confiscates his headset and mistakes it for a pair of skiing goggles. * The Flying Brains of Futurama intend to collect all the information in the universe and then destroy it, using their telepathic powers to keep anyone from stopping them. But they didn't count on Philip J. Fry, the one man in history too stupid for those powers to affect. * Hazbin Hotel: Overhearing that the protagonist, Charlie, is in cahoots with his Arch-Enemy, Alastor, Vox hires Sir Pentious to spy on the hotel. He is quickly caught, leading Vox to cruelly fire Sir Pentious and Charlie to make him a real client out of sympathy. This kindness leads Sir Pentious to genuinely atone and \|\|during the hotel's battle with the Exorcists, he performs a Heroic Sacrifice against Adam, setting off a snowball effect that leads to the latter's defeat, as well Sir Pentious being ascended to heaven for his selflessness, fully validating Charlie's practice of redeeming sinners.\|\| * Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats: "A Better Mousetrap" has the Mice realize they and Leroy have an Enemy Mine in the Catillac Cats — and it leads to them setting the Cats up for a sprung trap of their own making. * House of Mouse: While Mickey runs the club, Pete owns the building and wants nothing more than to shut it down, but he's bound by their contract, which forbids it as long as the show goes on. In one episode, we get two instances of this: his plot was sabotaging the air conditioning in the middle of the summer, driving the customers away. With no audience, there's no show, but then it turns out that there's still one customer: Hades, who is perfectly comfortable in the heat. Pete spends the episode trying to drive him away, but when he finally succeeds by flooding the place, Ariel shows up instead. * Inspector Gadget is a perfect example, as he often inadvertently helped Penny and Brain solve the cases through his clueless bumbling: + Penny and Brain are trying to prevent a nuclear missile from being launched at Metro City, but it's taking too long and the countdown has started. We then see Gadget wandering through another part of the MAD complex, where he damages some important equipment. This aborts the countdown and gives Penny and Brain the time they need to disable the missile. + Gadget is swallowed by the robotic Stock Ness Monster that Dr. Claw has turned loose in an important lake, and he proceeds to start messing around with its inner workings. This causes the monster to go haywire and start swimming around the lake at random, which allows Penny and Brain to get inside of it and take control themselves. + Gadget is surrounded by MAD agents in a cave, and tries to get away by using his Gadget copter. The copter's rotor blades become stuck in the cavern ceiling and cause Gadget to start spinning out of control. His Gadget arms and legs start flailing around, pummeling the MAD agents and knocking them senseless. + Some MAD agents are about to spray a toxic wood-rot formula over a forest from an airplane. Penny tries to use the woodrot formula to knock a tree onto the runway to keep the plane from taking off, but the spray nozzle clogs and she only sprays enough to weaken the tree. Along comes Gadget flying in the Gadget copter, and he crashes into the weakened tree just as the plane is about to take off, knocking it over and stopping the plane dead in its tracks. + And then there was the time Gadget was in one of Dr. Claw's undersea bases, and opened the seal that kept the place from being flooded... + Gadget is pursuing a MAD agent in the Gadgetmobile, and Dr. Claw arrives in the MadMobile to try and stop him. In trying to catch the MAD agent, Gadget repeatedly activates the wrong gadgets, unknowingly spraying Dr. Claw with laughing gas and then firing a missile at the MadMobile that leaves it trapped in glue and unable to stop Penny from taking control of the MAD agent's vehicle to finally capture the villain. + MAD has taken control of the new supercomputer that the Metro City Police Department uses to coordinate its efforts to fight crime. When Gadget tries to use the computer to contact Chief Quimby, he thinks that the machine is broken and tries to "fix" it. He inadvertently wrecks MAD's connection over the computer, and then alerts the police to what's going on, enabling them to catch all the MAD agents who were committing crimes while the police were distracted. + Gadget is in a Spot the Imposter situation with a MAD spy who's disguised exactly like him. No one can tell which Gadget is real until our hero stands next to Chief Quimby. Gadget's mallet activates by itself and bonks Chief Quimby on the head, and the dazed Chief immediately orders that the other man be arrested, since the one who hit him is obviously the real Gadget. * GIR the Cloudcuckoolander robot from Invader Zim. + Zim is often enough his own spanner. He's also a spanner for the whole Irken empire, being the sole reason why Operation Impending Doom 1 failed. The reason the Tallest gave him Earth (which was just off their starmaps and which they didn't know existed) as an assignment was because they wanted to get him out of the way of the real Irken forces so he wouldn't do this. + In "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy", Zim's plan to kill Dib in the past seems to work without a hitch, but then Professor Membrane puts his crippled son in a mech suit, giving him the power of ten thousand little boys!! Cue the absurdly powerful present day Dib going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge throughout Zim's base. Zim is forced to hit the Reset Button just to save his life. * Jackie Chan Adventures: In season 2's "The Stronger Evil", Shendu has turned into a spirit after his body was destroyed, and he attempts to possess Jackie so he can find the Pan'ku Box and free his fellow demon sorcerers from the netherworld. However, while fighting with Valmont, Jackie gets knocked down, so Shendu winds up possessing his body instead, much to both their frustration. * Kim Possible. + Ron Stoppable. And when the bad guys remember to account for Ron, out pops Rufus. + In one episode Dr. Drakken goes so far as to leave Kim's father out of his gathering of geniuses-to-turn-idiots. When demanded to tell him why, Drakken states its because he realized kidnapping him would just get Kim's attention. He didn't count on his scheme being right next to the ranch run by Kim's uncle and she, Ron, and her father being there on vacation at the same time, though. * Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: + "Lighter Than Hare", where Yosemite Sam (hilariously cast as a space alien) thinks that Bugs Bunny would be so foolish as to take on his indestructible tanks and unbeatable robots. All Bugs needs is a simple dynamite stick to easily beat back the challenge. + Various cartoons pitting Bugs Bunny vs. Wile E. Coyote, with the Coyote hoping to use his brains and elaborate scientific contraptions to capture and make mincemeat out of Bugs. Only it is his intended prey that foils the Coyote — and all he usually needs is a dynamite stick or to pull a switch. + "Wet Hare" is built on this trope. Here, Bugs' opponent, Black Jacque Shellacque, thinks he's got Bugs' next moves figured out by building dams of various strengths. All Bugs needs to do is trick Jacque into pulling a tiny rock from near the dam's base, or (after Jacque mistakes a phony shark for a real one(!)) getting the shark to ram another dam, to softening Jacque's inhibitions by distracting him with a single dynamite stick ... before sending a huge raft of explosives crashing into the dam to beat him back. (Bugs eventually gets rid of Jacques once and for all by tricking him into trying to blow up the federally controlled Grand Cooler Dam!) * Coop of Megas XLR does this constantly. Prime examples: he once destroyed a planet-eating monster by firing an EMP-missile-turned-fridge packed with Pop Rocks and Coke, and in another episode he destroys the Glorft mothership by accidentally beaming his slushie onto one of its control boards. Not to mention all of the times he's done it to himself and other good guys. * Milo Murphy's Law: The titular character deals with Murphy's Law on a daily basis, where anything that can go wrong usually does, usually messing with whatever plans his and his friends may have that day. However, when you mix villains into the equation, all the unfortunate events get directed at them. In "Missing Milo", he puts his backpack on a falling tree. After handing out most of the contents of his backpack to his friends, he throws a baseball at King Pistachion. Later, he blows on a woodpecker whistle, and the birds peck away at Pistachion, followed by Diogee taking a tinkle on the mutant pistachio plant, since uric acid is dangerous to that particular breed of pistachios. * Miraculous Ladybug: In "Sandboy", the kwamis made a plan to track down Hawkmoth by telepathically contacting Nooroo, which could only happen on his kwami equivalent of a birthday. Unfortunately, a young boy watches a scary movie that night, and his fear opens him to being akumatized, which Hawkmoth detects and responds by activating Nooroo's power. The attempt to contact Nooroo reaches Hawkmoth instead, and his sheer willpower lets him reverse the tracking and get the general location of the Miracle Box. * My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic + In "Slice of Life", Matilda's and Cranky's wedding gets moved ahead a day earlier than planned due to a misprint by Muffins when printing the invitations. While Doctor Hooves is attempting to unwind in a game of bowling, Muffins comes up to him and asks if she can use his flameless fireworks in place of flowers. Hooves agrees, and later on, when it's time for the wedding, Muffins closes the town hall door, accidentally locking Twilight and friends out of the wedding. As soon as Matilda and Cranky kiss, the flameless fireworks go off, and Doctor Hooves discovers that the flameless fireworks he thought were duds needed love to ignite. + King Sombra in "The Crystal Empire" was only thwarted because Spike went along with Twilight against her wishes and helped her get around all the traps that King Sombra had placed to guard the Crystal Heart. It's also Spike who delivers the Crystal Heart to Princess Cadance after Twilight gets caught in the final trap and can't deliver the Heart herself. This is especially notable because, according to the original plans of both the good guys and the bad guys alike, the spanner was never supposed to be there in the first place. + Twilight Sparkle served as this in "A Canterlot Wedding", as Queen Chrysalis didn't count on Twilight having such a close bond with the real Cadance. Her cold, snobbish behavior towards Twilight caused her to become suspicious, and though Twilight is unable to give her friends solid evidence that something's wrong, Twilight's actions and Chrysalis' attempt to get rid of her allow the real Cadance to escape imprisonment, reunite with Shining Armor, and use their love to defeat the Changeling army. + Starlight Glimmer becomes this in "To Where and Back Again." While Chrysalis' forces manage to capture the Mane Six and the princesses, Starlight was considered barely worth acknowledging. Thanks to this, Starlight is able to gather a group to infiltrate the changeling hive and get Thorax to destroy the Anti-Magic darkstone throne, not only freeing everyone but also leading to the entire changeling hive turning against Chrysalis. Moreover, Thorax reveals that he hasn't felt so hungry because he's been given love from the Crystal Ponies — referencing Spike's convincing speech to accept him as one of their own in "To Change a Changeling" which means that this is the second time Spike's actions derailed the villain's plans. * The Owl House: King manages to be this for the season 2 finale. Belos's plan for the Day of Unity is going off without a hitch, and he even managed to plan for the good guys' attempt to use Eda and the Owl Curse as this. He even \|\|betrays the Collector, refusing to use the Titan blood he has to free them\|\|. What Belos didn't count on was the Hexsquad bringing King, \|\|an actual Titan\|\|, to his location, wherein King seizes upon an opportunity to stop Belos by \|\|freeing the Collector and stopping the draining spell.\|\| * While Candace Flynn isn't evil, her attempts to show her mom what Phineas and Ferb have done would be more successful if Dr. Doofenschmirtz's crazy inventions didn't inexplicably cause their projects to vanish. * Pinky and the Brain + Pinky is the downfall of pretty much all of Brain's schemes. + Inverted in one episode, where Pinky convinces all of the world's leaders to hand over control of the world to Brain on a silver platter, only to have Brain himself torpedo the plan. + There are several occasions where it's Brain's own oversights that doom his plan (the Jeopardy episode where he blew the last question due to it being a pop culture one, as an example. And Pinky is completely obsessed with the show the Final Jeopardy question is based on. If only Brain listened to him... + There's also the episode where Brain builds a machine to calculate exactly what common factor keeps causing his plans to go wrong. Sure enough, the catalyst is not Pinky, but Brain himself. Which raises the question of how Brain could fail to be a common factor in all of his own schemes. + Lampshaded in a Kids' WB! promo for the show, in which Pinky confesses: > "I'm not really that stupid. I purposely sabotage Brain's plans because if he ever succeeded, the show would be over, wouldn't it?" * The Powerpuff Girls: "Three Girls And A Monster" has Blossom and Buttercup going through white heat trying to bring down a giant lizard monster, arguing with each other over which works best — brains or brawn. Sweet little Bubbles gets rid of the beast — by politely asking it to leave. * In Rated "A" for Awesome, Team Pet Mr. Twitchy is just as much a hindrance as he is helpful. * In one episode of Rocko's Modern Life, Ed Bighead is recruited to play golf with Conglom-O's boss and told to play poorly. Ed agrees and happily plays poorly... with the help of cannon-launched pianos. However, Heffer ended up working at the golf course they were playing at and made it his duty to get Ed to win. Thankfully, the ensuing craziness just made the boss request Ed play with him again next time. * Bullwinkle, of Rocky and Bullwinkle, is an idiot whose sheer stupidity endlessly frustrates villains Boris and Natasha. > Natasha: I thought you said this plan was foolproof! > Boris: Foolproof, yes. Idiotproof, no! * Rugrats: + In "Graham Canyon", Ace and Eddie, two con men disguised as mechanics attempt to scam Stu and Didi out of their money by attempting to install a new engine in their car, when all was really wrong with it was a loose distributor cap. When Angelica climbs into the car to look for Cynthia, she accidentally turns it on, causing Ace and Eddie to believe the car is haunted and give Stu and Didi a free repair job. + In "The Bank Trick", Tommy and Chuckie mistake an ATM machine at the bank for an M&M machine and think the bank is actually a candy store. They don't find any, but they do inadvertently trip a security alarm and expose two bank robbers posing as federal bank inspectors. + In "Ice Cream Mountain", Stu and Drew Pickles are competing at miniature golf, where the course's final hole, "Ice Cream Mountain", allows a free game to golfers who make a hole-in-one. It's apparently a one-in-three shot, as the structure they hit the balls into has three outlets, one of which leads straight to the hole, but the course owner blocked up that hole. That is, until the babies, who were supposed to be taken out for ice cream, find it, believing it's a literal ice cream mountain, and Angelica ends up blocking the other two holes instead, leading to Stu and Drew, along with other golfers, making holes-in-ones and getting free games, much to the owner's horror. * Many a Scooby-Doo villain has seen their counterfeiting, diamond smuggling, theft, fraud, or other criminal scheme foiled by "those meddling kids!" Since the Scooby Gang usually rolls into town without any knowledge of a ghost or a monster running around beforehand, one assumes that some or all of those schemes would have worked beautifully if the Gang hadn't unwittingly injected themselves into the situation. * This is Loo-Kee's role in both of his Day in the Limelight episodes on She-Ra: Princess of Power, though it's most obvious in "Loo-Kee Lends a Hand." + The Horde Timestopper had successfully frozen the Rebellion, including Adora/She-Ra, but since they didn't know about Loo-Kee, whose powers revolve around hiding and escaping, he was able to no-sell the attack and retrieve help from Eternia. + When Loo-Kee is sent to Eternia, the effects of the Timestopper means he gets dropped wherever the sender can reach first -which is Snake Mountain, where Skeletor is preparing to use a one-use portal to kidnap Adam right from his bedroom. Loo-Kee nips through first, reaching Adam and deep-sixing Skeletor's plan in one move. * She-Ra: Princess of Power: This is Loo-Kee's role in both of his Day in the Limelight episodes. A twofer in Loo-Kee Lends A Hand when his immunity to the Time Stopper allows him to be sent to Eternia to get help from He-Man which then puts him in position to thwart Skeletor's attempt to kidnap Adam by hijacking his portal to Eternos Castle. In Loo-Kee's Sweetie when the konseals are captured by the Horde, La-Cee finding Loo-Kee allowed him to get She-Ra's help by alerting her to a situation the Rebellion wouldn't have known about. * She-Ra and the Princesses of Power + Entrapta started changing the plot from the moment she was accidentally left in the Fright Zone. Her explanation about the true function of the runes encourages Catra to get the Black Garnet and put an end to Shadow Weaver's chronic abuse. Entrapta's hacking of the Black Garnet causes an environmental disaster, but it also brings back Mermista and Perfuma to the Alliance, and Frosta joins them. Besides, that causes Shadow Weaver's downfall, so she runs to Bright Moon where she eventually teaches magic to Glimmer. If Catra hadn't been patient enough to hear Entrapta's explanation, Glimmer wouldn't have awakened her true potential for magic, in spite of having a magic being for a mother and her aunt being the head of Mystacor. + Shadow Weaver's escape is also a spanner because it makes Catra fall in disgrace, too, worsening her psychological issues. Once again, Entrapta interferes when she talks Hordak into sending Catra to the Crimson Waste instead of Beast Island. Catra takes over a local gang, captures Adora and uses her sword to open the portal and destroy reality, \|\|forcing Angella to commit a Heroic Sacrifice and Glimmer to be crowned as the new queen\|\|. Worse, Catra sends Entrapta to Beast Island, so the scientist wouldn't warn Hordak about how dangerous the portal was, and tells Hordak that Entrapta betrayed him. That breaks Hordak's spirit, making him vulnerable enough to be beaten by Catra, who takes over the Fright Zone and eventually causes the fall of the Etherian Horde. Not to mention that Scorpia's remorse for not standing up for Entrapta causes her to defect and join the Alliance. If Hordak had sent Catra to Beast Island instead - or if Catra decided to make a new life in the Crimson Wastes, as Scorpia suggested - Entrapta and Hordak would keep pretending to build the portal for a long time and Hordak would eventually have given up on returning to Horde Prime. Since Hordak was conquering Etheria just to impress Horde Prime, maybe he would eventually give up on that, too. + The final season has the spoilery example of \|\|Wrong Hordak. He's just another clone that ended up becoming a Rogue Drone and tagging along with the heroes by chance, but his aid proves vital as Horde Prime apparently never considered the possibility of one of his clones turning against him. Wrong Hordak knows a lot of useful information (the existence of Kyrtiss, for example), is given unquestioned access to all of Horde Prime's territory, and other clones will believe what he says unquestioningly no matter how bad a liar he is because their programming doesn't include the idea of a traitor clone.\|\| * In The Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word", Krusty and his Fast food restaurant, Krusty Burger, holds a promotion during the 1984 Olympic games where they print game cards for different events and if the US won that event, customers can redeem the card for a free Krusty Burger. Krusty and his accomplices think they will get very rich since the game cards have been rigged to favor Communist countries that were good on those events. Unfortunately, they just learn the Soviet Union and other Communist countries have boycotted the Olympics, meaning those Communist-favored games will now be won by the US. Inspired by a true story (except for the rigging of the cards). * The South Park cast finally decide to ignore Cartman after he eats the skin off all their KFC chicken. Cartman thinks he died as no one communicates with him and Butters is the only one who can see him. A psychic explains that he is stuck on Earth to deal with a crisis. After learning of a hostage situation, Cartman believes he is the only one who can help. Believing he can't be harmed, he freely walks into the Red Cross Center and pretends to be a ghost while moving items around. The robbers don't know what to do and the police move in once Butters frees the hostages. The two are credited for saving the day "armed only with the weapon of confusion". * SpongeBob SquarePants: + SpongeBob's best friend Patrick Star, who has a tendency to make any bad thing worse. In fact it was so bad that it was actually teased and subverted in "House Sittin' For Sandy", where SpongeBob, who was taking care of Sandy's treedome, told him not to do anything. Then, in a surprising twist, it's SpongeBob who accidentally causes a Disaster Dominoes effect that destroys Sandy's treedome. > Patrick: Wasn't me! + "Opposite Day": Squidward decides to move away from Bikini Bottom but is warned by the realtor if the reason he's moving is because of bad neighbors, then the sale will fall through. In an attempt to better appeal to the realtor, Squidward creates the holiday "Opposite Day", where one has to do the opposite of what they normally do; this prompts the normally cheerful and silly SpongeBob to initially crawl into bed and do nothing all day. Unfortunately, Squidward forgets to do the same to Patrick, his other neighbor who never heard of Opposite Day; thus he interrupts SpongeBob and gets into the festivities, which eventually leads to the sale failing. + "Single Cell Anniversary": SpongeBob helps Plankton come up with the perfect anniversary gift for Karen by presenting the Gift of Song; however, this was all a front to get Karen to upload the Krabby Patty formula for him. In an unusual turn of events, it's Karen herself who fails to accomplish Plankton's plan, as she's so touched by his song to her that she bursts into Tears of Joy, causing her to glitch and shut down, losing the formula in the process. * Star Trek: Lower Decks: + "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie": Queen Paolana's plan to trick Billups into having sex would have succeeded if it wasn't for Tendi tracking down Rutherford's cybernetic implant to locate his body, only for her to discover the Queen's ruse. She also didn't anticipate Billups, ah, having trouble rising to the occasion which gives Rutherford enough time to stop him. + "I, Excretus": Shari yn Yem picks the U.S.S. Cerritos to run rigged tests so she can keep her job as a drill instructor. Her plan nearly worked had it not been for Boimler, The Perfectionist of the Lower Decks foursome: his desire to get a perfect score on his test allowed the rest of the crew time to force Shari to change their scores. + In "The Stars At Night", Tendi and Rutherford both contribute to Buenamigo's downfall entirely by accident: - During the mission race, Tendi finds signs of life on a seemingly barren planet, causing a delay that costs the Cerritos the race. The signs of life turn out to be a tricorder glitch, and Tendi later beats herself up over slowing them down. When her crewmates reassure her that she did the right thing, she wonders aloud why the Aledo didn't slow down... which Freeman overhears. As it turns out, the Aledo's failure to scan for life was a major violation of the Prime Directive, and Freeman can have the Aledo disqualified. - And this gives Rutherford, who has been obsessing over the Texas-class, enough time to discover something that supersedes Freeman's case against the Aledo: he coded the AI used in the class, and Buenamigo erased his memories to cover up his involvement. This means that a Starfleet officer erased a cadet's memory of him, which he'd only do if he had something to hide. More urgently, because he unwittingly forked that AI when he created Badgey, he's aware of a problem with the AI that makes the Texas-class ships entirely unfit for duty... namely, that there's an emotional processing glitch that predisposes any AI with that specific code to go Ax-Crazy and become hostile towards its "father". Buenamigo is forced to admit that he set the Cerritos up for failure—which, given that he got the Cerritos attacked by the Breen, would only count as reckless endangerment and not attempted murder because he intended to rescue the Cerritos—to get his pet project off the ground, and his attempt to avoid legal repercussions for what he did ends up getting him killed. * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: + For all of his expertly-planned machinations, Palpatine/Sidious and his apprentice Dooku did not count on the latter's disciple, Asajj Ventress, surviving their attempt to betray and kill her. This leads to Ventress seeking out Mother Talzin for aid against Dooku. + In the meantime, Talzin herself secretly exploits this opportunity to hatch a separate long-term revenge plot of her own against Palpatine and Dooku. Talzin's own plot takes advantage of another unforeseen Spanner in the Works: the unknown survival of Palpatine's former apprentice, Darth Maul! After being restored to sanity, Maul forms another faction in the Clone Wars, complicating Palpatine's plans for galactic domination. + Ironically, Palpatine himself is a Spanner for Maul's own ambitions. Just when he has gained his own apprentice (his brother Savage Opress), conquered Mandalore, and finally gotten revenge on his archnemesis Obi-Wan Kenobi, who should show up to spoil the triumphant moment but his former master? + General Grevious, of all people, becomes a Spanner for Maul's last ditch plan to stop his former master by kidnapping him for the Battle of Courscant, forcing Anakin and Obi-Wan to rescue him while leaving Ahsoka and Rex with the Siege of Mandalore, thus depriving Maul the chance to \|\|kill Anakin, who was being groomed to be Palpatine's Number 1 apprentice Darth Vader\|\|. * Star Wars Rebels: In "Warhead", the Empire sends out infiltrator droids to scout planets where the rebel base could potentially be located. One of them lands on Atollon, where the rebel base is located — and is shortly attacked by krykna, the notoriously resilient local wildlife, and damaged before it can report its location. The damage proves instrumental to the rebels being able to postpone the eventual discovery of their base. * Steven Universe + "Jail Break": Steven's nature as a Half-Human Hybrid. After the events of the previous episode, Steven and the Crystal Gems have been imprisoned on Peridot's spaceship. The cells have Force-Field Doors which destabilize Gems' physical forms (their bodies being a sort of Hard Light projection). Steven, however, has an organic body, allowing him to just walk straight through the force fields and rescue the Crystal Gems. If Peridot had planned for Steven being able to No-Sell anti-Gem technology, the episode would have ended with the Crystal Gems imprisoned and being taken to Homeworld for questioning. + "Cry for Help": Peridot has repaired the Communication Hub from "Coach Steven", and Garnet and Pearl fuse into Sardonyx to take it apart. This happens several times, as the hub is repaired each night. It's eventually discovered by Steven and Amythest, on a stake-out to catch Peridot in the act of repairing the device, that Pearl was repairing the hub in order to constantly feel the power that comes from being fused with Garnet, resulting in a short story arc about Garnet dealing with her feelings of betrayal and the duo's reconciliation. Had the younger members of the team not snuck out to investigate the hub, it's likely that Pearl's activities would have caused a serious delay in finding Peridot, and Pearl would have continued to be insecure about her abilities and keep using Garnet. Also, had Garnet found out any later, it's possible that she would never have forgiven Pearl for misusing fusion, which she takes very seriously. + Peridot herself is this. She's a minor cog in the Gem Empire's machine, but she thwarted Yellow Diamond's plan to destroy Earth by informing the Crystal Gems about the Cluster (which would have caused an Earth-Shattering Kaboom) and then helping them to stop it, first because she was stranded on Earth, and later because she had grown to care about the planet. - The Crystal Gems themselves were spanners in this scenario. Yellow Diamond had thought that the Crystal Gems had been taken care of by Japser, and even if they hadn't, they lacked the knowledge that the Cluster even existed, so they'd be destroyed regardless. + Ruby, and by extension Garnet, is a spanner in "The Answer". Way back at the beginning of the Crystal Gem Rebellion, she was assigned along with two other Rubies to bodyguard a Sapphire. The Sapphire was supposed to be poofed in an upcoming rebel attack, after which the rebels would be captured. However, Ruby survived Rose Quartz poofing the other rubies and rushed in to save Sapphire from Pearl, which resulted in them fusing into Garnet by accident. The distraction gave Rose and Pearl the opportunity they needed to get away. \|\|Actually, this incident was what lead to the creation of the Crystal Gems in the first place, as revealed in "Now We're Only Falling Apart". The Crystal Gems were originally a bogeyman created by Pink Diamond as an excuse to not complete her colony, but Garnet's formation made her realize that there were other gems suffering under Homeworld's oppressive caste system and made her decide to make Earth a haven for outcast gems, which formed the Crystal Gems for real.\|\| + "The Trial": Steven is on trial in a Kangaroo Court set up by the Diamonds. The Defense Zircon becomes a spanner by spotting several inconsistencies with the story of Rose Quartz shattering Pink Diamond. \|\|The Defense Zircon concludes that Pink Diamond was killed by someone close to her, someone who could get past Pink's entourage with no interference, someone who'd have the authority to have the entire situation covered up. Someone... like another Diamond.\|\| The Defense Zircon gets poofed immediately, but the arguing between Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond that results creates just enough confusion to allow Steven to escape. + Lars ends up becoming one in both "Off Colors" and "Lar's Head" due to him accidentally hitching a ride with Steven to space.\|\|His Heroic Sacrifice to save the Off Colors has Steven learn that he can revive people with his tears. And Lar's hair acts like a portal that can let him reach Lion back on Earth.\|\| * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): + In "Exodus Part 1", Agent Bishop and his commandos, operating separately of the Turtles, attack Shredder's spaceship, forcing him to launch early, leaving the majority of his forces on Earth. While it doesn't destroy Shredder's plan completely, it does make things really difficult for him. > Oroku Saki: Bishop here!? This changes everything! + \|\|Yukio betrayed the Utroms to Ch'rell\|\|, prompting Hamato Yoshi and Splinter to move to America. In a way, he's responsible for creating the Ninja Turtles that will be \|\|Ch'rell\|\|'s downfall. * The Transformers: In the third season five-parter episode "Five Faces of Darkness", The Quintessons' plan to activate a mechanism that would render the Transformers inert works... for a few minutes, only. They forget to consider that Spike isn't a Transformer, so he isn't affected. Spike grabs Rodimus's gun and shoots the mechanism, freeing the Transformers. * Mirta from Winx Club manages to derail the Trix's scheme to trick Bloom into thinking she was descended from the Ancient Witches. Later, when she's a pumpkin, she spots the Trix's nightmare monster and warns the Winx, allowing them to prepare for it. * Cedric in the second season of W.I.T.C.H.. \|\|Will\|\| had a Batman Gambit set up so that \|\|Prince Phobos could gain the power Nerissa stole and, when he would attempt to wander into Kandrakar, he would lose it and they would get it back\|\|. But nobody had expected \|\|Cedric to get tired of Phobos' crap and eat him.\|\| * Young Justice (2010): The Light have intricate (and sometimes astonishingly over-elaborate plans) which the Team repeatedly manage to sabotage over and over again. + Vandal's plan to use Starro tech to take over the entire Justice League, ruin their reputation and spark alien invasions almost goes flawlessly, save for the presence of Red Torando, whose robot physiology allows him to resist just long enough to develop a countermeasure that prevents him infecting the team, and they transfer his mind into a backup body he'd made, which allows him to fill them in on what's going on and free the rest of the League. + The plan between the Light and the Reach. The Team manage to reveal both sides have been suckering one another, and the Scarab itself helps spanner things by turning on its creators, having decided it likes free will. ---	SpannerInTheWorks	null
WesternAnimation	# Actor Allusion - Western Animation Examples of Actor Allusion in Western animation. --- * In Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Ickis' catchphrase is "I hate my life", the same as Ed Bighead from Rocko's Modern Life, and both characters are voiced by Charlie Adler. * In one episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, Jimmy supposedly forgets Carl's name, calling him Rob. * Adventure Time: + In "Red Throne", the Flame King and Don Jon come to blows and have a comically-drawn-out fist-fight, reminiscent of the one in They Live! between Frank and Nada, who were played by their voice actors Keith David and Roddy Piper. + In "The Mountain", Lemongrab has a vision of Princess Bubblegum offering to play catch with him. In this vision, Bubblegum speaks in a stilted, overly-formal manner reminiscent of Starfire from Teen Titans, who was also voiced by Hynden Walch. + In "Abstract" James (voiced by Andy Merrill, best known for his role as Brak from Space Ghost Coast to Coast) remarks on how he could eat beans all day, a reference to a Cartoon Planet skit. + In the case of a show referencing itself, Finn remarks how Aunt Lolly sounds similar to their mother Margaret in "Gumbaldia". Maria Bamford plays both characters. * In the Aladdin: The Series episode "When Chaos Comes Calling", Iago is given a human head, which closely resembles his voice actor Gilbert Gottfried. It could also be an allusion to animator Will Finn's process of designing the character; Finn caricatured him, then gave him a parrot's body. Also related to Ink-Suit Actor. + In the series, Genie frequently says "D'oh!", an allusion to Dan Castellaneta's other famous role. + Abis Mal, voiced by Jason Alexander, is basically George Costanza if he lived in the Ancient Middle East instead of 90s New York City. * The All Hail King Julien episode "Jungle Games" features literal Jumping the Shark as one of the titular games. Julien's uncle, (voiced by Henry Winkler) offers to do the challenge on behalf of his team because, as he puts it "I invented it". * American Dad!: + Bullock (played by Patrick Stewart) shows off a device he calls the "Hologram Deck." When Dick and Stan point out the resemblance to the holodeck from Star Trek, Bullock claims not to know what that is. > Bullock: Some of us spent the late '80s and early '90s getting laid, Smith. + In "The Neverending Stories", Bullock claims people call him "Professor X". Because he does so much ecstasy. + In “It's Good to Be Queen” has Jon Cryer Guest Star as Francine's high-school friend Quacky, a nod to his role as Duckie from Pretty in Pink. + In “Don't Look a Smith Horse in the Mouth”, features a scene where Klaus says that he can perform animal sounds to help Stan make money. Klaus happens to be voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, who is known for being second only to Frank Welker when it comes to voicing various animal and creature characters. + The character of Snot, voiced by Curtis Armstrong, is essentially an American Dad version of Booger from Revenge of the Nerds. In one episode, Steve and his friends discuss the film, but Snot claims to have never seen it. + In "Dreaming of a White Porche Christmas", Roger is trying to explain the plot by analogy to a movie. Stan hasn't seen any of the movies he mentions, including, to Roger's surprise, Ted. * Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain: + Orson Welles attempted a series of radio commercials for several foods, probably sometime around the 1960s. Animaniacs did a Pinky and the Brain sketch built around Maurice LaMarche imitating fairly famous outtakes of that recording session almost verbatim (compare Orson and Maurice) including a line where the Brain storms off, saying, "if you want this done, you'll just have to find some actor who does impressions!" + One episode of Animaniacs featured a Game Show host called "Ned Flat", resembling Ned Flanders from The Simpsons not only in name but in voice — Harry Shearer's voice, in both cases. * Archer: + The character of Malory Archer (played by Jessica Walter) is essentially Lucille Bluth placed in command of a spy agency. She even has a feud with her unseen neighbor Trudy Beekman, echoing Lucille's feud with "Lucille Two" + Eventually we meet Len Trexler, the head of the rival agency ODIN who was involved with Malory in the past and thus may be Archer's biological father. He of course is played by Jeffrey Tambor, who played George Bluth, Lucille's husband. + The Season 4 premiere revealed Archer had developed amnesia and was selling burgers under the name “Bob”. H. Jon Benjamin voices Archer and Bob from Bob's Burgers. The idea that both characters were the same person was made all the funnier by the fact that they look nothing like each other, despite sounding exactly alike. Far from being a quick gag, the allusion was a major plot point, complete with an Archer-style makeover for the Bob's Burgers settings and characters. It tiptoed along the border of Actor Allusion and a full Crossover episode. + In "Honeypot", Thomas Lennon guest-stars as one of the villains of the week. At one point, Archer is shown dressed in an outfit very similar to Terry, the recurring gay prostitute from Thomas' series Reno 911!. * Arthur: "Fright Night" features Buster's Uncle Bob, who is an author and likes to tell spooky stories. He is voiced by R. L. Stine, author of the Goosebumps series. * Avatar: The Last Airbender: Mick Foley voices The Boulder, a parody of The Rock. The Rock and Mick's character Mankind formed the popular tag team The Rock and Sock Connection. * The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes manages to combine this with Acting for Two. Fred Tatasciore plays both the Hulk (reprising the role from... practically everything the Hulk has been in since 2003) and Graviton. Then Graviton lets loose one of Hulk's catchphrases: > Graviton: I am the strongest one there is! > Hulk: (lands next to him) You sure about that? * In The Batman (2004), Boss Zucco, voiced by Mark Hamill, kills John Grayson, who is voiced by Kevin Conroy. As Mark voiced the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and Kevin voiced Batman, many noticed that, in a way, the Joker finally managed to kill Batman. * Will Friedle invokes Batman Beyond by playing Bats' on-again, off-again partner Blue Beetle in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. The show was full of these, particularly referencing the DC Animated Universe. * In Beast Wars, Silverbolt remarks that Venus reminds him of Blackarachnia. Blackarachnia was voiced by Venus Terzo. * Ben 10: The episode "Game Over", where Ben and Gwen are drawn into a video game involves a scene where Grandpa Max notices that their game console has been left on, and drops into a deeper voice to complain, "I thought I told you to turn the game console off!" If you've played Metal Gear Solid 2 to the ending, you will likely void your bowels at this exact moment - Paul Eiding plays both Grandpa Max and Colonel Campbell, and towards the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, the game abruptly shifts into a No Fourth Wall horror game. At the start of this downward slide, the Colonel shouts at Raiden to turn the game console off! * Big City Greens: + The Pepper Merchant from "Feud Fight" is played by Griffon McElroy, with basically the same voice he uses for Garfield the Deals Warlock. + A foreign dub-based example in "Gramma Driver", Gramma Alice Green becomes the getaway driver for an Outlaw Couple inspired by Jessie and James. The reason for this is that Gramma is voiced by Inuko Inuyama in the show's Japanese dub, and her most famous role is Meowth. * Bob's Burgers: In "Just One Of the Boyz 4 Now" one of the boys Tina crushes on, Jesse, gets a section in his song where he raps about stereotypical French culture. Jesse's voice actor, Daveed Diggs, famously played the Marquis de Lafayette in Hamilton. * Although BoJack Horseman is chock-full of celebrity gags, there are only a few about those voicing the main characters; however, in several seasons Princess Carolyn has a parody of a David Sedaris book in her bookshelf. She's voiced by Amy Sedaris, his sister. * The Bonkers episode "Love Stuck" featured a character named Boss Hoss voiced by Sorrell Booke, the actor who played Boss Hogg. * The Boondocks has quite a few of these. + There are many allusions to Friday, both direct and indirect, which starred John Witherspoon, the voice of The Boondocks' Robert "Granddad" Freeman. + In the episode "A Date with the Health Inspector", the character Gin Rummy (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) makes several statements pulled almost word-for-word from Pulp Fiction, including the iconic "English, motherfucker, do you speak it?". Rummy also seems to have a certain inclination toward tasty beverages. + In one episode, Mark Hamill plays a dealer who sells Granddad a strain of marijuana called "Skywalker". + Rev. Rollo Goodlove messes up while singing "Go-Go Gadget Gospel," a song originally performed by his voice actor Cee Lo Green. Extra layers of funny occur when you realize Cee-Lo is purposefully messing up his song when he should be able to sing it perfectly. + Charles Murphy as Wuncler III had the line "I'm rich, bitch!"; a line from Chappelle's Show where he frequently performed on. * In CatDog, Cat, voiced by Jim Cummings, would often refer to his and Dog's live-in neighbor Winslow as a blue rodent. Jim had previously played the villain in a cartoon starring Sonic the Hedgehog whom he would often refer to as "rodent." * City Island (2022): James III's role as Link, a talking satellite, could be a nod to his role in Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show. * In Class of 3000 musician Andre "3000" Benjamin provides the voice of Sunny Bridges. In one episode, we learn that Sunny has Andre Benjamin on his cell phone speed dial. * The Close Enough episode "Halloween Enough" features Josh dressing up as Mordecai from J.G. Quintel's previous animated series Regular Show, complete with saying "OOOHHHHHHH!!!". Quintel voices both characters and they're avatars of him. * The Critic: + There's this memorable exchange between title character Jay Sherman and his son Marty, the humor hinging on the fact that Jay is voiced by actor Jon Lovitz (and drawn to look more than a little bit like him, too): > Jay Sherman: Don't worry son, if you think that only handsome musicians can get beautiful women, I have two words for you: Lyle Lovett. > Marty Sherman: I thought that he was handsome. > Jay Sherman: You're thinking of Jon Lovitz. With his good looks, he takes the cake. + One episode takes this further by actually having Jon voice himself in a scene where he passes by Jay. Marty mentions their voices are similar. * Dan Vs.: + The episode "The Catburglar" is basically Curtis Armstrong (Dan) as his other famous character he played in the '80s. (He played Bert Voila for the last three seasons.) + One of the kids in "Lemonade Stand Gang" is named Timmy, voiced by voice actress, Tara Strong. Sound familiar? * Danny Phantom: + In an episode where Maddie married Vlad instead of Jack, Jack mistakenly called Danny "Davy" at one point. Danny's voice actor is David Kaufman. + In "Splitting Images", while Danny is stuck inside a 1950's version of Caspar High in the Ghost Zone, there's a brief shot of Marty McFly (played by David in the animated series) among the students. * DC Animated Universe: + Batman: The Animated Series: - Temple Fugate (the Clock King) is played by Alan Rachins, then best known for playing the punctilious managing partner Douglas Brachman on L.A. Law — a clock watcher's clock watcher. - In his introduction in "Heart of Ice", Mr. Freeze says "Revenge is a dish best-served cold.", popularly called a Klingon proverb. Michael Ansara, who plays Freeze, played the Klingon Captain Kang in Star Trek. - "Heart of Ice" also contains two references to The Empire Strikes Back. Batman returns a criminal partially frozen by Mr. Freeze to health using a similar device to the "Bacta Tank" that revives Luke. Later in the episode, Batman is frozen upside down on to the ceiling by Dr. Fries much like Luke Skywalker was in the wampa's cave. The episode features Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, in the role of Ferris Boyle. - Grant Walker, voiced by Dan O'Herlihy, has decided that things are too rough and has decided to replace an old society with a new city, and is willing to take drastic steps to take out the old one. Granted, wiping out the planet's population is more extreme and Grant was based on Walt Disney, but Oceania sounds a lot like Delta City from the RoboCop movies, which OCP's chairman, the Old Man, (also played by Dan) intended to replace crime-ridden Detroit. The willingness to commit mass murder for a cause he supports also evokes yet another Corrupt Corporate Executive Dan played, Conal Cochran from Halloween III: Season of the Witch. - In "Mad Love", the Joker is attempting to kill Commissioner Gordon while he is at the dentist. Batman manages to find out first and stops him, but before he leaves the Joker tosses a grenade in while making the pun "May the floss be with you!" This is an obvious parody of the line "May the Force be with you", and it is a reference to his voice actor Mark Hamill, famous for his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise. - A similar reference appears in the spin-off comic book Harley and Ivy which stars the Joker's henchgirl Harley Quinn and the villain Poison Ivy; the two are on a movie set beating up what looks like Batman and the Joker, but turn out to be actors. Harley laments about some actor trying to impersonate the Joker and takes off his fake nose while the actor mumbles something about "Yoda" and the "Dagobah System". It is safe to say that this is a reference to Hamill again, probably suggesting that the actor is supposed to be him. + Batman Beyond: - The villain Mad Stan is a psychopathic Luddite who very closely resembles Spider from Johnny Mnemonic, even going so far as to mimic his "information overload" rant (minus the profanity.) Actor Henry Rollins played both roles, and Stan was probably modeled after Henry's performance. - King is voiced by George Lazenby, who was known for his short stint as James Bond. He gets two significant lines: First, "we have all the time in the world", a reference to his James Bond performance. Second, "Do you have any idea what it's like living in someone's shadow?" + Justice League, especially when its cast got huge, absolutely loved these. - Examples include bringing in the entire lead cast of Teen Titans (2003) to voice the first Royal Flush Gang, bickering brothers Hawk and Dove being played by Wayne and Kevin Arnold from The Wonder Years, and Nazi-esque villain Virman Vundabar, voiced by Arte Johnson, saying "verrry interesting... but schtupid!"(He replaced the last word with futile, but close enough.) — his catchphrase in his most famous role, Wolfgang the German Soldier on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. - Not to mention tapping Nathan Fillion to voice Vigilante, a cowboy that flies a spaceship. And paired with Vixen, who was voiced by Gina Torres. - Keith David, who was Goliath in Gargoyles, voice acts Despero the cult-leader. When he's brainwashing the heroes one by one, he remarks about Hawkgirl: "The wings give her an exotic quality, wouldn't you agree?" - "The Great Brain Robbery" has a "Freaky Friday" Flip between Flash and Lex Luthor in which voices are decidedly not mental. Flash's voice actor, Michael Rosenbaum, plays Luthor in Smallville. - During "The Once and Future Thing, Part 2", as time itself starts to degrade and warp out of control, a group of redcoats suddenly appear. They see the Terry McGinnis Batman and one of them shouts, "Fire at will." - "Epilogue" features a new Royal Flush Gang and the Jack in this one is a samurai. When he's returned to normal, the animators made him look exactly like Phil LaMarr - the voice of Samurai Jack. * A 1965 crossover of The Dick Tracy Show and Mr. Magoo entailed Tracy enlisting Magoo in impersonating a noted gang leader named Squinty Eyes. A file on him notes that he sounds like Jim Backus (Magoo's voice; he also voiced Squinty Eyes). * In one episode of Disenchantment, King Zog, voiced by John DiMaggio, shouts a variant of Bender's catchphrase: > King Zog: Bite my shiny metal axe! * The Dragon Prince has a pretty blatant one in "The Midnight Desert": while riding in a howdah on the back of an enormous beast of burden, Callum finds something strangely familiar about a boomerang, the signature weapon of Jack De Sena's previous role, Sokka. * The Fairly OddParents!: + Adam West in the role of Catman. + The Crimson Chin is voiced by Jay Leno, a chin-themed superhero whose origin story comes when a late-night talk show host was bitten by a radioactive celebrity. In a later episode, the Crimson Chin crashes through a building during a fight scene...straight onto the filming of an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. + In his first appearance, Chip Skylark, voiced by Chris Kirkpatrick, mentions "The album comes out July 24th." \NSYNC actually had an album come out on July 24th, 2001. + There's also Dr. Rip Studwell, voiced by series creator Butch Hartman himself. His over-the-top, soap opera style is a reference to Butch's acting roles in soap operas before he made it big in animation. His design is also based on Butch himself, originally done as a joke. + Probably unintentional, but the episode "Sleepover and Over" has Timmy wearing a Captain Ersatz version of a Hello Kitty costume near the end. One of Tara Strong's first voice acting roles was the title character in Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater. + When the episode "The Gland Plan" was redubbed for Brazilian audiences, the scene where Cosmo turns into a G has Cosmo saying it's G for Guilherme. Cosmo's Brazilian voice actor is Guilherme Briggs. Brazilian extinct dubbing studio Herbert Richers was such a loose environment during the late '80s\early '90s that the voice actors liked to throw this, such as acknowledging Manolo Rey by having someone say "Mr. Manolo's bakery". Márcio Simões fondly remembers that in one episode of Denver the Last Dinosaur, the guy playing a fashion designer decided to basically list the voice actors in a French accent. * Family Guy: + Seth MacFarlane intentionally avoids allusions to the 1966 Batman series with Adam West because they're too obvious. Though there was the Super Griffins short where he mentioned having past experiences fighting super-powered beings. + Also, in the episode "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air", Peter notes the similarity between the voices of Dr. Hartman and Carter Pewterschmidt — both played by Seth MacFarlane — who do indeed sound nearly identical. Hartman and Carter then converse about this, with Carter noting it as being a bit lazy, whereas Hartman figures that there are only so many voices out there, with some bound to sound similar. + There was a fairly subtle one on the first episode after the show came back. Peter listed all of the series on FOX that had been cancelled since they were. When Peter says Greg the Bunny, he looks at Chris, whose VA, Seth Green, was the star of that series. + Later in the series, Peter and Chris have a conversation about Robot Chicken (which also did a Star Wars episode) with Peter dismissing the show and Chris defending it. Seth Green is the co-creator of Robot Chicken. + There's an even more obvious reference to Robot Chicken in "Road to the Multiverse:" > Stewie: How's it feel to be on a major network for 30 seconds? > Chris: FUCK YOU!! + In the second Star Wars spoof, Peter short-circuits the argument by bringing up Without a Paddle, which causes Chris to scream and run out of the room angrily. Without a Paddle was a critically-panned box office flop that starred Seth Green. + In the third Star Wars spoof, they simply go into outright bashing Seth Green by name, which naturally irritates Chris/Luke. At the end, Chris asks Peter what his problem with Seth Green is, proceeding to turn around and bash Seth MacFarlane with Meg and Lois, while Peter, Stewie, and Brian (all voiced by MacFarlane) try to defend him. + In "Meet the Quagmires", where the timeline was altered, President Gore killed Osama bin Laden. Lois says: "Who woulda thought that bin Laden was hiding out in the cast of MADtv?" Quagmire remarks: "Man, the perfect hiding spot. The one place no one would look!" Alex Borstein, the voice of Lois, had a recurring role on MADtv (1995). + In one episode, Carl the gas station attendant gives lackluster impersonations of Sterling Archer and Bob Belcher, both of which share their voice actor H. Jon Benjamin with Carl. * Freakazoid!: + The title character's butler Professor Jones, voiced by Jonathan Harris, is pretty much a reprisal of Jonathan's role as Dr. Smith from Lost in Space — snotty and coward, with some lines directly lifted from LiS. A Running Gag in his introductory episode "Mission: Freakazoid" involves everyone asking Jones if he was "on a show with a robot". Also, Sgt. Cosgrove and the villain Guitierrez resemble their voice actors, Ed Asner and Ricardo Montalbán, respectively. + In "The Chip", Guitierrez delivers a speech to Dexter that seems to have been taken from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Guess what actor portrayed Khan. Ricardo Montalbán. + The first season's finale is titled "The Wrath of Guitierrez". One gets the impression that the writers really liked having Ricardo Montalbán on their side. + The Brazilian dub added one more Khan allusion for Guitierrez's return in season 2's "Hero Boy", as Freakazoid yelling at the villain goes from the original's "Get your darn ape hands off me!" to "Captain Kirk is gonna get you!" * Futurama: + In "A Bicyclops Built for Two", Leela (played by Katey Sagal) meets and falls in love with a fellow cyclops called Alcazar... who insists she call him Al... who then turns out to be a shiftless slob... and eventually the show temporarily turned into an episode of Married... with Children, in which Katey played Peggy Bundy, right down to the hooting FOX audience. + In "Bender's Big Score", in the battle against the scammers, the Chanukah Zombie, voiced by Mark Hamill, flies a stereotypically Chanukah-themed TIE Fighter. + "Hah — Billy West? What a stupid, phony, made-up name." Fry's line might be one of the least subtle actor allusions in history. + In "Yo Leela Leela", Abner Doubledeal tells Leela that her show Rumbledy Hump was a hit and mentions that it's gonna be bigger than SpongeBot SquareBolts, a SpongeBob SquarePants expy. Tom Kenny, who voiced Abner, also voiced the titular character in that show. + In "Leela and the Genestalk", Bender finds Finn and Jake trapped in Mom's floating Genetics lab. John DiMaggio voices both Bender and Jake. > Jake: (weakly) What time is it? > Bender: Time for you to shut up! * Garfield and Friends: + The title orange cat is voiced by Lorenzo Music, who had previously voiced Carlton the Doorman on the CBS sitcom Rhoda. Naturally, one of the Couch Gags featured the line, "This is Garfield, your doorman." (Doubles as a Parental Bonus, given that Rhoda aired during The '70s.) + Aloysius Pig's catchphrase is "That's not right!", a reference to his voice actor Kevin Meaney. + Another episode had Garfield consider getting help from the Ghostbusters, only to then say they were cancelled, a reference to Lorenzo Music's role on that show. * In the Gargoyles episode where the characters went to Ireland, a teenage wastrel remarked that there was more to Bronx than meets the eye, a reference to the tagline for Transformers. Bronx's voice was provided by Frank Welker, who also did a lot of voices in Transformers: Generation 1. * In the Gravity Falls episode "Carpet Diem", Candy remarks that Kevin from the electronic dating game she is playing has the voice of a robot. Her voice actress is Niki Yang, the voice of BMO from Adventure Time. * Green Eggs and Ham: Broadway star Daveed Diggs, best known for playing Marquis de La Fayette in Hamilton, plays another character who's a revolutionary with a French accent who sings a song which parodies Les Misérables in "Mouse." * Baron von Ghoulish in Billy and Mandy Save Christmas is introduced brushing his fangs and humming "Singing in the Rain". His voice actor is Malcolm McDowell, who infamously sang that same song in A Clockwork Orange. * In an example, also seen under Company Cross-References, the Hailey's On It! episode "Smells Like Queen Spirit" has the list item of the week being trying to become Crab Queen, which Hailey said she signed up for during a "princess phrase." She then flops down on her bed, holding a pillow over her chest with a very familiar looking tribal pattern on it, and says "I mean, who would see me as a princess?" Hailey is voiced by Auli'i Cravalho, who also plays Moana. * The Hair Bear Bunch episode "Love Bug Bungle" had a sequence where Hair Bear tries to distract zookeeper Peevly with a ventriloquist act, using Bubi Bear as his dummy. Bubi's voice actor, Paul Winchell, was a prolific ventriloquist. * Hilda: + In "The Fifty Year Night", Hilda investigates a mystery involving her neighbor Mr. Ostenfeld, who is voiced by Play School legend Derek Griffiths. In a scene in Mr. Ostenfeld's flat, there is a cuddly toy of Humpty, one of the toys from Play School, sitting on the sofa. + In "The Witch", after being accused of trespassing, Hilda tries (and fails) to claim to The Committee of Three that she is a witch based on her use of magic in "The Tide Mouse". Hilda is voiced by Bella Ramsey, who had previously played the witch student Mildred Hubble in CBBC's adaptation of The Worst Witch. * Justice League Action took the concept of actor allusion to its ultimate limit in the short "Missing the Mark" when the Joker (most famously voiced by Mark Hamill) and the Trickster (played by Mark Hamill in The Flash (1990) and as two different versions of the character in The Flash (2014), and here voiced by Mark Hamill) abduct famous actor Mark Hamill (voiced by himself), who helps in his own rescue by fooling the Joker and Trickster by imitating their voices, allowing his rescue by Swamp Thing...who in Justice League Action is voiced by Mark Hamill. * Kim Possible: + A two-in-one parody in "The Fearless Ferret": an aging TV star who played a superhero on TV is voiced by Adam West of the classic Batman (1966). He coaches a successor via radio, in the form of series regular Ron. Ron's VA, Will Friedle, was the voice of the future Batman on Batman Beyond — whom the original Batman coached via radio. + On another episode, Señor Senior Sr. speaks of chasing someone 'round perdition's flames, in much the same way his voice actor (Ricardo Montalbán) did in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. * King of the Hill: + "Arlen City Bomber" has Bobby state that his dream is to eat a corn chip right off the production line. Lucky tells him "I'm gonna help you run down that dream." Lucky's portrayer had a song titled "Runnin' Down a Dream". + In the Season 4 episode "Rodeo Days", the boy Bobby (voiced by Pamela Adlon) meets at the rodeo is voiced by Andrew Lawrence. This is not the first time they've been on the same show together. + At the end of "Peggy's Headache", Joseph tells Dale that he and Bobby want to watch Encino Man. In the Canadian French dub, Encino Man is replaced with Austin Powers. Benoît Rousseau (Dale's voice actor in that dub) is also known for being Mike Myers' usual dubbing voice actor in Quebec, including in all three Austin Powers movies. * The Legend of Korra: + Henry Rollins voices Zaheer, the Arc Villain of Book 3 and a Bomb-Throwing Anarchist like Mad Stan (albeit much more spiritual). + The Brazilian dub had Korra replying to a question of whether she's the avatar with "Yup, that's me!" in the same pronunciation of another role of Mariana Torres, Raven Baxter from That's So Raven. She also employed the phrase as her other Raven in Teen Titans Go!. * In The Legend of Vox Machina, Scanlan saves one of his friends from a miscarriage of justice by bursting into the room, pointing dramatically, and shouting "OBJECTION!", all in the same manner as one of Sam Riegel's other famous voice roles, Phoenix Wright. * A PBS children's show called Liberty's Kids had Walter Cronkite as the voice of Benjamin Franklin. Separate from the main storyline (having to do with a trio of preteen reporters during the American Revolutionary War), there would be anachronistic segments, including Benjamin as a newscaster-an obvious nod to his voice actor, who was also a newscaster. He would even end each segment with "And that's the way it is." * Lilo & Stitch: The Series + In one episode, Pleakley (voiced by Kevin Macdonald of The Kids in the Hall) is visited by his mother, sister, and brother, voiced by Scott Thompson, Bruce McCullough, and Mark McKinney, respectively, three of Kevin's four regular costars from The Kids in the Hall. The remaining costar, Dave Foley, appears as well, playing a priest at Pleakley's mock wedding. Not to mention Pleakley is fond of cross-dressing. + In another episode, right as Experiment 624/Angel meets up with Experiment 625/Reuben and Gantu as part of the latter's plan, the former (voiced by Rob Paulsen) greets her with, "Hello, hotcakes!" This is most likely a reference to another character that Rob has voiced, Yakko Warner in Animaniacs, who's catchphrase is "Hello, Nurse!". 625/Reuben even says it in the exact same affliction as Yakko. * According to Roger Ebert, Scar's answer to Simba's "You're so weird", from The Lion King (1994) is a reference to an earlier Jeremy Irons part in Reversal of Fortune where he played Claus von Bulow. Even the intonation is exactly the same. * Looney Tunes: + The short "Daffy Duck Slept Here" has Daffy intone "Train leaving on Track 5 for Anaheim, Azusa, and Cuc...amonga!". His voice actor, Mel Blanc, regularly said the same line on The Jack Benny Program. + In "Easter Yeggs", Mel voices a sullen bunny rabbit with the same worried tone as his mailman character on The Burns and Allen Show, right down to the catchphrase "And remember, keep smiling." * An episode of Martha Speaks had an Imagine Spot that was a parody of My Little Pony. Martha's voice actress Tabitha St. Germain is pretty much the voice of My Little Pony, as she's done tons of characters in both the G3 era and Friendship is Magic. * Mixels: + Tom Kenny playing Teslo isn't the first time he's played a short and cycloptic character with a lightning motif. + Tom Kenny also plays Seismo, who isn't the first large Minotaur-like creature with a heart of gold, he played. + Finally, Tom Kenny as Flain isn't the first time he's been a chill fire-based creature with an inexplicable accent for his environment. * Megas XLR: + Recurring villain Magnanimous is voiced by Bruce Campbell. In one episode, Magnanimous gets a mech of his own... with a shotgun in one hand and a chainsaw in the other. Magnanimous as a whole is a parody of Bruce Campbell who just happens to actually be voiced by Bruce Campbell. > Magnanimous: AHHHH! IT HURTS! ...Oh wait, no it doesn't... + Plus, he looks like Elvis in one episode. * Molly of Denali: In "Mollyball", Trini (voiced by Vienna Leacock) suggests that there may be aliens on another planet playing basketball. Sydney is also voiced by Leacock and she hangs out with an alien (Jet) every day. * In both Moral Orel and High School U.S.A., Jay Johnston plays a cop (he plays multiple characters in the former). He's also played a cop in live-action tv shows like The Sarah Silverman Program and Arrested Development. * My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic + Discord, the villain of the season 2 premiere is played by John de Lancie, who once again plays a reality-warping, finger-snapping, teleporting Trickster Archetype with a cruel sense of humor. Given the near omnipotence of the character and Q's Informed Ability to take any form he pleases, they can quite easily be the same character. By Word of God, Discord was created in the aftermath of a Star Trek: The Next Generation marathon. + In "Sonic Rainboom", a jerk jock, voiced by Kathleen Barr, picks on the prideful main character, Rainbow Dash. Kathleen Barr also plays Kevin, a Jerk Jock in Ed, Edd n Eddy who picks on a prideful Eddy. + In "Hurricane Fluttershy", Twilight Sparkle has a squirrel trying to tell her something, and on being asked what it's saying replies "Do I look like I speak squirrel?" Twilight is voiced by Tara Strong, who also voiced Bubbles on The Powerpuff Girls (1998), who does in fact speak squirrel. + In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls 1, Twilight's Evil Counterpart (later good counterpart), Sunset Shimmer, is voiced by Rebecca Shoichet, who provides Twilight's singing voice, and also does Sunset's singing vocals in the next film. - Shoichet would also voice Sugar Belle & Night Glider in Seasons 5 through 9 as supporting characters. + In flashbacks, we see that Weird Al's character Cheese Sandwich wore glasses when he was younger like Al did until the '90s. * Odd Job Jack: One episode's supposed guest star is none other than the voice actor of the main character who plays himself. The title character disapproves of and criticizes him and the two fight each other throughout the episode. * The Owl House: + In "Hunting Palismen", a shot of Hunter's bedroom reveals that he has a bobblehead of Remy Remington on his shelf. Both Remy and Hunter are voiced by Zeno Robinson. + In "Eclipse Lake", Amity, voiced by Mae Whitman, starts carrying a flask of Abomination juice on her hip, and uses its contents as a weapon in a manner reminiscent of Katara's waterbending. The episode also references Katara's interactions with Zuko in "The Crossroads of Destiny" as both have her trying to convince a 16-year-old boy with facial scars to have a Heel–Face Turn while in a green cave by bonding over their similar pasts, only to fail due to his desire to please the Big Bad. * Pepper Ann: In one episode, Pepper Ann is watching a show suspiciously similar to Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series; April Winchell, who voiced PA's mother Lydia, also voiced Tanya on MD:TAS. * Phineas and Ferb: + In an episode, Candace (voiced by Ashley Tisdale) competes for a job at Mr. Slushy Burger with Wendy (voiced by Brenda Song). Both Ashley and Brenda appeared on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. + On another episode where Candace does a horrible job at acting in a movie her brothers made, Ferb edits the final cut resulting in a photoshopped photo of Ashley Tisdale as a princess in a castle. + And in "Hawaiian Vacation", we have a Hotel Manager who tries to bust Phineas and Ferb. He is voiced by Phill Lewis, who also played Mr. Moseby on The Suite Life. + On the show, Ferb (voiced by Thomas Sangster) has a Precocious Crush on Vanessa (played by Olivia Olson). In Love Actually, Thomas's character had a crush on Olivia's character. Compare their Smooches of Victory. + The Halloween-themed episode "The Curse of Candace" had three in one episode: - In the Twilight parody in the beginning of the episode, the Expies of Edward & Bella are voiced by Anna Paquin & Stephen Moyer, who have been on a show where a human woman loves a vampire. - The Jacob Expy is voiced by Michael J. Fox, which isn't the first time he's played a teenage werewolf. - And, at one point during the episode, Lawrence watches a horror movie and comments, "where are the rock and roll musical numbers?" Richard O'Brien, who plays Lawrence, wrote and starred in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which combines horror & rock and roll music. - In "Druselsteinoween", Vannesa voiced by Oliva Olson is dressed as a Vampire Queen. + In "Phineas and Ferb Save Summer", Jack McBrayer's character Irving Du Bois sings a song about wilderness safety in which he advises his audience to avoid "banjo-playing hicks". * In an episode of The Proud Family, one episode involves Penny, voiced by Kyla Pratt, inexplicably finds herself able to talk to a tiger from a circus act in one episode. This references Pratt's role in Dr. Dolittle, which had a plot also involving an uncooperative tiger. * When The Real Ghostbusters hear that a movie about them is being planned, they look at a press release and see that some guys named Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis are in the main roles. * Recess: + In the episode "The Dude", the main six meet Franklin Dudikoff, the school's original charismatic prankster (Like T.J.) in the '80s, who's now back to become a teacher. T.J. looks up to him like an older brother. The Dude is voiced by Joey Lawrence, who's the older brother of T.J.'s then-voice actor Andy Lawrence. + In Recess: School's Out, T.J.'s sister, Becky, is shown talking on the phone in one scene with her friend, Melissa. Becky's voiced by Melissa Joan Hart. + In Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade, Becky is voiced by Tara Strong instead of Melissa Joan Hart. In two made-for-TV movies for Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996), both of them star in the films: Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina, and Tara Strong as Gwen. * In an episode of Regular Show, an anthropomorphic hot dog is voiced by Tim Curry, known for his role as Dr. Frank-n-further in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (the original film). * In Rick and Morty, Morty's mother Beth is a horse surgeon voiced by Sarah Chalke, who played a doctor in Scrubs. * An episode of Roary the Racing Car has a racecar designer called Hugo Amarillo, apparently purely so Big Chris (voiced by Peter Kay) can say "Is this the way to Hugo Amarillo?", referring to the song he mimed to for Comic Relief. * Rocko's Modern Life: In one episode, Heffer is so stunned by a cute girl that he forgets his name, saying "Tom" instead.(This is immediately followed by him accidentally saying his name is Dan (Povenmire), Jeff (Marsh), and Joe (Murray), so it's unlikely this was a coincidence.) * Rugrats: > Quiz show host: (voiced by Alex Trebek, of Jeopardy! fame) This automotive tool is used to tighten bolts. > Didi: What is a torque wrench? > Host: You're absolutely right, and Didi, you don't have to answer in a form of a question. : Said host's name is Alan Quebec, both rhyming with Alex's name and punning on Alex being Canadian. * Sabrina: The Animated Series: Captain Jean Lafitte, voiced by Long John Baldry, shouts "I HATE Salem!" after being defeated in "This Is Your Nine Lives."(Lafitte is defeated by Sabrina, Harvey, and Chloe rather than Salem, but Salem's wrongdoings in the past are the reason why Lafitte became an antagonist in the first place.) This is nearly identical to the Once per Episode catchphrase used by Dr. Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, who Baldry also voiced: "I HATE that hedgehog!" * The Rankin/Bass Christmas special Santa, Baby! has a twofer. It features the voice of Eartha Kitt, the original performer of the song, and she voices a cat, referencing her role as Catwoman. * Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: + This isn't the first time Patrick Warburton plays a lawman. + In Episode 4, David Faustino plays a down-on-his-luck guy named Bud. Huh, where have we seen that one before? + The mother of Velma's Stalker with a Crush Jason is played by Jessica Walter, who played one herself in Play Misty for Me. + In episode 18, James Hong's character takes on the guise of a powerful Chinese wizard. + Of course, the H. P. Lovecraft Expy is played by Jeffrey Combs. + From "The Night the Clown Cried", Crybaby Clown is voiced by Mark Hamill, who, having voiced the Joker, has much experience with voicing clowns. - Crybaby Clown also seems like an allusion to Mark's role as Macendale/Hobgoblin on Spider-Man: The Animated Series, since the villain is more practical-minded than Joker, and both are shallow pretty boys who romance the local rich girl who is fed up with her distracted ex/potential beau and turn to destructive crime waves in the name of money/fame. Both Daphne and Felicia Hardy are made to feel like fools when their date is unmasked. + Early on in season two, Velma seems to have become pretty good friends with Hot Dog Water. It probably doesn't hurt that Hot Dog Water's voice actress, Linda Cardellini, has a bit of a past relationship with Velma... + Ricky Owens is an intentional Expy of Shaggy. Scott Menville, who voices the character as a teenager, played Shaggy in Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue!. * The Simpsons: + One episode titled "Brother from Another Series" starred Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer) and his brother Cecil, voiced by, you guessed it, David Hyde Pierce. One scene becomes an obvious extended reference to Frasier, down to the incidental music and Snark-to-Snark Combat. At one point when Bart jumped on his back and yelled "Guess who!" Cecil's first guess was "Maris?" Maris was the never seen/never heard wife of Niles Crane. A later episode starred Bob, Cecil, and their father Robert, voiced by John Mahoney. One extended Couch Gag had the Simpsons running through sets from different sitcoms; they sit in the bar from Cheers (the show Frasier was a spin-off of) and Sideshow Bob walks in. + Another episode features Lisa plotting against Bart and cackling evilly. When Marge asks her what's so funny, she quickly covers by saying she was just thinking about a joke she saw on Herman's Head, on which Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa) starred. Conversely, Yeardley Smith's character on the show once asked if she sounded like that girl who voices Lisa Simpson. + In one episode, Comic Book Guy says "America needs the wisdom of Herman's Head now more than ever." Comic Book Guy is voiced by Hank Azaria, who co-starred on Herman's Head. + Spoofed: Mark Hamill, starring in a dinner-theatre production of Guys and Dolls, is forced to adapt everything to fit his role in Star Wars, climaxing with the "Luke, Be a Jedi Tonight" musical number and a few references like "use the Forks!" + The episode "Lisa's Substitute", guest-starring Dustin Hoffman, features an extended sequence that comes out of nowhere in which Dustin's character and Mrs. Krabappel do a shot-for-shot reenactment of the famous seduction scene from The Graduate. Ironically, Hoffman used a pseudonym in this appearance, so anyone who couldn't recognize his voice was probably completely mystified as to why the episode suddenly stopped dead in its tracks to do such a specific parody. + In the episode "Lard of the Dance", a character voiced by Lisa Kudrow says when meets Lisa: "Your name's Lisa? Shut up, I love that name!" Later, she tells her not to be such a Phoebe. + In the Latin-American version of The Simpsons, when Homer wants to prove that he forgot the name of Lisa's secret boyfriend, he incorrectly gives his name as "Beto Vélez". Humberto Vélez voices Homer. In another episode, when calling a photographer for an erotic photo shoot, he gives his name as "Humberto Simpson". + In the episode "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", Homer meets Dan Castellaneta (who's Homer's voice actor). > Tour Guide: Oh, why look! There's Dan Castellaneta from The Tracey Ullman Show. > Homer (leaning out of the tour guide tram) Hey, funny man! Say something funny! > Dan Castellaneta: Please don't lean out of the tram, sir. You might get hurt. > Homer: (childishly imitating Castelleneta) Oh, don't lean out of the tram! (Homer hits his head on a statue of Mischa Barton) + In the episode "Apocalypse Cow", there's a CD called Anguished Animals III, recorded by Tress MacNeille. Later on, Homer notes that an automated voice that announces the killing floor at the slaughter house sounds like Tress MacNeille. Tress MacNeille voices many female supporting characters on The Simpsons. + In the episode "The Bob Next Door", Bart thinks their new neighbor is his nemesis, Sideshow Bob in disguise, because he sounds like him. Homer and Marge tell him that a lot of people sound like Sideshow Bob, like "Frasier on Cheers, Frasier on Frasier, and Lt. Cmdr. Tom Dodge in Down Periscope." Those roles were played by Kelsey Grammer, the voice of Sideshow Bob. + Combined with a Take That! in a scene in which Fat Tony (Joe Mantegna) becomes emotional and says "I haven't cried this much since I paid to see Godfather III" (that movie being a favorite punching bag on The Simpsons.) The Godfather Part III co-stars Joe Mantegna as Joey Zasa. - His debut episode ends with a Made-for-TV Movie costarring Joe Mantegna as Fat Tony. + When Rodney Dangerfield voiced Mr. Burns' son Larry, he echoed his "I don't get no respect" catchphrase with "I tell ya, I don't get no regard. No regard at all. No esteem, either." + In "Mypods and Boomsticks", Homer has a dream sequence where he meets up with the Genie from Aladdin who, like Homer, is voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He previously voiced Genie in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar and Aladdin: The Series. - A similar and rather unusual example is in the episode "Special Edna", in which Dan plays an expy of John Keating. Genie and John were both played by Robin Williams originally. + One of the things Bart writes on the chalkboard during the opening is "I am not a 32-year-old woman" when Nancy Cartwright was 32. + The Canadian French dub frequently makes references to the voice actors from that dub. One such example is in "Mr. Plow". When Troy McClure mentions that Krusty's "inspiring battle with Percodan addiction" will be the subject of a movie of the week, Krusty adds that he'll be played by Jimmy Smits in that movie. In the dub, he instead says that he'll be played by Marc Labrèche, who voiced Krusty during the first 18 seasons of the show. * In an episode of the short-lived series Sit Down, Shut Up, after hearing hot science teacher Miracle Groh sing, bisexual drama teacher Andrew comments "you sound good enough to be in Wicked". Miracle's voice actor is Kristin Chenoweth, who was indeed in said play. (Seconds later, Miracle because of her character, reveals she has never heard of either Wicked or The Wizard of Oz.) * The Smurfs (1981): + Not the first time both Paul Winchell and Don Messick worked together as an owner and his pet. + Don Messick voiced three other cats before Azrael, named Ruff, Sebastian and Spot. + Before Miner Smurf, Alan Young provided a Scottish accent to David Filby and Wilbur Post's father. + In the episode "The Masked Pie Smurfer", Papa tries to solve the identity of the titular Masked Pie Smurfer. Not only are both Scooby-Doo and Papa voiced by Don Messick, but Hefty's voiced by Fred Jones himself. + During "The Crooner Smurf", Harmony gains the ability to sing like a professional. In actuality, Hamilton Camp was a songwriter/musician. + If Henry Polic II provided the voice of Tracker, who plays the role of a guard in "The Adventures of Robin Smurf", then Henry had worked in a Robin Hood production before as the Sheriff of Nottingham alongside Dick Gautier, the voice of Wooly Smurf as well as additional voices, who played the titular outlaw. - Dutch film director and voice actor Arnold Gelderman, the Netherlands' dubbed voice for Jokey, played said outlaw in the Disney version of the folklore. Likewise, Brainy's and Clumsy's French dubbed voice actor, Francis Lax, and Hefty's French dubbed voice actor, Albert Augier, provided the voices of Nutsy and Trigger, the two vultures. + Gargamel brings Jokey's caricature dummy of said wizard to life to cause havoc in Smurf Village, and Paul Winchell voiced the dummy. Paul was a ventriloquist star in 1950s and 1960s television and films. + Ray Walston, who was the voice of Scruple's teacher in "The Enchanted Quill", was also Jeff Spicoli's teacher in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. + Farmer Smurf's voice actor, Alan Young, played a farmer before in the 1952 movie Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick as titular Aaron Crick. Farmer even refers to himself as a 'country bumpkin' in one episode! * Whenever the children of South Park visited Chef's home, there was a photograph of Isaac Hayes on the wall. Issac provided the voice of Chef. * This exchange from Sonic Boom: > Sonic: Coming in for a hard landing, Tails. You got me covered? > Tails: Roger. > Knuckles: Who's Roger? > Sonic: He's talking to me. * SpongeBob SquarePants: + "Whirly Brains" sees a temporarily brainless Patrick say "M-O-O-N. That spells moon!" This just happens to more or less be the catchphrase of Tom Cullen in The Stand, and just who do you suppose played Tom in the 1994 miniseries adaptation of the book? + In the German dub, Mr. Krabs is played by Jürgen Kluckert. In "Born Again Krabs", when the Flying Dutchman comes for Mr. Krabs' soul, Krabs gives the hasty alias of "Benjamin Blümchen", a nod to Jürgen‘s role as the voice of the German children's cartoon character of the same name. * In the '90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Ed Asner played the voice of Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson. This isn't his first role as a news editor; his best-known role was that of Lou Grant in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, head of a TV news program. In his own spin-off series, Lou became a newspaper editor. He later voiced the editor of The Springfield Shopper on The Simpsons. * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: + Obi-Wan's love interest is the Duchess Satine. Ewan McGregor played Obi-Wan in the Star Wars prequels as well as the male lead in Moulin Rouge!. His character's love interest was named Satine. + Mother Talzin, leader of the Nightsister clan of witches, is voiced by Barbara Goodson, best known as the other space witch Rita Repulsa. * Steven Universe: + In "Steven's Birthday", Garnet and Greg are looking through the latter's album collection for music to play. Greg pulls out a "Stella" album with a very familiar cover.◊ Garnet, voiced by Estelle, is not amused. + Steven Universe: The Movie introduces Steg, a fusion of Steven and Greg, who gets a duet with Pearl and Amethyst's fusion, Opal. Their respective voice actors, Ted Leo and Aimee Mann, form the rock duo The Both. * In Tamagotchi Video Adventures, Mimitchi and Potitchi playing the parts of Ren and Stimpy in a screenless television set is alluding to their voice actor, Billy West, also voicing Ren and Stimpy themselves. * Teen Titans: + Beast Boy talks in stereotypical surfer lingo and won't touch meat. His VA, Greg Cipes, is a professional surfer and has lived on a vegan diet since he was a kid. Also, "You're just jealous 'cause I sound like a rock star." + Titans villain Mad Mod (voiced by Malcolm McDowell) claims that nothing teaches discipline and respect like brain-erasing drugs. Not to mention at one point he has mechanical chairs that hold your eyes open. + The witch character Mother Mae-Eye is voiced by Billy Hayes, who also played a witch in H.R. Pufnstuf. * In Teen Titans Go!, Raven is revealed to be a fan of the TV show "Pretty Pretty Pegasus". Her voice actress also happens to be the star of the show it's based on. At the end of the first episode, it's revealed that Robin is openly a fan, as well. His voice actor voiced Danny, the human boy, back in generation 1. * Another Lord of the Rings allusion is present in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Turtle Temper", where Raphael (voiced by Sean Astin) is told to go home by Leonardo after letting his temper get the better of him when the guy they saved calls them 'Kung-Fu Frogs', then shows up to save his brothers from Spider Bytez. * In ThunderCats (2011), Claudus (voiced by Larry Kenney, the original Lion-O) announces that he'll show his son Lion-O what the Sword of Omens is capable of in the proper hands. Old Retainer Jaga makes reference to how much like his son Claudus was in youth. Later, he gets to yell out "ThunderCats, HO!" one last time. * In a Tiny Toon Adventures episode formatted like Saturday Night Live, Tress MacNeille voices a Bart Simpson Expy serving as a guest host. In another episode, she voices Babs imitating Bart, Marge, and Maggie. Tress voices many characters on The Simpsons. * The bumper for the last broadcast of Toonami's original run has TOM delivering a closing monologue and flying away, and while he's in the distance he says "Bang". This was a line said by Spike Speigel multiple times and was his last line in the series. Both are voiced by Steve Blum. * The Halloween TV special Toy Story of Terror features a Combat Carl voiced by Carl Weathers, complete with being an Ink-Suit Actor — outside of a lack of a hat, appearance-wise the Carl figure can be summed up as "Dillon from the original Predator if he managed to escape from the Jungle Hunter alive the lost of his arm?" * Transformers: Animated: + Sentinel physically resembles The Tick in both his blue color and huge chin. They have Townsend Coleman as a voice actor. The creators have confirmed that they had this in mind when designing Sentinel once they found out Townsend was cast. It's also been lampshaded a time or two, like when Sentinel has the line of "Energon-y goodness", referencing the Tick's odd manners of speech. + When Ratchet says Wreck-Gar wouldn't dare do something really, really moronic, he replied "I am Wreck-Gar. I dare to be stupid!", referencing his voice actor "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Dare to be Stupid". This also counts as a Mythology Gag as it was the Junkions' theme (the Junkions being led by Wreck-Gar) in the G1 movie. Another happens in "Human Error, Part 2", where he briefly tries to fight Soundwave with an accordion, an instrument Weird Al often uses. + A script-reading for Animated called "Bee in the City" actually had four: - Beast Wars Megatron taking Sari's key and declaring that he has a big boost of confidence, referencing the Enzyte commercials that David Kaye narrates. - Optimus Prime (also David Kaye) saying waiting in a line took longer than an Inuyasha story arc, which is punctuated with a fist pump. David had a recurring role in Inuyasha as Sesshomaru. - Bumblebee saying "My manwich!", a line Bumper Robinson previously said as Dwight Conrad in Futurama. - Isaac Sumdac calling Sari "The joy and the laughter", referencing Tara Strong's previous role as Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls (1998). + In the final season finale, Optimus dons a new jetpack in order to fly and be able to fight Decepticons more evenly. Upon takeoff, he shouts Excellent!! YEEEESSSSS!!, two words frequently pronounced by the Beast Wars Megatron. Both were voiced by David Kaye. + Two toys based on Transformers: Cybertron had Optimus Prime and Megatron temporarily turn into a gorilla and a Tyrannosaurus rex while still on the Jungle Planet according to their toy bios. * The TRON: Uprising episode "Price of Power" has Beck (voiced by Elijah Wood) being slowly driven mad by a ring-shaped item which grants him incredible power, and which he must destroy through very hot means. * The Venture Bros. featured Batman: The Animated Series voice actor Kevin Conroy as an avenging superhero mourning his dead sidekick. His reputation with teen sidekicks is suspect at best. * In the TV series Watership Down (1999), the main antagonist General Woundwort is voiced by John Hurt who also voiced the main protagonist Hazel in the 1978 feature film of the same name. + In said film, Michael Graham Cox voiced Bigwig. The pair of John Hurt and Michael Graham Cox voiced two certain other characters that year who share a strikingly similar dynamic; Aragorn and Boromir in The Lord of the Rings. John Hurt voices the born leader whereas Michael voices the stubborn and slightly envious subordinate with greater physical prowess. * Tino of The Weekenders is voiced by Jason Marsden, who, in addition to being an accomplished voice-over actor, also served as an announcer on Disney Channel for a number of years. The episode "Careers" has this dialogue: > Tino: Well, this is right on target! My number one career is announcer. > Lor: But you don't even like sports that much. > Tino: No, it doesn't say sports announcer. I'm thinking like one of those guys on TV. (doing an announcer impression) "Up next, a very special Teen Canyon", or "Tonight on Action Flash News: Are your socks killing you?" (switches to a high-pitched voice) Or maybe I could do cartoon voices. * Captain Neweyes's last line in We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story is "And that's the way it is," referencing how his voice actor Cronkite signed off his newscasts back in the day. * Adam West practically made a new career out of this. On an episode of Batman: The Animated Series he voiced a washed-up has-been actor whose most famous role was playing a superhero in a television show. Later on, he voiced Mayor Grange in The Batman (2004), and appeared in Lois & Clark. He had a steady role as Mayor Adam West of Family Guy. (Yes, the names are the same and he's insane, but there doesn't seem to be an actual connection to Batman.) Adam West also appeared in Johnny Bravo a few times. + As a bonus, a handful of minor roles, including some mentioned above, involved some parody of Batman (for example, Catman from The Fairly OddParents!). * A bit of an inversion in W.I.T.C.H. (2004): during a scene in the second-season episode "L is for Loser", the girls wonder aloud why the Knights of Destruction have been able to feed off of their negative emotions, and why Cornelia hasn't been affected. Cornelia responds matter-of-factly with "I'm the only one here who's not starring in a soap opera". Her voice actress, Christel Khalil, plays Lily on The Young and the Restless, and is the only one of the five main voice actresses who is in fact starring in a soap opera. The girls lampshade this by saying "This week". * In the first season finale of X-Men '97, President Kelly's dossier on Magneto has aliases he used, including "David Hemblen", his voice actor from the original series, and "Ian M" and "Michael F", alluding to Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender, who portrayed the older and younger Magneto in the X-Men Film Series respectively. * Young Justice: Minor villain Black Spider is played by Josh Keaton, who played another wisecracking person with arachnid themed powers in a Greg Weisman production. ---	ActorAllusion	null
AnimeAndManga	# Trauma Conga Line - Anime & Manga --- * The entire series of 7 Seeds. + It starts off by some of the protagonists waking up to a ship they are on sinking, then learn that they are in the future after meteorites impacted upon Earth and, not believing this story, head off on their own to see ruins of their hometowns. Then we even get some flashback chapters that show or describe the world before the impact, and even that one isn't sunshine and rainbows, with natural disasters like earthquakes and floods being an almost daily occurrence. And even shelters, made to keep some of the people save, don't do all that much better. + The Team Winter chapters are one for Aramaki \|\|who is the sole survivor\|\|. Team Winter is already reduced in numbers from eight to five people, due to the cryo-capsules having malfunctioned on three members, leaving them as mummified corpses by the time the rest of the team awakens. Trying to make the best out of the situation, the rest want to continue surviving, but then a primordal saber-tooth tiger gets too close and kills two more members, including the guide, leaving Aramaki, Fubuki and Mitsuru the last ones. Things seem to work out, they manage to live on for some time, \|\|but when the tiger returns to finish them off, Fubuki gets killed and Mitsuru, stricken with grief, dances in the snow and freezes to death, leaving Aramaki alone\|\|. And despite there being the hope spot of \|\|Fubuki having survived, being merely injured, turns out to be worse. Aramaki was desperate for company, so he imagined a dog that had grown accustomed to him as Fubuki. The dog ends up injured and dies, just as Aramaki has found a Fuji shelter\|\|. Aramaki does manage to find company in two puppies that he raises and travels with, but the events have given him severe Survivor's Guilt. Even if it can be difficult to tell at times. + Then you have the entire candidacy for Team Summer A. These are kids who are raised in an institution, knowing of the meteorites to come and are being raised for survival in a post-apocalyptic world and are in constant rivalry to be chosen for Team Summer A. Things get worse when \|\|Ango (and Ryo) find out that "dropping out" means getting killed, that their Final Test to determine who will be chosen involves killing everyone except the last remaining seven and then there is the Final Test itself. Students get killed by guns exploding due to backfiring from poor maintenance, being buried alive under rock, getting maimed by animals, being half-crushed under rocks and slowly dying...\|\| It's not a surprise that the members of Team Summer A are a bit...unhinged at times. * Itona Horibe of Assassination Classroom was \|\|abandoned by his parents when their company failed, bullied and beaten up at school, sent off to live with his uncle and ran away to live on the streets, picked up by Shiro and put through painful experimentation, made to fight Korosensei three times, lost all three, was abandoned by Shiro when his implants backfired, and spent days in agony from implant rejection.\|\| Even though he's introduced as a rival, by the end of all that you just want to hug him. * Attack on Titan does this to humanity as a whole, via their nightmarish circumstances. + The protagonist Eren Yeager has had a life of nothing but hell. He \|\|saved Mikasa from kidnappers at the age of 9 by killing them, watched as his mother was eaten by a Titan, saw countless numbers of friends and comrades murdered, was unwillingly turned into a Titan shifter by his father and entrusted with the fate of humanity (something he doesn't find out about until much later), almost gets eaten by a Titan himself, has to fight people he once considered his friends, he's been kidnapped at least twice, been put through extreme training to master his Titan abilities, almost lost his best friend Armin, has had to relive his father's memories of torture and betrayal, has been accused of being an enemy to humanity more than once by different factions, and lately has discovered that Titan shifters like himself only have a 13-year lifespan once they inherit their powers... and that's just the tip of the iceberg\|\|. \|\|Eren then broke his friendship with Mikasa and Armin in order to maintain the Stable Time Loop he inherited when he inherited the Attack Titan, witnessed first-hand the tragic creation of the First Titan, unleashed all Wall Titans on rest of the world as a result, and is killed by Mikasa, at which point he revealed he did everything so that his friends will be seen as true heroic Eldians and pave the path for true peace.\|\| + Mikasa Ackerman \|\|witnessed her parents being killed when she was a child and was kidnapped by slave traders. Thankfully Eren rescued her, but she ended up having to kill one of them herself. After being adopted by the Yeager family, she also saw Eren's mother be eaten by a Titan, and thought that Eren was dead during the battle of Trost. She's also had to kill other humans in self defence. Also, her two best friends are Titan shifters, which means they'll die long before her\|\|. Then, \|\|Eren makes her an accessory in the invasion of Liberio, has to witness the deaths of countless civilians including children, had to watch Sasha die, and then Eren tells her he always hated her and saw her as a slave. Then when she finally begun to move on from Eren, she has to kill Eren to stop him destroying the rest of the world, at which point he tells her he lied to her intentionally so that she could kill him and he always loved her.\|\| + Armin Arlert \|\|was bullied just for wanting to go beyond the walls. He watched as four members of his squad (including Eren) were eaten by Titans during the battle of Trost and felt extreme Survivor's Guilt. He's also responsible for figuring out Annie's true identity as the Female Titan. He's had to kill members of the Military Police, was molested while Disguised in Drag, and, most horrifically, sacrificed himself in the Shiganshina battle against the Colossal Titan, only to be revived after Eren and Mikasa convinced Levi to use a special serum to transform Armin into a Titan before eating Bertolt and gaining the Colossal Titan's powers. This, however, means that, like Eren, he only has 13 years to live. He was also saved in place of Erwin, the commander of the Survey Corps, which he struggles to come to terms with\|\|. Then \|\|Eren forces them to attack Liberio, he has to watch Sasha die along with Mikasa, and when confronting Eren about this, Eren beats him up and tells him he's weak and a slave to Bertolt's memories.\|\| + Levi \|\|is the Son of a Whore and grew up in extreme poverty. He was raised by serial killer Kenny Ackerman after his mother Kuchel died when he was little. Due to Kuchel's advanced state of decay by the time Kenny showed up, it seems that young Levi had been living in the same room with his dead mother for days. He turned to a life of crime to survive, and after being convinced by Erwin to join the Survey Corps, his only two friends were killed by Titans during their first mission outside the walls. While fighting the Female Titan, his entire squad is brutally killed by her, all because he told Eren to trust him. And even though he's tortured and killed people for information, he's rather disturbed to find out that the Titans he's devoted his life to killing were human all along. When Kenny comes back into his life, they're on opposite sides, and Kenny has fun tormenting Levi and shooting some of his subordinates right in front of him. However, when Kenny dies, Levi seems upset by it, as Kenny was his only relative. Later on, he also loses Erwin, whom he was rather close to and respected, after Levi makes the decision to save Armin instead (partially due to Eren and Mikasa's insistence)\|\|. \|\|After the Time Skip, most of his subordinates are turned into Titans by Zeke due to which he has to kill them all personally, and when Levi gets some semblance of revenge, Zeke blows both of them up which results in Levi being crippled for life. Even when Levi ultimately kills Zeke, it's only due to Zeke's own efforts to stop his half-brother's plans, so it was hollow for him.\|\| + Reiner Braun \|\|grew up believing his mother's lies that if he were to become a Child Soldier his parents would be able to live together again, as his mother is an Eldian and his father is a Marleyan and such a relationship is forbidden. He goes through hell to become the Armored Titan and is then sent, along with Annie, Bertolt and Marcel, to Paradis Island in order to retrieve the Founding Titan and its Coordinate ability from within the walls. On the way there, he finds out that the only reason he managed to gain the powers of the Armored Titan was because his friend Marcel begged military officials to give it to Reiner instead of Marcel's brother Porco. While digesting this information, Marcel is eaten by Ymir (who at this point in the story was a mindless Titan). This ends up becoming his greatest failure. It turns out that being The Mole caused his Sanity Slippage due to not being able to handle the role. He's unable to rescue Annie from her crystal and failed to defeat the Survey Corps in Shiganshina, which lead to him very narrowly escaping death... twice and Bertolt being captured and eaten. Upon returning to his hometown as a Shell-Shocked Veteran, he's made to serve on the front lines of another war, using his Titan powers to fight against an enemy nation. He's so broken that he Attempted Suicide but was thankfully interrupted. He then learns that his subordinate Falco is being used by Eren to sneak into enemy territory and send letters to an unknown party. Once Eren and Reiner meet for the first time in four years, Reiner is psychologically tormented by Eren and is reminded of all the things he and his friends are responsible for. Reiner also asks Eren to kill him\|\|. + Connie Springer. Just... the things done to that poor boy over the course of a month. He starts out as Plucky Comic Relief, but once things go downhill for him they go downhill quickly. Fresh from graduation, he's thrust into battle against the Titans and nearly killed several times. Many of his classmates die horrible deaths, leaving him deeply shaken. Even so, he does not lose the will to fight. Then it went From Bad to Worse, as strange events within Wall Rose result in him finding \|\|his village devoid of life, save a single crippled Titan that he's absolutely sure greeted him and looks like his mother\|\|. Then, he finds out that \|\|not only are three of his good friends secretly Titan Shifters, his surrogate Big Brother is in fact The Mole\|\| and nearly kills them all. Last but definitely not least, he takes part in an investigation of \|\|his Doomed Hometown, confirming that Titans were once human. The Titans that attacked within Wall Rose were his friends and family, who are all dead now. And the mysterious Titan that spoke to him is his mother, trapped as a near-mindless monster and probably doomed to spend the rest of her life as a test subject for the military\|\|. Ouch. Then, \|\|he has to watch Sasha die, the closest he feels to be a sister to him.\|\| + Grisha Yeager may have the longest, most traumatic conga line of all characters, as it seems his entire life's one of these. \|\|As a child, he and his sister Faye illegally snuck outside of their ghetto to watch a blimp land. They were caught by Marley military officials, after which Grisha was beaten and Faye taken away. Faye was found dead the next day, and the military denied any involvement. Many years later, he's informed of what really happened: Faye was fed to the dogs of one of the officers that was with them. This leads him to join the Eldian Restoration Movement, of which he eventually becomes leader. Through the Movement, he meets his first wife, Dina Fritz, who was sent to them by an informant known only as "Owl". They have a son named Zeke together, and force him to become the last beacon of hope for the Eldian empire's restoration. This involves signing Zeke up for the military's Tyke-Bomb training program, with the expectation that Zeke will inherit one of the powers of the Nine Titans and be able to infiltrate the military and learn closely guarded secrets. However, Zeke betrays his parents and turns them and the rest of the movement into the military. Grisha, Dina and their comrades are then tortured for information before being sent to Paradis Island as punishment. Grisha is forced to watch as his friends and wife are turned into mindless Titans. He's then saved by officer Kruger, who was one of the men present on the day Grisha and Faye went to watch the blimp. Kruger turns out to be a Titan shifter and kills all of the other military presonnel on the island with him. He reveals himself as "Owl", and convinces Grisha to take the powers of the Attack Titan so that Grisha can retrieve the Founding Titan from within Paradis's walls. Many years later, after the walls are breached by the Armored, Colossal and Female Titans (during which his second wife Carla is eaten), Grisha approaches the Reiss family and explains that he knows what's going on and begs them to hand over the Founding Titan. They refuse, so Grisha transforms and fights Frieda, the current holder of the Founding Titan. He manages to secure the Founding Titan, which he then bequeaths, along with the Attack Titan, to his son Eren, who he injects with a Titan transformation serum and is then eaten by\|\|. Whew. Wait, there's more. \|\|Then it's revealed Grisha gave up his plans to assimilate the Founding Titan as it meant he'd have to harm innocent women and children, at which point, Eren from the future intervenes and basically commands him to kill all of them excluding Rod Reiss (by forcing him to remember Faye and all the Restorationists), which Grisha reluctantly obeys. After inheriting the Founding Titan, Future!Eren shows him the Rumbling which he will enact, and orders Grisha to feed himself to the younger Eren so that the future comes to pass. Knowing how Eren will become an accessory to mass murder in the future and commanding him to do the needful and he will be the one who helps him to do so, Grisha reluctantly feeds himself to Eren.\|\| * Haru's entire life in Beastars has been incredibly difficult. As a tiny dwarf rabbit in a world full of predators, she had to accept at a young age that she could be killed and eaten at any time. To combat this feeling of helplessness, she turned to sex. Sex was the one thing that she could do and feel like she was in control, so she gained a negative reputation amongst the other girls and was only viewed as a sex object by the boys. At one point, she's nearly killed by Legoshi and later kidnapped and forced to humiliate herself in front of the Shishigumi so that she will taste better. * Berserk does this mercilessly with its three main characters: + Guts' childhood was singularly horrific. As a kid, he endured Training from Hell from a father figure who hated him due to blaming him for the death of his lover, enough to have him sold as a Sex Slave to one of his soldiers for one night, and who ultimately got drunk and tried to murder him, forcing the poor kid to kill him. Things went pretty good for him when he joined up with the Band of the Hawk, and even found a first love in Casca. Then the Eclipse went down, resulting in \|\|his best friend going bad in an unforgivable fashion, Guts losing everyone else except Casca to things out of pure nightmare, and losing an eye and being Forced to Watch as Casca is raped to insanity by Griffith himself in his new demonic form of Femto after having to chisel off his own left arm to try to save her\|\|. He is in hardcore vengeance mode following this, resulting in Guts becoming a bit of an asshole until some much-needed refocusing and reconnection with Casca and gaining a new set of True Companions sets him on the road to something resembling his original personality. + Casca was sold to a noble who wanted her for a Sex Slave. She was rescued by Griffith and became one of his best warriors, and life is good for her, and she eventually finds love in Guts. Then the Eclipse went down, resulting in \|\|Griffith going bad as mentioned above, Casca losing everyone under her command (particularly Pippin and Judeau, who sacrificed themselves to make sure she would live), getting captured and stripped naked by demons and ultimately being raped by Griffith himself in his new form of Femto, with Guts trying everything in his power but still failing to save her\|\|. Casca spends two years as a shell of her former self, before Guts takes her to Elfhelm along with some True Companions where a Journey to the Center of the Mind shows Casca's mind is a complete nightmare-scape with only a few a fragments memories that have to be placed together to restore Casca. \|\|Casca is brought to normal thanks to the efforts of Farnese and Schierke, Casca is overjoyed at the prospect of reuniting Guts and runs towards him only when she sees him the bad memories come rushing back causing Casca to scream in terror\|\|. + And then there's Griffith. His childhood was no walk in the park, but he lived quite happily until he discovered a kid who died in his service, whom he had come to befriend personally. Overwhelmed by guilt (not that he would ever admit this), he pimped himself out to a pederast lord for the money to fund his mercenary band, leaving him with serious emotional scars that he similarly hid from others. Then he meets, defeats, and befriends Guts, and life goes good for him up until Guts decides to leave him, and defeats him with one stroke, which brings him to the realization that he has forgotten his true ambitions and reason for living (due to the obsession that he had developed for him). Griffith's life falls apart after that \|\|when he's captured by the King's men after having sex with the Princess, resulting in him getting put to the torture for a year. By the time Guts and the rest of the Hawks rescue him, he's in a very bad way both physically and mentally, and has come to hate everything and everyone (except for Guts and Casca). This lasts up until Griffith finds out that Guts and Casca are in a relationship with each other and are discussing leaving him behind, at which point he loses it completely. And unfortunately for the two and the rest of the Hawks, his Crimson Behelit returns to him shortly afterward, and he activates it at the first opportunity, triggering the events of the Eclipse and his decision to take back his dream by sacrificing everyone in his command to the God Hand, including Guts and Casca, to become their fifth member, the monstrous Femto\|\|. Griffith crosses the Moral Event Horizon by the time this is through, and is now the Big Bad of the series. Bad things happen to the rest of the cast too, but they die pretty quickly as a result. * Revy from Black Lagoon never had it easy as a kid, growing up in New York's Chinatown with an unstable, alcoholic father who once beat her face with a bottle and outside the home she was constantly subjected to police harassment. She learned how to shoot a gun at an early age and says that she lost her faith in God the day the police beat her up for something she didn't do. The real tipping point that turned her into what she is now was when she was raped by a police officer and her father's only reaction when she told him was to order her to get him another beer, at which point \|\|he became her very first kill when she put a pillow over his face as an impromptu silencer and shot him\|\|. Things didn't get much better after that, with her spending time in prison, being (in her own words) treated like a whore by her comrades, and occasionally falling into "Whitman Fever". By the time Rock meets her she's well past the Despair Event Horizon, but with his influence has started getting a little better (or at least not as crazy). And the setting being what it is, she got off comparatively easy relative to some characters. * Bleach: Ichigo Kurosaki knows his need to protect can be exploited by the enemy and by the Lost Agent Arc was so smart about this that he was starting to find it annoying. That's when it's revealed that the Arc Villain's plan took this ennui into account. The villain built up trust with Ichigo while tearing down his friends in secret, leaving Ichigo feeling isolated and alone in a world gone mad, unable to do anything other than fight for the strength to save his friends and family. Once he obtained that strength, the villain stepped forward and promptly stole them. In one instant, Ichigo was bereft of his friends, his family and his power and, quite literally, left with nothing but the clothes on his back, a sword through his chest, and tears pouring down his face at how completely he had failed. Before this arc, it would never have been believable to see Ichigo, a stalwart shounen hero, on his knees crying. This arc made it happen. * In Brave10, this is how you trigger Isanami's Superpowered Evil Side. Any time Isanami experiences trauma or sadness, the power of Izanami spreads out and kills everything nearby, and the kushimitama is suppressing that power rather than its source as was first believed. Making matters worse, Isanami overhears Yukimura telling the other Braves about this while trying to recover from the trauma of Ana's betrayal. This leads to her going into something of a Heroic BSoD followed immediately by the Iga Grotesque Five attack. Things start looking dire for Sasuke and Kakei while Isanami can only watch, which is what finally leads to Izanami taking over her. * The Rival to Carole & Tuesday's eponymous duo, Angela, has a rough time near the end of the series. While Carole and Tuesday are slowly finding more and more success in the music business, Angela starts her fall from grace. A Stalker with a Crush spends several episodes spying on her, sending her threats and had one of her colleagues run over by a car. Once that's dealt with, she realizes that her music producer/crush made an AI replica of her, then states that he no longer needs to study her. Angela is offended when Tao tries to force her to use the AI as a guide, but her mother fights her; she doesn't want Angela to mess up and ruin all the hard work she put into making Angela famous. Dhalia says that she adopted Angela and isn't her real parent, in an attempt to hurt her. The fight ends with Dhalia having a heart attack and dying not long after, leaving Angela alone. Angela turns to drugs to cope, but sends out one final plea for help to her crush to save her. He ignores her. This all culminates in Angela achieving her mother's dream of singing at the Mars Grammys, but collapses on-stage and is rushed to the hospital. * Chainsaw Man appears to be the result of the author deciding to inflict this trope on Denji as much as possible. He is abused, starved, and outright murdered, and that's just in the first chapter alone. Every friend he makes is either torn from him in the cruellest of ways, or only befriended him in the first place in order to take advantage of his trait of latching onto everyone who shows him the slightest bit of the affection he is so desperately starved of. Poor Denji's life is defined by his never-ending traumatic experiences. * CLANNAD: Tomoya Okazaki, particularly in the latter half of After Story. \|\|His estranged father gets arrested and ruins any chance at a job, then just as his life is turning around his wife Nagisa suffers a Death by Childbirth. He's in a Heroic BSoD for the next five years until he finally manges to reconnect with his daughter...who then dies herself a few months later, with Tomoya himself dying of grief. Only a Reset Button Ending saves the whole family.\|\| * Lelouch Lamperouge, the Anti-Hero of Code Geass, gets a mixture of type B and D. However, streaks of result A are shown at the end as \|\|his last act is to make himself the enemy of the world so the world becomes peaceful by his death\|\|. + There are a few other characters that would fall under this, too, though less obviously due to not being the main character. Shirley and Suzaku Kururugi stick out the most, but there are more, this being Code Geass. + Lelouch actually has a lot more in common with Type E, largely because he still has a firm grasp of his own sense of right and wrong, as well as wanting to see his ultimately noble goals come to fruition, even if he comes across as quite dark. It's hard to be a Type B when your enemy is a racist Empire that has one leader \|\|willing to destroy individuality due to his own crappy childhood, and a Prime Minister who's willing to nuke the whole world from orbit to enforce peace\|\|. Shirley almost becomes type C, before Mao makes her go into Type D, then she almost lapses into type C again before some Laser-Guided Amnesia allows her to shift into type A. Suzaku aims quite valiantly for type A, but with everything that happens, he shifts into either B or D (depending on your perspective) at the end of episode 19 of R2, before joining Lelouch in type A. * A Cruel God Reigns: Jeremy. This poor kid gets everything from abuse, rape, being forced to live with his rapist, countless piles of guilt, \|\|drug addiction, prostitution\|\|, some pretty hefty Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and having to live as a murderer, the poor guy has to deal with it all. Also an example of Break the Cutie. At the beginning of the story, Jeremy is pretty much sweetest, most innocent teenagers to walk the Earth, but that changes in one of the first few chapters. At different points of the story, Jeremy is Type A, Type C, and Type E. * Both main characters from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners experience all sorts of hardships throughout the series: + David is bullied in Arasaka academy and loses his mother to a car accident in the first episode. \|\|As the series progresses, he witnesses his friends getting flatlined one after another and he eventually begins to succumb to cyberpsychosis after he accidentally kills an innocent woman working for Arasaka. Finally, he sees his girlfriend Lucy betrayed by Kiwi and kidnapped by Faraday, creating a scenario when he has to install the cyberskeleton to rescue her. His conga line ends in heartbreaking fashion, as he only has enough time to help Lucy escape before meeting a brutal end at the hands of the notorious Hero Killer Adam Smasher.\|\| + Lucy \|\|as a child is enslaved by Arasaka to explore the Old Net, a task that kills many children from her group. She ends up being the Sole Survivor from her group's escape attempt, and the death of her captors makes her a fugitive within the corporation. Then, years afterwards, her friends from Maine's crew die one-by-one in a span of few months before she gets tricked by Faraday and double-crossed by Kiwi while trying to protect David, the person she loves the most, from the company that exploited her as a child. The finale caps this awful conga line off when she loses David, who ends up sacrificing himself to buy her time to escape from Arasaka Tower.\|\| * Daimos: Sayuri watches her mother and father get murdered by alien invaders, and due to her resemblance to their Princess, Balbas takes her hostage. While at the hospital, she notices Kazuya carrying a wounded Baam soldier on his back and shoots at him, only for Kazuya to take the hit. Once she realizes she has blood on her hands, she breaks down crying. Kazuya, while injured, assures her that she's not a bad person. However, he maintains that she can't give in to her impulses and exact revenge by killing people. * Ryota Mitarai from Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School was bullied in childhood so much that he became a recluse to make the perfect anime, which he wanted to use to bring hope to the world. This goal drove him so relentlessly he overworked himself to the point his health declined, which results in him meeting Ax-Crazy psycho \|\|Junko Enoshima\|\| on his way to the hospital. She manipulates and deceives him into turning his anime of hope into a weapon of despair, with the first test victim being one of his two friends. It works and said friend almost rapes him. Then he witnesses a classmate get shot in front of him, receives a brutal Breaking Speech from \|\|Junko\|\|, watches as his anime is used to help destroy the world, and lastly, gets trapped in the Final Killing Game, all with crushing guilt and despair for his unwitting role in it all. This guy can't catch a break. Eventually, he \|\|snaps and becomes the Big Bad of Side:Hope, deciding to invoke Brainwashing for the Greater Good on the entire world\|\|. And the worst part is that \|\|this was the entire purpose of the Final Killing Game — to make him snap so that he would decide to brainwash the world and eradicate despair\|\|. + Chiaki Nanami has just as bad a time as him, having spent all her childhood alone and friendless before she went to Hope's Peak. Once there, she found a boyfriend in Hajime, friends in her class, and a mother figure in her teacher Chisa, before every single one of them is taken away from her. Hajime disappears for a year, as he was subject to human experimentation that wiped all his memories, and she spends it fruitlessly waiting and wondering when he'll come back. When he does, he says to her face that he doesn't remember her. Her teacher \|\|is tortured into insanity and betrays Chiaki to Junko — without Chiaki ever finding out that Chisa wasn't herself.\|\| Then Chiaki learns that \|\|by leading her friends on a rescue mission, she inadvertently doomed them to the same fate as Chisa. And finally, she gets locked into a death maze by the Big Bad, where she is slowly, painfully, tortured via numerous traps. When she reaches the end, she is given a Hope Spot of escape, only to be impaled by dozens of spears and left to bleed to death on the floor. She ultimately dies in pain, in tears, sobbing to Izuru (Hajime's new self, who found her after but still doesn't remember her) about how she wants to stay with him and their friends.\|\| * After a childhood full of emotional and (implied) physical abuse at the hands of his mother and, as an adolescent, more abuse (and an attempt on his life) at the hands of his half-brother, Kazutaka Muraki, the main villain of Descendants of Darkness, becomes a very creepy Result B. * Allen Walker, from D.Gray-Man. Even before the series starts, he's abandoned by his parents at birth because of his apparently deformed arm. As a very young child he works at a circus where he's beaten by the clowns. He's finally adopted by Mana at the age of seven, only to lose him three years later. The Millennium Earl promptly manipulates a griefstricken Allen into making a contract to bring his foster father back, only to have Mana come back horribly wrong and curse him. Allen is forced by his own anti-Akuma weapon arm to kill his now-Akuma father and the trauma turns his hair white. Allen then goes through Training from Hell with his Jerkass mentor General Cross for four years, which leads to him becoming an exorcist and the start of the series. After the series starts, the hits keep coming, including having his Innocence seemingly destroyed and getting a hole torn out of his heart thanks to Tyki; having his friends disappear one by one as the Ark disintegrates around him; and having the only place that he could ever call home, the Order, almost be destroyed by a Level Four Akuma attack. Think he deserves a break? Not a chance. After nearly killing himself to fight off the Level 4 Akuma, he is told that he is \|\|the host of the mysterious Fourteenth Noah who's going to take over his body, and in the process of doing so, will destroy Allen's personality and force him to kill someone who he loves dearly\|\|. His mentor General Cross suddenly disappears under highly suspicious circumstances. Now Allen's being treated by almost everyone in the Order as a potential threat that needs to be ruthlessly eliminated at the smallest sign of stepping out of line. And in the most recent chapters, \|\|the Fourteenth is not only awakening inside Allen, but is capable of taking control of Allen's body without any warning in his quest to become the next Millennium Earl.\|\| Iron Woobie, indeed. * Dragon Ball: + Poor, poor, Future Trunks. His father died when he was a baby, had to spend his whole childhood living in solitude and when he wasn't living in solitude he had to deal every day with reports of thousand people dying in cities all over the world. Future Trunks trains for several years and tries to save the world taking on the Androids only to lose on every occasion. Then his mentor/father-figure \|\|Gohan\|\| is murdered in cold blood. After that he trains for several years to avenge said fallen mentor and when he takes on the Androids ends up nearly dying. He then travels back in time to try and make thing better and only makes thing worse by unwittingly creating alternate timelines, goes back to his timeline only to find out nothing has change and so goes back to the main timeline again and ultimately ends up being killed by Cell. Then the Fridge Horror kicks in when you realize that the Cell that killed Future Trunks is not only from a timeline that Future Trunks created due to his constantly time travelling, but in the timeline which that Cell came from, he also killed Future Trunks and stole his time machine to travel back in time. + Gohan has a very bad day at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z. On a trip to see some of his father's old friends, he is kidnapped by his insane evil uncle from space and physically assaulted by said uncle, his father is killed by his then-archenemy in the rescue attempt, he is kidnapped again by said archenemy and told he is going to have to help fight off an invasion by two aliens even stronger than the one who just fought off both badasses combined, he is left to survive in the wastelands for six months with no hope of escape and no tools except a sword and the clothes on his back, and he is attacked by a dinosaur. All of this at the tender age of four. * Elfen Lied. The anime traumatizes the characters enough already, and let's just not get into the manga... * This sums up the life that Gray, from Fairy Tail lived. When he was a child, he lost his parents to Deliora, and was taken in by Ur, who'd trained him alongside Lyon. Because of his rage towards Deliora, he carelessly attacks Deliora, and is overwhelmed, forcing Ur to perform a Heroic Sacrifice, killing herself along with Deliora. He is immediately spurned by Lyon, and is forced to fight him years later. Fast-forward to the Tenrou Island arc, he fights Ur's daughter and his sisterly figure, and is suspended in time along with many of the other Fairy Tail members. During the Grand Magic Games arc, he loses spectacularly during the Hidden challenge, and becomes a laughingstock to the audience. Then, he is violently killed by a dragon, only to be revived by Ultear's time reversal, which ends up turning her into an old woman instead, and Gray is the only one to know of what she'd done for Fairy Tail. Fast-forward to the Tartaros arc, where he faces the threat of everyone who Ur cared about being murdered. On top of that, \|\|he was almost forced to kill his zombie father Silver and loses him anyway as Silver told Juvia to deactivate Face, which would kill Silver in the process.\|\| Subsequently, he'd been \|\|turned into a demon after battling Silver, and is set to kill Frosch, as Future!Rogue had warned during the latter half of the Grand Magic Games arc. In turn, this would lead to Ultear's Heroic Sacrifice\|\|. No wonder Gray is so somber, especially compared to Natsu and Lucy. * Fullmetal Alchemist: Another one that most would answer with "Everyone", however this is especially true for Roy, Riza, and everyone who had to live through both Ishval and the Promised Day storylines. + Edward from Fullmetal Alchemist (2003). Both at the beginning of the series and at the end. * Ga-Rei -Zero-: + Kagura. She \|\|kills a teacher from her school who was possessed by a demon, gets disowned by her friends, watches as people around her get massacred, sees her best friend and surrogate sister Yomi get turned evil, watches Yomi kill her father, then finally kills Yomi with a knife to the chest, at which point Yomi tells her she loves her.\|\| Amazingly, the result is eventually type A, even though it's obvious that nothing can fill that spot for Yomi in Kagura's heart (a later arc of the manga deals with this, as \|\|someone who looks exactly like Yomi appears\|\|). Mind you, in the manga Kagura had even worse things happening to her. The turn of events destroyed what little resolve she still possess in order to live, and thus her spiritual beast went absolutely out of control. Life is a lot unfair for Kagura. + Forget Kagura, Yomi had it even worse. \|\|Yomi's adoptive father his killed by her Seishouseki-mind-controlled adoptive cousin, the cousin takes what was supposed to be her place as the family head and her inheritance, then lures her to a fight. When the cousin admits killing Yomi's father, she goes berserk and kills her. Then Mitogawa attacks Yomi, rendering her quadraplegic and mute, and she is accused of murdering her cousin. Her fiancee Noriyuki is too busy trying to prove her innocence to visit her in the hospital, his father breaks off their Perfectly Arranged Marriage because of her physical condition, and her best friend Kagura abandons her after she admits to killing her cousin. Then Mitogawa gives her the same Seishouseki, which heals her but its mind-control powers provide the extra push to send her Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and killing her former friends.\|\| Her Despair Event Horizon is such a Tear Jerker that even after becoming a Type B she is still sympathetic. * Albert Morcef from Gankutsuou. Albert first gets betrayed by the Count and Peppo, who he thought could be trusted, when Haydee exposes Albert's father as a criminal who gained nobility and power through non legal means. Then, his best friend Franz gets killed when Franz decides to go to the duel with the Count (the duel which the Count goaded Albert into making so the Count can get an excuse to kill Albert) instead of Albert. However, instead of breaking down, Albert ends up taking the route A and becomes a better person who not only saves the Count's soul from Gankutsuou but also fixes his father's wrongs by becoming an envoy of peace. + Don't forget that Albert's father also tries to stage a coup detat after he's exposed, even going so far as to try to kill his own wife and son when they get in the way. * Gintoki from Gintama qualifies. His earliest memories were as an orphan wandering on a battlefield scavenging for food from death bodies and being ostracized as the corpse-eating demon. He was taken in by Shouyou, his teacher and father figure, and lived with him until Shouyou was arrested for his teachings against the current rotten government. Gintoki joined the war against the government to save his teacher and lost many friends in battle, many of which are still giving him nightmares even at present day. At the end he was captured and forced to execute his teacher, which turned his former best friend and comrade against him. After the war, Gintoki gave himself up and go to jail where he was repeatedly starved and tortured while awaiting the execution day, until a guard felt pity and let him escape. A starving Gintoki then wandered into a graveyard, where he met an old woman who gave him food and a place to live. * Pretty much all of the protagonists in Gunslinger Girl are this. The main protagonist, Henrietta, was repeatedly raped (to the point where she apparently can't menstruate due to it) and abused next to the bodies of her recently murdered family. She doesn't angst about it because she can't. Her memories of the incident were wiped when she was made into a Child Soldier. Between the rape and being a cyborg she was deeply suicidal so wiping her memories might be a good thing.. Until you remember the whole "Being a terminally ill child soldier who is barely treated as a human" part that came along with it. Her friends weren't treated much better before becoming cyborgs, for example Triela was involved in a snuff film and Angelica was ran over by her parents. The oldest cyborg is only around sixteen and most are under fourteen. * On the other hand, Ayasaki Hayate of Hayate the Combat Butler is a most admirable example of Result A. You would think that being raised by two pathologically-unemployed con-artists of parents as a cash-cow only to be abandoned to some very nice people to pay off debt money with your organs would turn the boy Joker-Crazy. Wouldn't you know it, he is still a kindhearted fella who would give his life for a total stranger. + If you think about it, Hayate is kinda Joker-crazy. His childhood was crap, his parents were evil, and the universe occasionally punts him around like an old football ("Watch out for this paint that will permanently stain a cashmere coat!" and "We will attack you with swords that cut cashmere really well!" come to mind). And yet...he keeps smiling. * Hellsing. Seras Victoria had her police unit dispatched to a hamlet which happened to have been infested with vampires, all of whom were killed, including herself, then sired as a vampire herself. It all goes downhill from there. She wobbles between Type C and D until at long last, karma leaves her alone enough for her to develop into what seems to be a Type A thirty years after Millennium's attack. * In the first episode of Idol Densetsu Eriko, Eriko's parents are involved in a car accident, leaving her father dead, her mother ending up in a coma, and her evil uncle in charge of her father's music company. Things get worse from there. * While all the main characters from Inuyasha have suffered through trauma at some point, what Sango experiences towers over them all. First her younger brother's mind is taken over by Naraku, then she watches her controlled brother kill her companions and father, then her controlled brother inflicts near-fatal injuries on her, and then she discovers Naraku's minions have wiped out her entire village while she was away. * Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied? has in spades + For Shiori, \|\|her bullying intensifies over the course of the school year, from a jealous classmate taking a risque video of her while she was asleep to acts of physical violence. She is close to being Driven to Suicide when Aizawa-sensei, who appeared Ambiguously Evil by allowing the bullying to happen, reveals he was Good All Along by collecting evidence of the bullying and giving her the means to share it with the world. The ringleader of the bullies tries to get one more dig at her by revealing her father had an affair with the basketball team manager, which permanently damages her relationship with her father.\|\| + For Shiori's bullies, \|\|their acts coming to light leads them all to become pariahs in short order. Nagumo tries to get one over on her and Aizawa by revealing her father's infidelity and using her mother, an activist against school bullying, to have Aizawa fired for allegedly facilitating the bullying. Aizawa, however, manages to turn the situation around by coming forward at a media conference about both the actions he took to punish the bullies and his own history as a bullying victim. Of all the bullies, Yumi has the most positive outcome, as she expresses genuine remorse and apologizes to Shiori, the two mending their relationship as she finds the strength to face the challenges that will come with having her stained reputation in a public high school. The other bullies are not so fortunate: Himekawa drops out of school and is last seen hanging with disreputable men (the implication being that she has turned to prostitution), Takahashi has become a paranoid Hikkikomori, and Nagumo's family was last seen moving out into the countryside after her parents lost their jobs due to their reputations being destroyed.\|\| + For Shiori's father: \|\|When Shinji Suzuki's wife discovered he was having an affair with his daughter's basketball coach, she was Driven to Suicide. She thankfully survived the ordeal, but when Shiori discovers the affair, her trust in him is shattered, and she and her mother leave to live with relatives for a time. Afterwards, he discovers the homeroom teacher who had been helping Shiori with her bullying problem all along was Aizawa-sensei, his former victim. When alone, Suzuki reveals that he has zero remorse for the whole ordeal. Little does Suzuki realize, Shiori was listening in, and this revelation completely destroys their relationship. Afterwards, his mistress, the basketball coach, airs his dirty laundry to the staff and patrons of the bank he works at, accompanied by faxes of the photo that Nagumo tried to use as blackmail against Shiori. As a result, Suzuki is denied his promotion and reduced to performing grunt work. His wife then presents him with divorce papers, having discussed the matter with Aizawa. At the end of his rope, Suzuki calls two of his former classmates, one of whom had approached him with the idea of hiring someone to deal with Aizawa, and asks to arrange for a hitman to kill Aizawa. Unfortunately for him, Aizawa put them up to presenting this "option" to Suzuki. A subsequent leaking of the audio of Suzuki trying to arrange a hit gets him fired. With no job, his reputation in ruins, and his family disowning him, he tries to kill Aizawa with his car, but the suddenl realization that Shiori would get bullied for being the daughter of a murderer sees him change course at the last minute, falling down a mountainside and getting paralyzed. Just as he is being discharged from the hospital with plans to recouperate his losses and repair his relationship with Shiori, one of his former victims — a client who loaned from the bank he worked at and whom Suzuki mistreated — grabs his wheelchair and situates him in the path of an oncoming train...\|\| * JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Jonathan Joestar lost his mother when he was a baby which was very sad by itself, but then Dio showed up when he was 12; starting with beating him at everything, stealing his girlfriend's first kiss and settling his dog on fire. Long story short, it got worse from there. + Let's not forget Johnny Joestar. One, his father openly favored his brother over him. Two, his pet rat killed his brother after it was set free by him. Three, after that, his father wouldn't acknowledge him because he couldn't beat a certain British punk, and when Johnny and his dad fought, his dad said "God had taken the wrong son". \inhale\ Finally, Johnny got shot in the spine by a young boy after he was persuaded to take the boy's spot in the line for a play. After he lost the use of his legs, things kept getting worse for Johnny. At least until... + Enrico Pucci from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean got his Start of Darkness from a traumatic series of improbable coincidences. \|\|First, a woman appears in his church and confesses to him that she stole a child from the Pucci family at birth, which Pucci realizes is his long-lost twin brother, who is unknowingly dating his sister. Refusing to disclose this secret due to confessional privacy, he instead hires a group of private investigators to break his siblings up. However, the private investigators were members of the KKK and mistook his twin brother for being half-black due to the race of his stepfather, which causes them to lynch him. This caused Pucci's sister to commit suicide, not realizing her brother/boyfriend barely survived\|\|. The string of horrible coincidences caused Pucci to fall under the sway of Dio, and he set into motion a plan to make all of humanity aware of their future fates so that they would never experience the pain of sudden tragedy and surprise. * Pretty much every one in Kagerou Project has absolutely terrible things happen to them, but special mention goes to poor, poor, Kano. \|\|First his mother was unstable and abusive, causing Kano to see himself as no more than an object that can simply be thrown away, then when he's five a man breaks into his house and kills both him and his mother. Child Kano is brought back after entering a hellish never-ending world with the ability to shapeshift and is sent to live with distant relatives until they find out about said power and dump him in an orphanage. There he, along with Kido and Seto, is bullied and treated like a monster by other children. It all seems to be looking up when the trio get adopted by a happy family, only for their adoptive mother to die when they're 13 years old. His father is possesed by the snake that saved him from dying as well and is now plotting to kill Kano and his siblings to bring their mother back to life. Kano is informed of this plot by his older sister and is later forced to watch her kill herself in front of him in an attempt to ruin their dad's plan- only it backfires and Kano is threatened that Kido and Seto will be killed if he disobeys and is forced to lie to them for two years. Eventually he and his friend are all murdered brutally in order to trigger a time reset where all this happens again and again.\|\| * The start of the first episode of Kotoura-san has one for the local telepath Haruka: \|\|her classmates ostracize her at school because she's different; her parents' unstable marriage is scuttled by her absentee, philandering father and lonely, desperate mother; her mother eventually abandons her, saying Haruka should never have been born to her face; a stray cat she was caring for — her last remaining friend — was taken to the pound by a cranky old woman (effectively a death sentence in Japan); and a broken, cynical Haruka ends up living alone, convinced it's better than being around other people\|\|. Her resolution was a bit different from what was described in the lead, though: she met Yoshihisa Manabe, a boy whose only worry about being with a telepath was to rein in his dirty thought. Right, she is clearly happier with the first friend (and not long after, lover) that she made. * Maria no Danzai: + Kiritaka Nagare suffers a traumatizing series of events that end with his death. He saw one of his classmates being tortured by a group of satanic bullies, so he took the classmate's place to protect him. He was tortured for months, and the bullies ostracized him from his classmates, so he endured the torture alone. He kept quiet about the torture from his parents because he didn't want to worry his mother while he gathered evidence to turn the bullies in. After months of torture, Kiritaka is forced by the bullies to jump onto the road by threatening to post a fake sex video of his mother. He jumps and breaks his legs when his mother sees him jump, and then he's hit by a truck and dies, meaning that all he endured was for nothing. + It's bad enough that Mari watched her son get run over by a truck and was left to cradle his mutilated corpse in the middle of the road, but on top of that Okaya's gang fabricated enough evidence that Kiri's death was eventually written off a suicide caused by Abusive Parents, leaving Mari to blame herself and her husband for his death and sink into depression. Learning the truth in that state did no favors to her sanity. * Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: Even for a Child Soldier in Tekkadan, Akihiro has had one hell of a rough life. At a young age his parents were killed by Space Pirates and he and his younger brother Masahiro were abducted, conditioned to become Human Debris, and then separated when one was sold off. When Akihiro finally reunites with Masahiro years later, \|\|his younger brother has been so traumatized by his experiences that he tries to kill him and later ends up dying before his eyes. He does later adopt some rescued Human Debris children as his younger brothers, but one of them ends up dying due to the machinations of a Corrupt Politician. Afterwards, he becomes close with Lafter and starts to come out of his shell a bit, only for her to be killed as part of a Mob War before either one of them can confess their feelings. In the end, Akihiro is never able to find a peaceful life and dies the way he lived most of his life — on the battlefield — after mustering up just enough strength to kill the one responsible for Lafter's death.\|\| * Most of the first chapter of My Hero Academia is the capstone of one that has lasted nearly all of Izuku Midoriya's life. After being outed as Quirkless, he was mocked and ostracized from his peers who belittled him for his desire to become a hero without a superpower. In the span of a few hours, he's humiliated by his entire class, has his prized notebook scorched and tossed out a window into a koi pond, told to jump off a roof, and is nearly murdered by a supervillain. Then he has a Hope Spot when he meets his lifelong hero and idol, All Might, whose deeds inspired Izuku's dream and shaped his worldview. Then All Might is revealed to be a shriveled husk of his former self due to an injury five years ago before he tells Izuku to give up, as it's far too dangerous for him to be a hero without a Quirk. With his hopes and dreams crushed into tiny pieces, Izuku realizes that he accidentally freed the villain All Might was trying to capture and is overwhelmed with guilt. But he rushes in to help when he sees that the victim is his Childhood Friend and bully, Katsuki Bakugou, but he manages to do absolutely nothing to change the situation for the better until All Might swoops in to rescue both of them. Izuku is then thoroughly chewed out by the heroes on-site for recklessly rushing in and complicating the situation further. Finally, Izuku is ready to go home and give up on his dreams when All Might once again appears, this time to apologize to Izuku and give him the chance to become a hero. + Katsuki Bakugo goes through this in Season Three, as after two seasons of having it hammered in that he was a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond prior to UA and has a lot of work to do before he can be considered a hero, he gets targeted by the League of Villains during the Summer Camp Training arc. Not only does he get kidnapped by supervillains while his classmates are injured in the attack, but All Might fails to save him the first time and then \|\|loses his power\|\| fighting the series Big Bad, All For One. The incident traumatizes Bakugou and he is given no support during this, not helped by his mother Mitsuki's attempt at reigning him in just reinforcing his own self-loathing from the event. In sheer frustration and guilt, Bakugou challenges Midoriya to a fight and has a mental breakdown, screaming that it's all his fault that All Might had to retire. It takes the man himself giving Bakugou a Cooldown Hug and assuring him that none of what happened is his fault before finally telling Bakugou the truth about himself and Midoriya that he starts to let go of the emotional burden, and even then it's clear he isn't entirely over it. + The Class 1A Ace Shoto Todoroki's entire life is this to a tee. \|\|His existence was the result of his father's dangerous ambition to surpass All Might, leading to a calculated marriage with Shoto's mother in order to produce powerful children (essentially practicing eugenics). Shoto was fully aware of the circumstances of his birth, and his status as his father's "masterpiece" led to torturous training designed to make him stronger than All Might. However, this training was incredibly abusive and left deep psychological scars on both Shoto and his mother. In addition, Shoto was isolated from his siblings due to his older brother's attempted murder of him as a child, which further contributed to his emotional detachment. The culmination of these tragic circumstances left his mother mentally unstable, to the point where she eventually snapped upon seeing the left side of Shoto's face, which reminded her of Enji. In a moment of distress, she threw a kettle of boiling water over her son, scarring him and resulting in her permanent admission to a psychiatric ward. Not long after, his eldest brother Touya seemingly died, prompting Enji to intensify Shoto's already brutal training.\|\| Shoto's traumatic upbringing caused him to fixate solely on rejecting his father. Fuelled by resentment, he became cold and distant towards others. However, after joining U.A., his classmates gradually helped him open up and begin processing his trauma. This led to him using his fire quirk again and eventually visiting his mother for the first time in over a decade. Furthermore, his father soon realised the error of his ways, attempting to atone for his past actions to Shoto. Despite this seemingly positive turn, Shoto's life once more declined as he soon discovered \|\|that his brother Touya was alive and a member of the League of Villains as Dabi. Touya publicly revealed the details of Shoto's past to all of Japan and attempted to kill him by immolation. Shoto was forced to defeat his brother, who eventually succumbed to his injuries.\|\| Despite everything, with the support of his friends and remaining family, Shoto has managed to work through most of his past trauma, resulting in him \|\|successfully graduating with the rest of his class and becoming the Number Two Hero\|\|. + Life hasn't been kind to Tomura Shigaraki, rampant psychopathy aside. \|\|He was born into a household where his father would physically and emotionally abuse him while his family stood by and watched, which invariably led to them all being ill-equipped for his Quirk to manifest, killing them all. He wandered the streets after and everybody he came across refused to help, until All For One of all people found him and took him in, where his psychological torment would only continue. All For One groomed him into the Misanthrope Supreme over the course of 15 years, awaiting the day he would transplant his consciousness inside him to use as a meat suit and employ his willpower in stealing the elusive One For All with the intent of burying whatever was left of Shigaraki deep within. It's no wonder he eventually turned into the most dangerous villain the world had ever seen. This isn't even without mentioning that said abusive household was engineered by All For One as well, and, worst of all, orchestrated Tomura's very birth and replaced and his original quirk with Decay, meaning Shigaraki simply didn't have any chance to have a normal life at all.\|\| * My-HiME + Mai Tokiha was a kind and emotionally strong girl who looked after her Delicate and Sickly little brother with a weak heart by giving up her own childhood to work for his medical bills after losing both her parents. Having both that little brother and the boy she came to love die in rapid succession, as well as seeing that the one to blame is, supposedly, her best friend and sworn sister, can even break a saint like her into a nihilistic Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. + In very short order Natsuki Kuga is told by a Searrs operative that her mother was planning to sell her to the organization shortly before she died. Then she's waylaid by her Arch-Enemy, Nao, who wants to do a literal Eye-for-an-Eye (and Natsuki later tells Shizuru she tried repeatedly to call her CHILD at that time to no avail). After Shizuru rescues her, and it looks like she's recovering, she overhears Yukino and Haruka talking about how they witnessed Shizuru kissing her while she slept. Then Yukino suggests that it went even further than that the night before, which Shizuru neither confirms nor denies, simply deflecting by accusing Yukino of being a voyeur. This leaves Natsuki devestated and unable to call her CHILD as Shizuru makes quick work of Yukuino's Diana, resulting in Haruka's death. Natsuki finally returns to her apartment, only to find Nao waiting for her, and ties her up in a Crucified Hero Shot to draw out Shizuru. * Nana from Nana's Everyday Life. The comic starts with her losing her limbs, and gets worse. + To a lesser extent in Elfen Lied too. Several times, she thinks she's finally put her old hellish life behind. Not so. Until the very end of the manga...maybe. * Naruto: + Naruto Uzumaki himself definitely qualifies. He was a life long outcast who never knew his parents at the beginning, before being told exactly why in a very brutal manner. Most of his peers treat him like trash—and, unbeknownst to him, the one girl who always treats him with kindness is too shy to get remotely close to him for many years—and he has to fight for every bit of respect he can. Not too much later, the closest thing to a grandfather and only family member he has dies, swiftly followed by his best friend's betrayal and attempt to kill him. He then spends three years away from his friends for the sole purpose of bringing back said best friend, and when he gets back, one of them dies for a little while. Thankfully, he got better. Then he once again meets traitorous friend, and he once again attempts to kill him. Some time later, a third retrieval fails. Now, here's where it really starts. In rapid succession, his beloved mentor/father figure dies, his village is destroyed, another of his mentors is killed, and then he is Forced to Watch \|\|his future wife\|\| Hinata sincerely declare her love for him—the first time he ever heard anybody say that to him genuinely—and then, after a brief fight, get stabbed. Then his hopes of bringing his best friend back are shattered by revelation after revelation. + Sasuke Uchiha isn't exactly happy either. First his family is killed, and he is forced to watch it over and over again. All of this at the hands of his beloved brother. Just as he was beginning to open up more, he is humiliated time and again by the supposed dead last as he beats enemies even he couldn't. Then, he finally meets his brother again, where he gets beaten and Mind Raped again. This drives him into a Face–Heel Turn that Word of God says was quite painful for him, but that doesn't count. All is good for a time, until \|\|he achieves his goal. He is then told about how that was all a lie, his recently dead brother really was a good guy who loved him, and how his idolized family were actually traitors. He then suffers a series of defeats, one after another as he tries to get his revenge. Though once again, the most recent doesn't count due to working for the Big Bad\|\|. Naruto is lucky to be as well adjusted as he is, and Sasuke...well, it doesn't excuse his actions, but it does make it easier to see why he is doing what he is. + Then there's Kakashi. First his mother dies before she's thirty, then Kakashi witnesses his father's disgrace and subsequent suicide. Then his best friend "dies" saving him and their female teammate and then Kakashi promised said best friend that he'd protect their female teammate, only to end up breaking the promise and killing her and finally he loses Minato, who may well have been a Parental Substitute. Then when he began to teach his own team, one of his students pulls a Face–Heel Turn. And finally, it turns out his best friend is Not Quite Dead after all, and has become the Big Bad responsible for nearly everything that has happened in the manga. Kakashi needs some major therapy after all of this. + Also his best friend Obito qualifies. He was an orphan from little up who never knew his parent, despised in his own clan and only Rin acknowledged him and his dream of becoming a Hokage. On one of the missions he seeing how her kidnapped, having half his body crushed under rubble as he and Kakashi save her, and recovering with Madara's help, is given a Breaking Speech from the very same about how the world sucks, and it will only cause him pain, offering Obito a chance to create a new dream world at the expense of the current one. Obito promptly refuses, goes through months of painful rehabilitation, and eventually learns that Rin was kidnapped again, and goes on a desperate attempt to save her, arriving just in time to see her committed suicide hands by Kakashi, ending up a textbook example of Type B, believing Madara to be right and his solution to be the only way to save the world. Almost two decades later, after Obito returns to his old self and performs a Heel–Face Turn, he learns that Madara orchestrated Rin's death so as to manipulate Obito into joining him, since he knew that Obito was a kind person. Yeah, Kakashi isn't the only one that's going to need therapy after this. + Don't forget some of the other characters. Gaara, Kimimaro and Pain are stand outs. Notably a lot of them end up going the antagonist route (until Naruto shows them the error of their ways). + This makes Naruto a type A, Sasuke a mixture of B and D, Kakashi a type A, Gaara a B -> A, and Pain a type B. + Rock Lee was treated this way in Part I, with two parts inferiority complex/jealousy and two parts career-ending injury. Depending on how you look at it, he's either a type A or a type F: On the one hand, his injuries are healed and he ends up fighting alongside the guy who ruined his life. On the other hand, as a result of falling Out of Focus post-Time Skip, he stopped getting Character Development but no longer seems to be miserable. * Negima! Magister Negi Magi has Negi. Lets see, he's never known his parents, saw his entire hometown get destroyed at about age 6 or so, gets attacked by a vampire with a grudge against his father, inadvertently causes several of his students to get sold into slavery in the Magic World, gets framed for a terrorist attack (along with his other students), starts to lose control of his Black Magic, and when he finally discovered who his mother is, it turns out that most of the Magic World hates her because they think she's a genocidal maniac. And yet, he still manages to hold a positive outlook on life, making him a case of type A. He does occasionally show a few Type D traits, though. He's been shown to have some really severe hatred for those who destroyed his hometown, and it is suggested that, unconsciously, his real reason for learning how to fight so well was to exact revenge on those responsible. The fact that he specifically learned a spell designed to outright kill demons is telling... * Alice from Nemurihime. In the space of eight chapters she has \|\|lost her father, was stricken with a disease that will kill her in a year, was frozen for fifty years, learned that her doctor was in love with her but married another woman to have a family. His wife became so desparate for his affection that she figured they could only be Together in Death, which caused the doctor's son to hate Alice so much he unfroze her just to torture her for the rest of her life — which will be one year because there's still no cure for her disease\|\|. According to those who read the whole thing it gets worse. Poor Alice. * Neon Genesis Evangelion: + Shinji Ikari was a lonely, cripplingly introverted kid to begin with, thanks to seeing his mother die at a tender age and being subsequently abandoned by his father. Then, he gets shanghaied into piloting a mecha that's actually a Lovecraftian monstrosity, which exposes his already fragile mind to more than most adults can take. He gets beaten up at school for his efforts and his first proper battle experience all but ruins him, as in, he shut himself in his room for weeks, ran away, and contemplated jumping off a cliff. In spite of all this, Shinji manages to find himself some friends and a sort of replacement family and even bond with the cute girls surrounding him, pulling through all the challenges that life threw at him...until all of his achievements were ripped away from him in the cruelest possible fashion. First he put on a mental trial by the first Angel with psychic abilities, leading him to question and doubting himself, after which a critical mutual failure to understand each other leads to his relationship with a love interest souring, then, he has to watch his best friend get maimed at his own father's hands, all but destroying their relationship that was finally showing subtle signs of improvement, next, his mentor/father figure is assassinated and his mother figure falls into deep depression as a result, one of his love interests gets subjected to brutal Mind Rape and the other dies to save his life, just to be replaced by a clone who barely reacts to him, after which he's treated to watching several of these clones dissolving into bloods and gore, the revelation that his dead mother's soul is in his mecha all of which while he couldn't do a thing about her...and then, just when he's at the lowest of the low, some white haired Bishōnen turns up and wants to be his friend...except he turns out to be an enemy whom Shinji has to kill...and ends up sacrificing himself for Shinji's sake. Guilt-ridden, the poor boy loses his will to live, but is unwilling to kill himself as well. After trying unsuccessfully to find refuge in his comatose love interest, he just curls up and waits for someone to shoot him. Cue End of Evangelion. Uniquely, Shinji is all over the scale of results for this trope. At the start of the series he is already a Result E from his back-story alone. Throughout the series he keeps going back and forth between Result F, D and C. He usually tries to be a Result F, until something pushes him far enough and he plunges into D, which he usually precedes to fail at landing him on C until he manages to crawl back to F. In End of Evangelion he \|\|finally breaks the cycle by just giving up entirely and temporary becoming a Result B before finally managing to find a way to Result A\|\|. + In Rebuild of Evangelion, he's a strange variation of a Result D. \|\|He, not Unit 01, goes berserk at the end of 2.0 to save Rei, but doesn't give a damn if he kills everything else in the process. It's even displayed earlier in the movie, when he tries to destroy NERV and off Gendo with his EVA for using the dummy system on Unit 03 while Asuka was inside it.\|\| Then he goes through a particularly nasty one in Rebuild 3.0. that sends him straight into Result C. + It is implied that Shinji's father is a type B or a type E. + In fact, it's harder to name the characters who don't get put through the meatgrinder as the series progressed. Asuka Langley Soryu's story, in particular, is that of a naive young girl shattering on the hard rocks of reality. To wit: her mother went insane after an experiment with Unit-02, causing her to neglect Asuka before committing suicide. Since then, Asuka was resolved not to rely on anyone, nor to show weakness. Things seem to go well for some time after she arrives in Japan, helping to score major victories against a few Angels. After her caretaker Misato started going out again with her colleague and old flame Kaji, whom Asuka was also in love with, her confidence begins to waver, as does her performance in battle. While dealing with the fact that Shinji began to surpass her as a pilot, she is soundly taken out of action by the Angel Bardiel when it took control of Unit-03, then after that, fails to stop Zeruel when it assaults NERV HQ, the Angel completely tanking her attacks before disarming and beheading Unit-02. Following Kaji's death, she then tries to fight against Arale, which launches a psychic assault on her that forces her to relive her trauma while confronting her with the belief that her only worth as a human being was in her ability to pilot an EVA: if she couldn't pilot Unit-02, she was better off dead. This specific trauma is further compounded by the fact that she was only saved from death by Rei, whom she had grown to despise, defeating the Angel. Her fears of losing all worth as a person become a self-fulfilling prophecy when Asuka is once again sortied against Armisael, only for her synchronization levels to have fallen so low that she can no longer operate Unit-02. After this, she becomes so suicidally depressed that she falls into a catatonic state. * Not Simple is essentially the trauma conga line of its main character, Ian's life. To explain, \|\|he is the product of incest between his father and sister, Kylie, but due to her young age, he was raised to believe his grandmother was his mother. Because of how he was born, both his father and grandmother hate him. After his sister ends up in jail, his "parents" divorce and he ends up with his grandmother, a drunk who abuses him and even pimps him out to pay for her alcohol, which leds to him getting H.I.V. After Kylie gets out of jail, she sends him to live with their father, with the promise that he can see her again when he beats his current running speed and this becomes his sole purpose in life. Unfortunately, before this could happen, Kylie died of H.I.V, which was given to her by the same pimp who infected Ian, who she nearly killed when she found out what he's done, which landed her in prison again. His grandmother blames him for all her and Kylie's misfortunes and disownes him, with his father doing the same shortly after. Eventually, he meets a rich woman who promises to run away with him in a year, only for him to discover later that she apparently died. He's then killed by assassins who mistake him for somebody else.\|\| * One Piece: Almost every major character will dance this conga until their feet bleed. They promised us cute pirate shenanigans, and we got it, but with a huge helping of horrible heartbreak. + Monkey D. Luffy finally had a Heroic BSoD after a Trauma Conga Line that started way back in Sabaody and was compounded by events that only succeeded in twisting in the knife, culminating in \|\|Ace sacrificing himself to save Luffy after Luffy had gone through hell and high water to save him from execution at Impel Down\|\|. + Nico Robin makes a prominent example. \|\|She was neglected and bullied as a child, then her entire hometown was burned down and everyone she knew was killed right in front of her, including her mother who left her 7 years ago and her only friend. She was then actively hunted down by the World Government for over 20 years, betrayed and sold out by anyone she had ever associated with, up until she met the Strawhats. Even then, she turned herself in the Government to protect them and was abused by the chief of the Government assassins until the Strawhats and Franky gave her the will to live and then saved her.\|\| + Brook. \|\|His ship got shattered, he saw all his friends die one by one, then he died, but came back, just to be stuck all alone for 50 years on a ghost ship without food or sunlight. He also got his shadow stolen which would instantly destroy him, if he is in sunlight. He outright states that if it weren't for his Devil Fruit, he would have killed himself long ago.\|\| + Trafalgar Law's childhood: \|\|doomed to an early death by poisoning along with all the people of his country, his father, mother, sister and friends finally die during the genocide committed by foreign nations to prevent a pandemic that would have never occurred anyway as they were poisoned, not contagious. After he managed to escape by hiding among the corpses, pretty much snapped.\|\| It got worse, too. \|\|He joined the Donquixote Pirates as a preteen in order to hurt the world as much as he could before he died from the poison. When Doflamingo's brother and right hand, Corazon, realized Law was a D., he knew Law wouldn't be safe around Doflamingo and kidnapped him to look for a cure for his disease. Corazon dragged Law through multiple hospitals... who assumed Law was a plague carrier and called the poor kid a monster to his face. Corazon managed to find the Op-Op Fruit, which Law could use to cure himself...and died at Doflamingo's hands so Law could escape.\|\| All before Law's fourteenth birthday. + Sanji, holy shit Sanji. Specifically in the Whole Cake Island arc. \|\|After leaving Dressrosa with Nami, Chopper, Brook, Momonosuke, and Caesar, they run into the Big Mom Pirates but manage to get away and head to Zou. After saving the Mink Tribe, the Big Mom Pirates show up, having followed them. One of them (a fellow Mink named Pekoms) was going to let him go, but his associate and Worst Generation member Capone Bege shoots him in the back. Bege then reveals the main reason they're there, to "invite" Sanji to his Arranged Marriage with Big Mom's 35th daughter Pudding. He can't refuse this invitation either, otherwise they'll send him a package with the severed head of someone close to him (not just the Straw Hats, but someone from the Baratie or Kamabakka Kingdom), so he's taken away. Upon arriving to Whole Cake Island, Sanji meets his family who he absolutely despises as they abused him hard as a child. He gets into a fight with his dad, and loses when he summons soldiers to act as human shields. Then they place explosive bracelets on him so if he tries to escape, they'll go off and take his hands. Sanji continues to act out, only for his dad to reveal they have assassins placed at the Baratie, ready to kill Zeff. All this while his brothers continue to beat him. It gets worse when Luffy and Nami show up and prepare to take him back. Sanji proceeds to violently attack Luffy as an act to convince his family that he's cut off ties with the Straw Hats. Luffy doesn't believe him at all, and even goes on a hunger strike until he comes back. At this point he believes the kind gentle Pudding is his only ray of light left and is ready to get married to her. But when he goes to visit her with some food and flowers, he learns that Pudding was Evil All Along and plans to kill him and the rest of his family at the wedding. His expressions perfectly encapsulate a broken man.\|\| Things eventually get better for Sanji though it's a miracle he didn't come out of the arc as a broken shell of a man. * \|\|Oz Vessalius\|\| from PandoraHearts has played the part of a Cheerful Child Stepford Smiler since he was young, but, despite being incredibly broken, he has been able to find some happiness in the present. That is, until he's \|\|betrayed by Jack, his trusted mentor figure, after which his world comes down around him. Along with the trauma he experienced at the hands of his cold and dismissive father, he then learns that his father's hatred of him may be justified, as it is revealed that he is not the person he thought he was but rather an existence dangerous to nearly everybody around him. Consequently, he experiences an identity crisis and goes into a Heroic BSoD after being shot by his best friend. Just as he's getting better after a reconciliation with said best friend, and even better after pulling off a Shut Up, Hannibal! at Jack and calling back Alice to the world, his own beloved uncle gets stabbed by one of his friends, who turns out to be taken over by her Split Personality, who is also one of the crazier Baskervilles they know, and said uncle pulls a You Shall Not Pass! on the pursuing Baskervilles and lets Oz and co. go without him\|\|. It remains to be seen how he'll come out of it all in the end. * Both Sorata and Nanami of The Pet Girl of Sakurasou suffer through this in episode 21. While they had some other outstanding issues, it finally reached a boiling point for both of them after all the bad things that kept happening to them, such as their failures to achieve something in the goals they were reaching for. * In Pokémon Adventures: + White goes through one over the span of what couldn't have been more than an hour, when N shatters her worldview and proves that her Tepig, Gigi, actually wants to be a fighter rather than an actress; and Gigi abandons her for N to pursue that path. To make things worse all this happens immediately after the highest moment of her life when she pulls off an incredibly successful show. Though it takes a little while, she \|\|resolves to become a Type A.\|\| + The XY chapter starts with Shauna as a Type G. Time will tell where she goes from there, seeing how she seems to take the brunt of most personally traumatic experiences in The Team. * A "mild" example occurs in Pokémon Concierge to Haru. Her long-term boyfriend breaks up with her with a text message, she stepped on gum while wearing her favourite heels, she was late to an important business meeting, her workplace friend quit the job, she trimmed her eyebrows wrong, she spent three hours making a curry that tasted horrible, she worked hard for another work presentation, only to lose the project to someone else and she stepped on gum again. All of this happening on a day to day basis in a span of a little over a week is what drove Haru to get a job at the Resort in the first place. * Every character in The Promised Neverland is continually subject to horrible torture from the very start of the series. + Emma's entire life was turned on its head when she discovered the dead body of her surrogate sister Connie about to be shipped off and eaten by demons. Before she manages to escape the farm, she's forced to keep the truth a secret from her whole family, has her leg broken by her own "Mama," watch her best friend go off to his \|\|supposed\|\| death, chop off her own ear, and \|\|leave her youngest siblings behind.\|\| And that's nothing compared to after she gets out! She's attacked by demons, almost killed several times, kidnapped into a hunting ground where she has to fight for her life, watch one of her siblings get severely injured, \|\|leave Yuugo and Lucas to their supposed deaths against her will,\|\| go through terrifying mind-altering gates, and \|\|have to accept that she won't remember or ever see her family again.\|\| + Ray goes through many of the same things that Emma does, but with one added bit of pain: \|\|he knew about Grace Field being a farm from the very beginning. He had to watch for years as his siblings were shipped out, never able to do anything about it while acting as an informant for "Mama" and continually betraying them at every turn.\|\| + Even the villains aren't safe from a lifetime of torture! \|\|Mama was raised as a cattle child until she discovered the truth after her best friend was sent off. When she tried to escape and saw the pit outside the wall, she gave up all hope and resigned herself to becoming a "Mama," where instead of dying she could raise children to go off as meat. When she discovers Ray is her biological son, she isn't able to help him in the long run; she's only able to make sure he lives until 12 before he dies. She watches her farm, her life's work, go up in flames, and finally sacrifices her life to save Emma and the other children after only just realizing that she did truly love them.\|\| + All of the children from \|\|Lambda were forced to undergo experimental surgeries to try and make them into the highest possible quality meat. This left them with seizures and oftentimes horrible mutilations.\|\| + Poor, poor \|\|Yuugo.\|\| After getting out of \|\|Goldy Pond\|\| with his siblings, he watched as each of them died until he was the last one left. When he got to the shelter, he spent years alone with hallucinations of guilt until the Grace Field children arrived to bother him. Despite him considering killing Emma to make life easier on himself, he grew to care for the kids. \|\|After only just discovering that his best friend Lucas is alive, the two sacrifice themselves to kill the children's pursuer. The real kicker? He made it out alive.\|\| * Several examples from Puella Magi Madoka Magica: + Madoka \|\|goes through this largely by watching people she cares about either die or turn into a witch, with her being unable to anything about it, largely due to Homura who keeps getting in her way towards becoming a magical girl (because magical girls are doomed to become witches). When she finally does accept Kyubey's contract, she ultimately sacrifices herself by using her wish to ensure that no magical girl will become a witch, instead visiting them at the moment their Soul Gems would blacken completely and giving them a merciful end.\|\| + Sayaka \|\|first ends up fighting against Kyoko, who berates her using her wish for someone else rather than herself, then finding out what happened to her body/soul when she became a magical girl. Then her friend Hitomi mentions that she's interested in Kyosuke as well, and will ask him out after giving Sayaka one day to confess her feelings, which Sayaka doesn't do because of her body/soul situation. Finally, she hears of two guys who are making fun of a woman one is dating, and thinking she's a moron for devoting herself to him, which Sayaka doesn't enjoy hearing, and finally just gives up all hope and turns into a witch.\|\| + Kyoko \|\|first witnesses as her father starts to preach crazy things, which causes people to stop attending their church, and then their family starts to suffer lots of hardships, including starvation. When she makes her wish to have people attend the church, at first it seems good, until her father finds out what she did, and he kills himself and the family as a result. She finally sacrifices herself to stop Sayaka who just recently turned into a witch.\|\| + Homura \|\|is forced to watch Madoka constantly die, or turn into a witch, and almost every time she tries to warn them of something bad happening if they become a magical girl, they either ignore her warnings, or take it a with a grain of salt. Most of the time the main characters view her in a very negative light, and it isn't until Episode 10 that we see why Homura acts the way she does, due to her inability to change the fate of people around her, including the person she cares about the most, Madoka herself.\|\| * Rurouni Kenshin: + Himura Kenshin is a mix between a Type A and a Type E. + Considering that Kenji basically becomes \|\|an orphan and most of his childhood consists of waiting for his redemption-obsessed father and watching his mother slowly dying from the grief and a skin illness she caught from said father,\|\| his life doesn't look much better. * Shadow Star: + Shiina Tamai is a brave, kind-hearted, upbeat Action Girl...who, as per the Deconstructionist nature of the series, is put through a lot of crap. Between watching friends and loved ones die, and seeing that humans are a truly terrible lot, there's only so much trauma she can take before she turns into an example of Result C. The anime version doesn't get anywhere near that far, mind you. + Most of the kids connected to the Dragon Children. If they don't have issues they will quickly get them. Akira is sexually abused by her father, forcibly dragged into a conflict with teenage psychos, mind-raped at least twice to make her join, \|\|locked away for almost a year for killing said father\|\| and confronted with dozens of violent deaths. There is also \|\|Hiroko\|\|, who has no-one beside Shiina, is horrendously bullied in school (including one instance of \|\|rape by test tube\|\|) and her demanding parents don't give a damn as long as she has good grades. When her father tries to \|\|cut her ties with Shiina\|\| she snaps, and things go horribly wrong. * Rintaro Okabe from Steins;Gate had to go through \|\|seeing his childhood friend die repeatedly no matter what he does, and when he finally manages to save her, it's at the cost of sacrificing the love of his life for it\|\|. * Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has basically almost everyone close to him die, and no matter how much Screw Destiny is the theme of the series there seems to be nothing he can do to prevent it. In the end, he \|\|abandons Spiral Power entirely, because he knows first hand how destructive it is.\|\| * Tokyo Ghoul: Poor, poor Kaneki Ken. Where do we begin? His father died when he was only four, leaving only books to remember him by. His mother, whom he repeatedly refers to as kind and a wonderful person, \|\|beat him as a child\|\| before working herself to death to support herself, her sister, and her son when Kaneki was ten. After his mother's death, he was sent to live with his aunt, who was verbally and emotionally abusive towards him, excluding him from family meals and instead giving him a meager amount of money to buy his own food. He gets six months or so of happiness after leaving for college, until the universe decides he hasn't had enough trauma lately, and he goes on a date with Kamishiro Rize, who turns out to be a ghoul and tries to kill and eat Kaneki. After \|\|what seems to be\|\| an accident involving steel beams falling and crushing Rize. To save his life, her organs are transplanted into Kaneki, turning him into a half-ghoul hybrid. And all of this is just up to the first episode. After that, he is tricked into becoming a meal in the Ghoul Restaurant, then forced to fight for his own life and that of three others' because he tastes good. He's then kidnapped by Aogiri and tortured psychologically and physically by having his fingers and toes torn off repeatedly with pliers and a centipede left to crawl around in his ear for ten days straight. \|\|It's loosely implied that he was sexually assaulted as well.\|\| His defining breaking moment comes when he is forced to choose between killing a mother and a child. He chooses himself to die. His tormentor kills them both. The whole ordeal has such an effect on him that his hair turns white, his nails turn black, and he abandons the subservient ideology he was taught by his mother, instead taking it upon himself to protect everyone he cares about. This mindset leads to him eating ghouls in order to become stronger, taking a serious toll on his sanity; as he fights he's rambling incoherently about his body belonging to him. He ends up accidentally stabbing one of his comrades before coming to his senses and sobbing, apologizing over and over, and going home and curling up on his bed in a ball of self-loathing for several days. \|\|And it all ends with the possibility that Kaneki has injured or killed his best friend and Kaneki being brutally beaten by the CCG's God of Death, stabbed through the abdomen and both of his eyes. The pages of him stumbling around, his sanity slipping, asking if he's going to die, are some of the saddest from the whole manga. He's not dead, but :RE doesn't seem to be treating him much better.\|\| *And all of this happened because the poor kid just wanted to go on a date.* * Vash the Stampede from Trigun. As we learn more and more about him two important facts come to mind. 1. He is the unluckiest person who's ever lived. 2. There is someone out there directly responsible for that and he's far from finished. However, Vash takes the route A because he is just that badass. * Almost every major character in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-. One good example is Fai, who has a backstory so mindbendingly dramatic it's ridiculous and during the course of the story manages to \|\|be used by the Big Bad, be killed (in a virtual world, but still), have an eye gouged out and eaten by his surrogate son, after which he tries to let himself die but is forced to become a vampire by his partner, a curse obliges him to stab his surrogate daughter, his father figure tries to make him kill him right after he finds out the magical creature he made in semblance of his mother has been erased from existence, and then gives up his remaining magic power to get a prosthetic arm for his partner, who had to rip it off to save him once again\|\|. And this all happens in around 100 chapters. And that's not even mentioning how his backstory contains \|\|horrible abuse, separation from his twin, bearing witness to the genocide of the people of Valeria, his uncle stabbing himself through the head in front of him, the death of his twin in front of his eyes, and then ANOTHER genocide when Ashura goes batsy\|\|. * Ringing Bell: Poor Chirin is only a baby lamb, but has suffered so much for only being a few months ago. First Chirin has an emotional breakdown after realizing his mother's dead, then gets knocked out after being thrown off a cliff by the Woe the wolf, fails to protect baby birds (which results with Chirin going through another emotional breakdown), gets sprayed by a skunk, laughed and kicked by a group of buffaloes when attempting to be threatening, rolled into a ball by weasels, almost drowns by falling into a water hole in a lake, and goes through an intense training session. That's one heck of a life for a child that's barely a year old! Knowing, Barbara Goodson, (English voice of Young Chirin) also provided the voice of Unico in Sanrio's Unico Movies only adds more tragedy to both characters. * Unico suffers heavily from this, in both the manga and the anime. To summarize: he is a baby unicorn that simply had the ability to make others happy. The Jerkass Gods hated that he was popular because of that, so they send the West Wind to kidnap him and exile him to the end of the world where he would be utterly alone. She feels pity for him though and brings him somewhere else. Too bad that Unico - as is his nature - makes friends to the miserable creatures and unlucky people he meets, constantly making the gods notice that he is still around. They send the Night Wind to take care of Unico which leads to the West Wind constantly appearing before Unico and taking him somewhere else, forcing him to abandon the friends he made (some who are implied to break from being left by the one friend they had). While he doesn't experience any direct mental harm since the West Wind constantly forced Laser-Guided Amnesia on him, he always watches his friends disappear beneath him with tearful eyes and whenever he is left alone at a new place and forgets everything, he is scared and soon calls out for someone desperately. The manga ends with the Downer Ending that this is literally Unico's destiny that he will never escape from, forever making friends, being forced away from them and then forgetting they ever existed. He is somewhere between type F (since his amnesia makes him not realize the Trauma Conga Line) and type G and every story - movie or manga - is guaranteed to be a massive Tear Jerker. * Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest: Let's see. Aoshika Akiko's trauma conga line began when she was in middle school, where she was sexually assaulted by some older male students. Victim blaming soon ensued, so she and her family had to move away. Soon after getting her teaching license at a young age, Aoshika quickly gets married at her father's insistence, saying that no man would want her. Her marriage did not go well and she divorced. She managed to live a quiet and simple life as a dedicated but under appreciated middle school teacher for awhile...until the New Transfer Student, Akira Inugami, entered her home room and her life. From there, she went through another sexual assault \|\|but it was averted\|\|, almost got eaten by an escaped lion, and survived not one, but TWO school shootings. Oh, and \|\|Inugami is a werewolf\|\|. That stuff was pretty minute to say the VERY least, as everything got, really, really bad when Inugami's arch-nemesis Haguro finds out that the student and teacher are attracted to each other. Wanting to draw Inugami out, he proceeds to \|\|kidnapping Aoshika, having her molested by his Yakuza mooks, raping her, then having his goons gang rape her for several hours, drugging her for half of the duration so then she would enjoy being raped, and he does this all in front of Inugami via video—which he proceeds to release on the internet to ensure that her life would be ruined\|\|. * In Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Shiraishi cannot catch a break during Rika's arc: + First she loses her memories of Yamada, with her Wistful Amnesia affecting her a great deal, often causing her to cry for reasons she doesn't know. + Her club (which is generally the bright spot in her life) starts falling apart because the other members also forgot Yamada. + Near the end of the arc, Asuka suddenly swaps bodies with her without her consent and has her confined in a house full of strangers —- she is scared because she doesn't know if she'll get her body back, while the regret that she didn't believe Yamada when he told the truth also pains her. + When she gets her memories back, she still feels sadness and pangs of conscience that she didn't manage to keep her promise to Yamada to be the first person he kissed. Fortunately, she gets much better when she finally becomes his girlfriend. * Yu-Gi-Oh!: + Yu-Gi-Oh!: This happens to Mai Kujaku/Valentine. She was Mind Raped during the Battle City Finals and her subsequent inadvertent Face–Heel Turn gets her in arguably even worse danger during the Doma saga. + This happens on much a higher, much more heartbreaking scale to Judai Yuki in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and could very well pass as the best example of this trope next to Naruto above in Shonen anime history. + And it gets worse in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. - At the beginning of the series, all the major and quite a number of minor characters are in a bad place. The major characters in Satellite are orphans and live on whatever they can salvage while pursued by Security and discriminated against by the people of Neo-Domino. But on the other side, things aren't much better. Aki Izayoi was struggling with her father's inability to balance work and home life, leading to the awakening of her Psychic Powers, that ruined her relationship with her parents, who saw her as a monster. She was sent to Duel Academy and came back to find her parents doing well without her, misreading the scene as their feeling glad to be rid of her and ran into the arms of a secret society housing scorned Psychics. Yusei, like Judai, has one heck of a battering—his parents were killed in Zero Reverse; the result of a project his father had been in charge of, who sacrificed himself to ensure the year-old Yusei could survive. He bares the mask of The Stoic, but has a fantastic breakdown in his match with Rudger—at the very site where the latter was responsible for his parents' (and thousands of others) deaths. There, Yusei reveals that he's been shouldering the guilt of his father and can't even understand why his friends can stand him, as the son of the man whose project took away their parents' lives. - The present of 5D's isn't even the worst of it. There's the Bad Future to deal with. A global version of Zero Reverse takes place as Synchro Monsters overlord the momentum system and as a result, the Machine Emperors are unleashed. What happens is the eradication of almost all human life on the planet. Of the four humans that are shown among those remaining, \|\|Aporia loses his parents as a child, his lover as an adult and finds no further sign of life by the time he's an elderly man, pushing him far over the Despair Event Horizon. Antinomy is so grief-stricken by what's happened that he's prepared to die when a Machine Emperor is about to fire on him, only to be saved by Zone and breaks down. Zone himself could be the worst. Unable to see his world crumble, he researched Yusei, who is effectively the embodiment of hope and works tirelessly to literally become him, even including headgear that holds Yusei's personality, just to become a symbol of hope and spur mankind into fighting back. His efforts fail horribly when the situation eventually worsens and he's unable to save anyone, almost killed himself. By then, he, too, is pushed harshly over the Despair Event Horizon, and, as a result, is so damaged, that his plan to save the future becomes a journey back 200 years to take out the Synchro Monsters that caused the destruction of his world - even if it means taking out Yusei and himself.\|\| + Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Has this HEAVY for Yuma in the Barian arc. First several of his friends are sent to Barian World during the Barian's attack on Earth in a failed attempt to stop the Barians, then he watches Quinton and Trey, the two Arclight brothers who weren't involved in the attempts fail to avenge their brother Quattro and get painfully defeated by Mizar. Then some of the Barians redeem and die and Yuma watches a duel where his close friend Kite Tenjo dies (made worse in the dub, which doesn't directly show his death, though shows episodes later he died via showing Kite's ghost). Prior to the painful reveal in the dub, Yuma watches Don Thousand absorb all the Barians save Nash, who Yuma defeats in a duel to destroy the remaining dark energy of Don Thousand. Once Shark dies and the conflict's finally done, Yuma says all the Barian arc wouldn't have happened if he hadn't started duelling. Thankfully, he regains his love for duelling and ends the series reuniting with Astral and all the friends he lost revived. + And somehow Yuya from Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V tops them all as his line started before the start of his series to the very end of his series! Yuya's trauma started when his beloved father who was also his hero, disappeared three years ago from a championship match causing the public to not only think lowly of his father but him as well. He then spent the next three years mocked with only his friends Yuzu and Gongenzaka protecting him, causing him to develop Stepford Smiler tendencies that he got over in the first episode. In the series proper, his newly created Pendulum Cards netted him the attention of Reiji and LDS who was interested in Yuya's new cards and Yuya himself, nearly losing his father's school. \|\|This got worse when Yuya learned that not only are there other dimensions but they are at war with each other using Dueling, heavily contradicting his beliefs that dueling should be fun with the added bonus that his new friend, Sora was evil. He is then is mixed up in a death match between two of his counterparts, people who have the same face as him which, ends with the both of losing control and trying to kill each other. This results in Yuya going into a coma for two days as he absorbing the losing counterpart. Then Yuya awakens his own Superpowered Evil Side, which brutalize his ideals to win. In the Battle Royale, Yuya struggles with his Superpowered Evil Side as he faces soldiers that card his friends and even his friend, Sora on the enemies side. This comes crashing down when his best friend/love interest, Yuzu goes missing and he realizes he doesn't have the power to save her. He then crosses dimensions to the Synchro Dimension, a society where the weak are crushed completely mocking his ideals again. His attempts to persuade the Commons results in mocking, hatred or being called a hypocrite. His skill later attracted Jean Roget's interest which nearly resulted in being turned into a cyborg but instead he was literally tortured by electricity. After finally being reunited with Yuzu, they are separated as Yuya is thrown to the Xyz Dimension where he becomes a Fight Magnet. After finally getting to the Fusion Dimension, Yuya learns that he and his counterparts used to be part of Zarc, the Big Bad that destroyed the world once and he's their Superpowered Evil Side. In the heroes' attempt to save Yuya, Yuya see his beloved father fall to one of his counterpart. Yuya despite his best efforts, loses control of his body and Zarc is revived.\|\| + Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: A decade prior to the series start, Yusaku was subjected to painful duels for six months which destroyed his love of duelling. He went into therapy which sadly didn't help him and he was suffering from night terrors to the point of developing an inability to sleep solo. In the present day, while he starts the series as the first hero in the franchise to be an Anti-Hero, he's VERY hurt from the trauma in his childhood. ---	TraumaCongaLine	null
TheDCU	# Good Is Not Soft - The DCU The DCU ======= Good Is Not Soft in this franchise. --- * Superman: + Being a Flying Brick and an idealist, Superman tries to stop villains peacefully, and if they fight back, exert the least amount of force needed to resolve the situation. But if a villain crosses the line, they're in for a world of hurt. + In one issue, Major Force mocked Superman for being "too polite". In response, Superman melted him into a pile◊ of◊ slag◊ while calling him out for this. He lived through it, but that's not much of a comfort. + Superman's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of the Elite in What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way? and its film adaptation, Superman vs. the Elite, is a horror to behold. And the Elite were nominally on his side before they started taking things too far... + Supergirl's kind-hearted, caring and compassionate. This causes a lot of villains to underestimate her. Then they learn the hard way that she's also a short-tempered, fierce, vicious fighter with power to crush mountains and little patience for evil guys. + In Supergirl story arc Last Daughter of Krypton, Simon Tycho lures Kara into a trap, captures her, tortures her and kills the person who helps her out. In response, Kara trashes his troops, blows his satellite base up, and after manhandling him, she tells him to NOT go after her again. + In Reign of Doomsday, the Superman Family -plus Cyborg Superman- are trapped inside a dimensional trap together with a bunch of Doomsday clones. Superman decides they cannot deal with the Doomsdays' savagery and Hank Henshaw's craziness at once, so he swiftly rams his arm into Henshaw's chest and pulls out his central node. As Cyborg Superman's feels his systems shutting down, Kal-El reassures him that he will probably reactivate him later. > Cyborg Superman: Doomsday— The day of our destruction— It's finally here! > Superman: Three more of them. Right. There's no time for that Cyborg's nonsense now! (ripping Henshaw's core from his chest) Your central node. I'll put it back— when we've won here. Probably. + The Phantom Zone: When Zod smugly says he is not afraid of Superman due to his code against killing, Kal-El retorts his code says nothing against delivering brutal beatdowns to scum like Zod himself. > Superman: "He's dead, Zod. You're going to have to pay for that." > Zod: "Forgive my not trembling, Kal-El... But what am I to fear, in light of your moronic code against killing?" > Superman: "You're right, Zod! I can't take your life— much as I'm tempted! But my code does not say a damn thing— about not battering you to within an inch of it!! Murderer!!" (thinking) And there are moments... When I think I should chuck that code altogether...!' + Death & the Family: Supergirl gives Insect Queen an ultimatum: if she does not get out of Lana's body willingly, she will be punched, purged and blasted into oblivion. Insect Queen laughs at her threats, so Supergirl carries out all of them. + Let My People Grow!: When fighting Superman and Supergirl, Brainiac is hit by his own shrinking ray. Brainiac begs Supergirl to save him, but Kara coldly retorts◊ that their enlarging ray has only two shots left, which she needs to help Superman and Kandor, and she will not waste one of them to save him from his own stupidity. Even though Superman pleads with her◊, Kara refuses to lift one finger. When Brainiac finally disappears, Superman looks upset, but Supergirl is displaying a huge, slightly disturbing, toothy grin. + The Man Who Destroyed Krypton: Superman wants to kill Black Zero when he learns the latter's role in the destruction of Krypton, but Black Zero just laughs his death threats off, since Superman has a code against killing. Superman retorts he has a far worse punishment for Black Zero in mind. + "Superman and Spider-Man": Clark Kent notices his bullying co-worker Steve Lombard intends to pull a water-squirting flower prank on him. Clark briefly wonders whether his meek, gullible persona should fall for it before deciding he is not in mood for indulging Steve's assholery, and he sabotages the flower so that it squirts Steve instead. In a more serious note, Superman later warns Doom that the armored tyrant is gravely mistaken if he thinks international laws will protect him from Superman if he keeps pushing him. + The Brave and the Bold (2007): When Ultraman mocks Superman for being weak because he won't kill, Supes delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown while pointing out not killing mean's he's the one who has to keep fighting enemies that remember what happened last time, while his Mirror Universe counterpart's immediate murder of anyone who gets in his way mean he's almost never faced anyone with experience of fighting a Kryptonian. * Shazam!: Captain Marvel is basically one of the nicest guys in comics, possibly the biggest nice guy there is, even in a universe that includes Superman. He often takes great pains to offer his enemies a chance to surrender, try to talk them down first, and when he has to fight, usually opts for the least amount of force possible. And if after all of that, if you still insist on endangering innocent people, then he is going to fight as hard as he can to stop you, and feel no guilt about the shape you're in afterwards. He gave you every chance to avoid it, after all. * The Sandman (1989): Death is the best person you want to be with at a time of, well, death. A really sweet, caring person, she's also The Grim Reaper and when the need arises she can be really scary. * Teen Titans: + Starfire is an emotionally open and kind-hearted alien princess who also happens to be a vicious and highly-skilled combatant, having been trained by the Warlords of Okaara. Combine this with her ability to absorb and project ultraviolet radiation, and Starfire is easily one of the most dangerous Titans to contend with. Starfire also lacks a rule against lethal force like most of the Titans and has needed to be talked out of taking a life a few times. + M'gann M'Orzz, a.k.a. Miss Martian, is notoriously sweet, charming and really just the kind of person that likes cute puppies; however, \|\|she is actually a member of the terrifyingly powerful White Martian race, and although she isn't a bad guy in the slightest, whether or not she'll succumb to her baser instincts is always up for debate. In later issues, she fights and then merges with an evil future version of herself who apparently committed and instigated such unspeakable crimes against humanity that the entire White Martian race was captured and enslaved because of her.\|\| * Some interpretations of Batman, specifically Batman (1966) and Batman: The Animated Series, have Batman/Bruce Wayne as this. The various Robins however, and the original Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) fit closer. + Nightwing is this trope straight up. He acquired his attitude from Superman, but he learned how to deal with criminals from Batman. + Though usually extraordinarily kind-hearted, Cassandra Cain can be absolutely terrifying if angered, especially because she is arguably the world's best hand-to-hand fighter. In one instance, a hired assassin kills one of his own allies to get a clear shot at her. This angers her so much that she stops his heart for several seconds, to give him a good idea of what he had just done. * While Red Robin might not kill you himself he'll handily leave repeat murders to their deaths after giving them a single simple warning about the danger they're in with just enough time for them to escape, and even arrange the situation to be potentially fatal for such individuals who don't listen to his warning. Tim eventually decided he'd gone too far and stepped this back. * Wonder Woman: + Princess Diana has always been an icon of kindness and nobility, preferring peace and diplomacy to war and aggression. Yet, of all of the members of the Justice League of America, she alone (post Infinite Crisis) does not hesitate to use lethal force when needed, reminding everyone the Amazons are, at heart, still a proud warrior race + Wonder Woman (1987): Long before Infinite Crisis made Diana more violent, she was the only one of DC's big three to have had a no killing rule from her debut there was a period while Artemis was acting Wonder Woman after The Contest during which a number of criminals seemed to think they didn't need to fear reprisals from Diana for causing harm in her presence due to her loving forgiving reputation. She swiftly reminded them that just because she doesn't kill and tries to redeem criminals doesn't mean she won't put them in a world of pain for hurting others. * Most of the protagonists in Fables have adopted this view, given the cynical nature of the setting and their desperate circumstances. While none of them are really cruel, there's very little any of them would not do for the safety and survival of their loved ones. * Cross Zatanna, as Nimue did, and you better hope she plays nice. Leaving the succubus naked with the men she captured, that was Zatanna playing nice. If she feels the need to play dirty then there are few if any scruples Zatanna won't cross. * In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, The Joker is actually furious to learn that, unlike "the real Batman," Terry is willing to fight dirty. * DC League of Super-Pets: During Superman's first fight with Lulu (an evil superpowered, but small hairless guinea pig), he holds nothing back once he realizes Lulu is not to be trifled with. * Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam shows us what happens when you push a nice guy too far. When Black Adam tries to murder a hostage, the newly empowered Captain Marvel has no problem delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to the villain. Beware the Nice Ones in the extreme. * The DC Extended Universe version of Superman is every bit the altruistic and compassionate individual one expects him to be, as demonstrated in his rescue of the soldier firing at him during the battle of Smallville. He also does not hold back his phenomenal strength in his battles with similarly superpowered opponents like the Kryptonians and \|\|Doomsday\|\|, frequently throwing devastating shockwave-creating punches; and when left with absolutely no choice, \|\|snaps Zod's neck.\|\| * Superman (2025): This Superman may be more compassionate than many recent adaptations of the character, but unless you have Kryptonian-level strength (or some specialist power that circumvents raw power), you do not want to pick a fight with him. His fighting style can be seriously brutal when a threat needs to be put down, as shown when he finally gains a tactical advantage over Ultraman and when he goes to town on Luthor's Raptors. + Hawkgirl also drops a dictator to his death after he mockingly compares her to Superman, making it clear she is not as merciful as him. * Laurel Lance in Arrow is generally kind to those around her and has made a career of helping those who need it most, but that doesn't mean she's going to let the bad guys get away with abusing people. + Oliver Queen starts out as Judge, Jury, and Executioner but eventually takes up Thou Shalt Not Kill. After a while in this mode, we find out his attitude on it stops short of the Batman level; killing isn't a non-option, it's just a last resort. Mooks in his way get the fight taken out of them with tranq or taser arrows. Mooks chasing him once his work is done get left in the dust with smoke or flashbang arrows. The Villain of the Week gets captured. ...And villains who convince him they're too dangerous to live get pointy arrows. Also, 'captured' can still mean "impaled to the wall through a non-fatal part of your body." * Terry McGinnis from Batman Beyond is far kinder than his mentor, but while he is Batman and like Bruce will not actively kill, unlike Bruce, he won't save villains from their own fate. > Mook: I like to watch the crocodiles eat 'em. It's fascinating. > \Terry fights them off, the same mook going into the water with them\ > Terry*: You're right. It is fascinating. (Scream Discretion Shot) In Young Justice (2010), Psimon assumes that because M'gann is a cheerful, friendly Naïve Newcomer, she'll fall apart with a Breaking Speech and a selection of her worst fears. It works for about a minute. Then she gets PISSED. (Something which becomes a bit too common after the Time Skip, to the point that the much gruffer Good Is Not Nice hero Superboy calls What the Hell, Hero?.) > Psimon: Now now, my pretty. I know you don't want to do anything you'll regret. > Miss Martian: You don't know me AT ALL! ---	GoodIsNotSoft	null
Literature	# Trauma Conga Line - Literature --- * Age of Fire: The Copper, one of the three protagonists, has a rough life right from the start. As per dragon traditions, as he and his brothers hatch, they fight to the death, and while the Copper lives, he still loses and is cast out by his family, with nothing but a permanently broken front leg to show for it. Then, after months of scrounging for food to survive, he's captured by dwarves, who trick him into selling out his family's location (after breaking his tail For the Lulz) so they can kill them all, succeeding in the cases of his parents and one of his sisters (namely, the one who was the only family member to show him kindness), and as a parting gift, their dragon-hunting mercenary gives him a wound that guarantees one of his wings will never grow in properly, denying him the chance of ever flying. And then his surviving sister, on running into him shortly after, nearly gouges out one of his eyes as revenge for his treachery, leaving him practically half-blind. Things start to look up for him after that, as he finds his way to the Lavadome and starts a new life there, but he carries his wounds (both physical and psychological) for the rest of his life. * The Beginning After the End: + The end of Volume 7 is a major one for the protagonists, in particular Arthur and Tessia, as \|\|The Bad Guy Wins, their loved ones are killed off or put through great suffering, and Awful Truths are revealed. First, Arthur's father Reynolds is killed while defending the Wall from the horde of Alacryan mana beasts which causes a rift between Arthur and his mother and sister. Then, Tessia's parents Alduin and Merial learn from Agrona himself that the Beast Will Arthur had given Tessia has given him control over whether their daughter lives or dies. After giving them a Sadistic Choice over whether he lets Tessia die or they let in his forces into the Council Castle to kill Virion, they choose the latter. While Arthur, Tessia, and Virion survive, the Dicathians to abandon the castle and go into hiding. On top of that Arthur is forced to face Cadell, the Scythe who killed his Parental Substitute Sylvia many years ago, which reigniting his childhood trauma. In the aftermath, Tessia sets out on her own to try to rescue her parents, only to find out once that both they and the Glayders have already been executed to mark the end of the Alacryan conquest. If that weren't enough, in the ensuing battle Arthur and Tessia come face to face with Elijah, who has seemingly been Reforged into a Minion as one the Scythes after having been kidnapped during the attack on Xyrus years ago. Elijah then reveals to Arthur that he is in fact Nico Sever, his former childhood friend from his past life as King Grey, and that he has been working with Agrona willingly out of a desire to exact revenge on Arthur for killing his fiancée and their shared Childhood Friend Love Interest Cecilia. What follows is Arthur and Sylvie being forced to hold back Cadell, Nico, and the Alacryan army in order to buy time for the Dicathians to escape. In the process, Arthur overexerts himself using Sylvia's Beast Will which nearly tears himself apart and it is only through Sylvie performing a Heroic Sacrifice to save him that prevents him from either dying or being captured\|\|. + The trauma does not stop there, as it continues all the way through Volume 8. In the aftermath, \|\|Arthur is presumed dead by the Dicathians which itself is traumatic to his mother, sister, and Tessia. However, he had in fact ended up in the Relictombs, a dimension completely alien to him with no apparent way out. He finds out shortly afterwards thanks to the second message Sylvia left for him the truth about the war - that Kezess and the Indrath Clan from which Sylvia and Sylvie hail from had committed genocide on the ancient Djinn which led to Agrona and the Vritra Clan's Start of Darkness and thus the war itself. He also finds out that his mana core was damaged beyond recovery due to him overxerting Sylvia's Beast Will, and he is forced to go incognito among a group of Alacryans while finding a way out and a way to Re-Power himself. At the end of the Volume, he witnesses Tessia getting captured when she returns to Elenoir by the Alacryans and turned into the vessel for the Legacy, who he realizes is Cecilia reincarnated. He then witnesses Windsom and Aldir arrive in order to eliminate the Legacy, followed by the latter destroying Elenoir using the World Eater technique. Effectively, the volume ends with Arthur being able to do nothing as his friends, family, and homeland are put through severe trauma at the whims of cruel and callous gods as he is stuck in an unfamiliar domain in the company of people he considered his enemies\|\|. Though the end of the volume has Arthur finally being able to make a comeback, and a rather cathartic one. + After \|\|being forced to destroy Elenoir using the World Eater technique, Aldir's loyalty to Kezess is shaken as he has a My God, What Have I Done? moment over having committed another genocide in Kezess's name, one which ultimately failed in its objective in eliminating the Legacy. Then he is confronted by Seris, who not only brings it up to his face how Kezess and Agrona are two sides of the same coin, but that Arthur had managed to survive the war and has the potential to upend it. This leads him to defy his liege's orders by redirecting the Lances to the Djinn sanctuary where the Dicathians are hiding to stop Taci from exterminating the populace at Kezess's command. In the aftermath of Taci's death, Windsom catches on to the fact that Aldir had disobeyed Kezess's orders, to which Aldir decides that now is the time for him to leave Kezess's service and depart Epheotus altogether. However, before he is able to leave Windsom arrives to apprehend him along with a group of Asuran soldiers that Aldir himself had trained. Aldir is forced to kill all of them but Windsom in self-defense, in the process destroying whatever reputation he had left in Epheotus and rendering him Hated by All as a murderer, traitor, and madman. When Arthur meets with him in the Hearth, Aldir is completely broken from the turn of events he has been subjected to and no longer has the will to fight\|\|. * Alex Rider's parents are killed when he's an infant, he's raised by his housekeeper as his guardian is either away or training him to be a spy, his uncle dies and he is recruited into taking his place, he witnesses enormous horrors and is scarred for life. And then there's \|\|Jack's death\|\|, which destroys Alex. * Happens to basically everyone in An Outcast in Another World, but Rob especially. Their determination in the face of tragedy is a main tenet of the story. * Black Dagger Brotherhood: Zsadist has this in spades. He was abducted from his family as an infant, sold into slavery, and then the moment he became an adult his mistress began raping him. Often she'd let her other male slaves watch, or even have them join in. He was sometimes kept bound to a pallet on the floor, flat on his back, for days at a time—y'know, so he'd be in the right position when the mood struck her. She'd often neglect to feed him or give him the blood he needed, and liked to beat him when he offered any form of resistance. (His back is a mass of scars because of this.) It took more than a century for his twin to track him down and rescue him, and in the attempt his mistress' enraged husband scarred Z's face with a sword. Oh, and later on his girlfriend is kidnapped and tortured by vampire-slayers. * Lois McMaster Bujold has explicitly stated that she generates her plots by asking herself what the worst possible thing she can do to the hero is. For example, in Memory she begins by having interstellar superagent Miles notice he is suffering from seizures from injuries sustained in the last book. Next he makes the bad decision to personally lead a prisoner rescue mission anyway and ends up having a seizure in mid mission. While having the seizure he accidentally saws off the legs of the prisoner he was rescuing with a plasma gun. Then he lies about the seizures on his After-Action Report because he is afraid of getting a desk job. This gets him cashiered. And this is just the plot setup in the first few chapters! Miles, fortunately, always manages to achieve Result A. + Later on she refined her philosophy to "the worst possible thing that the hero can still learn a useful lesson from." For example, despite the political trouble the circumstances of Tien Vorsoisson's death caused Miles in A Civil Campaign, a far more thorough and protracted torture could have been produced for Miles simply by not killing Tien off in Komarr and letting Miles suffer for years knowing that the woman he loves is married to someone else and thus condemning them both to suffer nobly, unrequited, for years. (That Ekaterin was going to leave Tien anyway cuts no ice — both Miles' and Ekaterin's honor would never have allowed them to remotely act on any mutual attraction so long as her husband was still alive). However, since going this route would have been dramatically pointless, Bujold didn't. So very occasionally, her characters do actually get cut a break. * Candide is the lord and master of this trope. Almost every single character falls victim to this. * Chinese Cinderella, full stop. The main character is blamed for her mother's Death by Childbirth and mistreated by her birth siblings and Wicked Stepmother. Her father disregards her to the point he can't remember her birthday or name. She adopts a duckling that her family feeds to the guard dog. Her friends at school throw her a surprise party, earning her a vicious beating from her stepmother. She's separated from her beloved aunt and grandpa, then sent to a boarding school in the path of Communist uprisings. After her family moves, she's sent to a different school, but still neglected and then bullied by her peers. She wins a writing contest, but her grandfather dies immediately after. The closest the book comes to a happy ending is that her father notices her grades and sends her to college. And this was all based on the author's real life. * Heroines in Catherine Cookson books are born to suffer, and spend much of the novel(s) having all sorts of angst thrown at them. They don't necessarily get a happy ending either. They very often settle for a life that's not quite as miserable as the one they've gone before. Example: One girl became a mistress to her rapist (and father of her child) when she decided he was actually quite a nice man. He had undergone some character development, but even so... * Danger: Boober Cooking, a picture book based on Fraggle Rock, is based around this trope, albeit in a Lighter and Softer way that won't upset its target audience of young children. While trying to put together a celery souffle, poor Boober gets chased by a Gorg, gets drenched in pond water and catches a cold, falls down the Smelly Pit and breaks his arm, and breaks a leg trying to gather wompus root. By the end, the souffle is made, and seems to taste alright judging by the other Fraggles' reactions to it, but Boober is so worn out from his escapades, he ends the story by going straight to bed. * The title character of The Dresden Files. His mother died in childbirth, his father died when he was a child, he had to kill his adoptive father when the latter tried to mentally enslave him along with his first girlfriend, he spent the next decade or so living under a "one-strike-you're-out" death penalty by his fellow wizards, his next girlfriend got turned into a half-vampire, terrible things keep happening to his friends, he can barely make rent, and there isn't a single book in which he isn't beaten, shot, burned, knifed, and/or just plain tortured. And then came Changes... > "Typical. Even when \|\|you're dead\|\|, it doesn't get any easier." + And he was right. After all he's gone through in Changes, Ghost Story cranks it up beyond eleven. + It says something that compared to Cold Days, Ghost Story can honestly be described as a Breather Episode. + The author, Jim Butcher, has flat-out said that dropping pain on Harry is an integral part of his creative process. * A few of the characters in The Emigrants go through this, but perhaps Kristina more than anyone else. Her infant baby dies, her three year-old dies a rather painful death, she almost dies from scurvy on the journey across the Atlantic while pregnant, nearly loses her only surviving daughter on the shores of the Mississippi, Indians point a loaded gun at her, she goes through a hard and drawn-out delivery, spends the second half of her life longing for friends, family and places she can never go back to, for all intents an purposes loses $4000 (a lot of money in the mid-19th century), goes through a severe crisis of faith, miscarries her baby, finds out she can never be intimate with her husband again and...dies before she's forty. + Robert is a pretty good contender as well. His master hits his ear so hard he gets tinnitus and chronic pain, his master whips him with a branch for something that wasn't his fault, he gets lost in the desert with his best friend and has to watch him die a slow, agonizing death, loses several teeth, gets conned, tends to his dying master, comes home to his brother sick with yellow fever and completely disillusioned, finds out he's been conned and traded his gold for counterfeit money, his brother accuses him of knowing the money was fake all along and the last time he sees his brother Karl Oskar punches him in the face. Then he dies from his illness all alone by a stream at the age of 22. * The Empirium Trilogy: At age five, Rielle killed her mother inadvertently. This turned her once loving father against her to the point of being emotionally and verbally abusive. He and her mentor, Taliesin, essentially ignore her wants and desires under the guise of keeping her safe, both her from the public and the public from her. They force her to keep her powers suppressed and hidden from everyone, even her best friends, one of whom is a prince. This blows up in all of their faces (in more ways than one) when she saves the prince from assassins but winds up killing innocents in the process. The King has her then undergo a series of grueling trials in order to determine if she's the menace her father keeps telling her that she is. (Between two trials, a noble tries to assassinate her and she only survives thanks to her unique powers.) The last trial she ends up doing has her essentially relive the night her mother died. At first, it seems to go well \|\|until Corien takes over various soldier's minds, turning the vicinity into a veritable bloodbath, during which she watches her other best friend get thrown off a cliff. Then it turns out that this friend actually died years ago and the person she's been talking to since the beginning of this whole affair is actually an angel, a being that humans have feared and hated for centuries\|\|. And all of that is only the beginning. * In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag by the end has had \|\|his secret work for La Résistance discovered and smashed, his wife killed, his friend and mentor "disappeared", and been forced to burn down his own house\|\|, all the while his Magnificent Bastard of an opponent laughs about how they're not so different. It's a relief to see \|\|Beatty meet his Karmic Death and Montag eventually get at least a Bittersweet Ending; the play makes it a Happy Ending\|\|. + Except, that Bradbury wrote the story for the text-adventure sequel, and he cheerfully gives Montag and Clarisse a Bolivian Army Ending. * Nearly everyone—hero, villain, or otherwise—in the GONE series by Michael Grant. It would actually be easier to name the EXCEPTIONS, Brianna and Albert being the only characters out of a cast of 400 kids who don't get tortured every book. And even Brianna got radiation poisoning and even Albert was robbed and shot in the leg. These are the lucky characters. Here are the most noteworthy examples of characters undergoing the trauma conga line, though, you could make long examples of every character; + Brittney Donegal had to watch her little brother get eaten by coyotes, before she herself is tortured by the boy responsible for her brother's death, then, Edilio mistaking her for dead, she's buried underground fully conscious (because of her sucky power of immortality), and has to dig her way out. Then she discovers she has to share a body with the boy who murdered her and her family. Then she's tricked into becoming a slave, and is tortured various times; and because of her sucky power she just keeps coming back for more torture—decapitation, getting shot 9 times in the face, you name it. She probably wishes she didn't have her power so she could curl up in a ball and die. + Hunter was attacked by his racist, bigoted "best friend", before being framed for a murder that wasn't his fault and being kidnapped and hung half to death by said "best friend". He doesn't die, but is permanently brain damaged and deformed as a result of the torture, and is then exiled from Perdido Beach for the murder he hasn't committed. Then, his body is infested by flesh eating bugs who chew on his brain and further deform him. Then he's burnt to death in "mercy". Fun times for Hunter. + Ooh, Diana. The last few books haven't been kind to you have they? First, being tortured by your worst enemy and nearly dying from internal wounds. Second, starving to death for months to the point where you're driven to eat human flesh. Shortly followed by a nearly-fatal plunge off a cliff, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and a \|\|Teen Pregnancy\|\| cultivating in your boyfriend, the only person you've been able to trust this entire time, saying that you repulse him and he wants nothing to do with you anymore. Then you are forcibly kicked out of your home, and with no choice but seek refuge in your enemies' terrain whilst you suffer the indignities of everyone knowing about your fall from grace. Next up? You're kidnapped and tortured by the boy who nearly killed you while \|\|heavily pregnant\|\|, as you are forced to walk miles across sandstone with no shoes whilst \|\|suffering contractions\|\|. You are whipped, psychologically tortured, threatened, humiliated and at one point forced to crawl in the mud on your belly. \|\|Then, when you give birth at 15 years old in a steaming hot, pitch black mine with no medical assistance, congratulations! It's a baby...monster. Cue becoming a slave to your own child and suffering pretty extreme postpartum depression. Oh, and great news! Once you outgrow your usefulness to your daughter, she or Drake will probably kill you, and it's implied you're going to be raped by Drake\|\|. Laser-Guided Karma for all the heinous things she did just for malicious glee, or Disproportionate Retribution for a girl who in reality was just a bit of a snobby bitch? * Harry Potter: + Harry James Potter himself. Nearly every adult authority figure either despises Harry and tortures him, or is killed protecting him. He also is the witness to several of his friends and loved ones being murdered. If your family was murdered while you were a baby and you bear a scar from that event the rest of your life, and it WASN'T the worst thing to ever happen to you, you have a seriously messed-up life. + Also Sirius Black , who grew up in a neglectful and unloving home, was disowned by his family for refusing to join Voldemort, lost most of his close friends in the First Wizarding War, was framed for the murder of two of them, spent 13 years being subjected to the torture of Azkaban, and finally escaped only to have his chance to gain a real family snatched away at the last minute, lived off rats while on the run, and had to spend most of his \|\|remaining\|\| time confined to the home he hated as a child. Frankly, Bella gave him a \|\|Mercy Kill.\|\| + Remus Lupin didn't fare much better. It started when he was bitten by a werewolf, meaning a lifetime of excruciating changes and social ostracism to go along with it. When he got to school, he made three good friends in spite of all that - and then had to watch them all die or turn traitor one by one. \|\|After he and Tonks got together and had a child, they were both hit with Too Happy to Live during the final battle.\|\| - He doesn't just lose his three best friends, he loses them all within a twenty-four hour period. Twelve full years later, he gets one of them back when he finds out that Sirius was innocent all along, but that's still a horribly long time to dwell on those losses. He also learned that one of his other best friends not only wasn't dead, but was the Death Eater who sold Harry's parents to Voldemort and would go on to murder Cedric and resurrect Voldemort. Not to mention the fact that he then witnesses Sirius' actual death two short years later. It's not terribly surprising that he had something of a breakdown at the beginning of the seventh book after marrying and impregnating Tonks. + Luna has it pretty rough—her mother died in front of her when she was nine, she's ostracised and bullied by other students at Hogwarts for being weird, and it's only after the Golden Trio, Neville and Ginny start talking to her that she has any friends, and then she \|\|gets kidnapped by Death Eaters when her father shows too much support for Harry in The Quibbler\|\| during Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. + The entire life of Merope Gaunt, introduced in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, sucked, to put it simply. She was the target of constant abuse by her father and brother, is one of three named British kids in the series who never got to go to Hogwarts (her, her brother Morfin, and Ariana Dumbledore) (either because she was believed to be a Squib or her father hated the outside world so much) and fell in love with a man she knew would never want her. She used a Love Potion to make him fall in love with her and have her child, but stopped using it after a while, hoping he had genuinely fallen in love with her. He ran away from her instead, causing her to fall into despair and die giving birth to their son. + Andromeda \|\|Tonks (née Black)\|\| has to endure harsh trials despite only physically appearing briefly in one book. She was disowned by her family when she married a Muggle-born wizard. Because she looks similar to Bellatrix, who joined the Death Eaters and participated in countless horrific acts, she was presumably shunned by other wizards, despite having nothing to do with them. Then her favorite cousin was captured and imprisoned upon false charges and was murdered two years after he escaped. Not even two years later, she is tortured by the Death Eaters because she dared to host Harry Potter. Her husband runs away to escape the Snatchers, but is killed anyway. Finally, her daughter and son-in-law die in the Battle of Hogwarts, leaving her to care for her newborn grandson. * Vanyel Ashkevron of the Heralds of Valdemar series. He starts out life hated and abused by his father and brothers for the sin of being gay, which they deliberately try to keep him from figuring out. When he finally gets a Love Interest, he's Driven to Suicide. The earthshattering magical powers Vanyel gets as a result only serve to make him the go-to guy for every problem Valdemar has, to the point where he can't take a break for five minutes without the kingdom falling apart. Then, just when he makes up with his family, someone starts picking off his friends one by one. This nearly causes him to break his oath as a Herald as he storms off on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, only to walk into a trap in which he's serially raped into a Heroic BSoD. After recovering from that, he's forced to give up his new Love Interest in order to deliver a final Heroic Sacrifice to save the kingdom. To top it all off, the Aesop appears to be Comes Great Responsibility. + Mercedes Lackey has a basic formula to give her characters Angst: Drop a mountain on them. Let them recover slightly. Drop another mountain on them. Repeat. * The entirety of The Howling (1977) is this for Karyn. First she is violently raped in her own home and has a miscarriage. Then she moves to a remote town that is terrorised by a bloodthirsty werewolf \|\|and turns out to be populated entirely by werewolves, her husband ends up becoming one of them after cheating on her, her new friend Inez is murdered by the werewolves trying to save her\|\| and her dog is killed. * The Hunger Games: + Peeta Mellark \|\|is routinely beaten by his mother, falls in love with Katniss, is thrown into an arena to fight her to the death, nearly dies of sepsis, loses his leg, finds out the girl of his dreams only faked loving him back, goes back into the arena to fight her to the death again, has a heart attack, gets left behind when Katniss leaves, is tortured to the point of seemingly irreparable insanity, is present while everyone else on his squad (save Katniss) discuss killing him, and never stops having insane outbursts. Ouch.\|\| + And Katniss: \|\|Her father is killed in a mining accident, she nearly starves to death, she goes to The Hunger Games, she is forced to fake love to someone who really loves her during and after the Games, she goes back into the Games, she watches her close friend being beaten before her eyes, she accidentally becomes the face of a rebellion, she watches the boy she loves get beaten on live television, then realizes everything she does to help the rebellion leads to torture for him, he then tries to strangle her when they reunite, she goes into a battlezone and watches her sister explode. Not to mention her breakdown after she shoots Coin.\|\| + Invoked by the Capitol for all victorious tributes. As children they are put through Deadly Games, where they are forced to kill or be killed not only by other tributes but also by most of the things in the arena. These experiences are enough to make most of them Shell Shocked Veterans, but the Capitol doesn't leave them alone even then, and puts them through even more suffering for the rest of their lives, making sure There Are No Therapists to help. They can't even fight back, with the lives of their loved ones on the line and are Forced to Watch as people they know participate in the same Deadly Games. If that was not enough, then \|\|victors are faced with a possibility of coming back on the arena and having to kill people they've became friends with. At the end only seven victorious tributes remain (out of 50), because both Capitol and rebels target them to make sure they can't support the opposite side.\|\| * Inheritance Cycle: Murtagh. The main article describes his life as a series of people kicking him in the balls. As of the ending of the 2nd book, he's well on his way to becoming \|\|Type B\|\|. * Inferno (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle): None of the characters have a good time in Hell, but Carpenter's tribulations get an especial first-person focus. Over the course of the novel, he breaks most of his bones on a number of occasions, is pelted with fire from the sky, has to wade through boiling blood, has his belly sliced open, burns off his own hands, and has his eyes frozen shut and then open. Every time, the Healing Factor of the damned in Hell fixes him back up so that he can be hurt again. The narration is very graphic about this, describing his sensations, such as the all-pervasive agony of immersion in boiling liquid or the feeling of smelling your own burning flesh, in some detail. * Knight and Rogue Series: Michael gets dragged through one in the first two books, consisting of multiple abductions, use as a test subject, and ostracization. He spends the second book a little broken but manages to come out in almost as good shape as he was in the beginning, by means of lots of distractions and help from Fisk. * A Legacy of Light: Tutankhamun's parents, grandmother, and five of his sisters died before he'd turned nine, and before he was nineteen, he and his wife had lost two infant daughters. Furthermore, the Pharaoh has mobility issues requiring the use of a cane, and suffers from daily pain in his foot. As the trilogy progresses, he rides into battle, comes home with two broken legs, and later develops malaria. * The entire first arc of Magical Girl Gunslinger is one of these for the main character. The fact she never hesitates to do the right thing at any point, even when she believes she's heading to her death, shows exactly why she was chosen to be one of Earth's magical protectors. + What did it matter if this is what I wanted… what did it matter if I did get hurt, so long as I was able to save those people? * The Martian: Author Andy Weir cheerfully admits that this is exactly what he was doing when he wrote the book. He started with the premise of an astronaut accidentally left behind on Mars, trying to survive until the next expedition from Earth arrives, and then made a list of every disaster he could think of that might happen to the poor guy. For each disaster, he then tried to come up with a way that Mark Watney could overcome the problem and soldier on. If the answer was "Nope, this would definitely kill him", then that disaster was dropped from the list. The result is a story in which Watney endures every possible disaster that he has any hope of surviving, and triumphs over them all. * This trope can sum up the second Neogicia novel. It starts with the protagonist getting kidnapped, then getting a Mercy Lead that gets followed by a series of From Bad to Worse and Out of the Frying Pan situations, even after a rescue party reaches her. Dealing with the new situation always spends more physical and mental energy than what she managed to recuperate after the previous one, to the point that her Post-Victory Collapse becomes more of a Post Victory Several Month Long Coma. * Happens to protagonist Bobby Marks in One Fat Summer by Robert Lipsyte over the course of the titular summer. It culminates in Bobby winding up stripped naked on an island in the middle of the lake his family is staying at by the bullies who've been harassing him. As the rain begins to soak him, this proves less a breaking point and more a turning point, with Bobby resolving to not merely lay down and accept what's happened, but push on to try to get himself out of the situation. The resolve becomes necessary later when he has to confront the leader of the bullies who has since become deranged and is threatening Bobby with a gun. * Beatrice Löwenström in Simona Ahrnstedt's Överenskommelser becomes a type G example in the end. She's smart, competent, and tough, but life has been really hard on her. Not only did she lose her mother when she was only six years old and her father when she was only fourteen years old. But she also has to live with her tyrannical uncle, who abuses her for five long years, forcing her into a marriage with a man, who's like forty years older than her and treats women like dirt under his shoes. Beatrice's relationship with Seth, her love interest, is also complicated to say the least. And just when she thought that things would turn out good between them, cue her sadistic cousin ruining everything! Not to mention that she was \|\|brutally raped and almost killed on her wedding night\|\|... * Most of the main characters in The Power go through this: + Mafia Princess Roxy Monke witnesses the murder of her mother by a rival gang of her criminal family. She temporarily has to move in with her father and her stepmother who has never wanted to consider Roxy a legitimate member of the family. Her half-brother Terry is killed when they confront the rival gang to avenge her mother. Another half-brother, Ricky, is assaulted by a gang of women with skeins. Soon after, Roxy learns that \|\|her father was the one who orchestrated her mother's death after finding out her mother was The Informant to a rival gang. Finally, her father and third half-brother Darrell trap her and forcibly transplant her skein into Darrell so he can rule their criminal empire instead of Roxy. This procedure almost kills Roxy in the process.\|\| Roxy ends up being a Result A from these experiences. + Allie is a foster child who has been passed around from one abusive family to another. Her last family is a neglectful wife and a physically and verbally abusive husband. When she kills the husband with her skein in self-defense, she is forced to go on the run and eventually ends up in a convent with other girls with similarly tragic backgrounds. Allie starts out as a Result A but slowly edges toward Result B as she gets corrupted by her position of power and authority. + Jocelyn Cleary is a Shrinking Violet who is horrified when she accidentally sends a male classmate to the hospital with her skein powers. She struggles to consistently control her power, which makes her a target for teasing by other girls. She falls in love with a rare boy possessing a skein, but \|\|her mother\|\| manipulates her into breaking it off with him. She also accidentally \|\|murders a man with her skein abilities protecting a North Star camp\|\|. Near the end of the book, \|\|Jocelyn is attacked by a newly-skein-powered Darrell and suffers severe injuries, the book ends with her fate unknown\|\|. Jocelyn is a Result G in the book. + Tunde goes from being a celebrated journalist to being on the run in a country at civil war, with a fake notice of his death being manufactured and released by a former ally, \|\|Tatiana\|\|, so nobody will come help him because nobody knows he is still alive. While hiding out and on the run, he is nearly actually killed by many women with skeins, and survives mostly due to \|\|being protected by Roxy\|\|. * Queen Mary I goes through this in The Queen's Fool. First she loses her sister's love, then her first child, then her husband (who never even loved her, but she fails to realize this), then her second child. * Seyonne in the Rai-Kirah books. He's been a slave for sixteen years by the time we're introduced to him, and is basically just waiting to die. Then things get worse. He spends a good chunk of the second book in hell being arbitrarily tortured, and the third book ends with him stripped of his powers and about half his memory...and those are just a couple of the highlights. * Pretty much every character in Rick Riordan's works has a trauma conga line of a life. + Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Percy Jackson spent the first twelve years of his life living in abject poverty, never knowing his biological father, and with an abusive and alcoholic stepfather. He's never able to last a full year at a single school because of events out of his control, and he has to deal with dyslexia and ADHD. He witnesses the apparent death of his mother, is thrust into a world of gods he had no idea existed, and is betrayed by someone he thought was a mentor. And that's just the first book! Throughout the rest of the story, he goes through things including: almost dying countless times, watching his fellow campers (most of them under 20 years old) die, losing his memory, being sent across the country against his will, having to go through Tartarus (aka super hell) with noone but Annabeth for help, and a whole lot of other pain. - "Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck." This is how Percy's lovely mother, Sally, is introduced to the audience. Her bad luck started when she was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents. She was sent to live with an uncle that didn't really care about her, and had to dropout of high school in order to care for him when he got cancer. At 19 years old, she got pregnant with her son while working a minimum wage job. She married Gabe Ugliano, a man so smelly that monsters wouldn't even come near him, in order to protect her son. For years, she put up with his abuse to keep the monsters away until she finally was able to get rid of him with Medusa's head. She briefly got stuck in the underworld, lost her son for months, and only then was allowed a peaceful ending with Percy, her new husband Paul, and their daughter Estelle. - Annabeth Chase grew up in a home that never felt like home. Her father was always too busy to take care of her, her stepmom clearly didn't want her there, and every morning she'd wake covered in spiders. She ran away at only seven years old, and joined Thalia and Luke as they made their way to camp. She watched Thalia, the closest thing to a sister she'd ever had, get killed by monsters and turned into a tree. For five whole years, she stayed at camp, not allowed to go on a quest to prove her worth. When she was finally allowed to accompany Percy on his quest, she came back to Luke, her adoptive older brother, turned into a traitor. She spent years trying desperately to convince herself that Luke was still good inside, that he'd come back and be her brother again, but it never happened. Eventually, Annabeth had to watch Luke kill himself with the dagger he'd given her years ago. She lost Percy for months, thinking he was dead only just after the two had finally confessed their feelings. Her own mother continually called her a dissapointment, and fell into Tartarus after finally proving her wrong. - Luke Castellan's home life was never ideal, either. As a baby, his mother was cursed by the Oracle and he spent the early years of his life with a mom who was never fully there. He ran away at a very young age, and joined up with Thalia and Annabeth, who became like his sisters. He watched as Thalia died and was turned into a tree, and never forgave the gods for letting something like that happen. He saw life at camp as meaningless, and after his quest, he snapped. He started serving Kronos, who put him through endless torture. Eventually, though, he came to his senses and was able to stop Kronos for god by killing himself with the dagger he gave to his little sister years ago. - Thalia Grace's mom was a mess. She was a big Hollywood actress who never wanted Thalia, only Zeus, and spent the early years of her daughter's life pulling crazy stunts to get his attention. This left Thalia with nothing to hold onto, no stability at all. When her brother Jason was born, Thalia had to act like his mom at only seven years old because their mom was still obsessed with Zeus/Jupiter. After her mom gave her brother to Hera, telling Thalia only that he was gone, she finally left. She spent years on the run with Luke and Annabeth, the closest thing to a family she'd ever had. But, when the group finally made it to Camp Half Blood, Thalia was killed. She spent years unconscious as a tree, not knowing what was going on around her. When she finally was turned back into a human, she found that in her absence, Luke had started serving Kronos. She joined the Hunters of Artemis, and years later discovered that her little brother had been alive the entire time. But not for long. Only about a year or two after they'd been reunited, Jason was killed. - Nico DiAngelo spent the early years of his life with his mother and sister Bianca in the 1940s. When WW2 ended, Zeus killed his mother. He and his sisters' memories were wiped and they were forced to stay in the Lotus Hotel until finally emerging in present day. Immediately after finding out that the two were demigods, his sister abandoned him for the Hunters of Artemis. When she went out on a quest, he made Percy promise to protect her. He wasn't able to keep that promise, so when Percy (who he was starting to crush on and didn't know how to handle it) returned to camp without Bianca, he couldn't take it. He ran away and was soon manipulated to be under the control of a long dead king in order to get his dead sister back. He spent a year doing his bidding, spending time in the Labyrinth as an outcast from camp, until finally shaking off his control and helping to win the final battle against Kronos. But even after all of that, he was still an outcast just like his father, Hades. He tried to go to the underworld to bring back Bianca, but she'd already been reborn into a new life. But he didn't come out completely empty-handed. He found Hazel, his half-sister, in the Fields of Asphodel, and brought her up to the surface with him. There, he became the only demigod to know about both Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter, though he was ostracized from both. He went through Tartarus completely alone and spent weeks stuck in a jar with nothing but a few pomegranate seeds to survive off of, all the while dealing with some serious internalized homophobia. When he was forcibly outed by Cupid, he had only his friend Jason to turn to. Eventually, he was allowed at the camps as a normal camper and was able to find happiness with his friends Jason and Reyna, his sister Hazel, and his new boyfriend Will. The happiness wouldn't last long, however. Jason soon died, Reyna left to join the Hunters of Artemis, and he'd once again lost people that he cared about. + The Heroes of Olympus - Leo Valdez's life didn't start out miserable, but it didn't take long for it to turn that way. His entire family saw him as a freak, not knowing that he had the ability to control fire but understanding that something was strange about him. The only person he had was his mother, who died in a fire started by Gaea that Leo blamed himself for. None of his relatives wanted to take him in, so he spent years being shuffled around foster homes and running away. Eventually, he ended up at Piper's school. When he discovered that he was a son of Hephaestus, the god of forges and fire, he discovered that even other Hephaestus kids thought that controlling fire was odd, so he had to keep it quiet again. He was the one who got possessed by the venti to fire on Camp Jupiter, so everyone blamed him for starting the war between the camps. He ends up on Ogygia with Calypso and they fall in love, but he's forced to leave her behind. Since he made a deal with Nemesis to help him figure out Archimedes's spheres, he blamed himself when Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus. Later, he finds out that one of the lines from the prophecy means that either he or his best friend Jason has to die to defeat Gaea, and chooses to sacrifice himself. Even when he comes back to life and is reunited with Calypso, managing to get her of her island, his happiness is tainted by the fact that Jason died before he could see him again. - Poor Hazel Levesque. For starters, she was born black in the 1920s. That part's self-explanatory. She was born with the ability to summon jewels and precious metals from beneath the earth because her mother wished for riches, but there was a catch. Anyone who used those riches for selfish means would be cursed. Since her mother exploited her gift, things never went well. Her mom always refused to take responsibility for the curse, saying it was because of her father Pluto alone. Everyone at school called her a freak because they thought her mother was a witch, and she only had one real friend. His name was Sammy Valdez. The two would sneak into pastures to ride horses together, and they at one point shared a small kiss. But that small bit of happiness was short-lived. To get away from the gods, Hazel was forced to move to Alaska. The last time she ever saw Sammy, she accidentally summoned a diamond near him. Despite her protests that it would bring him bad luck, he insisted that anything related to her couldn't possibly be evil. After moving north, she never saw him again and was told by Gaea that he had died young because of her curse. Alaska was out of the gods' control, so Gaea was able to corrupt her mother and force the two to help her raise her son, Gigantes. After learning that she would need a human sacrifice to raise him, Hazel immediately destroyed the cavern she'd been forced to build to welcome the giant, killing herself and her mother but delaying his return. For almost seventy years, she wandered the Fields of Asphodel alone until her half-brother, Nico Di Angelo, found her and brought her back up to the surface to Camp Jupiter. There, she was blackmailed by Octavian to help him become praetor and was shunned by most of the camp. She had frequent blackouts where she would remember aspects of her old life. Soon, she met Leo Valdez, her childhood crush's great great grandson who looked nearly identical to him. She eventually learned that Gaea had lied to her, and that Sammy had lived a long and full life in spite of the curse but had never forgotten his old friend. * Reign of the Seven Spellblades: We get a number of hints in the first three years of the series that Oliver Horn has a lot of trauma buried in his past, but his full Backstory, once revealed in volume 10, is nothing but round after round of suffering for a half-dozen years on end. \|\|His happy life with his parents was shattered by her falling-out with her Gnostic Hunter comrades: Chloe was murdered and Ed and Oliver fled to Seek Sanctuary with her powerful, estranged relatives. Turns out, she was the family Black Sheep: when the remnants of Chloe's soul settled with Oliver, his great-grandfather used him to play back her murder from her Ghost Memory, forcing him to relive her Rasputinian Death in first-person. Seeking revenge meant years of repeated Training from Hell to the point of death so that he could perform an unnatural Merger of Souls with his mother, the only hope a Master of None mage like Oliver had of posing a credible threat to a Kimberly Magic Academy professor. Then his great-grandfather had him drugged into a hyperaggressive state and unleashed him on his gentle cousin Shannon, hoping to impregnate her with a child with progenitor ancestry. Shannon forgave him since he was Not Himself, but Oliver's only hope of redeeming his guilt over the rape was scuttled when their daughter was stillborn—leading him to subconsciously conclude that he was destined to suffer forever. All this was capped off when Oliver murdered both his maternal great-grandparents for their actions, and his father committed suicide, both to cover it up and out of guilt for being unable to stop the rape.\|\| Good God, Bokuto Uno... * In Ripper (2014), this applies to the Serial Killer Big Bad's early life. In infancy, he was abused by his biological parents. A nurse kidnaps him and raises him as her daughter, teaching \|\|"Lee"\|\| that "girls are good, boys are bad". One day the nurse dies but her ID is stolen. By the time authorities identify her and learn that she is a mother, her child has been left alone for weeks and is close to death by starvation. And that is before child protective services intervenes, inflicting even more trauma. * The Baudelaire children in A Series of Unfortunate Events endure this throughout the series. Their parents are dead, they have no close relatives to live with, the main Big Bad wants to gain their family's fortune by any means necessary, any good relatives they find are killed, they lose their only friends through even more tragic circumstances, and they have no one to rely on. These kids really deserve a hug. + Lemony Snicket's entire life is basically just one long trauma conga line, even the bits detailed in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography. First, he's \|\|kidnapped as a baby into a secret organization, and grows up within VFD, likely never allowed to leave even if he wanted to. He says something that pisses off one of his enemies, gets framed for the crimes they committed (including several murders and arsons), and has to go on the run and later fake his own death. Then, he learns that the love of his life, who married someone else, has died in a fire, leaving her kids orphans. He resolves to record the story of the Baudelaires, and while writing the books, learns about the deaths of Monty and Josephine, people who were in VFD with him and that he knew personally. Then, he learns about the death of his brother, Jacques, likely only while researching for A Series Of Unfortunate Events, as it was never reported. After that, he learns about the death of his sister, Kit. At the end of The End, he's lost his friends, his siblings, the love of his life, and is still on the run for crimes he's never committed.\|\| The only bright spot for him is that \|\|ten years later, his sister's daughter shows up in his life, and he finally gets some closure on what happened after The End, as he was never able to find out.\|\| * The protagonist Camille from Sharp Objects is a prime example of a Result G. She was born The Un-Favorite to a Disappeared Dad and an emotionally and verbally abusive mother, Adora. At thirteen, her beloved little sister Marian died as a young child from a mysterious illness. Around the same time, Camille is gang-raped by a group of football players at a party. These early traumas leave Camille The Alcoholic and a chronic cutter, and she eventually has to check herself into a psychiatric hospital for her cutting problem. While there, she forms a close bond with her teenage roommate, but the roommate tragically commits suicide by ingesting bleach from the cleaning person's supplies. When her hometown has two unsolved murders of little girls occur, Camille is assigned by the newspaper she works at to cover the town's reaction, and she has to go stay with her abusive mother again while she does this. She finds a mutual attraction in the out-of-town detective summoned to investigate the murders, but it doesn't work out as \|\|she sleeps with a teenage suspect and he is also repulsed by the scars from her cutting\|\|. She eventually finds out \|\|her mother has Munchausen by Proxy and poisoned her sister Marian to death, but not before her mother almost poisons Camille to death as well. Her mother is eventually charged with the murders of Marian and the other two little girls. Camille then takes custody of her youngest sister Amma, moving the girl back to Chicago with her, only to find out that Amma was the killer all along when one of Amma's new school friends ends up dead in a very similar way as the other two little girls in her hometown\|\|. * Sidney Sheldon was awfully fond of this trope too. What's worse is that he often likes to cap it off with a Scenario B or C ending. * The Sister Verse and the Talons of Ruin is this and nothing but this for the whole way through, because the reality occupied by the characters is designed by the Lord in White to be as miserable as possible. * This happens to most of the characters in Sometimes A Great Notion, but the one who gets it worst has to be Hank. He loses \|\|his father, who dies of blood loss after losing his arm in a logging accident\|\|; he fails to \|\|save his cousin Joby from drowning while trapped under a log from the same logging accident\|\|; his half-brother Leland \|\|tells him he was having an affair with Hank's wife Vivian and then blames him for driving Leland's mother to suicide by having sex with her, even though she was several years older and it would count as statutory rape - and says all this immediately after leaving their father's deathbed\|\|; his wife Vivian \|\|leaves him\|\|; and the whole town gangs up on him for refusing to join their logging strike. All in the same day. * A Song of Ice and Fire is one big conga line for several characters, but the ones inflicted on\|\|Arya and Sansa Stark, starting with their father's death,\|\| are especially brutal. + Not to mention the brutality of pretty much everything that happens to \|\|Theon Greyjoy\|\| in A Dance With Dragons + Heavily implied that Littlefinger, perhaps the closest thing to the Big Bad in this series (besides The Others), went through this when he was younger, leading to Result B with a splattering Result D. From what we know, he was always mocked for being the lowest lord in the realm, as well as being physically weak in a culture that prizes strong men. Then, when he challenged the betrothed of the woman he loved, he was beaten, nearly killed, and then, while still weak from his injuries, raped by his love's sister. + Tyrion Lannister's life takes a sharp nose-dive in A Storm of Swords including a ghastly facial injury, being denied credit for his accomplishments, betrayal from people he was starting to think of as friends, being falsely accused of murder again and being convicted, and discovering a past betrayal from his family. He finally snaps from this abuse, commits two revenge-fueled murders, and flees Westeros vowing to return someday to take his revenge. And then it gets worse in A Dance with Dragons. + Jaime Lannister's adventures as a prisoner of the Boltons. + In the backstory, Rhaenyra and her son Aegon III are particularly sad figures. Rhaenyra loses her mother to childbirth when she's young, then loses her lover, first husband and close friend/sister-in-law in quick succession. Loses her father and has her half-brother usurp her throne. Then as the civil war continues, she slowly loses 5 of her 6 children and then it's capped off with her second husband dying and Rhaenyra herself being fed to a dragon as her son, Aegon III, watched. Aegon III never recovered from the shitshow that was the Dance plus he lost his first queen when she was 11 due to suicide/murder. His one bright spot was discovering his brother, Viserys, was still alive. There's a reason he's often called "the broken king." + Rhaenyra's opponent Aegon II and his family didn't have a good time of it either. Aegon also lost his wife (in a particularly brutal manner), his heirs, his beloved dragon Sunfyre, and repeatedly took crippling injuries that left him in constant agonizing pain for the rest of his life, which wasn't very long as he was poisoned shortly after taking the throne. His mother Alicent outlived all of her children and grandchildren, including being Forced to Watch one of her grandsons be murdered. His wife Helaena was driven to insanity by assassins playing cruel mind-games with her and murdering her heir Jaeherys. + Viserys (Dany's brother, not Aegon III's brother) Targaryen's life started pretty bad and somehow managed to steadily slide downwards from there. First off, he probably inherited some measure of his dad's instability. Second, Aerys' major paranoia caused him to isolate Viserys for his entire childhood, with Rhaella contributing in a desperate attempt to protect Viserys from Aerys's insanity. Third, his older brother was The Ace and probably left Viserys nursing a sizeable inferiority complex. Then, when he was eight, most of his family was slaughtered in a rebellion he never fully understood (due to his age and sheltered upbringing) and he was forced to flee home with his baby sister in tow. Several years later, Ser William Darry, the knight who'd helped him and Daenerys escape to Essos, died and Viserys and Daenerys were turned out into the streets, leaving Viserys Promoted to Parent at age 13, in constant fear for his and his sister's lives from the victorious Baratheons back in Westeros, and forced to constantly humiliate himself by begging wealthy patrons (who generally saw his status and trauma as amusing curiosities) and selling off what few family treasures he'd managed to save. It's honestly no wonder he wound up such a wretch. * For someone whose books are geared towards women, Danielle Steel tends to employ this with disturbing frequency. One of her books starts off with the protagonist's mother dying from cancer, then killing her father after years of him sexually abusing her (which her mother has told her that she must submit to, as she can no longer fulfill his sexual needs). Then she's sent to jail for murder, where she's nearly beaten by her fellow inmates. After her release, she starts to rebuild her life—and then she's viciously attacked and beaten on her way home from work and left unable to have children. Then after she's married a wonderful man and built a life with him, revelations about her past come out and nearly destroy her marriage, etc. The only redeeming factor is that ending is always Scenario A. * Stoneheart has Edie, whose backstory is horrifying (especially for a children's book) and whose role in the actual story isn't much better. Because most of it happens in backstory, it's unclear what Edie would have been like without it, but she seems to become more generally badass as the series goes on, though not without a touch of woobie thrown in. What makes all this even worse is that she's only twelve. * Thomas Hardy tends towards this, especially in his later novels. Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure in particular are just one bad turn after another. * Captain Lawrence in the Temeraire book Victory Of Eagles. He starts the book off \|\|under a death sentence for treason and ends it sailing off in exile to Australia, on the books as a prisoner. In between, he has to put up with half the Aerial Corps despising him as a traitor (many of those who think he did the right thing are too ashamed to look him in the eye themselves), his commanding officer/lover chewing him out for his Lawful Stupidity that gained him traitor tag, the husband of a former love interest he'd treated badly getting killed helping him on a a covert mission, and his personal fortune getting wiped out by a lawsuit.\|\| And did we mention Napoleon has invaded England while all this is going on? * Almost every major character in There Is No Antimemetics Division lives this to some extent, but Adam has a particularly great time of things. Over the course of two years, his children are presumably murdered, his wife of twenty years erases his memories of her and effectively destroys his life in the process, most of his left hand is chopped off, he's possessed by an Eldritch Abomination that forces him to commit all sorts of atrocities for months while he's conscious and alert the entire time, he regains control and his memories of his wife just in time to watch her die, he's mindraped to make him get over the aforementioned death of his wife, he spends months traveling post-apocalyptic North America while slowly losing his vision and suffering constant debilitating migraines only to realize he's been looking for the wrong place and has to go all the way back in the opposite direction, and ultimately sacrifices himself via an agonizing, drawn-out death by mnestic drug cocktail. * What is it with people named some variation of "Henry"? In The Time Traveler's Wife, Henry has no control over what he can and cannot time-travel to. Want proof that someone has it in for him? He time-travelled to \|\|his mother's death more times than we can count. And hasn't been able to do a damn thing to stop it.\|\| * J. R. R. Tolkien specialized in these: the plot of The Silmarillion is basically driven by a series of Heroic BSODs brought on by excessive disaster; and occasionally, excessive disaster brought on as a result of a Heroic BSoD. Probably the best example is Túrin (a hard E, followed by a C), whose whole freaking life was one; others include Fingolfin (result D), Húrin (possibly B, then C), the Sons of Fëanor (all over the spectrum, excluding A) Fëanor himself (D), and Tuor (a rare A). * Tomorrow's Bleeding: The story opens with Konishi Yukinaga experiencing defeat at the Battle of Sekigahara due to a series of betrayals by Kobayakawa Hideaki and others. After being captured by the Eastern Army, he is shackled and thrown into a filthy dungeon, interrogated and coerced by his former mentor to surrender his domain to his Arch-Enemy, then subjected to relentless Cold-Blooded Torture when he refuses, before being paraded around the country and executed as a disgraced criminal. And, as his monologues describe, all of this occurs after he's already: witnessed violence and massacre against people of his faith by men like Kiyomasa, wrestled with guilt over moral compromises during the Imjin Wars, lost his brothers and retainers in various battles and also father to illness, and was almost executed by his master for failing negotiations. * Violeta: + Miss Taylor. She starts out as an orphan at one of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries, goes to work for a man who rapes her until his wife puts an end to the situation. In Chile, she endures surgery for a tumor that leaves her infertile. She loses her lover to cancer. + As a centenarian Violeta has had her share of suffering: her father's suicide, the Death of a Child, Juliáno's abuse, her son and Torito going missing during the time the country is under a dictatorship \|\|(Juan Martin ends up OK; Torito does not)\|\|, and the loss of other loved ones. * Warrior Cats: SkyClan gets this a lot: originally they lost most of their territory due to Twolegs and began to starve, and then were driven out of the forest by other Clans; when they found the gorge, the remainder of the Clan was either killed by rats or split up. Special mention goes to their situation in Hawkwing's Journey: \|\|First they lose Duskpaw in a fire, then are unable to figure out the meaning of the prophecy Echosong received: when they try to follow it, cats (including Billystorm) die. The Clan is also attacked by raccoons at least twice, killing at least one and injuring others. Then Darktail's allies attack the gorge, forcing the Clan to flee. Several cats are killed in the battle (and one drowns in the river during their flight); several others go missing. The Clan decides that their only hope is to leave to find the other Clans, and several of their cats stay behind. SkyClan ends up running into trouble in Stick and Dodge's city and an apprentice is taken hostage, although at least SkyClan makes it out without losing anyone. Two cats leave to stay with Barley in his barn. During their journey, the pregnant Pebbleshine is kidnapped by Twolegs, and cats are frequently injured. They think they've found their new home by the lake, but the Clans have never lived by this particular lake, and the area proves to be too dangerous after multiple encounters with a hawk, dogs, and Twolegs (during which several more cats are captured by Twolegs, including a medicine cat apprentice.) A couple cats more decide to become kittypets. Then SkyClan falls ill with a sickness while the medicine cat is away, which kills a few more. They are in their darkest hour, saying that SkyClan is over, when finally a few missing Clan members find them, they are able to cure the sickness, and Echosong receives a new prophecy, leaving a spot of hope.\|\| * Given the Crapsack World (or possibly World Half Full) setting of The Wheel of Time, it's probably not surprising this happens to quite a few of its characters. One example is Morgase, queen of Andor, who is \|\|brainwashed and raped, then forced to flee her country, then tortured and forced to Abdicate the Throne and probably raped again\|\|. Until one of the Deuteragonists comes across her, basically everything that happens to her is immensely traumatic. + Rand, the pivotal character and The Chosen One, doesn't have it easy either. He \|\|finds out that he is adopted while his father is near death from an infected wound\|\|, he is \|\|slowly (or rapidly) going insane because that's what happens to all males who are born with the ability to channel\|\|, and, due to him being a channeler, he is alienated from pretty much all of his family and friends, many of whom \|\|later view him chiefly as a force of nature that needs to be controlled and/or manipulated\|\|. This is one of the factors that makes him decidedly paranoid...or justifiably suspicious, \|\|considering all those assassination attempts by everything from sentient mist to normal people out for glory or money\|\|. He's also \|\|suffering from a wound that won't heal for the longest part of the series, giving him a physically exhausted look and a twisted relationship to pain\|\|. There's more, but needless to say, he adopts the maxim; "Duty is heavier than a mountain, death is lighter than a feather" from Lan, to explain his relationship to the whole "save the world business". ---	TraumaCongaLine	null
ComicBooks	# Trauma Conga Line - Comic Books The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU * Marvel Universe --- Other ===== * Robert Kirkman's The Astounding Wolf-Man. Hoo boy, it's impressive how crappy the title character's life got so quickly. So he was a wealthy CEO shredded by a werewolf, became one himself, lost his multi-million dollar company, got an oh-so-brief respite of awesome when he got some control over his wolf form and became a superhero, found out he still became a murderous beast during a full moon by killing a well-known superhero, became estranged from his wife and daughter, found out that his vampiric mentor killed his wife, got framed for said murder (including, worst of all, in the eyes of his daughter), became a fugitive, got another minor respite when he became friends with a prominent superhero, reluctantly got a minor alliance with someone he already knew was hugely bad news, was thrown into prison, and was stabbed in the chest by his own daughter, who'd turned to the previously mentioned vampiric mentor to avenge her mother's death (and let him drink some blood from her), not knowing she was training with the real killer! Whew! It was only in issue 17 that his life took any appreciable change for the better. * Dark Times: + Bomo goes through brutal war experiences while trying to help the economic prosperity of his people, is prepared to die so the civilians of his tribe can escape, sees his surrendering comrades gunned down, learns the refugees were caught and enslaved, fails to rescue first his wife and then his daughter before they are killed, and is unable to spare the time or resources to rescue some of his other neighbors from imprisonment. + Crys is a war refugee who was terrorized, lost her husband, and gave up her son to the Jedi to get him away from a battlefield only to later realize he would have lived if he had stayed and is probably dead in Order 66 because she let him go. She had to scavenge to survive before joining the crew, is nearly made a Sex Slave after being kidnapped, and is infected with the rakghoul plague. * Femforce: Jen Burke's life has been horrible. She never wanted to be a superhero, but because she was Ms. Victory's daughter she was compatible with V-47. When Ms. Victory went rogue, she was asked to take her place. She refused, and Tom Kelly responded by ruining her life to the point, including arranging for husband's legs to be broken, where it was either do it, or face financial ruin. Once in Femforce, the girls resented her for being forced on them, and refused to accept her. In addition, she couldn't tell her husband what was going on, badly straining their marriage eventually leading to an affair and divorce. Then her son Jason gets killed by collateral damage from one of Garganta's rampage. Then she gets manipulated into becoming Rad II, by the mad God Capricorn. Finally she just snaps. * Zomax, the villain of a 1941 Jungle Comics story by the notoriously grim cult-favourite cartoonist Fletcher Hanks. It begins when Zomax goes hunting in the jungle and is jumped and mutilated by a lion he'd mortally wounded and was about to finish off when his gun jammed. Then a "man-hating" elephant tosses him into a pond where he's stung by poisonous gnats, causing his face to swell. Upon crawling out of the water, he encounters a boa constrictor that crushes several of his bones. Next, an ape takes him to its lair, where for several months it beats him like a drum with bones. Small wonder that Zomax, after escaping the jungle and emerging from the hospital severely crippled, vows to exact revenge on all jungle animals by causing a massive tidal wave. * A Funny Background Event in Lori Lovecraft: Into the Past'' involves basketballer Larry "The Legend" Raven who has come out of retirement at age 50 to captain the Clippers through the playoffs. Every time he appears, he has suffered some unlikely accident. First he breaks his arm in a bathtub accident, then gets hit the face by a lawn dart. By the time of the championship game, he is playing with a ruptured septum. Then the scoreboard falls on him breaking his leg. He has it taped up and keeps playing. * The Big Bad of Star Wars: Legacy, Darth Krayt, went through nearly two centuries of suffering. + In Star Wars: Republic, he was a Jedi named A'Sharad Hett during the Clone Wars. His family lived among Tatooine's Tusken Raiders, and he knew Anakin Skywalker personally and learned of his genocide against his people but neglected to report him, believing it would be best for him to face his darkness on his own. As a result, he blamed himself for Anakin's fall and the destruction of the Jedi Order, and returned to Tatooine disillusioned. He then became a Tusken warlord, only for Obi-Wan Kenobi to sever his arm and exile him from the planet unmasked as his people turned on him for violating their taboo against exposed skin. + He then ended up Walking the Earth as a Bounty Hunter before ending up on the Sith homeworld of Korriban and getting recruited. Then he fully embraced the Dark Side after getting captured and tortured by the Vong, who gave him implants that began slowly killing him, forcing him to spend extended periods of time in stasis to slow the progress. + After all the pain and hardship he went through to revive the Sith, he consults with the Virtual Ghosts of the three greatest Sith Lords seeking guidance; Darths Andeddu, Nihilus, and Bane. All three of them (yes, even The Unintelligible Nihilus) proceed to utterly lambast him for doing away with the Rule of Two and refuse to teach him anything, branding him a heretic. ---	TraumaCongaLine	null
DoctorWho	# Actor Allusion - Doctor Who * First Doctor companion Ian Chesterton was played by William Russell, famous as the lead of the 1950s swashbuckling series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot. In "The Crusade", he gets knighted and the Doctor jokes that he could always have imagined him as a knight. * In "The Daleks' Master Plan", the Doctor insists to a man in a contemporary Liverpool police station that he once met him "in a marketplace in Jaffa". The actor Reg Pritchard had previously played the merchant Ben Daheer in "The Crusade". * "Colony in Space" had the Brigadier tell the Doctor he'd nearly arrested the Spanish ambassador, mistaking him for the Master. The actor who played the Master, Roger Delgado, had previously played Mendoza, the Spanish envoy to the court of Elizabeth I in Sir Francis Drake. * Tom Baker had previously worn a big floppy fedora and a long scarf to hide his mutations from the outside world while playing The Igor in The Mutations (released in the US as The Freakmaker). Interviews with Tom Baker and the costume designer James Acheson reveal that it was an inspiration. * "Revenge of the Cybermen": Tom Baker gets to perform a snatch of a famous soliloquy from Macbeth, the role he'd played last before getting cast as the Doctor (and one that had been fairly traumatic for him). * "The Brain of Morbius": The Doctor tells Sarah that if she doesn't stop crying he'll bite her nose. Tom Baker had previously had his nose bitten for crying in The Canterbury Tales. * Valentine Dyall, who played the Black Guardian during Seasons 16 and 20, had previously been well-known as the BBC's radio Horror Host "The Man in Black". Cyril Luckham, who played his counterpart the White Guardian, was probably best known for his role in a 1971 drama series called The Guardians. * In the 1992 VHS version of "Shada", when Tom Baker reminisces about the story before beginning his narration, he says that he heard Daniel Hill (Chris Parsons) ended up manager of an old people's home ("Or maybe he went into an old people's home, or maybe he was always old"), a reference to his then-current role as Baines in Waiting for God. * "Terror of the Vervoids": In Mel's first scene, she is shown training the Sixth Doctor, who's on an exercise bike. The Sixth Doctor's actor, Colin Baker, gained a noticeable amount of weight in-between the 22nd and 23rd seasons. * For a little while (until the series revival), the canonical Ninth Doctor was Richard E. Grant, who played an Ink-Suit Actor version of him in the animation "Scream of the Shalka". The Eighth Doctor had been played by Paul McGann — basically, he had regenerated into the other half of Withnail and I. * "The Christmas Invasion" includes a scene of the Tenth Doctor (played by David Tennant) choosing his new costume in the TARDIS wardrobe. In addition to the Continuity Nod of past Doctors' costumes being present, there was also a vivid red "Regency" shirt resembling one Tennant had worn as the title character in Casanova, and a Hogwarts uniform, referencing his role as Barty Crouch Jr. in Goblet of Fire. That incarnation of the Doctor later mentioned enjoying Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. * "School Reunion" features Anthony Stewart Head as the villain (in a school setting), Mr. Finch. When confronted by a laser-equipped K9, he tells his followers to "Forget the shooty-dog thing." * "The Satan Pit": Rose and Mr. Jefferson are discussing escape plans, and Jefferson mentions the ducts used by maintenance robots that run under the base. Rose assumes they're ventilation shafts, which gets Jefferson to say "I appreciate the reference." His actor was in Alien³. Plus of course, those sort of maintenance tunnels in Star Trek are nicknamed "Jefferies tubes" * "The Lazarus Experiment": Richard Lazarus, played by Mark Gatiss, says he used to live in a flat above a butcher's shop. In The League of Gentlemen, Gatiss played a butcher. * "Utopia": Sir Derek Jacobi first played the Master in the non-canon animated special Scream of the Shalka, before playing Professor Yana, the Master's Chameleon Arched human personality, as well as the man himself briefly. * The special "Time Crash" as a whole is an especially poignant one. Peter Davison reprises his role as the Fifth Doctor opposite Ten, who tells him how much he loved his time as Five and finally getting to be young and nice. He then breaks the fourth wall entirely with the line "You were my Doctor"; fans typically use "my Doctor" to refer to the actor who they grew up with and love in the role, and Davison was that Doctor for Tennant, so much that he became an actor solely so that he might get to play the role himself one day. * "The Doctor's Daughter": Jenny is played by Georgia Moffett, who actually is the daughter of Fifth Doctor Peter Davison. And her mother is Sandra Dickinson (Trillian from the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) TV series). When Jenny appears for the first time, a bit of the theme music from the Hitchhiker series can be heard. * "The Unicorn and the Wasp": + David Tennant is Scottish. What's the national animal of Scotland? The unicorn. + Felicity Kendal (Lady Eddison) is best known for her role on Rosemary & Thyme, which is about two garden designers who solve crimes & mysteries at the same time, much like the story of this episode. And just like Lady Eddison, Kendal also spent some time in India, where she was brought up. As a result of this, she is fluent in Hindi. + Fenella Woolgar and David Tennant also acted together in BBC miniseries He Knew He Was Right. * "The Stolen Earth": Wilfred Mott faces down a Dalek. Bernard Cribbins previously did so when he appeared in the non-canonical movie Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.. * "Planet of the Dead": + Lee Evans, who has a character called Malcolm in his stand-up routines, plays UNIT scientist Malcolm Taylor. + One of Malcolm's units of measurement for four-dimensional phenomena is named in honour of Bernard Quatermass. David Tennant starred in the 2005 remake of The Quatermass Experiment. * "The End of Time": + In a brief cameo, the Doctor sets up Alonso Frame with Captain Jack Harkness. Alonso's actor Russell Tovey is, in fact, gay. + \|\|The Doctor is told that "the universe will sing you to your rest"\|\|, which may reference a line from Hamlet, a production which David Tennant had played the title role in. * "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone": + Amy is made to think she's turning into stone, something that was actually happening to Karen Gillan's character in "The Fires of Pompeii". + River Song does a medical checkup on Amy after she collapses, a nod to Alex Kingston's time on ER. * "The Vampires of Venice": The Doctor proudly talks about being a friend of Casanova. As noted above, the 2005 BBC series on Casanova had him played by previous Doctor David Tennant, and it was written by previous showrunner Russell T Davies. It's actually how the two met and became friends. * "Vincent and the Doctor": Vincent van Gogh, the only person who can see an Invisible Monster, is played by Tony Curran, who once played an Invisible Man. * "The Lodger": The Eleventh Doctor plays soccer. His actor, Matt Smith, played soccer before becoming an actor. * "The Girl Who Waited": Amy mentions how Rory pretends to be in a band. Rory's actor, Arthur Darvill, is in a band in real life. * "Deep Breath": The Twelfth Doctor asks a random hobo (thinking he's Clara) if he's seen the Doctor's new face before. The Doctor gets the feeling that he has seen this face at some point. Peter Capaldi played Caecilius in the Tenth Doctor episode "The Fires of Pompeii", where he and Tennant interacted quite a bit with each other. In a semi-related note, Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) appeared in the episode as well, before going on to play Eleven's companion. + This scene is actually followed up in the next season during "The Girl Who Died" when the Twelfth Doctor realises he actually chose Caecilius' face to remind himself to always save someone, if not everyone. + Capaldi's last role immediately prior to the Doctor was in World War Z as "W.H.O. Doctor". * "Time Heist": The Twelfth Doctor tells people to "shutity up!" * "Dark Water": A character is horrified to see the Twelfth Doctor's identity card — "Another government inspection? So soon? Why is there all this swearing?" * "Praxeus": The Doctor is first seen running down a beach towards a (soon to be) dead body. ---	ActorAllusion	null
Pokemon	# Obvious Rule Patch - Pokémon Pokémon has been subject to a few Obvious Rule Patches. They are ordered based on the generation they were introduced in. --- Generation I ------------ * This is the purpose of the obedience mechanic. Once you unlock trading, there's really nothing stopping you from getting a high-level Pokémon from a friend. The obedience mechanic is designed to prevent you from using traded Pokémon to crush the game under your heel by making it so high-leveled Pokémon acquired from other Trainers have a very high chance of not listening to your commands until you collect the proper amount of Gym Badges or equivalents thereof. + In Sword and Shield, this mechanic was extended to the ability to catch high-level Pokémon outside of Raids due to the presence of the Wild Area where you can meet high-level wild Pokémon early. + Starting from Legends: Arceus, the catch penalty was mostly removed and obedience was changed so that it is based on the Pokémon's level at the time of being caught/traded rather than the current level, preventing legitimate outsider Pokémon from going disobedient when overleveled. * Yellow changes the interaction with the Old Man in Viridian City who teaches you how to catch Pokémon from Red and Blue. Thus, he can no longer be used to trigger the MissingNo glitch (although there's still a multitude of ways to do so). * In the original versions of Kanto, there exists an infamous bit of Artificial Stupidity where, if a move's typing is super-effective against an opposing Pokémon, the AI will spam it incessantly even if it is a non-damaging move. While usually something that can be exploited for some funny scenarios, due to AI trainers having infinite PP in the first generation, this become particularly problematic in the case of Lorelei, who leads with a Dewgong that knows the self-healing move Rest and will spam it against Poison and Fighting-types. Since you're effectively locked in the room until you beat her, this can lead to a ridiculous stallfest or even a softlock under specific circumstances. Because of this, in Yellow, Lorelei has an exception coded into her AI where, while she's using Dewgong, she will ignore the super-effective chart roughly 40% of the time. Generation II ------------- * With the introduction of the gender and breeding mechanics, in order to prevent people from breeding a bunch of starters, all of them have a 7:1 male-to-female ratio. As Technology Marches On, this effort was largely made obsolete by features such as Wonder Trade that allows people to obtain starters with relative ease, but the tradition persists to this day to at least help justify why they can't easily be found in the wild from an in-universe perspective. Granted, it was arguably undermined even at its introduction, as they put Ditto (which can breed with any gender) right outside the Daycare and third Gym in Gen II. * Psychic-types in Gen I were very broken. Apart from its innate strengths, one of its intended weaknesses, Ghost, suffered from a programming error, which made Ghost completely ineffective on Psychic. When Gen II rolled around, aside from the nerfs to the type with the introduction of Dark and Steel, Ghost was correctly programmed so that it was properly effective against Psychic as intended. * Unlike physical moves, special moves used the same stat for both attacking and defending. This meant that while an individual Pokémon could be good at using physical moves but bad at defending against them or vice versa, being good at using special moves automatically made a Pokémon good at defending against them. Add in the move Amnesia, which boosted the Special stat by two stages, and a Special-oriented Pokémon could quickly become a nightmare to take down. To make matters worse, at this point in the series, a move's type was what determined whether it was physical or special, and Psychic was one of the special types; see above for why this was such a bad thing. Gen II wisely split the Special stat into Special Attack and Special Defense, putting physical and special moves on more even footing. * There are several moves that protect the user from taking damage that turn, most commonly Protect. Attempting to use Protect multiple turns in a row sharply slices its success rate to prevent indefinite stalling. Furthermore, similar guarding moves like Detect, Endure, and Spiky Shield all use the same mechanic, preventing alternating between multiple such moves to avoid the success rate reduction. * Hyper Beam had a number of ways to bypass the cooldown turn after use, such as if it misses, the target faints, or it broke a Substitute. Come Gen II, all of these loopholes have been closed (except for missing) to give the move more of a downside. * Struggle, the unique move reserved for when a Pokémon runs out of PP, behaved as a Normal-type move, which made it completely unable to affect Ghost-types. Later games would have it behave as a "typeless" move instead, dealing neutral damage to all types. Generation III -------------- * Shedinja, a Bug/Ghost type Pokémon, is a permanent One-Hit-Point Wonder to balance out its No-Sell ability, Wonder Guard. This blocks it from taking any direct damage that does not hit it super effectively, though it is still vulnerable to damage over time effects, damaging weather, abilities, and items. Since it has five weaknesses, it's also pretty easy to counter on that front, leaving it basically unusable apart from a few gimmicks like hard countering Kyogre. However, wouldn't it be nice if you could drop Wonder Guard onto, say, Sableye? Which until Gen VI(Said Generation introduced the Fairy type, which is strong against Dark, while Ghost cannot resist it) had no weaknesses at all? Nope, no can do! Moves like Role Play and Skill Swap are programmed to fail if used on this ability. The only way to get Wonder Guard onto another Pokémon is via Trace, or having Shedinja use Mimic to copy the move Entrainment, the former being only possible for your opponent and the second only being usable in Double Battles and requiring significant setup that can easily be stopped. Generation IV ------------- * Moves that take away a held item or otherwise suppresses them (like Thief, Knock Off, and Magic Room) won't work on specific Pokémon holding items that they have unique interactions with (such as Arceus's Plates, Giratina's Griseous Orb, Genesect's Drives, and any Pokémon's specific Mega Stone), nor do they work on Z-Crystals. Stealing moves (and Fling) also won't work on those items if the user is a Pokémon that can use them (e.g. Arceus cannot steal an opponent's Plate or Fling its own Plate at them), and Z-Crystals are unaffected. Additionally, Knock Off will not receive the damage boost if used against an opponent where their item cannot be removed from the attack. * Wobbuffet cannot attack directly, instead returning an opponent's damage back with Counter and Mirror Coat. However, when debuted in Gen II, Wobbuffet could not stop the opponent from just switching out over and over while it burned all of its PP. When Gen III introduced Abilities, Wobbuffet and its new baby form, Wynaut, got Shadow Tag, which prevents the opponent from switching out, to compensate; unfortunately, this had the unintended potential to end up in a draw if two Wobbuffets with Leftovers ended up facing off, as neither could switch out or do enough damage with Struggle to knock the other out, which happened in competitive matches. Gen IV would adjust Shadow Tag so that it also granted immunity against its own effect, and the self-damage calculation for Struggle got altered to make it depend on the user's maximum health rather than the damage dealt to the target. * In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, you received the National Pokédex upon seeing every Pokémon in the Sinnoh Pokédex. The idea was that you would only achieve this after beating the Elite Four, in which you can get Palkia (Diamond) or Dialga (Pearl) recorded into the Pokédex; but it was possible to achieve filling out the Sinnoh Pokédex through trading and thus get the National Pokédex before beating the game. Come Pokémon Platinum and in addition to seeing every Pokémon in the Sinnoh Pokédex, you also have to have beaten the Elite Four in order to get the National Pokédex. Generation V ------------ * Before this generation, a Pokémon holding a Focus Sash at full HP would be able to shrug off the entire sequence of a multi-hit move like Rock Blast or Pin Missile. Afterwards, it only protects against the first hit of such moves instead of the entire sequence. * In this generation, there was a glitch involving the new move Sky Drop. The move makes one Pokémon take another into the air (and then drop it for damage), and when a Pokémon is in the air, it cannot move or be hit (except by moves that can hit airborne opponents, like Thunder). The move Gravity makes Flying-types or levitating Pokémon come to the ground (this meaning they can be hit by Ground-type moves), but in a double battle, if one of your Pokémon uses Sky Drop and the other then uses Gravity, both Pokémon will come to the ground... except while your Pokémon can move, theirs is treated as being in the air and cannot move, at all, until they faint through airborne-hitting moves. The Obvious Rule Patch? Nintendo banned Sky Drop in random online battles. Gen VI later adjusted Sky Drop, patching this glitch. Generation VI ------------- * In Gen V, the introduction of Hidden Abilities gave Politoed Drizzle and Ninetales Drought, and before Gen VI weather summoned by Abilities was permanent. This was true in prior Gens, but was balanced by the fact that the only Pokémon who could have the Ability were Olympus Mons that were restricted in most official tournaments - giving the abilities to weaker Mons allowed legal weather teams to not just thrive, but become the most powerful teams around, resulting in an overcentralized meta nicknamed the "Weather Wars" that was almost entirely focused on beating the other team's weather with yours, after which your victory was all but assured. As a result of the ensuing chaos, Gen VI nerfed weather-summoning abilities so that the weather only stayed up for the usual 5 turns (8 if holding a weather rock). * In Gens IV and V, there were problems with players disconnecting to preserve their win-loss record. Beginning with Pokémon X and Y, however, disconnecting on players will count as a loss to the player who shut their game off. * The Flabébé line's Flower Veil ability gives total immunity to status moves to any allied Grass-types in double battles. Testing reveals that this ability will also work on the user if it somehow becomes a Grass-type. Despite its design and Pokédex entries indicating that Florges should be a Fairy/Grass-type, it remains pure Fairy so its ability doesn't make it totally immune to status moves on its own. Generation VII -------------- * Mega Rayquaza is different from other Mega Evolutions in that Rayquaza doesn't need to hold a specific Mega Stone to transform, and can therefore hold any item it wants. When Pokémon Sun and Moon introduced Z-Moves (powerful attacks that can only be used once), a Rayquaza holding a Z-Crystal cannot Mega Evolve, preventing it from using both gimmicks at the same time. + The games have gone out of their way to ensure a Mega-Evolved Pokémon can't use a Z-Move under any circumstances. Most notable is that, if a Pokémon holding a Z-Crystal uses Transform or the Imposter ability to transform into a Mega Pokémon, if it tries to use a Z-Move, it'll say that there's no compatible move, even if it knows a move of a matching type. * Dark Void is a very powerful move in Double Battles (putting both opposing Pokémon to sleep), normally mitigated by it being exclusive to Darkrai, a Pokémon normally banned in competitions. However, Smeargle can learn any move in the game through Sketch, and as a result Dark Void Smeargle ran rampant through the Video Game Championships scene for years, annoying players to no end due to how difficult it was to counter. Pokémon Sun and Moon not only nerfed Dark Void's accuracy to 50%, but made it automatically fail if used by any Pokémon other than Darkrai. * While a player can have both a Dusk Mane Necrozma and a Dawn Wings Necrozma in their party in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, only one of them can transform into Ultra Necrozma per battle; transforming one will prevent the other from doing so, even if the transformed Necrozma faints. * Starting from Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, the Pokémon Storage System can be accessed at any time, instead of needing to return to a Pokémon Center. Accordingly, Pokémon deposited into a Box will not be automatically healed (as was the case in previous generations except in Gen I). * In Pokémon Sun and Moon, the change in the Heavy Ball's catch rate equation meant that Beldum, a Pokémon below the new threshold and with it among the Pokémon with the lowest catch rate in the game, would receive a negative modifier that the catch rate would go into the negatives and would have a flat zero percent chance of being caught in the Heavy Ball. Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon modified the catch rate so that the base catch rate would always be at least 1, even if it would theoretically go into the negatives. * Leech Life's power was boosted to a whopping 80. As such, all Pokémon that could learn it early now learn Absorb at that level instead. However, it does mean Zubat can't one shot you with a powerful early move. Generation VIII --------------- * Pikachu, Meowth, and Eevee with the Gigantamax factor can't be evolved, so Pokémon HOME will not allow such Pikachu, Meowth, and Eevee to be moved to other games either, preventing the player from obtaining Gigantamax factor Raichu, Persian, and Eeveelutions with no corresponding form. The same restriction applies to Duraludon, despite its evolved form Archaludon not being introduced until Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, meaning it couldn't be moved back after evolving either way. * Mimikyu's Disguise Ability meant that it completely shrugs off one attack per battle until it faints, regardless of power. This means that giving it the Focus Sash at full HP will allow it to survive at least two hits that would have knocked it out. In this generation afterwards, Mimikyu loses 1/8 of its max HP upon tanking the damage with Disguise, removing its synergy with Focus Sash. * This generation introduced the Pokémon Home transfer mechanic, which allows you to transfer Pokémon not just between main series games, but from Pokémon GO. However, since it's easier to get multiple legendaries in that game, the game will not allow you to transfer a legendary caught in GO to a main series game unless you already have it registered to that game's Pokédex. Generation IX ------------- * Adaptability is an Ability that was introduced all the way back in Gen IV and increases the STAB multiplier from 1.5x to 2x for moves of the same type as the user. Terastallization is also a mechanic that does the same if the user Terastallizes into (one of) its same type(s). Should you attempt to Terastallize a Pokémon with Adaptability to one of its types (e.g. Tera Water Crawdaunt), instead of both multipliers stacking, the resulting boost is 2.25x instead, preventing such mons from becoming obscenely powerful wallbreakers. * When the DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet was released, players discovered a duplication exploit that involved getting a wild Smeargle to use Transform on a large Pokémon. This was patched by making it so that Smeargle could not use Transform in wild battles - but Ditto and Mew still can, and Smeargle can still use the move in trainer battles. Virtual Console releases ------------------------ * The Virtual Console release of Pokémon Red and Blue does not allow Save States (a standard feature for other Virtual Console games released on the Nintendo 3DS) to prevent players from cloning Pokémon, and prevents players from transferring Mew obtained through a glitch. In addition, all Pokémon transferred have their Hidden Abilities, otherwise people could use an Ability Capsule on Machamp to give it No Guard to ensure Fissure (which the TM for only existed in Gen I) would always land. Smogon ------ * When Smogon decided that Mega Rayquaza was too much of a Game-Breaker even for the Uber tier, they created the "Anything Goes" tier so they had somewhere to ban it to. The rules for Anything Goes are just what they sound like — no bans, no restrictions... except that even in Anything Goes, the "Endless Battle" clause forbids movesets designed to extend the battle indefinitely just to piss the other player off. * The Endless Battle Clause itself had to be modified several times to account for certain creative types finding ways around the convoluted ban, which at its core involved a Leppa Berry(Restores 10 PP to any move that runs out of PP), the move Recycle(Recovers a used item, such as a Leppa Berry; in this case allowing infinite PP restoration), and some method of keeping the opponent from suiciding from Struggle recoil, of which there are shockingly many methods. * Pokémon Black and White gave Politoed and Ninetales, respectively, the abilities Drizzle and Drought, which summon permanent rain/sun; this gives numerous bonuses to certain Pokémon, including increasing the power of Water-/Fire-type moves and activating certain abilities, most notably Swift Swim and Chlorophyll, which double the Pokémon's Speed under these conditions. Another ability, Sand Rush, was also introduced, which doubles Speed in a sandstorm. The problems come from how, at the beginning of Black and White, Politoed plus Swift Swim sweepers ran wild over the game. Smogon later came up with a complex ban: Politoed could not be on a team with a Swift Swim Pokémon. However, this has the opposite effect, on which players would then bring their own Swift Swim Pokémon to counter such teams, something that repeated for Chlorophyll and Sand Rush. The rule later extended to banning climate Speed-boosting Abilities. * Smogon tier lists are usually determined by usage. The more a Pokémon is used, the higher the tier it is in, the logic being that players will use the better more often. However, there were Pokémon that were not used enough to be useful in a higher tier but came to utterly dominate some lower tier. For example, in Black and White, no one would use Kyurem in Overused, but it completely destroyed most Pokémon in Underused. Smogon created "borderline" (now called ban lists) for Pokémon that are too good to be used in one tier but not used enough to be placed into a higher tier. * Originally, tier lists were determined only by usage. After a user named "ihabt" decided to use several NeverUsed Pokémon in RarelyUsed with terrible movesets and setups frequently with the intent of moving them up to RarelyUsed, Smogon changed things so that such a Pokémon can't just be used in a specific tier, it needs to be viable and capable of winning enough battles in that tier as well. Self-imposed challenges ----------------------- * Some Nuzlocke runs of later generations will have additional rules to account for new mechanics not present in Gen III, where the Nuzlocke Comics originated. For example, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire introduced the DexNav and sneaking through grass, which would make the Nuzlocke rule of "You can only catch the first encounter on a route" a complete joke since getting a really good first encounter would be incredibly easy. Possible rule patches for this would be to either forbid using the DexNav entirely, forbid sneaking through grass to get to a detected Pokémon until you're right next to it, or consider the first detected Pokémon the first encounter (so if it's not ideal, too bad, and if you give it up, you can't try again). * Certain challenge runs have players limiting themselves to using only certain or even just one Pokémon. The fandom generally allows challengers to catch other Pokémon not part of said challenge to use HMs in older games as not having HM users would make the challenge impossible.	ObviousRulePatch	null
ScarletLady	# Spanner In The Works - Scarlet Lady Scarlet Lady -------------- Spanner in the Works in this series. --- * The comic starts off with Master Fu's plan to make Marinette the Ladybug hero going awry due to Chloé stealing the Ladybug earrings from Marinette's purse before the latter even noticed they were in there. * Chloé's attempt to steal Marinette's hat design for the derby contest fails because Marinette had hidden her name in the hat's embroidery. Downplayed, as Marinette points out that even ignoring how her name was on both hats, she still had the original sketches, while Chloé obviously didn't. * Marinette throws a spanner in Chloé's plans for easily winning the Class President elections again when she declares her candidacy, undeterred by Chloé's threats. She then handily wins the election despite Chloé throwing a lavish campaign launch and giving away Jagged Stone albums to her classmates. While Marinette did prove her competency for the role when Darkblade attacked, the class later reveal that Marinette not being Chloé was enough of a reason for them to choose her, and that they only attended the latter's campaign launch for the freebies, not because they intended on actually voting for her. * When Chloé orders Sabrina to steal Marinette's diary, the box it is in unexpectedly clamps onto Sabrina's wrist. Not only does this reveal Chloé's attempted theft to the entire class, but Sabrina ends up tearfully begging Marinette to take the box off and lets her have the diary back as well, depriving Chloé of any potential blackmail. * Lila encounters a few of these in "Volpina": + She lies about being best friends with Scarlet Lady, hoping to get more attention from her new classmates. Unfortunately, she didn't count on Scarlet Lady secretly being the Alpha Bitch in her class, who overhears the lie and then outs Lila as a liar before \|\|throwing her into a fountain\|\|, all in front of the classmates Lila was trying to impress. + Lila steals Gabriel's book from Adrien, hoping to use it to make her story that she's a superhero seem more believable, then throws it away once she's done with it. Her plan is derailed due to Plagg telling Adrien she stole the book. Additionally, Marinette later just happens to find the book while passing through the park and decides to show it to Adrien, making him realize that only did Lila steal from him, she threw his father's book away instead of trying to discretely return it, thus cementing his dislike of her. + Adrien tells Lila that even discounting the Contrived Coincidence of her divulging that she's secretly a superhero right after he noticed Gabriel's book was missing from his bag, he knew right away she was lying about being saved by Scarlet Lady; the Ladybug heroine being a Nominal Hero and constantly pushing all the work onto Chat Noir was all it took for Lila's claims to fall apart. * Defied when Mme. Bustier forces the class to invite Chloé to Marinette's birthday party. Knowing their bully will try to ruin things, Alya assigns Sabrina as the "Chloé wrangler," and the latter follows Chloé around, swiftly undoing any sabotage Chloé tries to commit. * Vanisher might've won if Master Fu hadn't decided on that particular occasion to give Marinette the Bee Miraculous, allowing her to make her debut as Marigold. Both her Venom attack and her plan to use nearby flowers to track Vanisher's movements were instrumental to the akuma's defeat. * Kim ends up ruining the class's plans to go see a movie when he mentions Chloé to Ondine as he's rushing to leave the pool. Ondine is soon afterwards akumatized due to jumping to the false conclusion that Kim likes Chloé and subsequently floods the entire city as Syren. * In "Dark Cupid," Kim's plan to ask Ondine to be his girlfriend would've gone off without a hitch if Chloé hadn't just happened to cross the bridge while Kim was waiting for Ondine there. Wrongly assuming that Kim's gift was for herself, Chloé unwittingly causes a misunderstanding when Ondine arrives moments later, which leads to Kim's akumatization. * \|\|After successfully infecting nearly all of Paris, including both Chat Noir and Scarlet Lady\|\|, Zombizou's Near-Villain Victory gets derailed when \|\|Marigold unlocks her Next Tier Power-Up, "Bee Balm," which allows her to free Zombizou's victims from the akuma's control\|\|. * Marinette's plan to get Marc to team up with Nathaniel goes pear-shaped when Chloé by chance overhears Alix and Nathaniel discussing the drawings he posted on the school blog and then discovers the drawings mock both her civilian and superhero identities. Chloé subsequently crashes Marc and Nathaniel's meeting and rips up the former's journal, triggering their akumatization.	SpannerInTheWorks	null
Film	# Missing Episode - Film * Many, many old silent and early sound films (including those of superstars like Theda Bara, Clara Bow, and Baby Peggy) are now considered lost (partially or completely), simply because — in an era well before ancillary opportunities like 16mm and 8mm cinema, TV, or home video — it didn't make financial sense for the studios to care about keeping them around. The prints that do remain are usually those that were preserved in private collections. Theda Bara appeared in over two dozen films, but only four have survived. According to Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation, 90% of all American films made before 1929 are lost forever, while the Library of Congress estimates that 75% of all silent movies are lost forever. + It hardly helps that nitrate-based film stock (used until 1951) is notorious for its chemical instability and flammability— film vault fires have destroyed the last known copies of many films. (Most of Theda Bara's career was burned up in a 1937 vault fire.) Also, the film stock contained enough silver to give studios a financial incentive to send "useless" and dangerous old negatives and prints for rendering. The way many of the films were copied for distribution - with an optical printer - means that each pass to create a new copy damaged the original negatives somewhat. That's why many movies from this period (if they're not just impossible to find) are pretty bad copies. You could only get about a thousand copies of one set of original negatives.(Later practice was to strike an interpositive (positive image on negative film) from the original camera negative and make dupe negatives from the interpositive. These dupe negatives could be used to run off multiple prints for cinemas without risking the original negative.) + Some early Academy Award winners and nominees are missing, including a Best Picture nominee (The Patriot), and a Best Actor-winning performance (The Way of All Flesh). * The fate of many silent-era and early sound-era films is currently being repeated with many American independent films of the 1980s and '90s. One of the downsides of that era's indie filmmakers seeking financial control over their films is that, just as with early Hollywood films, it didn't make financial sense for them (being working artists without the backing of the major studios or the sort of government film commission found in other countries) to preserve the original reels. Furthermore, just as many old Hollywood films were shot on nitrate-based film stock that was both highly flammable and valuable for its silver content, many indie films from the '80s and '90s were shot on commercial formats that weren't designed with preservation in mind, such as magnetic tape and other early digital video technologies. * The British Film Institute has compiled a list of The 75 Most Wanted lost British films. The list includes The Mountain Eagle (1926) — the only lost feature film of Alfred Hitchcock. Also included in the list are the films that served as the screen debuts for legendary actors John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Errol Flynn, and Patricia Kirkwood. The list also stretches well into the late 20th century, with the most recent films dating from the early 1970s — the 1971 drama Nobody Ordered Love (which was so poorly promoted and received that the director withdrew it and ordered all prints destroyed at his death in 1977), and the 1972 sexploitation comedy The Cherry Picker starring Lulu and Spike Milligan (bootlegs of which do circulate, but the master prints are lost).(When the list was compiled in 2010, the 1983 farce Where Is Parsifal? starring Peter Lawford (in his final film role), Orson Welles, and Tony Curtis was the most recent film on it. Still, it was never truly "lost," having instead been withdrawn before its UK release but having seen home video releases in such countries as Italy and the Netherlands. The film's director personally donated his copy to the BFI, and it is now available on Netflix. The 1974 horror film Symptoms was the second most recent film on the original list, but the BFI recovered the negative in 2014.) + In addition to The Mountain Eagle, two early Alfred Hitchcock films, Number 13 (1922; unfinished) and An Elastic Affair (1930) - both shorts - are lost. * This is a common occurrence in VCR-era porn (late 1970s - through early 1990s), where entire film series would fade away due to lack of interest and the cash-grab tendencies of many producers. Another common cause of vanishing porn titles is the discovery of an underage performer, in which case every copy of the film in question is found and destroyed or erased as child porn. Traci Lords is an infamous case of this (though several bootlegs of her latter "work" are available via European copies from countries where the A.O.C. for porn is 17 instead of 18), to the point where the only surviving early work of hers available in the United States where she wasn't Unpersoned from work due to her age at the time is Traci, I Love You (which she made after her 18th birthday). * "Underlying literary properties" (legalese for the play/book/other copyrighted material on which the movie is based) is an annoyingly common reason for films to be unavailable. If the moviemakers didn't properly secure the rights, the rights generally revert to the original "property's" author, and if the author or his or her estate doesn't want to cooperate, they can mandate that the film's distribution be limited, or completely forbidden: + The 1959 film version of Porgy and Bess is probably the most prominent title in this state of limbo. + Sometimes, estates can be persuaded to cooperate. In recent years, TCM lawyers have persuaded the literary executors of Margaret Kennedy to allow the general release of 1943's The Constant Nymph, and the estate of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to allow the release of 1933's Night Flight. + This is the real reason that The Day the Clown Cried was never released. By the time filming was completed, the rights had expired. They ended up reverting to the screenwriters, who were so horrified and embarrassed by the result that they refused to make any deal that would allow the film to be released. + This has also held up any release of the somewhat obscure Errol Flynn movie The Perfect Specimen, a rare screwball comedy that has Flynn (alongside Joan Blondell) Playing Against Type as a spineless milquetoast. * Many theatrical horror films with limited releases in the 70s and 80s are now lost. These include such titles as Alien Flesh Eaters, Ripsaw Rapes, Halls of Exorcism, Face of Darkness, and The Female Beast. A lot of these movies are theorized to be obscure retitlings of other movies (Halls of Exorcism and Face of Darkness could easily be retitlings of House of Exorcism and Faces of Death) while others such as Transformations: A Sandwich of Nightmares are actually lost movies. * Prior to The Birth of a Nation, Charles Giblyn's 1913 The Battle of Gettysburg was the longest and most expensive movie about The American Civil War. Today, it appears to be a lost film. Birth of a Nation had a sequel, The Fall of a Nation, which flopped upon release and is now considered lost. * Black Water Transit is a 2009 movie by Tony Kaye (of American History X fame) that got withheld from release by the producers and studio heads. All that survives is a poster. * The first film adaptation of The Blue Lagoon, released in 1923, is the only one to receive positive reviews and is currently regarded as a lost film. Herbert Wilcox acquired it in 1929 for a remake, but the last surviving print was destroyed in a fire at the British and Dominions Imperial Studios on February 9, 1936. Tragically, Wilcox also destroyed all copies of the film. * The 1988 Slasher Film Carnage Hall is about a man in an Albert Einstein mask who is killing the residents of a male dormitory. Shot on video by college students, aside from one report, it doesn't appear to have extant copies. * The 1930 film The Cat Creeps was an adaptation of The Cat and the Canary, and the first Universal Horror movie to be filmed with sound. As with Dracula (1931), a Spanish-language version of the movie (La Voluntad del muerto) was filmed simultaneously. Both versions are lost, though snippets of The Cat Creeps appear in the 1932 Universal comedy short Boo!. * In an October 1980 edition of Box Office Magazine it was announced that Boon Collins of Wild Rose Studios was going to produce a movie titled The Cellar. Nothing else has been heard. * Charles Band and Full Moon Features apparently has many cases along with those he didn't even make. * Four of the Charlie Chan movies from the 1930s, Charlie Chan Carries On, Charlie Chan's Chance, Charlie Chan's Greatest Case, and Charlie Chan's Courage, are lost (though Charlie Chan Carries On survives in a Spanish-language version, Eran Trece). * Children of Loneliness (1937) was an exploitation melodrama film written and directed by Richard C. Kahn. Said to be inspired by the 1928 novel The Well of Loneliness, the picture is also notable for being one of the first exploitation films to explore homosexuality. No footage of this movie has surfaced anywhere aside from a promotional poster◊. * Cleopatra, a 1917 film, is considered one of the most elaborate and expensive films ever created. Before 2023, only 20 seconds of the film had been found, as it was censored by Moral Guardians and the last remaining copies were destroyed in a fire. In 2023 an additional 40 seconds of material was unexpectedly found giving us approximately one minute of known surviving material from a two-hour movie. * The 1933 Pre-Code comedy Convention City was taken out of circulation shortly after its release due to its very racy content. The most recent known screening was in a Spanish theater in 1942. The script still exists and has reportedly been read at film festivals. Also, B-Roll footage of Atlantic City used for the movie has been found. * Jerry Lewis' The Day the Clown Cried is about a clown who insults Hitler and ends up a Pied Piper to the children of a Jewish concentration camp. People are split on whether keeping it suppressed is a good thing or not. Apart from the question of good taste, the project's legal ownership is disputed. The film remains unfinished; post-production work was never completed. The film negatives were eventually admitted into the Library of Congress in August of 2015, but under the condition that the film couldn't be screened for ten years. However, the legal ownership dispute (plus the fact that some of the parties in said dispute, including Lewis, are dead) still leaves the film indefinitely lost. * A low-budget, straight-to-video zombie film titled Dead End was produced around 1985, but it is now considered lost because none of the original VHS tapes (which were supposedly sold at horror conventions) are known to still exist. Those who saw the film have provided detailed and consistent accounts of its extraordinarily graphic violence and twisted sense of humor (a zombie mailman stuffs body parts into mailboxes while another drags a dead dog on a leash toward a fire hydrant and expects it to urinate), making it something of a holy grail for zombie fans. Unfortunately, not even a single still frame remains, and the director himself has admitted that he does not know where a copy might exist, meaning it will likely never be viewed again. Many suspect that the film was merely a hoax planted into IMDb, or at the very least a case of the Mandela Effect, given the surrounding evidence. * Dracula's Death (1921) was a Hungarian movie that was the first film to feature Dracula, beating F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu by a year. The movie was re-released in an edited version in Hungary in 1923 and disappeared afterward. However, a novelization of the film was published in Hungary, and the story had nothing to do with Bram Stoker's novel; only the name Dracula was used. In this story, Dracula is not even a vampire but a demon who terrorizes a woman in a mental asylum in a castle in Switzerland. * David Lynch's daughter, Jennifer Lynch, was working on a movie titled A Fall From Grace. It had a poster released along with a trailer; it was supposed to come out in 2015 but either got canceled or went unreleased. * The only way to watch the action movie Fight and Revenge was to be in the theaters it played in 1997. * Firelight, the first full-length film directed by then 17-year-old Steven Spielberg, was only screened once at his local theatre in 1964. When he moved to Hollywood in The '70s, he made the mistake of loaning the print to an unscrupulous producer who vanished with it. * Curtis Hanson made in the 1970s a horror movie called God Bless Dr. Shagetz, whose only public footage is in recut form in the 1987 direct-to-video Evil Town. The negatives are purpotedly still with the producer of Evil Town. * The Gold Diggers of Broadway, an early Warner Bros. movie musical, has only a few surviving elements, including clips of "Tiptoe Thru' the Tulips" and most of the finale. It was a remake of a 1923 silent version that was entirely lost. * Some of Kevin Spacey's last projects, including Gore, a biopic about Gore Vidal, might never be released as a result of being hit with sexual misconduct accusations as part of the Weinstein effect in 2017. * The Graduation Party was mooted as Paul Lynch's follow-up to his slasher classic Prom Night. It centered around marooned teenagers being menaced on a remote island by a killer played by Joe Spinell. Starburst Magazine called it "Prom Night meets The Blue Lagoon". It's unknown if any footage was ever shot for it. If there was any footage, it's now lost. Slasher movie focused website Hysteria Lives reports it was reworked into the movie Out of Control, albeit without Lynch or Spinell involved. * The 1917 film The Gulf Between is considered the oldest all-technicolor film. Only tidbits are known to still exist. * A sequel to Gutterballs titled Gutterballs 2: Balls Deep was released in 2015 to moderate praise by horror movie fans who saw it when it debuted at festivals. It vanished with no sign of a DVD release and remains lost. * The 1975 Taiwanese film Hai Mo is believed to be lost. The only thing that has survived is a poster for the film. Based on the poster illustrations and the English title "Sea of Monsters," it seems the plot revolved around sea monsters of some sort. * The first two film adaptations of Hercule Poirot, (adapted from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Black Coffee) starring Austin Trevor as the Belgian detective have not survived to the present day. However, a third film based on Lord Edgware Dies still exists. * The "Gay Jesus" film HIM (actually about a man who has sexual fantasies about Jesus) is sometimes thought to be mythical. Evidence for the film's existence (in the form of contemporary newspaper and magazine clippings) has been collected to show that the film at least did exist. Still, if any prints have survived, their location is unknown and not in public circulation. * Humor Risk (also called Humorisk) is a 1921 silent film notable for being the Marx Brothers' real screen debut. Accounts vary on how it became lost, with one claiming that Groucho hated the result of their first venture on the screen so much that he and his brothers got their hands on all copies of the film and its negatives and destroyed them. It would take eight years (and the invention of talkies) before the Brothers returned to the movies. * Not one, but two Japanese adaptations of King Kong (1933): + The 1938 film The King Kong That Appeared in Edo (featuring an unauthorized use of RKO's Kong character) appears to have been one of the first, if not the first, Japanese Kaiju films. Reports differ on whether the ape (reportedly only called Kong in the title) was a giant or merely implied to be so in publicity while being a more human-scale yeti-like creature in the film itself. Never shown outside of its original theatrical run in Japan, all film prints appear to have been lost during World War II or the postwar occupation. All that remains are movie posters (incorporating stills from the film). + Wasei Kingu Kongu, a silent short from 1933, is supposedly lost for similar reasons. Stills remain of this one, too. Although the film remains lost, details about its script have emerged. It was a promotional tie-in to the 1933 RKO film, made with RKO's approval. The film is not a monster movie, but a comedy about an actor who begins playing King Kong on the vaudeville stage following the In-Universe release and popularity of King Kong (1933). * In the summer of 1987, Carlos Tobalinias was working on a movie titled "The Kulies," which was released in 1988. It quickly vanished from theaters after Carlos's death in March 1989. B-movie distributor Vinegar Syndrome got the rights to Carlos's films in 2017. They found a print of "The Kulies," which sadly was damaged beyond use, making restoration impossible. * Land of Oz: + The first film adaptation of Land of Oz books from 1908, The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, is considered a historically important yet lost film. It was the first silent film to feature an intended musical score (rather than musicians improvising) and was the first all-color film. It was a blockbuster; however, it was cut short after a few months due to being too expensive to show (due to it involving play elements alongside being a film). Only a few screencaps exist, and the film itself is missing. The 1910 film was once thought to be the same film, but once that surfaced, it became clear that it was a completely different adaptation. + The two sequels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910) are both missing. * The Beatles documentary Let It Be was last legally released in 1981 (Laser Disc and VHS). Oddly, it will never be legally released again in its original form. (There is dissonance between what viewers will expect to see and what Apple Corps wants to show.) Paul McCartney told Rolling Stone in 2016 that he wants the film to be released, correctly noting that he should be the main objector among the Apple Corps stakeholders because he "doesn't come off well" in it. It wasn't until fifty years after its original release that it received an HD remaster and recut by Peter Jackson in preparation for the 2021 documentary mini-series The Beatles: Get Back intended to dispel the idea that the Let It Be sessions were purely acrimonious. * Life Without Soul (1915) is the second film adaptation of Frankenstein, and a lost film. * The last known copy of London After Midnight was destroyed (along with hundreds of other silent films) in 1967 when the vault it was stored in caught fire. A reconstruction using surviving stills and the original script was put together in 2002. Browning remade the film in 1935 as Mark of the Vampire, which was pared down from 80 minutes to 61 minutes before distribution; the cut footage is believed lost. * The original cut of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, as well as the hour or so of raw footage that was excised for the final release, is lost forever—and we do mean "forever"; the excised footage was renderd for the silver nitrate. It's been said that Welles received a copy of the original cut, but where it is right now, if it happened, is anybody's guess. * A movie called The Mall was announced at Cannes in 1981. It had a poster made for it and even a plot synopsis made: A group of teenagers partying at a mall after everyone else has left (similar to the later released Chopping Mall) are picked off one by one by a deranged killer who's escaped from an asylum after murdering his parents and has made the mall his home. George P. Cosmatos was set to direct and pitched a few scenes. It's unknown what happened to this movie as it was never finished, although it's possible that footage exists. * A 1976 Swedish adaptation of The Metamorphosis, though it has at least one copy in possession of the Swedish Film Institute. * The 1982 Filipino religious drama film Milagro sa Porta Vaga (lit. Miracle at Porta Vaga) starring the late child actress Julie Vega remains lost. No footage has surfaced apart from a promotional poster and a still◊ from the movie, much to the dismay of a confraternity in Cavite City dedicated to the titular Marian image of Porta Vaga, stating: > It is sad to know that no copy exists of this film. One of the Cofradia de la Virgen de la Soledad de Porta Vaga, Inc.'s goals was to obtain a copy of this film to aid in spreading our devotion. * In 1995, a company called Interfilm partnered with Sony and the Loews theater chain to create an Interactive Movie for theaters called Mr. Payback. With Back to the Future creator Bob Gale as director and a cast that included Eddie Deezen and Christopher Lloyd, the film was about a cyborg vigilante (played by Baywatch actor Billy Warlock) who would humiliate various criminals and other "scumbags". Instead of traditional film stock, the film was stored on LaserDisc. Interfilm's system had three LaserDisc players connected to a computer hooked up to the projector, and the seats had joysticks with colored buttons on them for the audience to vote on what Mr. Payback would do next. It was a critical and commercial failure, with moviegoers and critics saying that the movie had wasted an interesting idea on a cheap, bottom of the barrel comedy filled with story elements that were too sexual or too taboo for a film aimed at family audiences (for example, one storyline had Mr. Payback going after a Psycho Lesbian college dean who had sexually harassed female students, and he could punish her by either stripping her to her undergarments and dropping her in a dunk tank of poop or putting her in a BDSM outfit and dragging her around by a leash). Mr. Payback quickly came and went after its brief release, and to this day has never received a home video release. There are trailers, commercials, and a brief compilation of footage uploaded by a former theater projectionist, but that's about it. Interfilm themselves went out of business after a failed lawsuit against Sony, meaning that the rights to the film are in limbo + Interfilm also made three other movies: Ride For Your Life, Bombmeister, and I'm Your Man. Ride For Your Life was a much tamer comedy film involving aliens betting on a bicycle race featuring Adam West, Bombmeister was a thriller film about cops trying to catch a Mad Bomber who dressed like a clown, and I'm Your Man (which was actually made in 1992 to test market Interfilm's system but ended up being the last one released) was a spy spoof about a schlubby guy who gets mistaken for an FBI agent featuring music by Joe Jackson. Ride For Your Life played in even less theaters than Mr. Payback and only has a trailer surviving. Bombmeister was finished, but never released in theaters. I'm Your Man averts this trope: it was released on DVD before Interfilm went bankrupt, and has been preserved online by game developer Paolo Pendercini. * In 1988, a movie called Music City Blues was announced, starring Catherine Bach (aka Daisy Duke) and Country Music singer Larry Boone. The film was abruptly canceled due to lack of funding, per a 1989 news article in The Tennesseean, and no traces of it exist. * In 1953, Disney established the Buena Vista Film Distribution Company, a division of the studio that was set up to allow them to distribute their films and shorts independently of the other major studios. However, they were still contractually obligated to release one more animated film for RKO Pictures, who, up until that point, had distributed all of their movies. Disney was worried about Howard Hughes' somewhat chaotic leadership of RKO and wanted to sever their ties with the studio as soon as possible. Their solution was to quickly edit together and release a package film titled Music Land (no relation to the 1935 short of the same name), which was comprised of shorts from other package films Make Mine Music (1946) and Melody Time (1948). Though the shorts were the same, the film included a new intro and ending and new transitions between the shorts. This was technically enough to classify the film as a new movie entirely, and it allowed Disney to complete their contract with RKO two years before the release of their next animated film Lady and the Tramp. Music Land itself has not been released in any form since 1953, and it was removed from the Disney Animated Canon entirely in 1985. * A 1975 movie, Never The Twain (not to be confused with an eponymous British show), centering around a man who gets possessed by the ghost of Mark Twain and goes to the Miss World Nude Pageant, supposedly inspired by an incident that happened to lead actor Ed Trostle. All proof of it is a poster. * There exist reports of a heavily-edited American network television version of Once Upon a Time in America, based on the director's cut and the American theatrical cut, that was made and first aired in the early-to-mid 1990s. It ran for almost three hours long (without commercials). While retaining the non-chronological order of the director's cut, it also removed many key scenes with violence or graphic content, and all profanity and references to drugs were exiled from the broadcast version. This version was supposedly intended as a one-off showing, and despite apparently being re-aired by local stations (and according to one source, AMC) via syndication, no copies of this cut are known to exist. * This seems to be the fate of Roberto Busó-Garcìa's Paging Emma, as it only played at two theaters in Puerto Rico, but didn't interest distributors and vanished. * In 1985, Brian De Palma was approached by Orion Pictures to make a horror film entitled The Piece Maker. However, the project was canceled because the studio performed poorly at the box office that year. Only a trailer survives. * In 1981, a movie based on the novel The Pike was announced. However, production was never finished, and only production still photos survived. * The first film adaptation of Literature/The Phantom of the Opera was made in 1916. It starred the Swedish actor Nils Olaf Chrisander and the Norwegian actress Aud Egede-Nissen. Other than references in other media, there is no evidence of the film's existence. * In 1985 Gary Coleman starred in a made-for-TV movie called Playing with Fire, a clear attempt to cash in on Firestarter where he played a teenage arsonist. It was badly received and while rumored to have copies shown in schools for educational purposes, only two promos remain of footage. * The 1930 Fred Astaire/Irving Berlin film Puttin' On The Ritz. Unfortunately, few parts of the film remain, not even in its original color. * In 1983, the Mexican animated sci-fi film Roy del Espacio was released to overwhelmingly negative reviews and was taken out of theaters after one week. It was only the third full-length animated film from Mexico, and critics immediately dubbed it the worst ever made. The film was made by directors López Carmona, Rafael Ángel Gil, and Ulises Pérez Aguirre: the first two have no information about them available, but the latter was a producer of low-budget sex comedies and horror films. Made with a crew of first-time animators, Pérez Aguirre had them animate by directly tracing over frames from American sci-fi film serials such as Flash Gordon (serial) (and allegedly, some episodes of Battlestar Galactica (1978))...on tissue paper. The film was rediscovered by Mexican animation fans in the 2020s, and due to Bile Fascination they began to seek out anything they could find about the film (mostly on Reddit and the Spanish version of the Lost Media Wiki). So far, no footage has been found. A Lost Media Wiki user discovered that the only known copy of the film is in the archives of the Cineteca Nacional de México in Mexico City. Still, Pérez Aguirre's widow and daughter have final control over the footage and have not agreed the digitization. * 1912's Saved from the Titanic is noteworthy for three reasons: It has historical significance as the first fiction film to be made about the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it was released to cinemas just 31 days after the disaster, and it starred an actual survivor of the event: an actress and model named Dorothy Gibson, who was effectively coerced into doing the film and retired from show business shortly afterward due to the trauma of the experience. The film's prints were destroyed in a fire in 1914, and the film has been lost. * At least a couple of old Shaw Brothers movies; no surprise, considering the studios made over 1000 films before its closure in 1997: + One of the Shaw Brothers' earliest films, Tiger Boy, which starred Jimmy Wang Yu and was the directorial debut of the legendary director Chang Cheh, is permanently lost after a single theatrical showing in Hong Kong. Reportedly, the film made it to another theater in Singapore and was a box office success at the time, but today, all that remains of the film are black-and-white magazine stills. + There was a Shaw movie filmed in 1970 titled The Drinking Knight, which went through two different directors and a lot of Troubled Production before it was eventually canceled. The only remaining traces of this film are production stills. * The first ever Sherlock Holmes film, A Study in Scarlet, released in 1914, has yet to be rediscovered. * The Song of the Flame, the first film from Warner Bros. to incorporate widescreen footage, is better known as the first film to accompany a Looney Tune on the big screen. Only its soundtrack survives. * In 1974, Bruce Cardozo made a Spider-Man fan film entitled Spider-Man Versus Kraven the Hunter that was endorsed by Marvel itself, to the point its only public proof are screenshots from an article in Foom magazine. It was last shown at Comic‑Con International in 2008, 7 years before Cardozo's death. * In the early 1930s, Warner Bros. created a series of five live-action shorts called Spooney Melodies, which were precursors to the animated Merrie Melodies. Only the first short, Cryin' for the Carolines, survives today; it can be viewed on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection's first and sixth volumes. The other four are completely lost. * In 1907, Melbourne impresario Charles Tait made The Story of the Kelly Gang, Australia's first big-budget film & among the contenders for the world's first feature-length film (sometimes erroneously cited as the first). Less than 20 minutes of the 60-minute film has survived, the rest lost to decay. * In 1932, the husband-and-wife team of Mikhail Tsekhanovsky and Vera Tsenkhanovskaya embarked on their most ambitious project yet - an animated opera based on the Alexander Pushkin fairy tale The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda, featuring a score by renowned composer Dmitri Shostakovich and an art style heavily influenced by contemporary Russian Telegraph Agency posters. Unfortunately, the film suffered from a Troubled Production, with Shostakovich bailing on the project after seeing several of his works, including the film's score, publicly denounced in a Pravda article. Since the film now had no score, it was never completed and placed in storage at the Lenfilm archive in Saint Petersburg, then known as Leningrad, where the majority of the footage was then lost when the Germans bombed the archive during the Siege of Leningrad. All that remains of the film is a two-and-a-half-minute segment from the marketplace scene, showing various merchants showcasing their wares. * Extraction director Todd Sheets's two films, The Kansas City Blender Massacre and Chainsaw Tales, suffered this fate, even though he made copies of the original tapes. * Teenagers from Outer Space director Tom Graeff made four other movies prior to Teenagers' release, but since his suicide in 1970 they've completely disappeared. While his first film was eventually found, his other three remain missing, and it is unlikely they'll ever be found. + His first missing short was called The Orange Coast College Story and was commissioned by Orange Coast College with Vincent Price providing narration. + Then there was his 1955 feature debut called The Noble Experiment, a comedy he stared at opposite an unnamed local beauty queen. The film's poor reviews foreshadow the reception of Teenagers a few years later. + Finally, there was his short art film Island Sunrise which doesn't have any information whatsoever. * All prints of the first werewolf movie, 1913's The Werewolf, are believed to have been destroyed in a 1924 fire. The movie featured a Navajo female werewolf. * Errol Flynn spent $500,000 of his own money to produce his comeback feature William Tell. Most of the money went to building an Alpine resort set, and he only had enough money left to shoot 30 minutes of the film. He screened the footage at the Venice Film Festival, but bouts with dysentery and diarrhea kept him from meeting with investors for any meaningful lengths of time. Desperate, he staged a fake paralysis from a fall in his hotel room, hoping to secure a large insurance settlement. When this failed, he abandoned the project and spent the rest of his career playing drunks before dying of heart failure at the age of 50. None of the film's footage has been found, and the only evidence of the film remaining is the Alpine resort set, which is now a popular tourist attraction. * The 2014 Filipino low-budget exploitation film DOTA: Nakakabaliw (transl. DOTA Drives You Crazy), a supposed social guidance movie purporting the dangers of playing computer games—particularly the titular Defense of the Ancients which gained popularity in the Philippines during the late 2000s and early 2010s—gained memetic status for its schlocky production values and absurd premise. As much as Filipino netizens would love to watch it for Bile Fascination, no copy of the full movie could be found; only a theatrical poster and a trailer exist. * When Black Rage was released on VHS in 1988, about 11 minutes of footage was edited out for unknown reasons, resulting in rather blatant jumps in the middle of several scenes. Since then the additional footage has yet to turn up and it possibly never will given how rare the 1988 edit already was. * Krzysztof Kieślowski finished work on Blind Chance in 1981, but the film had to wait until 1987 to receive its premiere, and even then, several scenes were cut by Polish censors. When Tor Film Studios produced a digital restoration of the film in 2012, all but one of the cuts were reversed; the footage of the exception, which showed protagonist Witek being beaten by police for resisting arrest, was too badly degraded to restore. Only the audio survives. * In 1987, gold manufacturer Santo Rigatsuo directed a sci-fi B-Movie called Blood Circus which he also starred in and produced for $2 million. The movie involves the U.S. and Soviets teaming up to fight off an alien invasion by hosting a wrestling tournament, including then-big names such as Ox Baker, Eric Embry, and Silo Sam. The film only screened for a few days at local Baltimore theaters before vanishing, with the only elements proving its existence being IMDB reviews from those who saw it and a musical sequence with Santo himself that was meant to promote his jewelry. It wasn't until 2008 when Santo announced that a copy of the movie was found and attempted to auction it off on eBay to no avail,(possibly having to do with the original starting bid being $21 million with a buy it now the price of $750 million) leaving any chance for the film's release uncertain. A few clips survive in the infomercials Santo Gold made to promote the business, including the musical number. * Canzo Empyrean, a bizarre movie (apparently a GI Joe fan film) involving an AIDS sex apocalypse, has received a limited release in Africa and Russia and then disappeared. Aside from trailers and info from the film's website, no complete copy of the movie has surfaced online. Recently, a 45-minute compilation of various scenes was released online. According to the uploader, there are at least two more hours of footage still missing. * Different from the Others (Anders als die Andern) (1919), likely the first pro-LGBTQ+ film ever made, was banned by the Nazis and nearly every copy was destroyed. A partial print was found in the 1970s and the film has since been reconstructed and released, but about two-thirds of the footage is still lost. * Dracula (1931), in its original release, had an epilogue in which Edward Van Sloan (Van Helsing) addressed the audience. The epilogue starts out sounding like a reassuring This Is a Work of Fiction message until at the last moment he subverts it with "There really are such things as vampires!" The epilogue was cut from the 1936 re-release due to fears of offending religious groups by endorsing the supernatural and is now lost, barring a literal two seconds of footage that appears in a Dracula tribute documentary [1]. * The full 130 minute cut of Event Horizon. Test audience reactions to the full cut were less than stellar, with some people reportedly fainting at the extreme amounts of gore. Director Paul W.S Anderson acquiesced into cutting the film down to a much more digestible 90 minutes and the result tanked at the box office and was critically eviscerated. The full uncut version, which contained an even longer version of the notorious “Blood orgy” scene, remained lost for years until a highly deteriorated copy surfaced in a Transylvania salt mine. As it turns out, that copy was reportedly so badly damaged, that a full uncut release has been deemed impossible. Still, a few deleted scenes managed to appear on the DVD, including a longer, significantly more graphic version of the final Hell Hallucinations. Yet even these scenes are very bad quality and have no sound. * The original roadshow print of Fantasia is long lost; the best attempt to restore it not only omits an offending image of a black centaur in one segment, but it also uses Corey Burton's voice to dub that of Deems Taylor because the original audio has greatly deteriorated to the point of becoming irretrievable. * The documentary/movie Grizzly Man has an Apocalyptic Log that depicts an audio recording of Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend's deaths from a bear. In the movie, the coroner in the case describes the contents of the recording, and Werner Herzog, the director, is shown listening to it. He tells the owner of the clip to destroy it. It's currently locked away in a safe deposit box, with no intention of being released. Present in Grizzly Man's theatrical cut, but missing from the DVD release, is a clip from Treadwell's interview with David Letterman in which Letterman jokes about him being eaten by a bear. * It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was edited down from its original 3 1/2 hour length for worldwide distribution following its original release, and the cut footage was discarded and believed lost for years. Thanks to a batch of the discarded footage being found in a condemned warehouse and the efforts of Stanley Kramer, 20 minutes of footage were re-edited back into the film for the 1991 Laserdisc release. The film's first DVD release (in a white cover and now out-of-print) has the footage on Side B. The second release (in a blue cover) does not have this footage. In 2014, The Criterion Collection released a reconstructed/restored version of the original release on DVD and Blu-Ray. 3 or 4 minutes are still missing, but it is still the closest we'll get to the original. * Several of Stanley Kubrick's films have trimmed content that has yet to be recovered: + His first feature, Fear and Desire, was a shoestring production funded by donations from Kubrick's family and friends. Paul Mazursky, who himself went on to a successful directing career, played a leading role. Kubrick was embarrassed by it, so he bought up as many copies as he could and discouraged screenings of the movie while he was alive. It was finally released in October 2012. + The Shining had an epilogue, in which Ullman tells Wendy that they have been unable to locate Jack's \|\|frozen corpse\|\| and \|\|gives Jack's tennis ball to Danny\|\|. This actually played in theaters but was cut by Kubrick a week after the film's release. (Maybe for the best, as Roger Ebert pointed out because the scene left the rest of the movie open to Plot Holes.) It's not been seen since. + The uncut version of 2001: A Space Odyssey has not been seen anywhere since its premiere engagements. Warner Bros. discovered 17 minutes of the footage in 2010; they have no intention of reinserting the footage back into the film in keeping with Kubrick's intentions, but whether they'll be included as extras in an upcoming video release is anyone's guess at this point. * The Land Before Time has eleven minutes cut from the final film for being too scary and intense. All that remains of those eleven minutes are some stills and production sketches. * The rumored three-hour-long version of The Last House on Dead End Street. Apparently, the movie, originally called The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell, caused mass hysteria when it was originally released, so it was re-edited to be less violent. * The 1937 adaptation of Lost Horizon had a running time of 132 minutes in its first release. When restored in 1973, only 125 minutes of film could be found, but they did have the entire soundtrack. The restored version shows publicity photos and stills in place of the missing film elements. * The 1932 pre-Code musical Love Me Tonight, notable for featuring the first use of Rodgers and Hart's "Isn't it Romantic?", was cut by eight minutes when The Hays Code went into effect in 1934; among the footage cut was a sequence featuring Myrna Loy in a negligee that was deemed too suggestive. The missing sequences have never been recovered, so only the Code-compliant version exists today. * Due to poor preservation methods and heavy re-cutting for foreign markets, roughly a quarter of the original theatrical cut of the 1927 Fritz Lang film Metropolis was considered lost for decades. The first serious effort to reconstruct the film began in 2001, using footage discovered in archives around the world; released on home video in 2003, it came up about half an hour short of the original. In 2008, a complete (but heavily damaged) copy was found at a film museum in Argentina, spurring a new project to restore the film. The resulting effort, released on home video in 2010, includes all but two scenes (roughly five minutes' worth of running time) and is considered to be the most complete version of Metropolis since its original premiere in Germany. * The Phantom of the Opera (1925) had already been re-cut several times before the 1925 version was released, with additional scenes being shot by Edward Sedgewick after the original director Rupert Julian left the production. It's this version that was found in 2011. The original Rupert Julian cut, which was much closer to the book and featured the original novel ending where the Phantom lets Christine go and then dies of a broken heart, is still missing. * During the production of Return of the Jedi, assistant director David Tomblin filmed a comedic promotional short called Return Of The Ewok with Warwick Davis playing both himself and Wicket the Ewok. It starts as a straightforward documentary about Davis preparing for his role as Wicket W. Warrick in the film but turns into a metafictional story about him meeting characters from the movie and actually turning into Wicket. George Lucas personally paid for this strange experiment, but the money ran out before Tomblin could finish the final edit or get the rights for the Supertramp songs used in the film and it was never officially released. The original 16mm print was lost, but Tomblin made a VHS copy as a gift for Davis, which he donated to Lucasfilm. The only public screenings have been at the Celebration Fan Convention, as well as the British National Space Centre. Some clips have appeared as part of DVD/Blu-Ray bonus content (In particular, a scene of Boba Fett chasing Davis was included in the the blooper reel Easter Egg on Return of the Jedi's DVD, and a high quality scan of the ending scene where Davis's parents find him on Endor was put in the "Warwick & Sons" featurette on the Blu-ray for The Rise of Skywalker) and a condensed four-minute edit was briefly available on the old Star Wars website for members of the now-defunct Hyperspace fan club. Bootleg reconstructions circulate on the Internet. * Due to Creator Backlash, Mary Pickford tried to forcibly make the 1923 film Rosita into this. In the 1970s a Soviet copy was found. It was a really poor-quality looking, presumably bootleg, copy from the 1920s. Attempts to restore it were made and now the film looks as good as any other silent film. A few rolls are still missing, however. * The 1916 film Snow White is the earliest film adaptation of Snow White. It also inspired Walt Disney to create his animated adaptation. It was considered lost until a Dutch copy was found in 1992. Even then, it's still missing several scenes such as when Snow White eats the Poisoned Apple. * The 1954 remake of A Star Is Born originally ran for 182 minutes, but the studio, Warner Bros., cut it down to 154 minutes before release. In 1983 a restoration was made that runs 176 minutes. However for several scenes, only the audio survived, so stills were used in place of the missing footage. * After Erich von Stroheim was catapulted to the forefront of Hollywood directors in the early 1920s, he learned the difficult way how little control he had over the final cuts of his ambitious projects, most of which had hours of footage excised by the studios and later destroyed. + The initial cut of Foolish Wives is said to have been anywhere from six to ten hours long and intended to be shown across two evenings, but Universal Studios adamantly opposed this idea and trimmed it down to less than two hours. Most of the cut footage is long gone, and even the "restored" version is just under two and a half hours. + One of cinema's greatest tragedies is the fate of Greed. Its original cut was a whopping nine hours long, and considered by those who were fortunate enough to see it to be a masterpiece. Unfortunately, the studio ordered it chopped down without Stroheim's involvement, and the cut pieces were destroyed. Thus, most of that footage has been lost. Even the Turner Classic Movies four-hour cut replaces a lot of the footage with still photos just to keep the story intact. + The original end sequence of The Merry Widow (1925) was shot in two-tone Technicolor, but the print has since been lost, and only the black and white version survives today. + The Wedding March was originally the first part of a duology, the second half of which was entitled The Honeymoon and followed the first film's Love Dodecahedron to its tragic conclusion. The initial cut of The Wedding March was four and a half hours long, and after von Stroheim refused to cut it further, Paramount brought in Josef von Sternberg to edit it down to a manageable length. The version of The Wedding March that circulates today is less than two hours long, but it is still more fortunate than The Honeymoon, the only known print of which was destroyed in a French warehouse fire in 1959.(Its initial cut was about three and a half hours long, but the version that eventually saw release was less than two hours, the first half of which recapped the events of The Wedding March with footage from that film.) * A few reels of the 1920 film The Symbol of the Unconquered are missing. This includes the climax where the Ku Klux Klan is kicked out of town (or, likely, killed) and a black man attacks them with a brick. * The 3D versions of Top Banana and Southwest Passage, as well as the uncut version of the former. * The first half of a lost 1923 Hitchcock melodrama, The White Shadow, was discovered in the New Zealand Film Archives. The second half of the film remains lost. * The Wicker Man (1973) had something like twelve minutes of footage removed after an early screening. With the possible exception of the original Media-Home Entertainment release, they've never been seen since. Christopher Lee, who considered this one of his best films, was NOT happy about this. A 2001 home video release restored some of these scenes, including the original opening scene - from a clearly inferior print, but still. * Yume Yume No Ato (in English, Dream After Dream) was a French-Japanese co-production directed by fashion designer Kenzo Takada, a romance/fantasy film about a wandering young man who gets in a Love Triangle with two sisters living in a mysterious castle. It's perhaps best known for the fact that Journey (Band) did the soundtrack—in fact, their album Dream After Dream is supposed to be the soundtrack for this film. After a theatrical run in both France and Japan, and a couple of Japanese TV broadcasts, it was never seen again. In an interview with the Nikkei, Takada said that the film's Troubled Production (including a heat wave that struck the filming locations in Morocco and the language barriers between the French cast and Japanese crew) and negative reception at the Parisian premiere led to him disowning the film. A mostly complete VHS rip of the film's Japanese dub, taken from one of the film's TV airings, appeared on YouTube in 2022, but it's in low quality and is missing 30 minutes. * One of Robert Carradine's last films was a movie titled The 13th Alley, a slasher movie set at a bowling alley. It played in a few theaters, leading to a particularly scathing review from Dread Central, and the DVD was available on its website which has since been deleted, though it was on private torrent sites and finally in 2022 a copy was uploaded to the Internet Archive * The 1972 Israeli countercultural film An American Hippie in Israel was believed to be lost until 2007, when film historian Yaniv Edelstein managed to locate a copy in the possession of one of the film's cast members. Upon its rediscovery, it was screened in Tel Aviv and quickly gained a cult following similar to that of The Room (2003). * A 1981 US-made Spanish horror film entitled Atrapados didn't strike a distribution deal in spite of awesome reviews when it premiered at local festivals. But the director himself uploaded it to YouTube. * The majority of Baby Peggy's films as well as production records for it have unfortunately been lost to time, though a handful of Baby Peggy shorts, including Playmates, Miles of Smiles and Sweetie, have surfaced and have since been preserved by film archives around the world. In addition, Peggy's 1924 film Our Pet had been re-discovered in Japan in 2016. * The 1962 Hong Kong film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar, featuring the young Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung in their film debuts, was long considered lost, with only a 9-minute opening clip and a 5-minute stretch of dialogue surviving. The complete film was rediscovered in 2016 and has since been posted to YouTube. * The 1980 short fantasy film Black Angel, directed by Star Wars and Alien (1979) set decorator Roger Christian, became famous after it was shown in front of The Empire Strikes Back in British, Australian and Scandinavian theaters. It was cited as a major influence on fantasy films to follow such as Excalibur (1981) and Conan the Barbarian (1982)...and according to Christian, George liked the step-printing technique that he used for the final battle so much that he borrowed it for the Dagobah Caves scene in Empire. After its theatrical run, the original camera negatives vanished after Rank Laboratories went out of business, which led to it being considered a "holy grail" for European and Australian Star Wars fans. In 2011, the negatives were finally found in the archives of Universal Pictures and were given to Christian, who subsequently released the film on YouTube. * Catch My Soul, a musical version of Othello starring Richie Havens and directed by Patrick McGoohan was released in the early 1970s to terrible reviews (not helped by, according to legend, one of the producers "finding God" and adding fifteen minutes of religious imagery much to McGoohan's chagrin). It was retitled Santa Fe Satan before disappearing completely. Vinegar Syndrome released the film on Blu-ray in 2015. It's now out of print. The soundtrack can often be found for sale on eBay, though. * The surprisingly prophetic 1924 film, The City Without Jews, which predicted the rise of Nazism and antisemitism, was thought lost until a badly damaged copy was found in Austria in 1989 and a more complete copy was found in a Paris flea market in 2015. In its time it was surprisingly successful, but was banned due to the highly negative right-wing reaction to it (it helped the right wing have significant influence in Austria at the time). * Deadly Lessons, filmed in 2003/4 under the title of The Legend of Simon Conjurer starred Jon Voight and was supposedly released to a limited number of theaters in 2006 before fading into obscurity without any release on DVD, Blu-ray, or even Netflix. After the So Bad, It's Good trailer caught the attention of the internet, curious sleuths tried to find the bizarre film to no avail, leading to speculation that the whole thing was a weird hoax and only the trailer existed. The film was quietly released to streaming platforms in September 2014 under the Deadly Lessons title. * Following a limited theatrical release, the 1974 horror film Deranged fell into obscurity for over two decades, with the original negatives believed by many to be lost. The film was eventually rediscovered in Florida sometime around 1993 and released on home video by American International Pictures' then-parent company MGM. * A 1982 Slasher titled Early Frost was thought to be lost for years until it was recovered in 2020. * Yet another "lost movie": the infamous 1994 Roger Corman produced The Fantastic Four. The story began when Constantin Film optioned the rights to make a Fantastic Four feature film with a planned budget of $40 million. Unfortunately, they couldn't raise the money on time and the option was about to expire so they brought Corman on board who reduced the budget to $1.5 million and made it within a one-month shooting schedule which should give you a good estimate of its quality. From that point onward, accounts differ. According to Stan Lee, Constantin Film never planned to release the movie and made it only to keep the rights and basically blackmail Marvel into giving them a substantial sum in exchange for the movie never seeing the light of day (depending on the legend, Marvel either locked the movie in a vault or had Avi Arad himself burn the negatives), whereas Roger Corman claims one of the other producers managed to raise the intended money, bought the distribution rights from Corman via a clause in his contract and simply chose not to release it. 9 years later, Constantin Film produced the now well-known 2005 Fantastic Four and the rest is history. For a long time, one of the few ways you could see the movie was via bootleg copies sold at comic book conventions, but lately it's been uploaded to YouTube, and recaps are also available. A documentary about the making and subsequent legacy of the film was also released in 2016 and includes numerous clips. * The 1987 film adaptation of Flowers in the Attic originally ended with \|\|Malcolm Foxworth still being alive for Corrine's wedding, and the grandmother attempting to kill the remaining Dollanganger children with a knife only for John the caretaker to perform a Heroic Sacrifice and allow the children to be free\|\|. The studio cut the original ending and filmed a new one without the film's director, which pleased neither critics nor fans. For years the only parts of the original ending to have surfaced were photos, but in 2018 it was announced that Arrow Video would be releasing the film on Blu-ray with the original ending as a bonus feature. They later released the Blu-ray in the U.S. in 2019. * The Keepers (1991), a 1991 Soviet adaptation of the first part of The Lord of the Rings was considered lost after a single broadcast, but in March 2021, the studio found a copy and uploaded it to YouTube. * Charles Burnett's 1978 student film Killer of Sheep was made to wild acclaim by every critic who saw it, but could not be released commercially because the rights to the soundtrack, filled with blues legends, were way too expensive. For nearly 30 years it remained almost unseen while appearing on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list and other lists of critical masterpieces. It finally got a home video release in 2007 after a fundraising campaign scraped together the money for the soundtrack. * For years it was speculated whether or not a home video release of the long lost American theatrical cut of Once Upon a Time in America existed at one point until in 2020 it was confirmed there was indeed a very limited 1985 (likely rental only) VHS release which has since been recovered and uploaded to the Internet Archive. * Orson Welles: + The Other Side of the Wind, one of his last projects, starring John Huston and Peter Bogdanovich. Welles shot all the footage he wanted and started editing it before the negative was seized during the Iranian Revolution. (The Shah's brother-in-law had helped pay for it.) After the new government decided it didn't have any value to them, it was locked away in a vault in Paris while various legal rights were worked out. Welles had edited about 40 minutes of footage before it was taken away. There were various efforts to complete it that were either blocked by his daughter Beatrice or by legal decisions. Showtime supposedly bought the rights to the project in the late 90s but never released a version of the film. Various people (including Bogdanovich) were granted access to the negative and tried to complete the editing. By the mid-2010s, it was supposedly "96% complete" (and just needed some post-production work, including a score) but gathering dust in a vault for decades due to these legal squabbles. Netflix bought the rights to the film in March 2017, and released it in late 2018. + Welles' early comedy film Too Much Johnson, made even before Citizen Kane, was never even publicly screened. Given the title, this is almost for the best. However, a work print was discovered in 2013 and it was put online in 2014 (and aired on Turner Classic Movies in 2015). * Carl Dreyer's original cut of The Passion of Joan of Arc was believed to be lost after the master negative was destroyed in a fire just a few weeks after the film's release in 1928, though he would reconstruct a facsimile of his original cut using alternate and unused takes (this, too, was destroyed in a fire the following year, but not before enough copies were made to allow continued distribution). Dreyer died in 1968 believing his film was lost forever. It wasn't until 1981 that copies of the original negative were found in, of all places, an insane asylum in Norway. It's unknown how they came to be there — there are no records of any copies of the film being shipped to Norway — but historians believe that the director of the asylum in the 1920s — who was also a professional historian — may have requested a special copy. * The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a horror movie that had an incredibly limited run in theaters, and the director refuses to release it in public in any way (it doesn't help that the studio that financed it is only just recovering from its recent bankruptcy). For a while the only way to find it was through pirated copies online, though for a little bit, it was legally available via Direct TV On Demand back in 2014... until that was taken down not too long after it was released. Eventually, it was given a direct-to-video release from Shout! Factory in 2017. * One of the first Best Picture nominees, The Racket, was also missing for years...and when it was found, it sadly turned out to be just a standard gangster film. * One of El Santo's many films, Santo en El Tesoro de Drácula (Santo in Dracula's Treasure) (1968), had an alternate version entitled El Vampiro y el Sexo ("The Vampire and Sex"). Additional scenes featured nude or topless vampire seductresses (fortunately or unfortunately, the heroic luchador himself did not engage in any sexual activity). This version of the film, intended for more liberal audiences outside Mexico, apparently had a limited release (newspaper ads exist for showings in New York-area Spanish language theaters), then disappeared, but stills of nude vampire ladies from the "sexy" version provided evidence of its existence. It was finally discovered by the producer's grand-niece and publicly screened in Guadalajara in July 2011. * The second ever Sherlock Holmes movie, released in 1916 and simply titled Sherlock Holmes, was thought lost forever, until it was found mislabeled in the French Film Archive in Paris in 2014. This is especially important since it stars William Gillette, the man who first performed Sherlock Holmes on stage over a thousand times and became the Trope Codifier for many Sherlock-isms like "Elementary, dear Watson" and him smoking a Calabash pipe (he needed a pipe that could be seen from the back row). So in many ways, this is the first time ever we are able to see the original Sherlock Holmes! * In a rarer example of a deliberately missing movie, the Disney film Song of the South is more or less impossible to see through legal channels (at least in the US; it was available in a few other countries on video, including south of the border and in Europe), as Disney fears the wrath of those who might have reasonable objections to a film full of friendly, happy sharecroppers in the Deep South during Reconstruction. These days, it's largely remembered only because it produced the Breakaway Pop Hit "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah." + By how often "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" was used in modern Disney canon until The20s (including showing the original clip in sing-a-long videos), it seems like a lot of people inside Disney want to finally just release the film and get it over with. Until it was announced that the ride would be thematically changed to The Princess and the Frog, it was the source of the Splash Mountain ride at various Disney parks (which is one of the most popular rides, if the lines are anything to go by), leaving many younger riders confused about what the hell the ride is based on (plus, the Brer Rabbit part of the film is quite good). + Back when they actually aired Walt Disney cartoons on the Disney Channel, the Brer Rabbit segments would occasionally be aired by themselves, usually to fill time between a movie and a regular show. Thanks to some clever editing they came off as stand-alone cartoons and not parts of a larger film. * While The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi have true theatrical cuts available on standard definition home video, the original theatrical cut for Star Wars was thought lost until originaltrilogy.com came along. All of the home video releases contain either the 1981 Episode IV crawl or audio revisionism. It's also claimed due to George Lucas the original negatives being deteriorated and destroyed. This began with some of the original Star Wars re-releases in theaters to introduce "Episode IV: A New Hope" which is not original to '77. Part of this is supposedly due to Lucas having Old Shame over the fact that there were several elements of the films that weren't as good as he hoped (including effects and specific scenes) - he considers the altered versions his "true" vision. However, actual original prints of Star Wars would be found as the unrestored 16mm print was used for the Puggo Grande fan project then a 35mm print was located for the Silver Screen Edition and 4K77 fan restorations. + The original ‘77 theatrical print was also discovered in the British Film Institute's archives and screened in London in 2025, with Lucasfilm's permission. * Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which retells Karen's life story using Barbie dolls, was forced out of circulation by Richard Carpenter, and all prints were ordered destroyed. It's readily available over the Internet, however, and a 16mm print was screened at Bard College (the alma mater of the film's director, Todd Haynes) as recently as 2011. * The original version of the 2003 Disney documentary The Sweatbox, which is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the music for The Emperor's New Groove. The process of scoring the film's soundtrack (composed by Sting) was held in a cramped sound stage that was nicknamed "The Sweatbox", but grew in nature to encompass the state of the film's troubled production. The documentary (directed by Sting's wife Trudi) chronicled the change during the production from its original title Kingdom of the Sun to the final product, and the filmmakers' growing horror when they realized the original version was terrible. The documentary was screened for a limited time at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2002 in order to qualify for consideration for the Academy Awards, but it has been barred from release (perhaps indefinitely) by Disney. The workprint was available on YouTube... for about a day before the uploader removed it. But that was long enough for many people to get a copy. * The Thief and the Cobbler is a rather interesting example here. Richard Williams spent decades trying to make this an animated classic, yet it was screwed up by the many executives that held on to the film. The original cut was left on the shelf for decades due to Williams having to deal with other works being made. Eventually, he managed to get further work done and tried to license the film to Warner Bros. for release, but Williams couldn't finish it in time, and Disney had its own A Thousand and One Nights story in development. As a result, WB terminated the deal and the executives forced Williams out of the project. Soon afterward, the project suffered heavy editing and outsourcing in order for the film to be completed faster, and was released to heavy panning by animation lovers and critics across the board. This made Williams extremely devastated, leaving his career in ruins. The original, unfinished left unseen for decades until it was finally shown, half remastered, as the "Recobbled Cut", retaining most of the elements of the original print and some scenes that were never even finished. * 1922's The Toll of the Sea is considered the second oldest technicolor film. It was considered lost until it resurfaced in 1985. It's complete except for the very last scene. Fortunately, it was just a shot of an ocean, and thus a new scene was shot to complete the film. * The 1989 found-footage horror film UFO Abduction was scheduled for a Direct-to-Video release, but a fire at Axiom Films' distribution warehouse destroyed nearly every copy before it could be released. At least one copy, however, did find its way into ufologist circles shorn of its opening and closing credits, where it came to be known as the "McPherson tape" and circulated as a real Alien Abduction caught on video, with the warehouse fire treated as a cover story. This renewed attention got the film's writer/director Dean Alioto the chance to remake it in 1998 with an actual budget as Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County, and in 2018 he finally gave it a proper release on DVD and digital download. ---	MissingEpisode	null
TheDCU	# Shadow Archetype - The DCU The DCU ======= Shadow Archetype in this franchise. --- Comic Books ----------- ### The following have their own pages: * Batman * Superman * Wonder Woman --- * Justice League of America: + The Crime Syndicate of America, Justice Lords, and the Hyper Clan are the Justice League if they decided to rule the world instead of helping it. They demonstrate how important it is for the League to act responsibly. + The Justice Lords are the League if they decided to establish a dictatorial regime after a tragic event that caused them to snap for good. + The Hyper Clan are copies of the Justice League who are more aggressive and are willing to execute criminals. * While LeTonya Charles/Cyborgirl is a foe of Wonder Woman, she's established as an evil Distaff Counterpart to Cyborg. Like Victor Stone, who was cyborgized following a horrific accident, Cyborgirl damaged her own body, but was saved by one of the scientists who repaired Victor. But unlike Cyborg, who used his newfound gifts as a Teen Titan and a member of the Justice League, LeTonya is a drug addict who deliberately damaged her own body and used her cybernetics to focus on personal gain. Her life is just a haphazard mudslide over which she has relatively little control due to her own failures, and choosing to destroy her body with Tar is what led her to become a cyborg. For all intents and purposes, she's an insane psychopath even after being robotized. * Red Hood and the Outlaws: + Red Hood, to Batman. After being revived, Red Hood trains with the All-Caste, a secret, somewhat mystical sect of warriors who mirror Batman's League of Assassins. Red Hood is also Crazy-Prepared like Bats, with safehouses around the globe, each one full of weapons and supplies. + Starfire to Superman. She's the flip side of Clark's coin, both being nearly all powerful aliens that are powered by the yellow sun. Both came from being traumatically removed from home into unfamiliar surroundings, with two very different upbringings. Starfire's perceptions of humanity, along with her tendency to attempt to kill whatever she doesn't like directly contrast Clark's. Star wishes to remain very private, only presenting herself willingly to the public eye when it's unavoidable. She doesn't wish to come off as friendly or there for others' protection, she just wants to do what she wishes. \|\|In issue 14, they meet... and it nearly breaks out into all out brawl involving the "team" and Sups, mostly due to her and Jason's character traits. It takes Jason's date, Isabel, from keeping things from getting out of hand while getting them all to sit down and talk.\|\| * In the Martian Manhunter/Marvin the Martian Special, M'arvinn can be considered as one to J'onn in this special. While J'onn is capable of seeing the kindness of humans despite what happened to his family, M'arvinn's perceived failure to save his own kind from the evils of humanity was what led him into a vicious cycle of hatred. J'onn even laments that he could have ended up like M'arvinn had he not seen the kindness that humanity is capable of. Films ----- * DC Extended Universe: + Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: After two decades of fighting crime, Batman has become cynical and apathetic towards the world. His crimefighting methods are less about protecting the innocent and more about punishing the guilty, to the point even ordinary citizens fear him. Superman, who also struggles with insecurities in this film, begins to see Batman as the kind of person he could become if he ever lost his faith. + The Suicide Squad: Peacemaker is this to Rick Flag, representing a warped version of Flag's loyalty to the United States government. Although Flag is a patriotic military man, he turns against his country and decides to expose their corruption when he discovers that they helped fund Project Starfish, in which innocent Corto Maltese citizens, including children, were experimented on for the purpose of developing a WMD, while Peacemaker is a Knight Templar who firmly believes in My Country, Right or Wrong, and even \|\|kills Flag\|\| to prevent him from releasing the Project Starfish records to the public. * Arrowverse + Arrow: Slade Wilson is exactly how Oliver Queen could have turned out, but managed to avoid. Both of them are haunted by near-identical traumatic experiences of losing a girl they loved. While Oliver resisted the urges to seek revenge and overcame them, Slade let himself be consumed by it. Oliver even compares how similar they were in being distracted by the hallucinations of their deceased beloved. Their present-day motives also become polar complete opposites, with Oliver trying to save a corrupted city, while Slade does everything he can to tear it down. + The Flash: Leonard Snart and Barry Allen were both raised by cops, at one point saw their fathers going to prison, developed Awesomeness by Analysis and eventually got powers from STAR Labs—either permanently or through gadgets—but, in terms of personality, simply became powered-up versions of who they already were. > Barry: Snart's dad is in prison, too? We should start a club. * Injustice + The heroes from the main universe are Near One-for-One opposites of their Regime versions. They represent who their counterparts were before they fell, and in turn, the Regime versions represent a morally twisted version of themselves. + One Earth Regime are a chilling reminder of what the Justice League would become if a tragic event drove them to snap for good and become The Unfettered. + Superman (High Councilor) represents what mainstream Superman could become if a tragic event caused him to snap and lose his moral compass. After learning about what led his Regime counterpart to villainy, the main universe Superman comments that if he were to be put in a similar position as his Regime counterpart was, he would have done the same things. - Mainstream Superman's arcade ending shows that \|\|his fight with his Regime counterpart has spooked him, wondering if he could go down the same path. Due to this, he ingests a Kryptonite piece that can be remotely detonated by a trigger that changes hands between his fellow Justice League members except Batman\|\|. - He's also one to Supergirl, as while he still hasn't recovered from the Despair Event Horizon, she wishes to actually give people hope (and make them trust the House of El again), and not be a Well-Intentioned Extremist dictator unlike her estranged cousin. Not that one could rightly call her a heel in the first place, \|\|but she turns against the Regime and joins up with Batman in the endgame. Even then, she feels she failed her cousin, who she was supposed to protect from people like the Joker, and her family by being unable to stop the House of El's reputation from being tarnished.\|\| + The Society is a hotbed of the worst traits of the Regime: the use of criminals (they are all supervillains), divergent plans in the ranks (everyone is a Dragon with an Agenda), sympathetic motives that don't really justify what they're doing (Captain Cold has succumbed to Revenge Myopia), a lack of team spirit and camaraderie (they operate on Teeth-Clenched Teamwork), problems with accepting blame (Cheetah's Never My Fault attitude towards Wonder Woman) and even breaking off past friendships to join up (as seen with Ivy abandoning Harley, and worse) — all of this with none of the redeeming qualities of the Regime like ending war and crime or advancing the cause of nature enough to impress Swamp Thing. Western Animation ----------------- * DC Animated Universe + Superman: The Animated Series: Lex Luthor can be considered to be the composite shadow of both Superman and Batman. With Superman, Luthor is a Misanthrope Supreme who craves godhood to dominate everyone else in contrast to Superman's desire to be a regular human who only uses his powers to help others. With Batman, Luthor is a multi-billionaire, Badass Normal genius who uses his money and company to spread crime and corruption everywhere in contrast to fellow billionaire Bruce Wayne's humanitarian efforts to reduce crime and corruption. + Batman: The Animated Series: - This version of the Clock King, Temple Fugate, shadows Batman's Crazy-Prepared tendencies. - The rare heroic version in Harvey Bullock. He very much does what Batman does as he bends (read: breaks) the law quite regularly to get results. Also, much like Batman and his seemingly harmless alter-ego Bruce Wayne, Bullock seems inept as all hell but is as capable of a fighter as Batman when surrounded by bad guys or Mooks. He also has that "one rule" he'll never, ever, EVER break, for all his flaws, Bullock is one of the few regular Joes in Gotham that will never take a bribe. + Batman Beyond - Zander was supposed to be a dark mirror to Terry before he \|\|turned into a dinosaur man\|\|. - Like Bruce, Ra's al Ghul wants to carry on his goals via a younger successor. * Teen Titans (2003) + Red X and Slade are both Robin's shadows—X represents what Robin could become if he decided looking out for himself was more important than helping people, while Slade represents what could happen if Robin gave in to evil completely (as Slade is an Evil Mentor, he's also a shadow of Robin's actual mentor, Batman). + Raven - Though it isn't really played up, Terra can be seen as Raven's shadow. Both are Dark Magical Girls with powers tied to emotions, but Raven practices intense self-discipline to keep herself on the good guys' side, while Terra is an emotional wreck who doesn't really mean evil, but turns out to be very susceptible to serious temptation the first time it comes down the pipe. Raven calls Terra out on how much she has to work to control her powers while Terra won't take that responsibility. - To a lesser extent, Raven and Jinx. Raven tries to be a hero in spite of being the daughter of an Eldritch Abomination (and being one herself when she gets angry enough), while Jinx became a villain solely because she figured her 'bad luck' powers couldn't be used for good. + Blackfire is, in many ways, the Shadow of her sister Starfire. She is what Starfire could've been, as she was a selfish royale who only cared for herself and had no friends. Fittingly, the origin episode revealed that Starfire was originally an untrusting warrior who didn't even know what kindness was, with the closest thing to her language being weak. Being around friends mellowed her out into a kind girl, showing what would've happened if Starfire had remained alone and probably would've been as honest and caring as her sister Blackfire. They even have the same voice actress. * Young Justice (2010) + Ma'alefa'ak (M'comm M'orzz) shares a lot of M'gann's insecurities about being racially discriminated and abuses his powers the way she did. Unlike M'gann however, he lets these insecurities consume him and he continues to abuse his powers. + To his clone, Roy Harper II aka Red Arrow. Arsenal represents what could've happened to him had he let his obsessive, jerkish nature be his main attributes. + Metron to Silas Stone. Metron's debut showcases him as a very disconnected individual who cares only about his work, not unlike Silas. But where Silas has been humbled by the consequences of his Workaholic behavior, Metron is completely uncaring of unconventional morality, giving Silas a good view of how he came off to his son, but on an even greater extreme. And while Silas legitimately reconciles with Victor, both the latter and Violet do not trust Metron due to his Blue-and-Orange Morality. ---	ShadowArchetype	null
RealLife	# Awesome But Impractical - Real Life A "cool" tool with severe drawbacks (at least for the time being), but it's still awesome nonetheless. Examples -------- * Military * Vehicles --- * The International Style in general. Flat roofs with no eaves, ribbon windows, supporting pillars and white surfaces and omission of any decorative elements made a revolution in architecture, but they are leaky, difficult to overhaul and repair, prone to sick building syndrome and mildew and mold problems, especially in humid and cold climates, weather uglily, have horrible heating bills, are dependent on mechanical air conditioning, and prone to collapse in a case of fire. They are, however, cheap to build and therefore have become the paradigm, as they usually are demolished after 15 to 60 years. * Retractable roof stadiums: + Such stadiums have the appeal of choosing either having protection from the elements or playing in the open air when the weather cooperates; however, such stadiums are often more expensive to build and maintain than their open-air or fixed-roof contemporaries. Retractable roofs are prone to leaks in their first years of operation and have problems with the wind. While some retractable roof stadiums can keep their roof open under light precipitation, others are like a convertible car, which can only really be opened when the sun is shining. In some cases, such as NRG Stadium in Houston, grass playing fields have to be replaced with synthetic turf, as the roof would block out the sunlight. + Some retractable or fixed-roof stadiums, such as State Farm Stadium in Arizona and Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, alleviate the "growing grass indoors" issue by using a retractable field, allowing the grass to grow outside while leaving the stadium available for other events that may otherwise damage the field.(For example, the grass surface at Allegiant Stadium is used only by the Las Vegas Raiders. The stadium's other main tenant, college football's UNLV Rebels, uses artificial turf.) However, such a solution adds more costs to an already high stadium price tag, since such a solution requires more land to accommodate the field tray and the additional maintenance costs of the systems to move the field in and out of the stadium. + Pittsburgh's Civic Arena was the world's first retractable roof venue. Originally designed for the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, the Civic Arena was best known as the home of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins. The dome was comprised of six moving sections and two fixed sections supported by a 260 foot tall arch. While the design did work, subsequent expansions to the seating bowl as well as the aging condition of the retractable roof system led to its use being limited by 1995 and left permanently closed by 2001. After the Civic Arena's replacement, PPG Paints Arena, opened in 2010, the Civic Arena was shuttered and demolished two years later, despite efforts to preserve the arena as a historic landmark. + Montreal's Olympic Stadium. Designed to be the showpiece of the 1976 Summer Olympics, the stadium wasn't fully completed in time for the Games, due to a construction workers' strike. When the roof was finally installed over a decade later, it was intended to work like a giant umbrella, with the roof going up into an inclined tower. However, despite being made of Kevlar, the roof was prone to tearing in high winds and would often leak water. After ten years, the retractable roof was replaced with a fixed roof. However, problems persisted after the new roof collapsed in its first winter of use after heavy snowfall, rendering the stadium unusable if there is a threat of more than an inch (2.5 cm) of snow, and the roof is still prone to tearing in high winds, costing thousands of dollars to fix annually. After construction delays, mounting interest payments, and failed attempts to fix its design flaws, the Olympic Stadium cost Montreal and the Quebec government over C$1.5 billion(about US$1.32 billion in 2006), a debt that wasn't fully paid off until three decades after the 1976 Summer Olympics. (To add insult to injury the first actual working retractable roof stadium in the world opened in Toronto in 1989.) The stadium is nicknamed "The Big O" for its shape and roof; however, because of how much debt the stadium had accumulated over its nearly half century of existence, it is often derisively called "The Big Owe". It still suffers from structural problems and acoustics so bad that most people cannot hear the loudspeakers. Demolishing the stadium is more expensive than its upkeep due to the Green Line of the Montreal Metro running beneath the stadium, with the Pie-IX station built within the stadium, as well as nearby above-ground infrastructure within the Olympic Park. The use of prestressed concrete in the stadium's construction further complicates how it can be demolished; the stadium would have to be deconstructed meticulously, as conventional demolition methods cannot be used on prestressed concrete, otherwise the concrete would effectively behave like a bomb if the rebar within is not detensioned properly. + Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta has an eight-panel retractable roof, which opens like a camera aperture, as one of its signature features. However, the roof's complexity delayed the stadium's opening several times, and the roof wasn't fully finished until about a year after the stadium officially opened. * Montreal was the home of the Autostade, sporting one of the most revolutionary stadium designs of all time: a bowl consisting of 19 modular sections with a little over 1,000 seats each, which could be moved and reconfigured as needed. The sheer strangeness of the stadium, coupled with a bad location (near the St. Lawrence River, which made the area cold and windy), decreased its popularity over the years, and once Olympic Stadium was finished, the Autostade's main tenant, the Montreal Alouettes, moved out. It was dismantled in 1978, with several of the sections getting moved to the small town of Thetford Mines (a three-hour drive from Montreal), where they were rebuilt into a baseball stadium. * Atlanta's Omni Coliseum. At the time it was built, it was considered an architectural marvel with its distinctive space-frame roof and weathering steel façade, which is designed to surface rust to seal itself. However, the engineers had failed to account for Atlanta's humid climate, which caused the weathering steel to corrode more than intended; the rusting got so bad that arena officials had to put in chain-link fences around the perimeter of the Omni to keep gatecrashers out. Greater-than-anticipated settling caused further damage to the structure; the roof, in particular, would often leak water. While the arena was often praised for its sight lines, the Omni lacked luxury suites and other premium seating, putting the Hawks at an economic disadvantage in the early 90s, as the NBA experienced an arena construction boom in that period. When then-Hawks owner Ted Turner was awarded an NHL franchise in the late 90s expansion, the league determined that the Omni was unsuitable even for temporary use due to its deteriorating condition; this led to the Omni's demolition in 1997 and replacement by the venue now known as State Farm Arena, which sits on its predecessor's footprint. * Dubai seems to be the epitome of the high-tech, ultra-modern city with its numerous flashy skyscrapers and ambitious building projects. However, the city itself lacks a centralized sewer system. Though the city has adequate treatment facilities to process all of the waste it generates, said lack of sewers means that most of the city's waste has to be carried by tanker truck, which can lead to long queues that can force a driver to wait at least 24 hours. It isn't rare for tanker truck drivers to simply dump their waste wherever they can rather than wait. * Various skyscrapers, such as the Burj Khalifa and the Abraj Al-Bait, were built in the Middle East between 2002-2008 without considering cost and practicality. The result was a property bubble that helped puncture the world economy, depressed growth rates in those countries, and may have indirectly sparked the Arab Spring. This hasn't stopped attempts to build the Jeddah Tower, a planned kilometer-tall tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia that has had its construction set back by various ecopolitical issues. * The Ryugyong hotel in North Korea, also known as the "Hotel of Doom", was to be the tallest hotel in the world, had it actually been completed before another hotel had snatched that title. It suffered numerous halts in construction and was later deemed unfit for use due to structural problems like concrete spontaneously breaking apart and crooked lift shafts. North Korea ran out of money before completing it, with some sources reporting the hotel costing the country 2% of its GDP during the years it was being built. * The most fabulous of the Ancient Wonders were built to satisfy the egos of the local rulers or city authorities. They were unrivaled architectural achievements that attracted the envy of all, but were also incredibly expensive and of very little practical use. In Ancient Egypt, it was not uncommon for a Pharaoh's monument building to leave the nation bankrupt. * In the United States, several cities in the mid-20th century had mixed-use stadiums for their major league baseball and football teams to share. While it seemed like a good way to conserve space at the time, the two sports' functional needs proved way too different to coexist. Because baseball uses such an oddly-shaped playing field compared to football, the stadium seating during football games would be far from the action due to the extra space taken up by the baseball diamond; the since-demolished Cleveland Municipal Stadium is a good example of how problematic this could be. With the baseball and football regular seasons overlapping by about a month, with another month or so possible if the baseball had a good year and made the playoffs, the field had to be kept in both "modes" at once and football players could get injured from being tackled on dirt. Not to mention that the field would be subject to damage from heavy use during the overlap. Lastly, these stadiums were usually owned by the local government rather than the teams themselves, which meant that the teams received less revenue from ticket sales and concessions. By The '90s and the Turn of the Millennium, most mixed-use stadiums were demolished in favor of separate, specialized arenas for baseball and football. The last one remaining in active use was the Oakland Coliseum, which was home to both the NFL's Raiders and MLB's Athletics, but after the Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020, it effectively functioned as just a baseball park until the Athletics left for Las Vegas by way of Sacramento after the 2024 season. + Even Major League Soccer, which can (and originally did) use stadiums built for American football, began building its own in the late '90s to get more revenue and provide an experience specifically suited for soccer: smaller dimensions to better accommodate the smaller crowds (since soccer doesn't draw the same numbers in the US that its does elsewhere), but wider fields to meet FIFA regulations.(A regulation American football field, including the end zones, is actually longer than a standard FIFA field, but is about 20 meters narrower.) + Teams at lower levels of US soccer often opted for baseball parks, which almost always have the room to house a FIFA-size soccer field and, in the case of minor-league ballparks, have capacities that are more in line with what minor-league soccer teams tend to draw. However, joint soccer/baseball use has the same sight line issues as with football/baseball. Also, the dirt parts of the baseball field need to be covered over for soccer, and a removable pitcher's mound is needed because of the need for soccer to have a level field. An even bigger problem is that the US soccer season almost completely overlaps that of baseball, making it anywhere from very difficult to impossible to maintain a field to the standard required for professional play in both sports. This has led to pretty much all soccer teams at those levels moving into dedicated stadiums or planning to do so. A couple former MLB parks (Turner Field in Atlanta and Globe Life Field in Texas) have have been permanently converted to football/soccer use. Maybe not the most ideal solution, but probably the most cost-effective. * Australia has its own problems with mixed-use stadiums. The most popular outdoor sports there are, in alphabetic order, Australian rules football, cricket, rugby league, rugby union, and soccer. As noted above, there's no problem with the rugby codes and soccer, since they use the same field dimensions. The same holds true vis-a-vis Aussie rules and cricket, as Aussie rules was designed to be played on cricket ovals, which are much larger than fields of other football codes. (Also, Aussie rules is played mostly in winter, with cricket in summer.) The problem is trying to put oval- and rectangular-field sports in the same venue. A rugby/soccer pitch can entirely fit in a cricket oval, but end-zone spectators in the rectangular sports will be at least 30 meters from the end of the playing field, and even sideline spectators are considerably farther from the field than in a dedicated rectangular venue. On top of that, the sight lines differ significantly between the two field types (though not as much as in the baseball/gridiron football situation). Stadium Australia in Sydney, originally built for the 2000 Olympics, was later retrofitted into a dual-use rectangular/oval venue. At the dawn of the 2020s, plans were in place to convert it to purely rectangular, but financial disruptions from COVID-19 scuttled those plans. Melbourne's two largest venues, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Docklands Stadium, are ovals. These days, the MCG is almost exclusively used for oval sports; Docklands is still occasionally used for rectangular sports thanks to movable seating, but the city's teams in rectangular sports (which are much less popular there than Aussie rules) have since moved to a newer dedicated rectangular stadium that's noticeably smaller than Docklands. Perth (where Aussie rules is more popular than any rectangular sport) built Perth Stadium to replace the Subiaco Oval; for rectangular sports, that city converted the smaller Perth Oval into a rectangular venue. * Mega-mansions, particularly those owned by celebrities. Having a huge sprawling mansion with dozens of rooms, sprawling green spaces, multiple pools and other extravagant features may seem awesome, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. To put this into perspective, a mega-mansion is around the size of the United States White House, if not larger. Aside from the high upfront cost of actually building or buying the mansion, there are also the recurring costs, such as utilities((power bills for a massive home can get out of control: one Los Angeles mansion costs $50,000 a month to cool in the summer)), mortgage payments, and property taxes as well as the costs of maintaining the property such as lawn and garden care, housekeeping, and repairs, all of which could end up being more than the purchase price of the home after only a few years. These homes are sometimes dubbed "real estate white elephants" and it's not uncommon for them to bankrupt their once wealthy owners. One Connecticut mega-mansion managed to bankrupt four of its owners, including boxing legend Mike Tyson and rapper 50 Cent. If the owner decides to downsize, the small pool of potential buyers means the mega-mansion could potentially spend years on the housing market before it's sold again, during which time the owner is on the hook for all the ownership costs, and if they can't afford them the property can fall into severe disrepair, possibly even becoming uninhabitable due to toxic mold and/or structural integrity issues, resulting in it selling at a massive loss. Even with all those expenses comfortably covered, just navigating across such a place can be inconvenient, and wear out the novelty, rendering a lot of the space rarely used. * Converting a barn into a house sounds like a renovator's dream, and the end result is a beautiful open-plan home, but it is also highly impractical since barns are only meant to hold livestock and/or farming equipment, not humans. Not only do you have to build all the requisite rooms—kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom(s), etc.—but you'd also have to connect plumbing and gas, and most barns have thin outer walls not designed to hold in heat or AC, as well as a large open interior, meaning you're paying to heat or cool space not being used for anything. The costs can be mitigated by adding insulation and/or constructing a second floor, but by that point, you're spending way more than if you just bought a house already built for human use. Converting a barn can easily cost six figures and sell for half a million or more; these are often vanity projects where money is no object. * The World Trade Center Transportation Hub looks breathtaking, being an extremely ambitious project intended to replace the destroyed original PATH station and designed to rival Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. The main station house, the Oculus, is a structure made from white ribs that interlock high above the ground, and then spear out like wings above either side to evoke a bird taking flight. Light enters between the ribs and through a huge skylight into a vast underground concourse, whose cathedral-like vaulted chambers and corridors contain the PATH train terminal, subway platforms, and the Westfield World Trade Center Mall. Once a year, on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks that destroyed the original World Trade Center, the skylight of the Oculus opens to the outside air from 8:46 am, when Flight 11 struck the North Tower, to 10:28, when the North Tower collapsed. The problem is that the project went through long construction delays—opening almost 10 years later than originally projected—and cost overruns that doubled the price tag to $4 billion. The exotic design turned some people off, and detractors noted that it was overkill to build one of the most expensive train stations in the world when it only gets 46,000 daily passengers compared to the 250,000 that pass through Grand Central. The skylight, with its complicated opening mechanism and damage-prone rubber seal, has been plagued with leaks for years, and the "wings" that overhang the plaza on either side create a falling ice hazard in winter, sometimes requiring the plaza to be closed off to pedestrians. * Staying in New York City, we also have the IRT City Hall station, the crown jewel of the original New York City Subway when it opened in 1904. It might be the prettiest subway station in the world. Just look at it. It's also been closed since 1945 thanks to the impractical design: + The first sign that it was intended to be more of a tourist attraction than an actual functional part of a public transit network is that it was the only station in the system that only served departing passengers. In other words you couldn't ride the subway directly to the station, the only way to see it was to enter from the street above and pay the fare. + Because it was (temporarily) the last stop on the line the station is what's known as a "loop station": it's a single track on a very tight curve. Modern subway cars would have to be modified to disable their center door because there would be a 4-foot gap between the platform and the car. There's a reason train stations aren't built like this anymore. Because of the tight curve it's also really loud, made even louder by the tile walls that do nothing to deaden the noise (a problem that exists in most of the underground parts of the system.) + The original subway planners badly underestimated how many passengers would use the system, and before it even opened plans were being made to double the platform length at certain stations so they could run bigger trains. It became obvious right away that this wasn't possible at City Hall thanks to the lack of available space and the tight curve. South Ferry, the only other "loop station" in the system, also never had its platforms expanded (and therefore only the first five cars of the train would open their doors when they stopped there) and would be replaced by a traditional island platform station built underneath the old one in 2009.(Though the old station would be brought back into service for five years after the new one was basically destroyed by Hurricane Sandy and had to be rebuilt.) + The station sits only 600 feet away from the Brooklyn Bridge station, which not only provides local and express service, but a transfer to the Nassau Street line (the J/Z train.) As a result only around 800 people were passing through the station each day, a laughably tiny number for a subway station in lower Manhattan. + Finally, because it sits directly underneath NYC's city hall the city won't let anybody do anything with it for security reasons. This actually predates the September 11 attacks; the NYC Transit Museum used to do frequent tours of it but were forced to stop after Al-Qaeda bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. Various proposals have been made to renovate the station (like an underground garden or a fancy cocktail bar), but always immediately get shot down. The city has allowed the Transit Museum to conduct tours of it again, though there's a long waiting list.(However if you'd like a brief look at the station simply take the 6 train to the last stop on the line at Brooklyn Bridge and then stay on the train, it will go around the loop, pass by the station, and emerge on the opposite platform back at Brooklyn Bridge.) * Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the designer of the aforementioned WTC hub, has a track record of creating incredibly ambitious, beautiful, and fantastical, yet severely over-budget and poorly-functioning buildings. In 2014 his home city of Valencia sued him for the crumbling roof of the Opera House at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia exhibition complex, and in 2019 the city of Venice fined him for "macroscopic negligence" in designing a glass and steel bridge over the Grand Canal which has proved high-maintenance and unable to withstand the wear and tear from the number of tourists who use it every day. * The concept of transporter bridges. Using a gondola suspended from a bridge to cross a river solves many unique problems with building bridges across waterways in densely built-up areas; you can carry a large number of people across on a frequent basis while simultaneously keeping the waterway clear at all times, and you don't need to build long approach ramps on either side. Practicality aside, it's also just an impressive feat of engineering. The problem with transporter bridges was that they were introduced just as the ascendance of the automobile had made them obsolete; the 200 passenger capacity suddenly became 9 cars, and they were now too slow to be of any use when even a long detour would be faster. Only 25 have ever been built, of which just 9 are currently in use. * The city of Venice is romantic, but also incredibly fragile. All the structures in the city are built on top of piles driven into the mud of a lagoon and serviced by canals instead of streets, meaning that all transport has to be based on boats and bridges. Most of the buildings are centuries old, rendering them inaccessible to anyone with mobility issues. It's impossible to expand the city any further, so crowds become overwhelming, especially during the high tourist season. There is no sewer system, with wastewater dumped directly into the canals; the freshwater was originally provided by artesian wells, which were banned in the mid-20th century after authorities realized they were causing the islands to subside. That, combined with rising sea levels, mean that the acqua alta, or frequent low-level flood, is now a fact of life for Venetians, with mitigation efforts plagued by delays, cost overruns, and corruption. Additionally, the water in the city is seawater, which quickly erodes the bricks and stone that make up the buildings, causing structural collapses and requiring regular and expensive maintenance. * Vertical sliding doors, the sort that is a staple of sci-fi. They are intended to look like the water-tight doors used in ships for a time. However, this style of door, unlike normal sliding doors, requires a compartment either below or above it to slide into, which is a nightmare from a floor planning standpoint. Also, they're a significant safety issue, in that if a normal sliding door shuts on you then you might end up with a bruise on your arm, while if a vertical sliding door shuts on you a large heavy object smacks you in the head. Even in Star Trek, horizontal sliding doors are much more frequent, and only need horizontal space to retract while retaining a sense of being futuristic. The main place with vertical sliding doors is a warp core, where they're used to seal the room if the reactor is ruptured. + The Boring, but Practical equivalent are vertical rolling shutters. They're not as flashy as rigid sliding doors but are much easier to implement, being common at malls for sealing a shop when it's closed temporarily. * The Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, while famous in media, had many drawbacks that came to haunt it. The suburban sprawl has an agreeable climate well suited to gardening and a lot of homes at least have a small yard, plus it has Hollywood and numerous landmarks featured in the movies. However, unlike New York City, skyscraper space wasn't nearly as prolific due to the risk of earthquakes, which didn't help when it came to the housing shortages the region suffered. While working in Los Angeles was seen as attractive, traffic congestion created problems such as the infamous smog that required legislation to eliminate. In the end, the limited space encouraged expansion in places such as Orange and San Diego Counties. The Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) meanwhile saw significant economic growth, and while it may not have the glamour of Los Angeles County, it became one of the more practical regions to move to for many families. * The California Speedway (AKA the Auto Club Speedway) in Fontana started becoming this due to declining attendance numbers making it more difficult to fill the grand stands and make such a huge venue worth the upkeep, as huge swathes of empty grandstands are largely doing nothing. As a result, plans were made to redesign the track into a 0.5-mile oval akin to a hybrid of Bristol and Martinsville by combining the most popular features of both in response to the demand for more short tracks in NASCAR. While there is disappointment over the 2.0-mile superspeedway being retired, it is much easier to fill the seats for a half-mile track and the new configuration offers spectators a better view of the race thanks to the stadium-like configuration, potentially increasing spectator satisfaction. There is also the trouble of Fontana being located in the Inland Empire within San Bernardino County, creating an obstacle for attendance from Los Angeles and Orange Counties due to factors like distance as well as the infamous freeway congestion of SoCal, encouraging the redesign to a half-mile oval. The plans however, hit a snag in 2022 with NASCAR races being held in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and NASCAR being noncommittal. The popularity of this short track event left the Auto Club Speedway's redesign plans in limbo. Even still, one common problem is how unbearably hot the region gets for spectators during the summer, further discouraging attendance during this time. * Kentucky Speedway is another venue that was a product of its era, as an attempt to put a track in a large market (in this case Cincinnati, with Louisville about an hour's drive away in normal non-NASCAR traffic). On paper, it was a good way to add a track to the region to satisfy NASCAR fans in the vicinity, and hosted NASCAR events like the Camping World Truck Series, Xfinity Series, as well as IndyCar races. However, the inaugural 2011 Cup Series opening was haunted by infrastructure issues, such as major highway congestion preventing as many as 20,000 from even reaching the track. The track also got infamy for producing boring cookie-cutter races that turned out to not even be awesome to watch due to a bland track design that offered little race variety. In 2015, another design flaw surfaced during severe rain, with poor drainage resulting in the track remaining too wet to safely race on, even after the rain passed. Redesigns to the track were not enough to improve spectator satisfaction (in fact, they made the boring races even worse) and the track was dropped from the NASCAR calendar for the 2021 season, much to everyone's relief. For the next couple of years, its main use was as a massive parking lot—during the post-COVID semiconductor shortage in the auto industry in the early 2020s, Ford, which has a huge pickup truck plant in Louisville, rented it out to park trucks that were awaiting the chips that would allow them to be sold. After the shortage eased, it's been used as something of a fantasy racetrack, specifically giving customers willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars a chance to drive an actual NASCAR racing machine. * The Palace of the Parliament of Romania is the heaviest building in the world and one of the largest administrative buildings, whose building was ordered by Nicolae Ceaușescu as part of his "Systematization" program, on the North Korean model. Large enough to house both chambers of the Parliament, along with three museums and an international conference center, 70% of this building stays empty and heating it costs more than US$6 million a year to heat and light it, enough to fuel an entire city. * Berlin Tegel Airport is perhaps the most Broken Base airport to have served travelers in the 21st century. On the one hand its main terminal, designed by Meinhard von Gerkan (a German starchitect then barely out of college who remained active in architecture until his death in 2022), was designed with "short distances" prioritized above all else. If you had a flight leaving out of the main terminal, you could roll up in a taxi to the terminal, go through security and board your flight all in the span of five to ten minutes. But woe be unto you if you had a flight that didn't leave from the main terminal. Or if you had the crazy idea of connecting in the (then) second-biggest city in the EU and a major European capital through (at the time) Germany's second Airline - Air Berlin. Every gate in the main terminal building had to have its own security control and the waiting areas at those gates were not big enough to offer seating for a fully booked Boeing 737-800 (189 passengers and actually towards the smaller size of modern aviation). Of course there was no possibility of offering sterile transit through the main terminal(For Americans: Sterile transit (which the U.S. does not allow) is the possibility to connect at an airport without passing through immigration thus bypassing the need for a visa or complicated and lengthy immigration procedures. It's standard in most of the world (except the US) to enable this, but it requires some form of separating those passengers who have just arrived from abroad from those who are headed for a domestic flight) and the attempts to find solutions for this were awkward at best. High-profile flights to Israel were even moved to the even more lackluster Schönefeld Airport outside Berlin proper after 1990 because there was just no way to accommodate the extra security needs at Tegel. There was also very limited shopping and dining due to the obvious space constraints and obviously nothing post-security, so if waiting for your flight you got peckish, good luck queuing back up for security after you got your 15€ sandwich... Oh and due to having been built and designed in the 1960s and 1970s there was no provision made for a Berlin U- and S-Bahn connection(well, they left room for a station and had even built connecting stations on other lines, but unfortunately today's U5 terminated in the East at the time and it was that line that was intended to be extended towards the airport, which never happened due to the airport being slated for shutdown after reunification) and thus everyone had to either arrive by car (good luck finding parking close enough to the terminal for the "short distances" to actually apply to you), taxi (Berlin cabbies will happily take your money - so much for "cheap flights") or bus (due to the access roads the iconic Berlin doubledeckers were not able to get to the airport and the BVG refused to buy any buses with additional luggage capacity for airport service, so good luck fitting your luggage on the crowded bus) with of course all those options subject to traffic congestion. During one particularly bad strike, the airport itself actually told passengers not to attempt arriving via the (blocked by the strikers) access roads but to instead take the U-Bahn to a station some 2 km away and walk. While many old West Berliners blinded by Nostalgia Filter had tears in their eyes when the last flight out of Tegel left in 2020, a lot of people who had suffered through Tegel Airport in one of the usage cases it wasn't optimized for were not weeping or if they were only tears of joy to be finally able to say good riddance to this ambitious if misguided attempt to optimize an airport for a single trait at the expense of all others. * Making homes out of discarded shipping containers became trendy in the 2010s. On paper, the idea is to make an environmentally-friendly home out of something on its way to the junkyard, but in practice, making a shipping container (or several adjoining containers) livable for humans requires numerous modifications that completely negate any environmental or financial benefit over buying or building a normal house. This is especially true if the person lives inland and has to pay to have the containers shipped to their plot of land; the whole process is far more expensive and leaves a larger carbon footprint than simply building a house with local materials just like everyone else. * The Tel Aviv central bus station. It was built to be the biggest in the world (a title it didn't lose until 2010, when the New Delhi station was opened). However: + Construction was started in 1967, when Israel was drunk on the triumph of the Six-Day War. Of course, after the sobering of 1973, matters changed a bit. + It had a Troubled Production which was passed between several builders. Each one solved funding problems by planning a few more shops in and selling them to potential owners. + It was six floors of pure Bizarrchitecture. A deliberate design, to make people spend more time shopping. + Bridges outside were passing close to private residences, leading to lawsuits from the inhabitants well before the building was even completed. + Ultimately, the building wasn't inaugurated until 1993 due to Troubled Production, by which time it was rather obsolete already. Tellingly, during the opening ceremony, a white elephant balloon was released. + Not only was the building obsolete, but they couldn't predict in 1967 how common private cars will be, which defeated the very purpose of such a large station. + Much of the space was never used, and in fact had to be walled off to stop unauthorized use by drug dealers and pimps. + The space sealed off included the two bottom floors, which were underground, so exhaust gasses tended to accumulate there - there used to be a cinema there, which naturally was shut down as well. + The bus terminals from the bottom floors were transferred to yet another floor. Since the whole plan for profits relied on people going between floor 6 (intercity lines) and floor 1 (internal lines) through four floors of mall, this was yet another huge nail in the coffin's lid. + The owners have filed for bankruptcy in 2012; as of 2022, it is scheduled to stop functioning by 2027, and in the meantime, in all seven floors, you'll be hard pressed to find a single properly working toilet with a seat. * The handful of domed stadiums used by lower level Collegiate American Football teams tend to shoehorn the playing field inside the building in odd ways, with the main issue being that, since the stadiums are small, there's no real need for seats behind the end zone, but the peak of the ceiling still needs to be high to allow enough room for punts and kickoffs to go in the air unimpeded (the only on-campus domed stadium at the FBS level, Syracuse's JMA Wireless Dome(historically Carrier Dome) has a 50,000-seat double-decker bowl arrangement and avoids this problem). The first such dome, Idaho State's ICCU Dome (originally called the Minidome and later Holt Arena), was built as a giant Quonset hut, but the arched ceiling spans from end zone to end zone. The roofline at the back of the end zones is very low and steep; there's barely enough room for the goal posts. Idaho's Kibbie Dome uses the same shape, but the ceiling spans the sidelines. This leads to the opposite effect of the top of the ceiling towering over the whole length of the field and dwarfing the bleachers. Idaho dropped down from the FBS level back to the FCS level in part because they couldn't come up with a practical plan to expand the dome's capacity above 16,000 seats; there was no place to put extra seats. Low roofline cramping the end zones (North Dakota's Alerus Center, Northern Arizona's Walkup Skydome, Northern Michigan's Superior Dome) versus huge roof that makes the dome seem cavernous and empty (Northern Iowa's UNI-Dome, South Dakota's DakotaDome) remained problems for future small domes. North Dakota State's Fargodome has end zone seats and avoids a lot of these problems, but to do so it basically has to not be a dome; it has a flat roof. * On the college basketball side, Vanderbilt University's Memorial Gymnasium has a unique imaginative design, intended to allow the building to be used for other purposes besides sports. The court is raised a couple of feet above the floor, making it feel more like a theatre than a sports arena, but, because of this, the team benches are placed on the baseline instead of the sideline, an arrangement that wasn't uncommon in 1952 when it was built, but today Vanderbilt is the only college or pro gym to do this, which has led to complaints of an unfair advantage for Vanderbilt since opponents have to adjust to this oddity. In particular, visiting coaches complained about having a limited view of the court from the baseline, so the university decided to fix this by adding coaching boxes on the sidelines. Yes, that means the coaches stand alone on the sideline while their team sits around the corner behind the basket. * Solar-paneled roads. The appeal is obvious: roads and solar panels take a lot of space that otherwise go unused, so why not combine them to maximize their value and some even suggest they could use some of their energy to melt snow away. What's not to love? Well…short answer is that they are very subpar at functioning as either. As solar panels, they are horrendously inefficient as they can't cool easily, the fact that they're laid flat where cars are driving is incredibly sub-optimal for capturing sunlight, and dirt and debris inevitably cripples their ability even more. And as roads, they're far more fragile than a normal asphalt road especially when factoring in their vulnerability to theft. For the money, it's far more practical to just build a standard solar farm or a solar farm canopy over a parking lot. * As its big public project for the Canadian centennial in 1967, the city of Ottawa decided to build a unique sports complex (now called TD Place) in which an outdoor stadium and an indoor arena were integrated into the same structure. To accomplish this, however, the arena was placed underneath one of the grandstands. Because of the slope of the grandstand, one side of the arena has a much lower ceiling than the other side, which also limits the amount of seating on that side: there are only 10 rows of seats on the grandstand side, which makes it look lopsided and asymmetrical when viewed from the baseline◊. * Kezar Stadium, original home of the San Francisco 49ers, had oodles of tradition (built in 1924) and was in one of the most colorful settings in a picturesque city, since it was located in Golden Gate Park. But the playing turf was famously awful (prone to mud, and also used for dozens of college and high school games every year). And the field space was huge, with the actual gridiron only taking up part of it; the stands were almost 40 yards away from the field lines, and only about 16,000 of the stadium's 60,000 seats were located between the goal lines. Plus it was a favorite haunt for seagulls, looking for scraps of food. In 1971 the 49ers moved to Candlestick Park,(Kezar Stadium still got a fair amount of use after that, particularly as a venue for live music, but was damaged in the 1989 earthquake, and afterwards was demolished and rebuilt as a 10,000-seat stadium mainly used for high school sports) which had an even more dramatic setting on the San Francisco Bay, but since it was built for the Giants, it was never a completely comfortable fit for football. Breezes from the bay often made the stadium cold, and, since the field sat below sea level, it was prone to flooding based on tides. The Giants got fed up with Candlestick and moved to what's now called Oracle Park closer to downtown in 2000. The Niners stuck it out to 2013, before moving to a comfortable, state-of-the-art football-only stadium, but to do so they had to travel an hour's drive down the Peninsula to Santa Clara for a good location (which happened to be next door to their HQ). * Building prisons with extreme geographical surroundings. Yes, they look imposing and are much more difficult to escape, but on the other side of the coin you should keep in mind that prisons are not self-contained, and need supplies delivered to them and a simple way for staff to go home at the end of their shift. Alcatraz was open as a prison for just 29 years, and closed for the mundane reason of it just being too expensive to run. * The Luxor Las Vegas was designed with the novelty of being able to stay in a hotel shaped like a pyramid. The construction project was one of the most treacherous such projects in the history of the Las Vegas Strip; it was rushed to the hotel's detriment and not long after opening, the owners learned that the hotel was sinking into the sand and adjustments needed to be made to compensate. The Clark County building division also had to order the Luxor to vacate a section of the basement level when it was discovered that there were two unfinished support columns. Luxor has been subject to thousands of correction notices in total ranging from structural faults to maintenance issues. + The hotel has types of elevators called "inclinators" that move at a 39-degree angle to conform to the shape of the pyramid structure in the main attraction; however, they have been reported as being very slow. + In addition to the hotel's above maintenance curses, there is also the question of the novelty wearing off, and the whole hotel looking dated compared with the competition. As eye-catching as the pyramid is on the outside, if the actual hotel rooms are bog standard like those you can find at a reputable motel, then guests may end up disappointed anyway. Indeed, themed hospitality attractions in general run the risk of going out of date, when establishing a timeless look and feel can be a better option, even if it's less flashy. * In relation to how cars are often used as the only mode of transportation in the US and Canada, there's also the problem of North American car-dependent suburban sprawl, of which it's deemed unsustainable for the country. While owning a large, single-family home for yourself and your family may seem like a dream come true, due to restrictive zoning laws, there are many setbacks with this style of urban planning: + With these settlements, restrictive zoning laws cause only low-density single-family homes to be created in many areas, and they are more spread out than high-density areas, which prevents more businesses from being created, and causes less revenue to be generated. Ironically, inner cities, which many whites in the mid-20th Century moved away from (with their jobs and opportunities, as well) due to an influx of poor minorities), generate more revenue in spite of job losses, due to, again, less restrictive zoning regulations allowing more businesses to thrive. This also prevents local amenities like grocery stores and supermarkets from being built near residential areas, preventing people from being able to get their food nearby. + The lack of businesses also resulted in fewer places where people could hang out. Unless they're at a nearby park, many children are unable to hang out due to not having the freedom to roam around, and therefore have no choice but to rely on their parents or older siblings for a car ride, causing them less independence. Also, because of fewer opportunities for mixed-use areas, many teens and adults will feel bored due to the lack of areas where they could just be, causing superstores to be their only real option to hang out, which leads to more homes being homogenized with many not having unique features to stand out, and with malls closing down, there are fewer areas like cafés, theaters, restaurants, and stores where people can hang around, shop, etc., which is a reason why more people are in their phones more often, and this overall creates a psychological problem for many in the suburbs: as there are fewer areas to hang out in, more people experience ennui. + Single-family homes are built bigger than ever before, but with fewer people in them than ever; due to fewer people having children, more space is being wasted by many smaller families, with many not using their extra space for much in the way of anything. Plus, many buildings that could house smaller families like apartment buildings and condominiums are not being built, creating a larger price tag for many homes, both in the suburbs and in the city, despite apartments and condos being more efficient to use despite less space, as more families can live in them and there's less space wasted, and it also create a sense of community. + Many suburban areas tend to be farther away from the city, which wouldn't be a problem if cars aren't the only way to travel in those areas. As stated in the vehicles section, not only does the lack of other options causes traffic to increase, increasing commute times as a result of this, but for those who don't have a car or can't drive one due to cost, disability, age, or car troubles, areas with car dependency often become inhospitable for them, making them islands of isolation, unless they live very close to a train station or have someone drive them. And even for those who have the ability to drive anywhere and money to spend on a car, they may hate the idea due to how expensive it is to own and drive a car, not to mention how dangerous it is in doing so. + Finally, many cities with these restrictions are also required to create parking spaces for more cars, because many people from the suburbs would have to drive from there to the city, which could take hours. Said zoning laws also restrict the creation of new businesses, similar to the suburbs, causing cities to have less revenue and less people hanging out in these areas in their leisure hours. New parking spaces could also cause buildings to be demolished just for a convenience of parking anywhere people want. + With all these reasons, it can explain why many young people have flocked to inner-city neighborhoods in the current century, especially in the 2010s and 2020s: because they're near areas they could go to without having to rely on a car, and they have many more options of traveling, hanging out, tourism, and shopping. Unfortunately, this came at the cost of many lower-income residents leaving due to gentrification causing many of them to move to lower-income, and potentially dangerous areas, move away from the city, or into car-dependent suburbs themselves. * The concept of cashierless stores: Tap your card when you walk in, grab what you want, and then leave, whereupon the store will automatically detect what you've picked up and charge you for it. It sounds like a good deal in theory, being able to eliminate checkout lines and increase store throughput while reducing staffing costs for the company. But in practice, they've proven to be not all that appealing. First, the concept relies on a very technologically-complex system of tracking customers and their purchases, which is not only expensive to operate and raises privacy concerns, but is also prone to errors. Second, the fact that these stores cannot accept physical cash can be a deal-breaker for some customers, in addition to raising concerns about equity and locking out poorer customers who are more likely to use cash in everyday transactions. And finally, the claim that cashierless stores can reduce staffing requirements is a dubious one: These stores still need on-site staff in order to take deliveries, stock shelves and keep the store clean, and particularly in convenience store settings those staff would also have been the ones manning the cash registers, so a cashierless store isn't really eliminating cashiers, just giving them less to do. And that's also not getting into the extra staffing requirements that the automation adds: Amazon Go, the most high-profile example of a cashierless store chain, was exposed in 2024 for its 'automation' relying on using thousands of outsourced teleoperators to monitor the system and catch and rectify mistakes. So overall, cashierless stores have been very slow to expand, mostly because store operators find that the self-serve checkout works just fine in improving store throughput in busy locations without all the hassle that a fully-cashierless system forces. * Programming in assembly language. It is basically the "mother tongue" of the computer, and it is the way to make computers to run the fastest way possible, but it is so incredibly tedious and user-hostile that it had fallen out of vogue already in the 1990s. Today's compilers, especially C and C++ compilers, are so good and produce such well-optimized code that there is no point in programming in assembler any more - unless you are doing it on a vintage CPU architecture, such as the MOS 6502 (e.g., Commodore 64, Apple ][, Atari 8-Bit Computers, NES, PC Engine), the Zilog Z80 (e.g., ZX Spectrum, TRS-80, Amstrad CPC, Sega Master System, ColecoVision), or the Motorola 68000 (e.g., early Apple Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST, Neo Geo, Sega Genesis). * Esoteric programming languages. For example, brainfuck has only 8 commands yet is Turing-complete, and compilers for it are ridiculously small. There is also LOLCODE, where many commands are replaced with internet memes. However, these languages are really not practical for any serious programming. + Some of them are designed for hypercomputers, which means that it's physically impossible to build a computer that can run them in this universe. + While we are at this, it takes actually exactly one instruction to make a Turing-complete universal computer. Of course, such computers are no more practical than the aforementioned esoteric programming languages and are their thought experiment counterparts. They are notoriously tricky to program for (and that's with the most straightforward subtract-and-jump-if-(not)-equal instruction), and their efficiency is atrocious. * For a long time, computer programmers considered interpreted programming languages too impractical for "serious" use. These languages were relatively easy to use in terms getting things going, but until fast computers with lots of memory became commonplace, they were resource hogs. Now that machines can run interpreters without a huge performance hit, and with the Web's acceptance of JavaScript as the de-facto programming language on the client's side, they're seen in a better light. Some examples are JavaScript itself, Ruby (for a time the most common replacement of PHP), Python (a great way to introduce programming to beginners), and Lua (a small language that really shines as a scripting language). + Many traditionally interpreted languages have gone the route of compiling the source code when needed. This is the secret sauce that makes them run fast in many use cases. * New languages like Go and Rust can be seen as awesome, yet impractical too. Being the hottest things available right now gives them a lot of publicity, but the relative immaturity of both (especially Rust), the lack of tested, stable libraries, and Go's refusal to implement any programming innovation from the 70s on (like generics, for example) make them for now rather unsuitable for serious systems development. This is the reason older, more mature languages like C++, Java, and C# still lead the most used languages' charts. * AVX-512: A set SIMD CPU instructions; those being instructions that allow the CPU to operate on a bunch of small numbers in a single step (such as adding 8 pairs of numbers at a time). It is awesome, because it allows working on a 64 bytes or 512 bits of data at once, which is at least 16 times as much data a typical CPU instruction can operate on. The main problem is that outside of specific use cases, SIMD is better suited to throw on a GPU, which are designed as SIMD processors. Further, unlike AVX and AVX2, AVX-512 support is rather fractured; there are many CPUs that support different subsets of the overall instruction set, to the point where you essentially need to target your program at a specific CPU. And lastly, depending on which CPU you use it on, it will cause a massive power spike. * There are lots of cool website designs that look awesome, but load slowly and are hard to navigate. Similarly, many interfaces on TVs, video game consoles, websites, etc. tend to fall more towards this trope with each update. The result is a design that looks more sleek and modern than the previous version but is less accessible and harder to navigate. This trope is why many of these updates are mentioned on They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. * Open-source software zigs-zags with this problem. While many free or low-cost alternatives to commercial software exist (like Linux vs. Windows, GIMP vs. Photoshop, and Microsoft Office vs. LibreOffice), some open-source programs can be overly complex or impractical for everyday use. These are often designed for advanced users rather than the general public. + One major issue with open source software is source code tends to be silo'd and anything the software depends on that's not part of the source itself must be obtained. While this helps keep the source code repositories clean and contain only relevant code, it can cause problems if something happens to the dependency. Case in point, the NPM left-pad incident. The author of "left-pad" removed it from availability on the node.js package repository due to a dispute. Because so many projects that ran websites relied on this, it caused a major internet outage.(Though to be fair, this also showed a weakness in production-level software developers as left-pad's functionality was simple enough that any junior level programmer should've been able to replicate it without requiring a dependency) + Also, a significant disadvantage of open-source programs is the potential loss of control for the original creator. If they decide to remove a feature for any reason, including legal concerns, anyone can use the source code to create a forked version with the removed feature intact. This can lead to legal complications for the original developer. The media player KODI is a prime example of this issue: Although the application itself is legal, some add-ons enable piracy. This has drawn legal scrutiny, much to the creators' dismay. The open-source nature of KODI means that attempts to remove controversial features could result in users creating forked versions that retain those features. This creates a challenging situation for the original developers, as closing the source code isn't a viable solution either.(This issue has led some other open-source projects to adopt more restrictive licenses. For example, the open-source version of WinAmp implemented stricter licensing terms to prevent similar problems. Given WinAmp's plugin-based architecture, which is comparable to KODI's add-on system, its developers took this precautionary step to maintain greater control over potential misuse of their software.) * As with interpreted programming languages, graphical user interfaces made computers easier to use but were huge memory hogs when they were first introduced in the 1970s and 1980s. The original Apple Macintosh could only hold a few word processor pages in its memory, such was the resource usage of early GUIs. The only machines that could support graphics and doing actual work through the 1980s were expensive workstations, while PCs stuck with slim character-based interfaces. Steady improvements in hardware allowed for cheaper and more powerful computers with graphical interfaces toward the end of the '80s, paving the way for Windows 3.0 in 1990, which finally popularized GUIs in the PC world. * Microkernel-based operating systems have advantages from a security standpoint over monolithic kernels. In layman's terms, an operating system set up in this manner gives maximum privileges to fewer components than a monolithic kernel, such as excluding device drivers from the core of the operating system, which can make it much more difficult to exploit security holes in programs and seize full control of the entire system or parts of it. It also makes the system more robust as it's almost impossible to crash the machine. The drawback is that this tends to limit fast access to system resources as user-level programs are not usually allowed to just directly access the necessary resources on the system. This is one reason some operating systems such as the Microsoft Windows NT and Apple's macOS family use a hybrid kernel to strike a balance between the quicker monolithic and more secure microkernel paradigm. Similarly, the Linux kernel can load and unload modules during runtime to make things more manageable. Device drivers are usually implemented as modules because there are so many components on the market that it would be impossible for kernel developers to include them all in one binary. As with GUIs and interpreted programming languages, performance improvements have led to a reassessment of microkernels. With processor power increasing along with the urgency for higher data security, the microkernel became more attractive for its potentially stronger security, and skilled programming helped reduce the performance hit anticipated with the paradigm. * Extreme optimization. On paper this would sound awesome as the software you're running is going to be the fastest it's ever going to be. However, the impractical bit of it is how much effort you spend on optimizing bits of code that run a fraction of a fraction percent of time (or in its most extreme case, once) and the code will generally look like a black magic incantation that'll be hard to maintain even by the author. It's more practical to make sure the software is correct first, then figure out if performance is lacking and if it is, determine what makes the biggest impact in the least amount of effort. * Taking a bog standard operating system from the internet and stripping it of everything not deemed necessary for the sake of improved performance. On one hand, much like extreme optimization previously mentioned, this allows the computer to not be bogged down by unecessary things. On the other hand, this only really works when the use case for the computer is known ahead of time and is essentially frozen. For example, the creator of Tiny11, a heavily stripped down version of Windows 11, says that it's not useful as a daily driver OS despite it using much less RAM and taking up much less storage space than a typical Windows 11 install. The reason is because developers expect users to be using Windows with minimal adjustments to the system. So once you start trying to use a variety of applications, some of them may break in unexpected ways and none of them will know what's apparently broken. On the flip side, this sort of thing is very useful to do for embedded systems; these computer systems have limited amounts of RAM and storage and typically serve to do only a handful of things at most. * Food from any luxury restaurants can be this if, despite excellent taste and aesthetics, they leave you still hungry and even undernourished due to a lack of quantity. It doesn't help that they are typically expensive. Going to fine dining restaurants is best saved for special occasions, like celebrating a big milestone in your life such as a work promotion or wedding anniversary, reunion with friends you haven't seen in years, etc. * Any sweet or junk food definitely tastes good, especially after a long day or to celebrate an occasion, but at the same time, they are full of processed substances, their taste is unnatural due to even more processed substances, and in some cases, they can even get stuck to your teeth. Additionally, what happens if you eat a sweet so often that it doesn't taste good anymore? * There are many single-use kitchen appliances, often (but not always) sold in infomercials, marketed on the idea of "How awesome would it be to easily make (insert popular food or drink item) in your own home?!" (Some of the biggest offenders are bread machines, margarita makers, deep fryers and a plethora of double-sided electric grills for everything from quesadillas to cupcakes.) These appliances often do a good job making the specific food or drink item they were intended to make, but are rather useless for any other task. Five months later, you will have used it only once or twice, promise to use it again at a party, and forget about it being there until the next time you clean out your kitchen cabinets. The impractical part is that most home kitchens have rather limited counter and cabinet space, and these appliances often end up in donation bins after home cooks need to make room and realize their more frequently used cookware can do the same job almost as well, or it's just easier and less time-consuming to buy the same food or beverage pre-made. The only households where these sorts of devices get regular use tend to be those where someone has a food allergy and the only way they can be sure to avoid cross-contamination is to prepare food themselves. Of course, there are some crafty lifehackers and absolute madlads who would use these single-use appliances beyond their intended purpose. + On the other hand, if you have food restrictions or allergies, the bread machine is a heaven's gift. It allows you make bread to your specifications at home. * The Slicer-Dicer. For every good review you'll find online there'll be several that complain about the device breaking under the strain and several more that complain of bad design, with the thing failing to do what it's supposed to in anything like the efficient manner shown in infomercials. * The Magic Bullet blender, and other similar single-portion blenders. While in principle a decent idea — they turn the blender container upside down so the user can blend directly into a sealable cup, which overcomes a limitation of full-sized blenders, particularly those with wider bases, that often don't blend very well when making a single smoothie or other small batches below their recommended minimum capacity. The impractical part is the cups themselves are fairly small, limiting users if they ever want to produce larger batches, and because containers aren't vented hot ingredients aren't an option. More importantly, the motor is liable to overheat and break, and cups are prone to breaking or even exploding due to the non-vented containers. + On the other hand, if you need to prepare only small amounts of food, such as hot chocolate, whipped cream, various sauces, smoothies, milkshakes, or dips, or if you live in a small household, the Magic Bullet is a true win. Usually, ten swift less-than-second pushes are enough to prepare the food. * The Miracle Blade knives. Billed as super-sharp and all-but-undullable, anyone with any knowledge of metalworking at all will tell you that's impossible. The sharper you make a blade the quicker it'll get dull; the Miracle Blades get around this by having a serrated edge that'll make them cut with some usability even when the actual sharpness has long gone to hell, but the quality of the cut will still plummet as they are used because you're essentially sawing rather than slicing at that point. While such serrated knives can be re-sharpened using the right tools and techniques, it requires more skill and labor than sharpening a straight edge, and can't be done by a countertop sharpening machine. * Speaking of knives: ceramic ones aren't quite the revolutionary product they're advertised as. Yes, it Never Needs Sharpening. Yes, ceramic inserts are used in machine shops to cut steel. And yes, a machine shop with a diamond-dust grinding wheel is the only place that can actually sharpen one. While it's generally true that a ceramic knife will hold a scarily sharp edge way after a comparable metal one will be so dull as to be useless, a few passes over a sharpening tool or stone every now and then will keep the latter sharp for a long time (almost indefinitely if you also hone them regularly, greatly reducing the need for sharpening). Ceramic knives, on the other hand, are expensive disposables: their blades are far more delicate, so instead of getting dull they chip and crack (losing efficacy as they go) until enough structural integrity is lost that the blade snaps. This is a rarely seen failure mode, though, because most users will shatter the blade by accidentally dropping them long before then. * The Bialetti Mukka, intended to make a nice foamy cappuccino without the expense and complication of an electric espresso machine equipped with a milk frother. Instead, it makes an excessively foamy white coffee that tastes rather differently than a true cappuccino. Which might not actually be unpleasant, depending on your tastes, but the Mukka is also fiddly to prepare, harder to clean than an ordinary moka pot, and rather temperamental as the valve design is imperfect: occasionally it provides insufficient pressure for no apparent reason, resulting in an unsatisfactory brew. * Any gadget ever invented to quicken the process of peeling vegetables is either inefficient (leaving bits of skin that you have to inspect for and manually remove with a normal peeler anyway) or incredibly messy (save time in peeling, waste it again in washing the gadget), as this video by Techmoan shows. A good peeler and a fast hand are still the fastest way to get rid of the skin on potatoes, carrots, and what have you. * The Rollie Eggmaster vertical grill, a compact travel appliance to make small portions of food for a rapid lunch break on the go - in theory. In practice, compare the yummy, colourful food it makes in the infomercial to the actual food it, uh, "shits out" (that's not gratuitously added vulgarity, by the way - that's from the review text), just in case you thought that this was a one-off here is the review from the Guardian. Anyone who needs a quick meal and isn't too picky about quality will likely just eat some frozen microwave meal or fast food. * Shopping at high-end kitchen gadget shops can be this, due to the severe markup in prices that can occur. Often, you can find the same or similar tools and appliances at discount department stores and internet retailers for greatly reduced cost, and the build quality need not be worse. * You can turn a can of sweetened condensed milk into dulce de leche, a form of caramel, by boiling an unopened can in water for 3 hours. This does work, it's very simple to do, and it's easier than making it in the traditional manner. However, this trick has its downsides: it takes much longer than the traditional method, and if you don't make sure the can is completely submerged for the entire time it's boiling, it will explode. As dulce de leche and similar products are increasingly available commercially now, this little trick doesn't have quite the same impact as it did years go. * Lots of gourmet cooking techniques and dishes qualify, at least for most amateur home cooks. + Special mention goes to gold foil, which is exactly what it sounds like - a very thin sheet of reasonably pure gold that you put onto food and then eat. While it is, somewhat surprisingly, safe to eat, the body will simply pass it through, and it has no discernible taste - basically it's a way for the excessively rich to garnish their food with bling while giving the finger to anyone for whom hunger is a daily problem. + Similarly to gold foil, but far more common are cheap silver dots. Like the foil, these are meant to be decorations but at a much more reasonable cost (generally only a few dollars a pound) and look pretty good on homemade confectionery. However, they taste absolutely meh; they're basically condensed sugar dots with a coat of edible silver paint over them. Not to mention if you present this to people who are not familiar with them at all, they might think your food is inedible to boot. * Opening a champagne bottle with a sword. This technique is known as sabrage. Sure, that sounds cool, but most likely you'll just end up with a broken bottle as many "fail compilation" videos on YouTube can attest. Even worse, you could end up slicing something off your body instead of the neck of the champagne bottle. + Moreover, when properly done, this technique breaks off the thick part of the bottleneck, making it impossible to recycle or reuse the bottle anymore — it becomes glass trash. It also becomes impossible to close again — or drink off the bottle mouth. + The shock on the neck by the sword blade also creates a champagne geyser, often expunging a good third of your extremely expensive drink for the magpies to enjoy. * The tomahawk steak. Getting a Fred Flintstone-esque cut of meat and swinging it around like the namesake weapon might look cool for an Instagram photo-op, but tomahawk ribeyes are insanely overpriced, costing nearly twice as much as their boneless counterpart in most steakhouses; essentially, patrons are paying for an additional 12 inches (30 cm) or so of inedible bone that would be typically discarded by butcher shops. * Dagwood Sandwiches such as over-stacked burgers make for a showy presentation at the table, but the purpose of the sandwich is lost since the average mouth won't be able to bite into it conveniently without disassembling and using cutlery. * Instant noodles may be cheap (often at less than a dollar per cup) and easy to prepare (just put in boiling water and let it sit for 3 minutes), however they are sorely lacking in nutritional content and have scary high amounts of sodium. It's not uncommon to hear tales of convention-goers getting sick because they decided to skimp on the food budget and eat only instant noodles for every day of the con, often getting dehydrated especially if they neglect to drink enough water to balance out the salt levels. Like all junk food, instant noodles are fine in moderation, but they should not be relied upon as a primary source of sustenance. * Colonel Sanders' original recipe for his gravy was so complex that it couldn't be produced on a mass scale. One KFC executive said "The Colonel's gravy was fantastic but you had to be a Rhodes Scholar to cook it." Therefore, they simplified the recipe, much to the Colonel's displeasure. * French macarons are a delicious, but insanely expensive treat, especially compared to other sweets. A single macaron can cost over US$3 while being the same size or smaller than an average chocolate chip cookie, with high-end bakeries charging even more. The macaron's high premium stems from its ingredients, namely almond flour and aged egg whites, and the level of expertise required to make them properly as well as the time needed to prepare them; one wrong move during any step of the process, and it results in imperfect macarons. * Cube-shaped watermelons have a neat, cubic appearance. The growing methods to create them involve a lot of attentiveness and most fruit fail to attain a square shape, so they're prohibitively expensive at a price point of around 10,000 yen (about 100 US dollars). And, if you ever want to eat them... well, you're straight out of luck, as the melons are sold as decorative plants because harvesting them in their desired cube shapes involves doing so before they ripen. * For a lot of startup eateries, the use of full table service tends to be this. The idea of a wait staff to tend tables and bring food and drinks is certainly very convenient for diners, but executing it well can be difficult. As shows like Bar Rescue, Kitchen Nightmares, Restaurant: Impossible, and so forth demonstrate, many people get into full service restaurant ownership without realizing how difficult it can be to execute and maintain properly. + The restaurant needs sufficient space for the expected dine-in guests, due diligence with identifying guests of legal age for drinking alcohol, well-trained wait staff who can also wow the diners with their enthusiasm, and sufficient parking to ensure a convenient place near the restaurant (while the actual need for parking at restaurants tends to be much smaller, business owners chronically overestimate the share of their customers who drive to their business). All of this adds to the cost of the meals. In food service operations, keeping a tight grip on expenses is crucial. + Even more elegant is Service à la française, or "Service in the French Style". It can make for a very stunning table display having all the requested foods presented at once and gives the dining session a very family-oriented feeling, but in practice, the difficulty of executing it well, number of staff required, and the difficulty of having to navigate larger tables limited this style of service to more high-end events and restaurants. The food is also more likely to become cold, and some guests may become puzzled over what to choose to eat. An alteration of this format is the "buffet style" which is much easier to execute as guests leave the table to plate up food from serving stations and there is much less food waste this way. + This is why a lot of food service restaurants choose the Boring, but Practical quick-service model where guests bus their own table or — more often than not — order their food for take-out and seating capacity becomes a lower priority. Many wildly successful eateries chose the quick service model and the lower property size requirements make expansion easier. Also, on weekends, it's not uncommon for full-service diners to get fully booked and need advance reservation, but a quick-service eatery will normally not have this problem to nearly the same extent and walk-ins (as well as mobile orders) are the norm. * Edible food wrappers seem like a good idea. There's no waste with packaging that ends up in a landfill in theory. In reality, sanitary considerations preclude edible wrappers because you don't want food actually touching other surfaces. That means that it's still necessary to use paper, plastic, or foam takeout wrappers and containers, negating the idea of an edible wrapper in the first place. * The Codd-neck bottle, which uses a marble and the drink's carbonated contents to seal itself closed, has a cool, distinctive appearance and is best known for being the shape of Ramune bottles. They have less control over when they close, ie. when right-side up, they don't have a cap to seal in the carbonation again, and when tilting it to drink the marble can roll back to the top of the bottle and re-seal it. Furthermore, they're also harder to open; they require a tool provided with each bottle with which the drinker has to push down on the marble with some force, a problem not shared by twist-open caps nor aluminum soda can tabs. * Hyper-realistic cakes. It would be cool to make a cake that looks like something else, but they require crazy amounts of time to prepare, and most likely several different vessels and molds, and different colored fondants to put on the outside. And the spongy layers will likely have to be cut into different shapes, leading to crumbs that can only be thrown away. Plus, if the TV shows where these cakes are made are anything to go by, they are more difficult to cut due to being wrapped in fondant, rather than frosted. And to top it all off, they don't taste as good. So, if you want cake, it would be quicker, easier, and tastier to just buy, or bake, a sensible, regular cake. * Induction stoves, depending on what you cook. They heat the cookware directly and thus not only cook faster, but are safer because the heat transfer process prevents the surface itself from getting too hot, as opposed to hot-coil stoves (the other kind of electric stove), and they don't use gas so they're less likely to create a fire hazard (up to and including a deadly hard-to-extinguish explosion) if something goes wrong with them. However, they also require flat-bottomed cookware that is designed specifically for induction cooking, so you may have to replace a lot of your pots and pans, and some types of cookware will just not work with induction stoves at all, most notably woks that are commonly used in Asian cuisine since many of them are round-bottomed. * Flat-bottomed hard taco shells. They're easier to fill and serve and make for a neat presentation, but a traditional taco shell holds together much better when you bite into it, where the angular shape of flat-bottoms causes them to shatter almost completely on the first bite, creating a bigger mess while eating (and wasting most of the filling if you don't have a plate to eat them over). * Fridge-sized, disposable mini "kegs" (Like these). They're fairly cheap (usually around $20 for a 5-liter) and it's certainly cool to have draft beer at home with no high-dollar bar setup, but they also waste entirely too much carbonation, usually leaving you with 5 to 6 inches of foamy head on top of 2 inches of now-flat beer, which you'll get regardless of how well it's chilled or how carefully your pour against the inside of your glass. You're better off just investing that $20 towards a 24-pack of cans; there's less novelty value, but you'll get almost twice as much beer out of it and can control how you pour it to keep the head from overgrowing. + However, if you practice homebrewing, these kegs are a true win. They can be recycled into cask conditioning vessels, and they are way more convenient for cask conditioning and lagering than glass bottles. The kegs are neigh unbreakable, and can take way more overpressure from carbon dioxide than glass bottles. * KitchenAid's Design Series Evergreen stand mixer was praised for its eye-catching walnut work bowl, but professionals were quick to point out that wooden work bowls have many limitations: they warp easily, can become brittle and splinter over time, can't go in the dishwasher, absorb stains and odors, and require far more maintenance than metal or ceramic bowls, which are standard for professional settings. Reviewers conceded the mixer was almost more of a decorative piece of art than a useful kitchen tool. * When it comes to making perfect "movie theater" popcorn, nothing beats the classic upright, motorized kettle machine; a little popping oil and a dash of Flavacol salt will get you the exact same stuff theaters expect you to pay $12 a bag for, with far superior flavor compared to microwave bags, and better salt distribution and less risk of scorching compared to a JiffyPop pan. Unfortunately, they also take up a lot of counterspace and are difficult to store when not in use, and a really good, reliable model can go for a few hundred bucks; smaller, sub-$100 options exist, but quality and longevity are a crapshoot. Thankfully, there do exist manual, gear-operated stovetop kettles that sacrifice some convenience because they're hand-cranked, but can produce the same results at a lower cost and are easier to clean and put away. * The Gold Standard and Hard Money in general, if you're willing to look into history. While the idea of having money tied to something with a concrete value sounds like it should make things more stable, in reality it causes a lot more problems than it solves. People complain about inflation, and while hyperinflation is obviously bad, hyperdeflation, the inevitable result of the gold standard, is far worse. Inflation drives spending, which drives a consumer economy, and it makes debt easier to pay off, as the money you pay it with is worth less than when you took on the debt. Deflation does the exact opposite, and for most people their debts would magnify and their wages collapse faster than the cost of living would fall. There's a very good reason for most of history, economic populism was movements like Free Silver, farmers and workers backing a more inflationary money standard as the deflationary gold standard left their position precarious at best. At times, deflation got so bad that William Jennings Bryan compared maintaining the gold standard to crucifying mankind. What's more, the core logic of the Gold Standard—that gold is inherently valuable and gold has intrinsic value—is questionable. Until very recently with the invention of electronic computers, there was no practical use for gold, and even now the amount of gold needed for computers is fairly small compared to the demand for decorative purposes. In the kind of scenarios that Goldbugs present, are you going to trade your food, ammunition, gas, spare parts, or whatever for a soft, shiny, heavy metal ingot? + There is far more money in circulation than there is physical element Au extant for its worth. Moreover, gold standard makes treatment of some diseases, such as arthritis or ankylosis, impossible, as they are treated by injecting Au compounds, such as gold cyanide or aurothiomalate, to the joint. * The act of keeping up with the Joneses, comparing your stuff with your neighbors, and trying to outdo them in outward-looking wealth, can easily be this, especially if you're otherwise poor. They say wealth whispers, meaning a lot of truly wealthy people tend to live well below their means so they can use their money to grow their wealth. It's not worth trying to look rich if you can barely make a rent or mortgage payment, are swimming in debt, and all that debt are liabilities that just drain your finances, as opposed to building enough wealth, and spending as little as possible while still having a fulfilling life, to be able to live comfortably, and possibly never have to work ever again (or, if you do still work, use that cash as extra for the occasional comfort, or to further build your wealth). * Gambling for money can be perceived as this because it is possible to win a lot of money, but hardly practical considering all commercial gambling is designed with something else in mind or requires a big capital to start with anyway. Besides, the house will always keep games with the lowest margin of winnings for the player. * The lottery. You just go to your local convenience store or gas station to buy a ticket and you will get massive gains if you have the winning numbers... if. Given the astronomically low odds of winning, every ticket you purchase with a 0.01% or less chance to win big could instead be spent on a 100% chance of getting basic necessities like food and paying the bills. * In the realm of the stock market, day trading can be this easily. The rush of snatching a good profit by selling almost immediately after buying can be enjoyable, but it's no better than gambling, it defeats one of the purposes of investing (developing an income without wage labor), and it is more profitable to buy that investment low, and waiting several months to let it appreciate in value. That's on top of the risk of getting a free-ride penalty, which forces you to buy only with settled cash, and the taxes you might owe the government from short-term capital gains, which (depending on your income and the country you live in) can eat up a good chunk of whatever profits you've earned. * Buying on credit can be this, especially when carrying a balance on a credit card. Sure, you can buy expensive items that you would have to pass up if you don't have the cash on hand, but you can end up soaked by interest charges if you only make the minimum payment. That's why it's better to live within your means and buy things outright. There are still things that most people wouldn't pay cash for even if they wanted to, like houses or cars. That's why they generally arrange installment loans with much lower interest rates to pay these things off rather than use revolving credit. * Cryptocurrencies. Let's be curt and say they provide an excellent, albeit an energy-wasting, way to simulate the gold standard. They do, however, have a market niche — for transactions of illicit contraband, money laundering and ransoms on extortion. + Additionally, cryptocurrencies are known to be incredibly volatile. Many find this enticing since it can lead to large profits in short periods, but it's essentially gambling and carries a major risk of their money being lost just as quickly. * Transparent displays. A staple of sci-fi movies and TV series. They've been in existence since the early 2000s but never caught on due to a shifting background being distracting (they're still shown in media a lot because they "look cool", as well as the (actually rather practical, from a storytelling perspective) ability to allow the audience to simultaneously look directly at the actor's face, as well as what they're looking at on the screen). * Most novelty mice: + Car-shaped mice might look good if you're using them in a showroom or something, but they're all an ergonomic disaster. + 8-bit Mario computer mice◊. They're nifty and look nice, but they're also large, clunky, and uncomfortable. + Specialised gaming mice can have up to 20 buttons on one side, including the standard mouse buttons, to control with your thumb. For comparison, an X-box controller has 15 buttons for both hands. That being said, there are niche uses where extra buttons can be helpful such as when managing control groups in Real-Time Strategy games where your unit groups can easily be selected with a finger (like with a numeric keypad on the side). + Apple ended up making this mistake with the Apple USB Mouse M4848, commonly referred to as the "hockey puck" due to its circular design, proving to be incredibly uncomfortable after prolonged use and quickly becoming hated by users. Third-party accessories were available to mitigate this. Apple discontinued the mouse after two years. + Chrome-plated computer mice. They look all cool and shiny— until you touch them. And you have to touch them in order to use them. Chrome plating kind of defeats the purpose of a mouse. * Dream PCs, often with thousands of dollars' of processors, graphics cards, and liquid cooling system, and have the specs that could conquer any game currently on the market. The practical problem with expensive hardware is that you get next-gen performance on current-gen hardware. Your rig will become outdated long before it becomes underpowered. Anyone who bought a top-end single core CPU or DX9 video card back in the mid 2000s probably ended up replacing it quickly, not because it was too slow but because it was not a multicore CPU or DX10 video card. + This has become less of an issue around the middle of the 2010s; five-year-old computers can still regularly play new games, whereas back in the 1990s and early 2000s that was unthinkable, and many companies and hobbyists programmers have backported newer features to older hardware (such as DirectX 12, which could run on many existing GPUs when it launched). * 3dFX was a graphics company popular in The '90s. Their magnum opus was The Voodoo 5 6000. A card with four separate processors and an external power supply. The card drew too much power for the motherboard to provide by itself - far from an uncommon problem in the years to come, but now we just run a wire from the main power supply, while back then it was feared that they wouldn't be powerful and reliable enough. Despite that, the Voodoo 5 did not support hardware transform and lighting (depending on the main CPU to do it). The Radeon and Geforce were released BEFORE the Voodoo 5 was finished, did support those, and pretty much hammered the Voodoo 5 into the ground in performance, at a fraction of the cost. 3dfx ended up going out of business and being bought by Nvidia. * Enthusiast video cards often fall into this, offering high-end video rendering for the current generation, but easily exceeding over half to two-thirds the cost of the entire computer. It is quite feasible to get by in gaming with a mid-range video card for the current generation, with most games on the market, or you can dial-down the visuals in many games to make up the difference. In addition, to get the most out of it, you'll need to make sure the rest of the parts are up to snuff, lest you either have a power supply blow up or the video card's performance being less than it could be due to the CPU being too weak. * Even more expensive was the practice of running up to four video cards at once with either Nvidia SLI & AMD Crossfire. Sure, you could harness immense graphical processing power, but they came with a host of other problems: + When the video cards could no longer handle the latest games, you then had to replace 2-4 video cards if you wanted to continue reaping the benefits. + Multi-GPU setups weren't free lunches, often requiring profiles that were tuned for the setup. For, say, a two-card setup, you may not have seen the potential 2x increase at all. (In fact you rarely would; while 3D graphics are inherently very parallelizable, data sharing between the cards would usually throttle performance badly. Consider that the biggest bottleneck in graphics today is the bandwidth between the GPU core and onboard RAM, and communication between GP Us would be signficantly slower than that.) + VRAM didn't combine. So two 4GB cards didn't equal an 8GB card of the future. Therefore, while you could theoretically crank up the resolution way higher with a multi-card setup, the video cards would run out of VRAM and performance would be hampered anyway. + Comparability problems were a constant bugbear, with many games either running terribly, running into constant microstuttering, or just flat-out crashing out. As a result, you would often get better performance and reliability by removing all but one of the cards in your system. + Then there was needing a motherboard that supported it, the need for a more expensive power supply, better cooling... + It's for these reasons that multi-card gaming essentially died off by the late 2010's with the last NVIDIA gaming GPU to "support" it being the RTX 3090 released in 2020. Even then, NVIDIA never bothered making driver profiles for it - the only games you could utilize it with were games that went through the trouble to natively support it in DirectX 12 or Vulkan, of which there were exactly 14. So unless you really wanted to crank the resolution in Halo Wars 2 to obscene levels, it was rendered effectively useless. * Cutting-edge gaming laptops allow desktop performance for the games of that laptop's era, but the price of one can easily exceed $3,000 USD, a high price to pay if theft or damage occurs. Laptops also suffer from inflexibility for upgrades, and usually can not have the GPU or CPU upgraded. Plus, if a game you want to play requires a constant Internet connection (often the case for MMORPGs, MOBAs, and multiplayer-focused FPSes), public networks are often spotty in terms of reliable connection if you wanted to play it them on the go. In addition to all this, gaming laptops tend to function poorly as laptops, since the powerful hardware makes them thicker and heavier than most laptops and results in poor battery life. If you're willing to sacrifice gaming on the go (which as mentioned above isn't the greatest of experiences on a gaming laptop), you can get a more powerful (and upgradeable) desktop and a cheap but functional laptop for working on the go for less than one of these gaming laptops. + A specific example that best personifies the trope is the limited-run Acer Predator 21X. Among its features are a Cherry MX Brown mechanical keyboard with a swappable trackpad and numpad on the right side, a curved 21-inch (533 mm) ultrawide 120Hz display, an overclockable Seventh-generation Intel Core i7 CPU, dual 8 GB GTX 1080s in SLI, and 64 GB of RAM. When plugging in the "laptop" (more accurately, the Predator 21x is considered a desktop replacement computer), it requires two AC adapters, each at 330 watts. The computer weighs a whopping 19 pounds (8.6 kg) and comes with a large wheeled case to transport it. Its insane specs command an equally insane price tag at $9,000; one could get a desktop of similar specification for a fraction of the cost. + Cheaper gaming laptops have also hit the market, most of them less than $1,500 USD for decent specs. And most of them are in sizes that are more reasonable. A famous one that hit the market in 2020 was the ASUS Zepyhrus G14, something of a unicorn laptop. It not only had the gaming chops that it could sustain, but did it in a 14" laptop size that was just under 0.75"/18mm thick, and when you weren't gaming had leading class battery life. It wouldn't look out of place if you placed it next to a MacBook Pro or Dell XPS, two laptops considered to be the benchmarks of lightweight, small laptops. + Another company aiming to address at least the issue of upgradeability is Framework with the Framework 16. Almost everything in the computer is upgradeable, and the company even encourages up-cycling the laptop's motherboards into standalone, thin small form factor computers. * Overclocking a CPU or GPU can provide better performance than stock speeds, particularly to squeeze out extra performance from aging components. However, overclocking requires more power to maintain a stable clock speed and substantial cooling to offset the extra heat generated, and it is possible to permanently damage components if substandard parts are used, especially the power supply. While modern overclocking has gotten easier, with most OCs being done in software and reputable components having thermal overload protection, overclocking older platforms was a far more daunting task, which can involve physically modifying the motherboard. + In addition, modern parts simply don't have something resembling a static clock speed outside of perhaps legal reasons to have some number on the box. The highest number the part can get to may basically be the point where trying to overclock the part further results in massive power consumption draws and needing exotic cooling. However, this may come back to bite the manufacturer in the ass as the stresses pushed on the part may decrease its useful lifespan. * Going beyond an air cooler can creep into this territory + Custom liquid cooling loops can provide better cooling for overclocking compared to an air cooler; however, a custom loop has several points of failure due to its many components (e.g., reservoir, pump, water blocks, o-rings, etc.). If part of the loop fails or if the user wants to add or remove components, the loop has to be drained and disassembled. Depending on the system complexity and quality of materials, a custom loop can be very expensive. A custom loop is also impractical for a LAN party system since the loop has to be drained before transport and refilled before using it. + An extreme version of liquid cooling is using liquid nitrogen (LN2). LN2 cooling can achieve insane overclocks; however, LN2 is very dangerous if mishandled, potentially causing frostbite and permanently damaging components. PC components are typically not designed to operate at sub-freezing temperatures, meaning that components surrounding the CPU cooler block have to be insulated to avoid condensation. Because of LN2's sub-zero boiling point, the reservoir has to be refilled constantly, making it only useful for short-term CPU benchmarking. Only experts should attempt this method. + Mineral oil cooling. While having your PC submerged entirely in liquid is awesome, and it doesn't risk damage from coolant leaks, extreme care has to be taken to avoid contaminating the mineral oil and risk causing a short. Furthermore, this approach makes it almost impossible to upgrade hardware and/or resell used parts, meaning that any mineral oil build has to be designed to last. Lastly, it doesn't provide much benefit over air cooling or piped liquid cooling, making the expense and effort largely for the sake of aesthetics and bragging rights. * Desktop Gaming PCs in general are this to many people. While having a powerful computer is nice, laptops can address most people's non-gaming computing needs nowadays while being portable, making gaming the only reason to have a desktop. Many people prefer or even need the portability of a laptop, making a desktop PC an expensive secondary computer with gaming being the only justification for having one. The steady improvement of integrated GPUs may eventually eliminate even this justification. Integrated graphics are already more than adequate for many older and indie titles. * The iPhone 4's antenna, which is that stainless steel banding built into the casing of the device, was described as "really cool engineering" by Steve Jobs. However, the iPhone doesn't work very well as a phone when you hold it, leading to dropped calls. * Buying arcade boards and machines, especially when a home port of the game in question exists. + The main problems with owning original hardware is their size and weight. Even small form factor units can take up considerable space. Also, owning arcade cabinets means that you or somebody you know should be knowledgeable on how to repair them when they inevitably break down. + Practically every arcade cabinet made before the mid to late 2000s relied on CRT displays, which are becoming increasingly hard to find each year since they're no longer mass-produced. While some games can be retrofitted with an LCD display and would be unnoticeable to practically anyone other than arcade purists, certain genres rely on a CRT for various reasons. Light Gun Games rely on the way a CRT refreshes its screen in order to function, and CRTs are preferred for vintage Fighting Games, especially in competitive settings for their extremely low latency. Arcade machines which use a vector monitor rather than a raster monitor are more difficult to service. + However, with the availability of single board computers, small enough to fit on your palm such as the Raspberry Pi, you can have the best of both worlds. Wire one up to the controllers of an old arcade cabinet and a replacement screen, install an emulator, and you can play practically every arcade game via that single cabinet. There are a number of companies marketing such setups, ranging from kits you assemble yourself to fully-assembled cabinets. + There's also the matter of expense; in addition to the price of owning a classic arcade machine, running the machine takes up plenty of electricity, and it only gets worse if you decide to buy multiple machines. Retrofitting machines with LCD monitors and replacing the attract lighting with LEDs whenever possible can help make the machines more energy efficient. * The Most Useless Machine Ever, a device whose sole purpose, once turned on, is to turn itself off. + Needless to say, it spawned a race to design machines that are even more awesome while retaining the utter uselessness of the original. Cue the advanced edition… * Wi-Fi connected "smart" light bulbs have apps that can imitate a thunderstorm or fireworks, by simply flashing the light bulb. It is very cool to get the "effect" of a thunderstorm or fireworks in your own home, but consider the fact you turn on a light to see in the dark, and these apps flash the bulbs intermittently. * The Dvorak keyboard layout. It's supposed to be more efficient than the standard QWERTY keyboard and cut down on repetitive motion strain (unproven). Also every major operating system supports it in software. Unfortunately the typical Dvorak keyboard runs well over $100 and no IT department will appreciate you gluing new letters onto your keyboard. + Many keyboards have pop-off/pop-on keycaps, so you could move them around, reversibly. Or learn to touch-type in Dvorak and don't even look at the keys. These both require going under the hood and remapping the keyboard, of course. (Some people's skin gradually wears the lettering off computer keys, so they can touch-type, replace keyboards regularly, or glue on new labels.) + Additionally, note that the Dvorak keyboard is based on a myth; its creators believed that the QWERTY keyboard was created to slow down typists. This, at least, is well-documented as being untrue. (The arrangement has to do with the exact mechanics of the inside of a typewriter and the way certain bars tended to jam when struck together, not with any deliberate attempt to slow down typists.) + The major problem is that you have to completely re-learn touch typing. While switching may lead to faster typing in the long run (as mentioned, there's no hard evidence either way), it will definitely slow you down in the short term. It also makes it incredibly inconvenient to use anyone else's computer (or a public computer) and, conversely, inconvenient for anyone else to use yours. + Also, good luck letting a customer service agent remotely control your PC. The Dvorak layout is going to extend through the remote software, and unless you happen upon a service rep who is also using Dvorak, they will be unable to work on your PC. + Utlimately, the peak you can hit with QWERTY is generally near the peak of your physical ability and muscle memory. While switching to another keyboard layout, be it using DVORAK or something like ergonomic keyboard can improve your typing performance, it's usually within single digit percentage points once you hit your peak. And while you might come across the amazing ability for courtroom stenographers to achieve 300+ WPM, it comes from a combination of using a chorded keyboard and courtroom records using short-hand codes to compress text (the latter is mostly what helps, not the chorded part) * Being on the cutting edge of TV and display technology. The problem is finding content to watch in that format. For gaming, it takes years before either performance or standards catch up to make said features viable. In addition, there's the issue of display resolution losing its edge depending on the screen size and viewing distance. That is, if you want to make the most out of a 4K display from a 50" 1080p TV viewed at about 6-7 feet away, you may need at least a 65" display for the increased resolution to be appreciably noticeable. + The fundamental problem is that the primary component of "quality" of a picture is pixel density, not number. An 84" 4k monitor has about the same number of pixels per inch as a 42" HD monitor. And it turns out that the human eye has a severe law of diminishing returns for moving picture quality. While a human can easily tell the difference between a picture printed on a 300dpi printer and one on a 1200dpi printer, it can't when comparing a 300ppi monitor vs a 600ppi monitor. 4k resolution on a 20" monitor is about the best a human eye can distinguish. + Even better, 4k displays for smartphones are in the works. Nice, you have the resolution of a next-generation TV in your pocket... but given that the individual pixels on a 1080p smartphone are already barely discernible, having four times the pixel density on a phone is overkill. * IMAX film itself. It produces some of the highest-definition film in existence, but the heavy-duty 15/70 cameras are massive, expensive, noisy, and rare. It's very difficult to shoot more than a few minutes of a film on that kind of camera. Infamously, Christopher Nolan, one of the few directors to make heavy use of IMAX, has accidentally damaged or broken multiple such cameras during filming - which wouldn't be so abnormal if said cameras weren't so expensive and rare that Nolan has literally destroyed a significant fraction of all IMAX cameras in the world. * Digital Projectors in comparison to TVs. For around 500 USD you can get a projector able to display a 1080p image at 120'', but the room has to be long enough, there can't be too much light seeping in, the light from the projector can't be blocked (can be solved by attaching the projector into the wall/roof), you need a screen attached to the wall for decent colors and occasionally you need to replace the bulb. In other words, you need to practically build your living room around the projector to get the best results out of it. TVs just need to be plugged in. + On the plus side, mass-production models became available at relatively affordable rates, and thanks to streaming video on mobile phones and screen mirroring, positioning the projector became much more simple. Portability greatly improved as well, and a projector has easier portability than an LCD anyway so it's nice if you like mobility and can spare the expense of replacing the unit when it wears out. * When buying a 3D TV you have to ask yourself which compromise you dislike least for proper 3D display. Active Shutter glasses display the content in full resolution (by displaying the left and right images intermittently) but require bulky electronic glasses (blacking out the relevant eye) that are expensive, uncomfortable (both due to the weight of the glasses and the eye strain that some people experience with them) and need to be synced with the TV. Passive 3D doesn't require electric glasses but is displayed by showing the left and right images on different lines of pixels, effectively halving the resolution. Both also compromise color contrast for the 3D effect, as the glasses darken the image. * Curved-screen televisions. They take up more depth than regular flatscreens, they don't provide any real benefit for viewing, and unless you're right in front of the middle of it, they slightly cut down how much of the screen you can see. * Vinyl records, at least in modern times. Some people claim that they have better sound quality than digital files, and there's just something inherently cool about them, but they're large, inconvenient, and ripping them to play on your MP3 player or game console requires somehow hooking up the turntable output to your computer's analog input, or having a special vinyl-to-mp3 turntables and recording it as it plays. Record companies seem to recognize this, with many of them offering digital download coupons with new vinyl releases. + Except the better sound of vinyl records is caused by the one particular technique which is regrettably abused in the modern CD mastering: a dynamic range equalization. It artificially pulls up the volume of the quieter sounds and muffles the louder ones, often across the entire spectrum, so that the overall record might be more even in intensity.(and, as the producers often hope, perceived as a louder one, as this is commonly thought to be more attractive for the listener) Unfortunately, the overindulgence may (and, sadly, too often, does) lead to the record becoming an unlistenable mess, with every detail drowning in an impenetrable wall of sound. Vinyl records have much lower dynamic range than CDs, and don't lend itself to this technique: in a too-loud sound the needle will be simply thrown out of the groove. - The whole 'needle jumping out of the groove' thing is somewhat of a myth, as modern vinyl uses 180-gram records which have deeper grooves and can take higher volumes. Many recent examples have used almost exactly the same mastering as the CD, sometimes taken directly from the CDs (in the case of bootlegs). * "DVD quality" audio, which is spec'd at 24-bits per sample at a rate of 192KHz. Compared to the CD which is 16-bits per sample at a rate of 44.1KHz. If you compared the audio signal of DVD quality vs. CD-quality audio, DVD quality would look very much like a perfect sine wave◊ in digital form. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of the human ear, most people can't tell the difference, and the few that do probably have to seriously focus. Not to mention DVD audio takes up roughly 6.5 times the space compared to uncompressed CD audio. * More to that point, high-end audio cables. There are people who insist on spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the best cables so they can hear the best sound from their music or video. But an informal experiment showed that professed audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between great cables and wire coat hangers. * Certain vintage electromechanical keyboard instruments, such as the Hammond organ and the Mellotron. They sound great, but their intricate mechanisms make them a nightmare to take on tour, as many Progressive Rock bands found out the hard way. This is why many keyboardists wanting retro sounds use sampled versions on modern digital synths or software synthesizers, which stand up to the rigors of touring much better, with physical instruments largely relegated to studio work. The original analog synths, such as the Minimoog, are also temperamental, often going out of tune easily. Lots of musicians prefer digital recreations for the same reason. * Electronic musical instruments, anyone? + Modular synthesizers. They are what synths started out as, and in the mid-'90s, they had their big comeback that still lasts. They give you vastly greater possibilities than non-modular ones, and let's face it, they look way cool. But they tend to be big and cumbersome, not to mention expensive. There is no way that patch memory with total recall can be implemented on them, and recreating a patch takes a great deal longer on one of these beasts than, say, on a Minimoog, so they aren't really for gigging with pre-defined music. Also, ever since the introduction and opening of the Eurorack standard, they've grown highly addictive. + ARP's take on a fully modular synthesizer was the 2500. It packs quite some synthesis power, especially with wing cabinets, it's more stable tuning-wise than contemporary Moogs (which ARP advertised), and most notably, the ARP 2500 does away with patch cord curtains by using a patch slider matrix instead. This matrix, however, is quite prone to contact problems due to corrosion, not to mention leakage. + EMS used a pin matrix instead, even with pins with different electric resistances in different colors. What works well enough in the compact VCS3 and Synthi A became a literal pain in the back in the huge Synthi 100: In order to work one of its two sizable matrices, you have to bend over it, also because the columns are labeled at the far end from the musician and in a quite small font, so you can't read the labels while standing up. + Eµ offered keyboards with digital internals for their modular system that could theoretically control up to ten voices. The catch: The modules themselves were still monophonic. If you wanted ten voices, you needed all the modules in your patch ten times. + The ARP Centaur VI was an utterly overengineered synthesizer prototype. First of all, it included various tone generator sections with up to six voices. That alone made it so complicated that even serial production devices would have cost $20,000 in the mid-70s, and hardly anyone was willing to spend that much on a synth, no matter how sophisticated, in a time when Japanese manufacturers dictated the prices. But wait, there's more: The second prototype was closer to what its creator really had in mind: a polyphonic guitar synthesizer. This actually made things worse because the designers never got the special pick-up to track six strings properly. + The Yamaha CS-80 is widely regarded as a 'holy grail' of synthesizers. Eight voices, pure analogue, and a history that includes half of the big-name bands of the '70s... in a package that weighs 86kg. And is infamous for tuning stability issues. And is such a pain to service that most techs won't touch it with a ten-foot bargepole, being loaded with custom-made, highly fragile parts and requiring minor demolition to get into. Also, it cost over $6000. In 1976. It now goes for... considerably more. See also, for a less severe case, the Memorymoog. + The early Sequential Circuits Prophet-10, another prototype. When it was introduced, it outshone the Yamaha CS-80, the father of all modern polysynths, in many regards: It was smaller, it weighed a lot less, it had patch memory, and it had a whopping ten voices. However, it was so crammed with circuitry that it tended to fail due to overheating. This problem could only be solved by reducing the number of voices to five, thus creating the legendary Prophet-5. + The Oberheim Polyphonic line of synths were some of the first mass-produced polyphonic synths to hit the market. However, unlike later efforts like the Prophet 5 and CS-80, which used a microprocessor to attach multiple oscillators to a singule control panel, the Oberheim instead consisted of multiple SEM monophonic synths attached to the same keyboard. This of course, meant that every module had to be programmed seperately, with its own oscillator, filter and enveloppe running independently from all the others. On the two-voice model, this was manageable. On the four-voice, it became complicated. On the eight-voice model? It was downright impossible. That's not even getting into the monstrous size of the latter, with an equally monstrous price ($20,000 in 1976, with $2000 extra necessary for rudimentary patch memory). Of course, this huge amount of variables meant that incredible patches could be designed, but one had to be a synth wizard to actually reach that point. - Its successor, the Oberheim OB-X, was better, but not by much. It actually added one common user interface and all-encompassing patch memory for all voices. Better yet, it was still available with four, six or eight voices, depending on how much you were willing to pay for it. Its downside was that its largely discrete analog circuitry was quite sensitive to outward influences. This thing was extremely prone to going out of tune, you had eight to sixteen VCOs to keep in tune, and you had to open the machine up to do that which wasn't good for the tuning either. It was a nightmare in the studio already, but gigging with it was out of question. It wouldn't be until the OB-Xa that Oberheim would finally produce a polysynth that was (somewhat) affordable, user-friendly and gig-ready. + The Fairlight CMI was one of the first commercially available digital samplers and thereby offered all-new possibilities to the musician. But unless you were a big name such as Peter Gabriel or Jean-Michel Jarre, and you could get your hands on a special codec, the measly amounts of RAM in the machine didn't allow for a decent quality for your own samples. Many just used it as an oversized sample player, and it certainly was way too expensive for that. Also, it was a usability nightmare: Much of its operation involved typing commands on a computer keyboard. When the simpler and cheaper E-mu Emulator came out, many artist jumped bandwagons, also because pretty much the whole Fairlight factory sample library had been re-sampled for the Emulator. + The Juno-6 was Roland's answer to the Korg Polysix, the first affordable polysynth, and it was likewise affordable for the masses. Granted, it had to be reduced from what the battleship that was the Jupiter-8 had to offer. Each voice had only one VCO and one envelope. You could work with that, and the built-in chorus was wonderful to fatten up the sound again. But please, Roland, why did you have to cut the patch memory?! This essentially rendered the Juno-6 useless for gigging musicians.(Half a year later, Roland introduced the Juno-60, essentially the same synth, but with patch memory.) + The Yamaha EX7, EX5 and EX5R music workstations are romplers, virtual-analog synthesizers and physical modeling synthesizers rolled into one which was quite remarkable in their day. That said, they don't pack enough processing power to do much of this at once. Since you probably needed multiple synths anyway, you could just as well have gotten yourself these kinds of synths separately instead. + Physical modeling synths in general. The initial idea was to skip sampling and simulate how acoustic instruments work physically. Machines like the Yamaha VL1 allow for some very expressive playing beyond anything you could ever do with a rompler, but as far as realism goes, they're straight out of Uncanny Valley. + The Roland V-Synth is a second-to-none sample-bending synth. The V-Synth XT introduced two additional modes: It can become a vocal synth and vocoder or a Roland D-50 clone. But it can't become all this even halfway at once: In order to switch modes, you have to power the whole unit down and boot it up again. This feature is clearly not for gigging. + Alesis Micron and Akai Miniak are downright parameter graves. They're based on the Alesis Ion, but although they're way smaller (most of them is keyboard), they outshine the Ion in several ways. Their size comes at a price, though: There's only one knob for editing everything. Whereas the Miniak has a sturdier build, this very knob is usually the first thing that breaks on a Micron. And no, there has never been an official software editor. * LaserDisc. Sure, it had better quality than VHS but the discs were expensive and most rental stores didn't stock them, while they had shelves and shelves of VHS tapes. Plus, the discs were huge, the size of an LP. Watching a full-length movie required flipping discs. The format was limited to deep-pocketed film buffs and industrial uses, though it was popular in Japan. DVDs came along in the late '90s and offered all of the advantages of LaserDisc, including advanced picture and sound while being much cheaper and the size of a Compact Disc; needless to say, LaserDisc barely survived into the 2000s, the last film released on the format in the United States being Bringing Out the Dead on October 8, 2000. + Same goes double for CED, AKA RCA SelectaVision. Never heard of it? It was actually an analog video disc similar to an LP, only using a capacitive pickup instead of a vibrating needle. The disks were permanently encased in sheaths reminiscent of a 3.5-inch floppy the size of an LP jacket, only leaving their protective plastic cage when they were inside the player itself, and tended to wear out quickly... like after the second viewing. Compare that to LaserDisc, which didn't suffer any appreciable wear during playback due to the laser pickup. And wear wasn't handled very well at all; when disks wore out, they began skipping in a fashion that has been compared to, and some even believe may have inspired, Max Headroom's Blipverts. In addition, if a disk played properly, the video quality was barely an improvement over tape-based formats, giving LaserDisc another edge. Not a big success. * As with collecting arcade boards mentioned above, collecting classic computers and game consoles can fall into this, with the need for storage space, power, TV/monitor connections, and aging/failing hardware with few options for repair for someone who isn't a Gadgeteer Genius. That's why emulation is so popular in modern systems. * Running emulators and ports on improbable devices, such as Doom on a printer and Tetris on a hi-rise building. Though they're demonstrations of clever programming and hacking skills, they're obviously not ways that you want to regularly play your games. * Listening to music at extremely high volumes. Yeah, it might give your music that extra oomph, but if you listen at maximum or near-maximum volume all the time it'll be only a matter of a few years or even months before you can't enjoy music at all anymore. Plus, depending on what kind of headphones you're using, the sound may leak and annoy people around you, and if you're using speakers and other people live with you, good luck justifying why your music deserves to be blatantly audible throughout the entire house. Even barring hearing loss and making people want to break whatever you use for listening, a lot of audio gear can only get so loud before the sound turns into a muddled mess. * High-quality cassette formulations, such as chromium dioxide and cobalt, offered superb audio quality rivaling reel-to-reel tape, but since most people only had cassette players that could only handle Type I or "Normal bias" tapes, it was almost impossible to exchange recordings made on the high-end tapes with anybody else. Prerecorded tapes with these formulations were only offered by small boutique labels catering to audiophiles. * The interface protocols the USB Type C connector supports is a great idea. Not only does it support USB, but it supports various other interfaces like HDMI, DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt. The problem? They're all optional and it's not obvious at all whether or not a given Type C connector supports those interfaces. To top it off, a given Type C connector isn't even guaranteed to support USB 3.1 Gen 2 and at best, you're only guaranteed USB 2.0 support. So you're stuck with a connector that's trying to do everything, but in reality it may not and it creates confusion among people who wonder why their USB Type C to HDMI cable doesn't work on one device when it worked fine on another. An infamous example of this is with the Nintendo Switch, which uses a very specific interface that, while also present on some non-Nintendo cables, is fairly uncommon; this led to a number of nasty incidents where people fried their Switch by trying to charge it with an out-of-spec Type C cable, leading to the still-persistent misconception that the Switch's charging cable is a proprietary one that just looks like a normal Type C cable. The interface issue in general is a real shame, since Type C solves a couple of issues with past USB connectors, which can only be inserted in one orientation, and on microUSB in particular the pins bending over time due to the way the locking mechanism works; in short, Apple's Lightning connector but for non-proprietary devices. * The Teac O'Casse Open Cassette swappable cassette reel system has subjective charm as it's a cassette reel holder that looks like a classic reel-to-reel system when loaded and the swappable reels looks like they could let you carry more music on the go. However, when it's time to swap out reels, the learning curve to load the caddy at an acceptable speed means you lose the convenience of simply popping in another tape in seconds, a major selling point of cassette tapes to begin with. Fortunately, the concept was improved upon in the Audio Craft Cassette Cartridge. The loading process was much easier with this system. Still, the capacity of the reels are about half that of traditional cassette tapes. * As of early 2019, foldable smartphones seem to be viewed as such. A combination smartphone/tablet, which in reality is neither, and is for the price of both combined. People keep wondering whether the software is ready, how durable it is, whether the crease on the screen can be made invisible (an issue that was plainly visible with the Samsung Galaxy Fold even before it released). * The earlier Galaxy Edge models can be viewed as such, given that edged screen may make it look a bit futuristic, but if an important display element is in the edge of the screen there is a possibility to be folded along. + Some Samsung models, including Galaxy Edge as mentioned, have an "always on" configuration that displays the bare essentials even when the device is asleep (such as the clock). Since some early AMOLED screens are more susceptible to burn in through static pixels, this could turn out to not be a good idea. * The Galaxy Edge models are topped by Xiaomi's "Mi Mix Alpha" which has screens in the front, side, and the back. One can imagine the increased power consumption. * Flexplay was a short-lived DVD rental service where the customer could rent a DVD without the inconvenience of returning to the store or mailing the disc back, while also allowing non-rental stores to get into the rental business. The DVDs contained a chemical that would make the disc unreadable after about two days when exposed to oxygen. This concept came with multiple problems. First it made every DVD have an expiration date as oxygen would eventually seep into the container and destroy the disc. Second, it would result in a large amount of waste since the DVD would go straight to the garbage (which caused negative PR with environmental groups). To resolve the second issue, Flexplay introduce recycling bins in rental locations and a mailing label to send the disc to a recycling center. However, these solutions undid most of the advantages of disposable discs, as the customer would either have to return to the store or mail the discs back and the distributor would have to maintain these specialized recycling bins for a product whose entire niche was that they were could simply stock, sell, and forget about it. Flexplay also had the problem of launching around the same time that Redbox and Netflix were really taking off, each of which provided most of the same advantages with standard DVDs, while streaming would do away with discs altogether. * The Kingston HyperX Fury RGB SSD looks impressive with its array of 75 LEDs. Unfortunately, the heat those 75 LEDs produce individually adds up and can accumulate to the point of causing catastrophic thermal throttling. Yeah... not the best idea to mix a performance-critical component and a large number of light sources, to say the least. * Clicky switches for mechanical keyboards (often known as "blue" switches, as such switches are conventionally blue) sound great, feel great, and can let you know when you've pressed hard enough to register a keypress so that you don't have to overexert to type. However, they fall into this trope when used in an environment shared with other people, offices in particular, due to the loud sounds easily getting on the nerves of others; offices have been known to ban clicky-switch keyboards as a result, limiting their appeal to the solitude of your own private room. * Apple's "butterfly switch" keyboard mechanism. Introduced in 2015, the butterfly switches made Apple's already thin laptops even thinner than what would be possible with traditional scissor switch mechanisms, and Apple claims that the butterfly switch keyboards are more robust and responsive. However, the butterfly switch design is flawed, as it is easier to for the mechanisms to malfunction due to dust and other debris, causing the keyboard to become unreliable. Also, the keyboard is integrated to the upper casing, making it a costly repair if the computer is out of warranty. By 2020, Apple ditched the butterfly switch keyboard and reverted back to the more tried and true scissor switch keyboard. * RDRAM was billed by Intel and Rambus as high-performance RAM for the Pentium III era. It was supposed to be higher performance than single-data-rate SDRAM and gained some fame for being good for video playback, but it had many drawbacks: + RDRAM was very expensive, causing developers to shy away from it in favor of the more economical DDR-SDRAM, not to mention, there were royalties that had to be paid for using the former and Rambus was infamous for their lawsuits to enforce them. + RDRAM also had such very high latency and a small buffer that its advantages were negated, infamously making it a performance bottleneck on the two video game consoles to make use of it, the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation 2. + RDRAM did have an advantage with its dual data rate, i.e. using both halves of the clock signal to send data, allowing it to try to compensate for its narrower bit width with a noticeably higher clock speed than SDRAM had previously been able to reach. Emphasis on "did", because as it turned out there was nothing stopping traditional SDRAM from performing the same trick once its manufacturers had been given the idea. * Gaming cyber cafes suffered from this on the ownership end. They had appeal as a place you go to play on a computer without owning one, had a contemporary library of games to play, and you could even have LAN parties with friends. However, the cost of replacing aging hardware on such a large scale proved to be very costly, and with the introduction of portable desktop machines and improvements to the cost efficiency of gaming laptops, cyber cafes started losing their appeal as a place where you didn't need to bring your own hardware. While the power efficiency of computers improved over time, running numerous high-performance gaming machines could still be taxing on the power bill, and thus rent expense for the business space. * The Row Hammer exploit uses a quirk in the design of DRAM to manipulate data in one memory sector by inputting the right data in a physically adjacent sector. Used right it allows you to bypass any layers of security that aren't built into the hardware. However, the principle underlying the exploit is rapidly putting data into one sector repeatedly, and hoping that charge leakage turns the data in adjacent sectors into something vaguely useful. Actually using the exploit is the CS equivalent of starting and driving a car by lying in the trunk and tapping the side with a hammer. * Gaming smartphones. You'll get state-of-the-art hardware and software designed specifically for mobile gaming meaning a cooling system to deal with Overheating and beefier, fast-charging, batteries. However, as a niche product, this comes with some downsides. These improved specifications are nice for gaming, but incredibly overkill for literally everything else you'd be using a phone for; in an attempt to ease the high pricing of these devices, aspects such as the cameras can be poorer than even budget smartphones; due to their niche nature, support is worse than for standard phones; and (of course) as Technology Marches On, they will quickly be outclassed in regards to their main function. Unless you're a hardcore/pro gamer regularly playing hardware intensive games on-the-go — which, even then, powerful dedicated mobile gaming devices exist with higher specifications and better support at similar pricing — you're likely better off with a regular and more versatile flagship phone. * The 3M LX451 Keypad Mouse. As its name suggests, it combines an optical mouse with a numeric keypad in one device. However, as retro tech YouTuber VWestlife demonstrates, it fails at both tasks, being both too large to serve as a mouse and too small to use as a numpad. As a mouse, it doesn't have the ergonomic shape to use it comfortably for long periods, and as a numpad, the keys are smaller than normal, and because of its dual use, it tends to slide around when attempting to use the numpad. Also, the LX451 was expensive at US$89.99 in the mid-2000s, making it far more practical to carry a discrete mouse and numpad, although most non-Apple laptops made since the late 2000s and early 2010s have an integrated numpad. * On March 23, 1974, The Grateful Dead debuted the Wall of Sound PA system, a 60-foot, 75-ton speaker stack designed by the band's longtime sound engineer Owsley Stanley. The setup consisted of over 500 total speakers and was designed to support the larger crowds the band was drawing in at the time, with each instrument having its own channel and with a particular focus on high quality sound. Unfortunately, the Wall had several issues from the start: + The massive size meant that it was a nightmare to set up, take down, rig, and haul from show to show. They had to hire people to set up the scaffolding and make sure the venues' flooring could support such a heavy speaker setup, then have people set up the speakers and wire them the same way each time, have people maintain the care of the speakers, then have the speakers be taken down each time, and that's not mentioning the huge road crew and all the trucks needed to carry the setup from show to show. What's more, there were either two or three sets of scaffolding in order to accommodate the time needed to set up the rig for the next show while the band was playing their current show. + Having the speakers behind the band meant that the microphones were at risk of picking up the speakers and causing a feedback loop. To fix this, the band had a special microphone system: Each singer had matched pairs of condenser microphones spaced 60 milimeters apart and wired in reverse polarity from each other; the singer would sing into the top microphone, and the lower microphone picked up the ambient sound to cancel it out in the mix. While it succeeded in eliminating feedback, this did frequently result in the vocals having a tinny sound. + Ultimately, due to being a nightmare to haul from show to show, the Wall of Sound was retired on October 20, 1974, less than a year after its introduction. When the band resumed touring they replaced it with a smaller scale sound setup. Nevertheless, despite its impracticality, the Wall of Sound was highly influential on modern day sound setups, including monitor system and feedback cancellation, and it has become iconic of the band for its influence as well as its sheer size. * Both wired and wireless LANs can be this depending on context. While wired Ethernet is reliable and immune to interference, which is why wired Ethernet connections are considered practically mandatory for multiplayer gaming, any device using them is tethered to the Ethernet cable. It's also necessary to run cable for new connections, which may not be possible or desirable in residential settings, especially in rented accommodation. This is why wired Ethernet is mainly used with desktop computers, servers, and other networking equipment like routers and switches. Wi-Fi allows mobile devices to move around, but can be susceptible to interference, though newer Wi-Fi standards mitigate this. * Roaming data allows your cellphone to use cellular data from another network, particularly if you're traveling abroad, meaning you can take phone calls and use Internet data while out of the country on the same SIM card that you use back home. However, roaming data often costs a hefty premium. Depending on your phone's relationship with your carrier and the availability of public Wi-Fi at your destination, it might be more economical to invest in a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, a separate basic mobile phone (which can also double as a hotspot through tethering), a separate SIM card either local to your destination or one developed explicitly for international travelers (and with 2020s phones supporting digital SIM in addition to or in place of physical, this is more convenient than ever), or use wi-fi hotspots at your destination. * Handheld computing took decades before the widespread adoption of smartphones because multiple building blocks weren't ready yet for the mainstream public. + Text-based palmtop can sleep between keypresses and generally can work for hours before the battery runs out. The exorbitant price and limited use case of a greyscale, text-only app when GUI is starting to take hold means even enthusiasts are more likely to talk about it instead of actually buying one. Some industries do love them, the price is more justifiable for continuous work that saves employees from bringing a full-fledged PC to the field or large warehouse. Some terminals were still produced in the mid-2000s since there were no competing products that could run for a complete workday without any recharge while surviving harsh environments. + Windows CE handhelds can mimic a PC if you squint your eyes, but their high price tag, limited battery life, sluggish performance, and the small number of available applications mean they're also limited to enthusiasts and niche industries. Ironically, while they survived long enough until the smartphone era, they never really solved the lack of available applications, not helped by Windows Phone lacking compatibility with the large library of previous Windows Mobile apps (to be fair, those apps were designed for stylus and would be hard/impossible to use with fingers), squarely defeated by the newcomer. + PalmOS devices embrace the limitation of the small screen, slow CPU, and minuscule battery. They succeed in gaining hold, but can't really expand much. Without ubiquitous & affordable wireless connections to get apps on the go, people were content to use their PCs for computing and phones for communicating. Like Windows CE, PalmOS also survived long enough to see the dawn of the smartphone era, and die pretty much due to the lack of app ecosystem. + Symbian devices were phones and by definition don't have connectivity problems, but vendors have different implementations so app developers can't just write for one and have it run elsewhere without changes. There was no single marketplace to publish because operators insisted on treating apps like yet another mobile service such as ringtones. Users were then reluctant to buy apps without any reviews in a highly fragmented market. + iPhones were nearly doomed to the same fate, with Steve Jobs trying to have native apps only developed by Apple and tell everyone else to use web apps. Had this decision stuck, other mobile OS would easily outnumber the available apps since standard-compliant web apps should run on any browser. Instead, Apple backtracks and frequently boasts how its app library can fulfill everyone's niche. * The Creative 3DO Blaster was billed as way to play 3DO Interactive Multiplayer games right at the comfort of your PC computer, but the device had its share of drawbacks, namely the expensive hardware that was required to play 3DO discs: + The regular 3DO itself was already a tough sell, retailing for $699 in 1993 dollars at launch, limiting its adoption to begin with. + The add-on board for the PC retailed for $399 originally, and it didn't even include a compatible Compact Disc drive needed to read the discs (it won't work with just any CD-ROM drive). It also required a Sound Blaster 16 card for sound output which a PC may not necessarily have. + Also, given that this was sold in an era where plug-and-play technology was still in its infancy, setting up the hardware properly could vary in difficulty based upon your PC's quirks and features. * Intel Optane memory was meant to offer a performance boost for PCs by offering speeds faster than typical solid state drives and capacities higher than system RAM while being non-volatile and act as a middle ground between the two mediums, however, it ended up being a Master of None in light of solid state technology catching up rapidly and for everyday computing, simply migrating to a new and improved SSD and/or maximizing the system's RAM installed would be a sufficient boost for most users, the latter being perfectly fine when cost is no object and offering superior input/output. Mass production was difficult compared with its competition so price remained a sore point. Another caveat is that an Optane setup works like a RAID-0 hybrid drive in some scenarios so an Optane failure may result in the system being rendered unbootable. The silver lining is that Optane uses the Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) interface so the device can be replaced with a relatively high capacity solid-state device and simply replace the mechanical hard drive as a boot device and the later can serve as a media storage drive if you so desire. * The idea of RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent (formerly Inexpensive) Disks in anything that doesn't require high uptime in modern days. When it was first introduced, the idea of RAID made a sort of sense: the performance of contemporary hard drives was slow and reliability was a more common issue (especially on mobile devices). RAID offered both a performance bump and, with the exception of RAID 0, reliability in that if one drive went down, you didn't lose everything. But in modern times, SSDs not only substantially improved the performance front, but they're less prone to the reliability issues that plagued hard drives. In addition, cloud based services have also provided an accessible means of backing up data. + On a note about using RAID as a data backup solution, it's not a very good one. The purpose of a backup solution is to be able to restore data from a past copy of it if the present data gets corrupted or is not usable otherwise for some reason. Or say you accidentally delete a file, you have somewhere to retrieve it. RAID doesn't work as a backup solution here because the data is modified to all of the drives in the array, meaning you don't get access to past data. In addition, if there's corruption of the data while in transit, the RAID array will happily keep the corruption. If you have a two-bay NAS that you want to use as a backup solution for example, don't configure it for RAID 1. Make one drive the primary data carrier and the other one a backup of it that you update regularly. * In the animal kingdom, being bigger. True, having more body mass and thus being stronger, tougher, and more imposing will leave very few predators able to take you on, but even they will be an afterthought when your main enemy is the Square-Cube Law. Moving around a huge body (or heck, even just pumping your blood around it while standing still) will require enormous amounts of energy, forcing you to constantly be on the lookout for food and consequently all but forcing you to be a herbivore, since hunting would burn more calories than you'd gain from eating prey. And even if you do find your niche in the food chain, even a slight alteration of the ecosystem can have a dramatic impact on your ability to sustain yourself, meaning you will have a far lower chance of surviving than smaller but more adaptable species. + And for a good example of this applied to humans, gigantism, usually as a result of acromegaly. Based on an excess of growth hormones, it's produced some of the largest and strongest humans in history. André the Giant is probably the most famous one; there are stories of him being able to flip cars, drink enough beer to kill an ox, or scare off cops just by standing up. But the Square-Cube Law is a harsh mistress, and there's a very good reason it's seen as a disability - growing that size places immense strain on a body that simply doesn't have the right adaptations to deal with it. Many sufferers of acromegaly require surgery, and they rarely make it to their 40s.(Paul "Big Show" Wight, who was at first billed as Andre's son by WCW, had surgery to correct his acromegaly very early in his career and as of 2025 is still alive and well at 53, or at least as well as can be expected for someone who wrestled for 20 years.) Sultan Kosen, the world's current tallest man, has had surgery multiple times and requires crutches to walk. * Some animals end up getting stuck with this as part of their evolutionary adaptation, with the best example being the extinct saber-toothed cat. A muscular big cat with elongated banana-sized teeth jutting out of its front jaw must have been the ultimate badass right? Well...evidence has shown that those impressive felines were less fearsome than they appear. While it did help in killing large animals, said animals had to be held still by the cat's prodigious strength to prevent their delicate teeth from breaking from the strain of struggling prey, unlike the teeth of today's big cats which are more durable. + Cheetahs can run faster than any other animal, but being built for such speed has left them unable to defend themselves effectively. They are built lightly, and after a full-blown run they must rest without doing much of anything or they might die from overheating, they can't even eat immediately. Considering that they live on the continent with the highest density of predators, they often must watch the kills they ran so hard and fast for get stolen. This problem, along with human-caused issues and bad luck (they went through a population bottleneck at some point in prehistoric times), has left them in danger of extinction. + Speaking of fast animals: The Giant House Spider is not only probably the most common cause of arachnophobia in the western world, it's also the world's fastest true spider, reaching speeds of up to 1.1 mph. But it can only hold this speed for eight seconds, and then it'll stop immediately, otherwise it'd overheat and die. Worse yet, if startled while trying to cool down from running, it'll start running again which makes it possible to kill a Giant House Spider by overheating it. Not only that, its sheer size which makes its tremendous speeds possible in the first place also makes it easy prey for the smaller Giant Cellar Spider which it can barely see in return due to its bad vision, and it's big enough to be regarded as prey by predators which it can't outrun: cats. + In a certain way, human anatomy can be seen as this. Sure, our upright stance and larger brains have proved to be our greatest asset, but with a massive cost: we have easily the most difficult (and potentially lethal to the mother) birth of any placental mammal since we evolved to have such big heads and such narrow pelvises. At the very least, with that big brain also came the development of healthcare, reducing death by childbirth significantly than when our ancestors were living in the wild. * Sexual display characteristics were an attempt by nature to reconstruct this trope. Large peacocks are poor fliers and maned lions are poor hunters, just to name a few, but females find them desirable regardless because the only way to grow your flashy display is to be one of the healthiest, most genetically stable bachelors around. + This also applies to humans, of course. Most of the sexually desirable attributes of both men and women offer us no actual advantages in survival, and in many cases are actively detrimental — for instance, broad shoulders in males and wide hips in females are ungainly, and biologists have been unable to distinguish any functional purpose for the fat stores in a woman's breasts other than sex appeal (ostensibly to simulate being engorged with milk and therefore a more suitable mate). As most women know, large breasts are uncomfortable on the lower back, don't hold their appealing shape forever, and get in the way of lots of recreational activities (even the... obvious one). - In the centuries before decent OB/GYN care, wide hips on a woman were believed to be a sign that she could survive childbirth — the Caesarian section was normally only performed on a dead or dying mother in the hopes that at least the kid would live. Unfortunately, while a larger pelvic opening does make vaginal childbirth easier, wide hips don't always equal a large pelvic opening. In addition, the male pelvis is better adapted to walking than the female. + The ahem... Spear Counterpart to this, a very large penis, doesn't fare much better since an extremely long and/or thick penis could potentially injure the receptive partner, or at least make the sex more painful than pleasurable. It's also possible that the owner will think his endowment alone will satisfy his partner and not perform any other acts that would make the encounter more enjoyable for them. + For either sex, getting shredded or "stage lean". Movie stars, models, fitness influencers, and bodybuilders in prep mode probably give you the idea that having a super-low fat body with abs separated like an ice cube tray would make you a dude- or chick-magnet. Well, it may be true that a lot of people would start to look really good at the beach if they followed a practical, sustainable plan to get to to the upper or mid-teens of body fat percentage while developing a good muscle tone through exercise. But when you start talking about going down to below 10 percent for men, or 17 percent for women, that's beyond what most people could do sustainably and is more trouble than it's worth if you just want to look—and feel—good. The sustained caloric deficit required to lose that much fat involves really strict dieting for several months, which gives you constant cravings for foods you're not allowed to have and makes you feel lethargic. The latter is a problem because whatever muscle you built beforehand is going to melt away in response to the deficit unless you keep grinding it out at the gym. Continuing to train while your body just wants to rest all the time turns what might otherwise be a fun activity into a terrible chore, and it's extremely difficult to retain one's motivation. Once you attain the target body composition, it should be easier to maintain it than it was to get it in the first place. Regardless, it will be difficult to not fall off the wagon if the natural body fat percentage your body wants to revert to is significantly higher. The ironic thing is that despite a person who's that shredded looking strong and sexy to the lay observer, that level of leanness actually reduces strength, as well as sex drive. So even if you succeed in attracting people, your ability to enjoy it will be sadly reduced. All that to say, unless your actual job requires you to be this shredded, the only reason to do it is as an exercise in art for art's sake. * Flight. Despite being a long-held dream of humans for aeons, many animals such as ants and various flightless birds have actually lost that ability in the course of evolution. Why? Because it takes up a disproportionate amount of the body's energy, which only gets amplified by the aforementioned Square-Cube Law. If one already lives in a suitable environment where they don't need to migrate much, losing flight frees up the body to hone other skills, such as increased muscle strength for worker ants (mating ants still have wings), or swimming and diving skills for penguins. As an example, hummingbirds have very precise flight capability, able to hover in place gracefully — unlike regular bird flight — but this mode of flight requires a disproportionate amount of food and without a regular source of nutrients, hummingbirds won't last longer than 3 - 5 hours. * Basically, the whole point of fashion. The clothing and makeup of the wealthy and noble (or, in slave societies, simply of free people) are often designed specifically to say "Look, I can afford wasting hours preparing or being prepared by servants. Look, I don't need to work, which would be impossible like that. Look, I don't need to indulge in any activity which may dirty up and ruin all this work spent. Look, I have enough money that I can spend a lot of it on fancy/impractical clothing instead of basic/practical necessities." * "Cutting-edge-of-fashion", haute couture, designer outfits that might look "fabulous" at the exclusive show in Milan, but would be extremely impractical (if not awkward or dangerous) to wear anywhere else. A morning talk show host once did a short on this, where she wore a runway piece to the supermarket to gauge people's reactions, which mostly ranged from "WTF?" to "The jacket is kinda cute but..." + Just as important, they can't be mass-produced due to reliance on sewing techniques that machines can't replicate and fabrics that are just as experimental and unlikely to ever be woven or knitted in real quantity. * For that matter, a lot of fancy clothes in general. Try wearing a gown and stiletto heels to do...well, anything productive. To say nothing of corsets, hoop skirts, and the like from the past. + Open trench coats don't agree with car doors. Neither do capes and cloaks, which also tend to get snagged on just about anything, as is demonstrated to lethal effect in The Incredibles 1. Loosely-fastened scarves are generally a bad idea in dense forests. And long scarves are risky in open convertibles. Ask Isadora Duncan. * Corsets, especially for tightlacing and body training. You can get an absolutely gorgeous waist and body by wearing a corset (and the corset will look sexy itself), but it can be tedious, uncomfortable, or even painful if you overdo it. Good luck attempting strenuous activities whilst wearing a corset. * Bunad dame, traditional female clothing in Norway (an example here◊. The headgear had to be put on with special care, and the whole set took an hour to finish. The last generation to use this regularly died out sometime around 1980, and younger girls in this particular area switched to a more practical bonnet when dressing up. Nonetheless, this particular way of stashing was common in this area for 300 years. * Cosplays with elaborate armor, props, wings, and the like are no doubt the result of hundreds of hours of dedication and hard work and look excellent for photoshoots and for simply showing off. However, many of these cosplays can be uncomfortable to walk around a convention center in—just ask anyone who has tried to walk around in a 10-foot-tall cosplay of EVA-01 or the complete outfit and armaments of one of the KanColle ship girls and they will tell you that strolling around the convention grounds without accidentally hitting people with their cosplay or wearing themselves out (depending on the weight of the materials and how warm the outfit is) is no easy task. Not to mention the weather; if your cosplay has short sleeves and/or short pants during a winter convention, you will be very cold, and if you wear something heavy or with a lot of layers during a summer convention, you will be very hot. Usually, people who output these kinds of grandiose cosplays will put them on for a photoshoot and then either remove the parts that inhibit mobility or change into something else to wear entirely when they want to walk around the event venue afterward. + Part of the impracticality of elaborate cosplays comes from the time length of big conventions and the size of the venue. When you go to a big convention, there's a good chance you will be out there for the whole day, as many events are either early in the morning or super late at night. That means you will be doing a ton of walking for 8-12 hours, and if you're moving about in something cumbersome, it will tire you out faster. Fancy shoes like tall boots or high heels will make your feet hurt even more, and heavy props get harder to carry. + Similarly, high-quality fursuits look amazing, but they cost a lot because of the amount of time and materials needed to make them. A full-body suit and head costs thousands, possibly tens of thousands if it's particularly elaborate or from a big-name fursuit maker. And if you redesign the fursona it was based on, you now have a fursuit that doesn't match, unless you're prepared to shell out thousands more for either a modification of your existing fursuit or an entirely new one. On the practical side of things, being inside a full-body suit covered in thick fur gets hot really quickly even in an indoor, air-conditioned area. Even if you're just wearing a head and paws, a typical fursuit head gives you a pretty limited field of vision because you can only see out of the mesh openings in the eyes. Most furry conventions have a "headless lounge" where people can remove their fursuit heads and cool down before returning to the event. Some high-tech fursuits also have cooling fans built in for this reason, but of course those are expensive too. * Cashmere sweaters. Very warm, soft, and comfortable, but you can't put them in the washing machine; if you don't take them to a dry-cleaner they'll be ruined. They're also rather itchy. * There are a lot of truly beautiful clothes out there for children and babies. A surprisingly large percentage of them are not machine-washable or practical for the messes that children get into. Small children can also be very stubborn when they don't want to wear something, so getting them to wear a fancy outfit for Christmas card photos, weddings, etc. can be a struggle. And children being children, they will outgrow those outfits in a year or two. Lampshaded in a Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin's mom looks at a pair of kid-sized designer pants in a store and exclaims that she doesn't even own a pair of pants worth that much. + Same goes for the dresses and gowns many starlets wear on the Red Carpet. They tend to be beautiful, but they cost an inordinate amount of money for something she's only going to wear once. Notable pop star Lady Gaga seems to be parodying this, as some of her outfits are really out there (the meat dress, anyone?) but, as her first performance on Saturday Night Live shows, she has some difficulty sitting in them to play the piano. + To a larger extent the magnificent dresses used by both nobility and royalty in the past. Undoubtedly cool, but heavy, stiff, and being needed up to hours to be dressed in one -and that with the help of several servants or maids. * The Roman Toga; the definite status symbol in Ancient Rome and made you look like a refined Patrician, like today's elegant three-piece suits. But they were heavy, inconvenient, a hassle to walk around in, extremely uncomfortable in the hot Roman summer, and more or less completely disabled the use of the wearer's left arm (which, besides the business about the left arm, is rather like today's three-piece suits). They had to impose a law forcing senators to wear them in meetings because they were so widely hated (just as today, certain official arenas like courts and legislatures maintain regulations requiring people to wear suits...). + It isn't really surprising: the toga was basically an oval or rectangular woolen sheet about a meter wide and 6 meters long, wrapped around the body several times. Imagine yourself wrapped head to toes in a blanket—in sunny, warm Italy, no less. Of course it was heavy and stifling: the classical toga was a thing that differentiated a quiritus, or a free Roman citizen, who was expected to devote himself to politics, from a slave, whose purpose in life was to work, and who therefore wore a light tunic. * Lots of clothing would come under this, such as extremely high heels that in many situations are crippling, but still popular for aesthetic reasons. Also exceptionally tight and restricting clothing, and clothes that are worn for fetish reasons can be impossible to move in. * A classic Japanese kimono is clothing of idle nobility, plain and simple, and this is most evident in the formal women's fashion with its straight and narrow silhouette, which looks stunning, but forces its wearer into a painfully straight posture and barely allows walking. Men's formal wear when in presence of a Shogun or Emperor also included extremely long pleated trousers, called naga-bakama, which were often 2-3 meters long and were specifically designed to restrict movement for increased safety of a visited dignitary, as they make a sudden attack impossible. Serving or working men and women wore shorter, knee-length or mid-thigh kimonos, often with narrow pantaloons called zubon for commoners, or wide, pleated hakama for upper classes and certain trades, and in hotter weather simply a fundoshi loincloth, all of which allowed for a much better freedom of movement. + Not really the kimono versus the obi - the belt that ties it together. The formal women's obi is called a maru. It is a piece of cloth over two feet wide and around fifteen feet long (and costing several hundred dollars for a genuine "made in Japan" one). It is nearly impossible to tie alone, as the large knot is in the back, and certain knots have upwards of 40 steps for tying. * Brand-name clothing makes you look cool, but you'll be spending hundreds of dollars when you can wear a similar-looking Brand X for relative chump change. * Neckties are popular in many professional fields for men, because, well, they look really classy. However, they can be a hindrance or even a danger to individuals in certain occupations. Police officers, for example, tend to wear clip-on ties, allowing the tie to detach if it were grabbed by a suspect, whereas a standard necktie could be highly dangerous in close combat(A 90's sitcom, possibly Martin (1992) even had the main character ridicule a security guard for wearing a clip-on tie, even though it made perfect sense for his safety). Ties can also be a danger for those who work with heavy machinery, by becoming entangled in the machines and endangering the life of the employee. Neckties may also increase disease transmission in hospitals as well, as many doctors wear them while on the job. Even for those whose occupation does not preclude wearing neckties on a health or safety basis, neckties can be cumbersome to many daily activities. Some studies even suggest that wearing a necktie with the collar buttoned to the top can increase intraocular pressure, leading to a heightened risk of glaucoma and other conditions. * Swimwear designed for Rule of Sexy instead of practicality: + In the 1990 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Elle MacPherson wore a one-piece black swimsuit that had a strap over her right breast but nothing covering her left breast. The magazine lampshaded this by writing that the suit might give her "an unusual tan." + Along similar lines, in the 2014 issue, Irina Shayk was shown wearing a one-piece yellow suit that covered her completely in the front but had netting in the back, exposing her butt. This accomplished the goal of having her wear a full swimsuit and showing what she would look like without it at the same time. * Speaking of Rule of Sexy, many forms of lingerie. Looks amazing on the person? Maybe. Tight, clingy, and uncomfortable, especially on someone who doesn't have a particularly exact-matching body type? Almost certainly. Cotton undies, on the other hand, might not exactly send one's mind immediately to amore, but they're perfect if you just want something to wear that's comfortable. * Mechanical watches fit this trope to a T. They are amazing, intricate pieces of technology, and they're preferred by watch enthusiasts both as marvels of engineering and as a continuance of hundreds of years of traditional watchmaking. They're also less accurate and less durable than any cheap quartz watch and cost much, much more. Just about the only practical advantage mechanical watches have is not having a battery to need replacing, but they lose that advantage when you consider they need fairly expensive servicing every 5-10 years. (Servicing starts at about $100 for a basic watch with nothing wrong with it and goes up from there.) A multi-thousand-dollar Rolex is in every way less practical than a $10 Casio. + Dive watches were once a practical, necessary tool for scuba diving. Nowadays, dive computers have superseded dive watches for just about all diving, and while having a dive watch can be a useful backup for diving, most dive watch owners will never take their watch deeper than perhaps their local pool. Despite this, there is demand for dive watches rated to 1000, 2000, or even 3000 meters of depth, despite the fact that the deepest scuba dive on record was only 332 meters. A helium release valve is also not an uncommon feature on dive watches, despite having no practical use for anyone but deep-sea divers that spend prolonged periods in diving bells. That's to say nothing of mechanical diving watches, which are both quite common among high-end brands (e.g., the Rolex Submariner) and have all the downsides of other mechanical watches. + Quartz watches aren't immune from this trope, either. High Accuracy Quartz watches can be incredibly accurate, some to ~5 seconds per year (as opposed to a normal quartz's ~30 seconds per month). Unfortunately, they're much more expensive than normal quartz watches, and any application that really needs that level of precision probably isn't being done with wristwatches. * Acrylic nails. Sure they may give your hands that extra feminine touch, but they have to be cleaned constantly to minimize the risk of infection and are prone to breaking. Oh, and good luck trying to peel off a sticker or pick up things off the ground. * Most of the so-called 'fashionable' haircuts. As amazing◊ as some◊ of them may look, the majority of them are absolutely impractical. They generally take a large amount of time to get just right, with the payoff not being as great as the effort, since most people are not up and about long enough to hold this hairstyle for more than 12 hours, tops. And most include touch-ups over the course of the day. There's also the fact that they are just plain impeding in everyday life, particularly those that involve limiting one's vision by a large percentage. * Afro-style hairstyles: Especially the supercool ones from The '60s and The '70s as well as the ones Prince had. Those afros were cut in a way that the surface appeared very smooth and even, like a topiary. Also, a hot comb was used to loosen the hair strands. But that's only immediately after you get off the barber chair. Hair strands grow at different rates depending on where they are on your head, so it will not look perfectly smooth after a few days and especially not after washing it, after which you will have to apply the hot comb again. Like all freshly cut hairstyles, temperatures and humidity changes will open or close your pores and the hair strands will tighten or loosen accordingly. Accumulation of scalp oils and other buildup from holding sprays like Afro Sheen will also clog the pores causing hair to revert to a thicker, more natural style. This style has to be retouched and shaped up every few days, but while black media figures may have the money for that sort of maintenance, it can be a bit of a hassle for many others. * There's a reason the beehive hairstyle went out by the end of the '60s. Sure it may have looked cute in magazines and on tv, but it had no practicality for everyday life. The setup was so complicated, the hair couldn't be washed without taking it all down, so women often went weeks without washing their hair, which was every bit as unhygienic as it sounds. * Body piercings beyond the earlobes. Sure they might look cool and/or fetishy, but they are also subject to much longer and more painful healing times, which also means a longer period than they're prone to infection. Even after they heal, they can cause complications depending on where they're located: piercings on the head of the penis will affect urination, oral piercings can damage the teeth and gums, nipple rings snag on absolutely everything, etc. They can also be difficult to remove, or even impossible without a professional, so you can't switch them out on a whim like you can with earrings. Lastly, if the piercing is someplace highly visible like the eyebrows, lips, or tongue, it might go against school/workplace dress codes. + One exception to earlobe piercings being exempt from this trope is extremely large gauges. The process of stretching out your earlobes is permanent, so if you ever decide you're no longer into the look, you're now stuck with unsightly, drooping lobes with massive holes that require surgery to correct. * Having flesh tunnels on your face, namely on your cheeks and nostrils, definitely qualifies (see Joel Miggler). While it may seem cool to have holes in your face, the cons are going to HEAVILY outweigh the pros, as having them can make you have difficulty or unable to eat or drink certain foods and beverages, limit your facial expressions, cause the inside of your mouth to be air-dried and suffer from dehydration, have difficulty pronouncing spoken words correctly, get water (especially salt water!) in your mouth and sinuses when you go for a swim, and end up ruining your table manners, as seeing inside of your mouth may be disgusting to some. * Solid gold (24K) jewelry (or anything else) sounds awesome, right? There's a reason most gold jewelry is actually 14-18K, and it's not the cost. Solid gold is actually one of the softer metals, making it very prone to denting, scratching, and literally getting bent out of shape. In other words, not what you would want to have made into a ring (or other accessory) that you plan on wearing for decades, let alone a family heirloom. * Rompers and jumpsuits. Sure they might be cute and fashionable these days, but the only way to use the bathroom in one is to take it all the way off. At least with men's rompers, the front zipper/buttons extend to the crotch, letting them pee without having to strip. But for women, or going #2, you gotta take it all off. * High heel shoes, particularly stilettos. While they may be fashionable, heels over 2 inches (5 cm) in height are not very practical in most settings. For those not accustomed to high heels, it often results in High Heel Hurt, and in the worst cases, a Twisted Ankle. Wearing high heels long-term can actually damage your feet. For events that require ladies to dress up such as pageants, weddings, and prom, it is common for ladies to ditch heels as soon as practical and slip on more comfortable shoes, like sneakers, flats, or flip-flops. * In a similar vein to high heels, platform shoes. While they may help a short person appear taller, platforms are often clunky to walk in, and novice wearers might stumble at best to twist their ankle at worst. * Wedge heels may seem like a more practical substitute for high or stiletto heels because they have a larger sole for more stability. However, the fact that the front and rear portions of the foot are connected to a single, rigid wedge of material means the foot has no ability to flex while walking, which is a problem that even many stiletto-heeled shoes don't have and which makes them potentially at least as impractical for athletic movement. * Body hair removal, especially leg hair. While the smoothness can feel great, and it's conventionally seen as more attractive (at least on women), it's a very tedious process and often comes with risks of harm: shaving is perhaps the least risky but can still cause cuts, painful ingrown hairs, and takes a lot of time, waxing can cause skin inflammation and irritation, hair removal cream (like Nair) can cause burns, and sugaring, while less potentially harmful, still involves sticky substances that are not pleasant to peel off the skin. Pubic hair removal can be especially problematic. And getting rid of it permanently involves expensive electrolysis/laser procedures. While removing body hair does have a few practical advantages, they are often niche advantages (like in competitive swimming) that aren't really relevant to the average person. * A surprisingly large number of Black men in fiction nowadays have the "Killmonger" hairstyle, best exhibited by its namesake, the Big Bad from Black Panther (2018): short dreadlocks (or some other type of braid) with faded sides, and maybe colored tips. The idea is to showcase a hairstyle that's both fashionable and uniquely Black, but the problem is that this style would be very high-maintenance in real life, requiring expensive biweekly visits to the barber to keep looking fresh. It can also seem uncharacteristic if the character doesn't come across as someone who would be fussy about their hair and would likely prefer a Boring, but Practical buzzcut or fade in real life, but that's just not as fun to design. * In the early days of commercial aviation (and even into the 80s), people would wear their Sunday best to fly due to it being an upper-class experience at the time (middle- and working-class folks still travelled primarily by train or bus). But, as the rest of this section points out, formal wear is not made for comfort. As air travel became more affordable to the public at large, people began dressing to be comfortable for hours-long flights, and this quickly caught on. Nowadays even the wealthiest of first-class travelers will wear pajama pants or sweats when flying, especially long-haul flights, fashion be damned. * Rimless eyeglasses are meant to look sleek and modern, and they have some advantages like being lightweight and not overcrowding the wearer's face, especially if the person isn't happy about needing glasses in the first place. But their popularity took a nosedive once people realized how delicate they are: the bridge and arms have to be drilled directly into the lenses themselves, a specialized process that makes the glasses more expensive and less durable due to the lenses having to take on all the stress of daily wear. And you can forget about doing any kind of physical activity in them. Some see half-rim glasses as an acceptable middle-ground by giving the bridge and arms something to attach to, or the worst of both worlds since the rim is visible but doesn't provide the durability of a full rim. * The golden orb-weaver spider produces a beautiful golden silk with tensile strength comparable to steel and Kevlar. Unfortunately, those spiders can't be farmed like silkworms because they tend to bite each other's heads off when housed together in captivity. They also only produce silk during the rainy season, from October to June. A single textile made of golden spider silk took a million spiders, 70 people, and 4 years to make. * 'Lightscribe' (and its rival LabelFlash) is a technology that allows you to 'print' high-quality labels onto optical disks such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays. The process doesn't require paper, ink, or anything else beyond a special type of drive that costs only a couple of bucks more than a regular drive and special disks that cost only a tiny bit more than regular disks. After you've burned your data, you flip the disk over in your drive and 'burn' the label that you've designed in an easy-to-use labeling program; after a few minutes, a high-quality, high DPI label is embedded into the 'label side' of the disk surface. Unfortunately, it takes about 15 minutes to 'burn' a Lightscribe label, and it takes multiple repeated 'burns' to get an image of satisfactory contrast. You might have a Lightscribe capable drive and not even know it, because simple permanent markers are just faster. + Similarly, they also make "printable" (matte white upper side) CDs and DVDs for use in certain printers. Just don't put them in a high-speed drive, as the rotation speed can sling the ink off of the disk, gumming up the drive. - That being said, LightScribe and LabelFlash are genuinely useful for people who have bad handwriting. + 'Lightscribe' and similar technology had a predecessor in the form of the Yamaha DiscT@2 (tattoo). The idea was that you could tattoo a label on the data-side of a CD-R and didn't require any specialized media. However, any "tattooing" on the data size can NOT be used to store data, the actual result were barely visible even if you were trying to see it, and again, a boring old permanent marker can be used to quickly label anyway on the intended label side of the disc. The technology also wasn't compatible with DVD+-R which greatly limited the tech's already limited appeal. * Early portable MP3 players all had several features that put them firmly in this category. + CD/MP3 players were cheap and had significant storage capacity, but they were often difficult to use on the go (anti-skip technology mitigated, but never entirely eliminated, the problem) and preparing their media was a massive hassle. Want to change one track on your 700MB, 160-track CD? Gotta buy a new one. Ah, but you foresaw this and burned it on a rewritable! Nope, gotta buy a new one anyway, because the wear-and-tear of portable use scratched the CD-RW to hell and now your burner doesn't want to know about it. And burners of the time were painfully slow, too — writing 700MB at 4x speed was a half-hour affair. + Flash-based players could be used while taped to a jackhammer and they'd keep working, they could have their content modified at will, they were very lightweight and had great battery life — but flash memory technology was in its infancy at the time, and you could either have laughably small capacities (like, two hours of music, down to half an hour for the very first models) or absurd price tags. They eventually matured to their current state and eliminated all competition, but it took a good few years. + Rob Malda of Slashdot was famously unimpressed with the iPod for the reasons mentioned above. "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." + Nowadays, there are hi-res audio players that use one or multiple MicroSSDs as memory. In a sense, they are practical because they can hold entire music libraries of tens of thousands of songs in a small and thus very portable frame. They're both smaller and better-sounding than any smartphone out there. Now, navigating such huge libraries on a tiny touchscreen of sometimes less than three inches is tedious to say the least. - Which is why even people who still prefer to listen to offline music no longer bother with carrying one, and instead use their phones which can have hundreds of gigabytes of storage, Bluetooth for wireless earbuds or headphones, and a large touchscreen with input methods refined over a decade and a half. Oh, and also access to numerous music streaming services providing the listener with a near-infinite library (contingent on internet access, of course). * dbx emerged as a competitor to Dolby noise reduction for consumer audio tapes but was hampered by the fact that while Dolby recordings were perfectly listenable without decoding equipment, dbx recordings were unlistenable despite higher sound quality than Dolby with properly-equipped recorders. * The Sony D-88 Discman. It's a portable CD player that's smaller than a CD. This has obvious appeal to the "smaller is better" crowd, and it can play CDs just fine, they just stick out of the device — very cool-looking, but obviously a bit fragile! It does fully contain the smaller discs once commonly used for singles, but this has, of course, become less useful as record labels now either just put singles on full-sized CDs or stick to digital distribution. And, of course, it's vulnerable to all the same foibles of any other portable CD player. Here's a video about it. * Google Glass was heavily pushed in 2013 as the next big thing, essentially being a pair of glasses with a heads-up display that could be used for various apps developed for the hardware, being pushed as a major step for Augmented Reality. It got some buzz for being conceptually pretty cool, and the product itself functional — the screen was decent and commands could be issued using a touchpad on the right side of the glasses and voice recognition — but very quickly, people began questioning: "What is this actually for?" Aside from some very niche uses in medical settings, there's very little that "smart glasses" can do that warrants them being glasses (especially costing $1500 on launch), with the most common functions that were being advertised — using social media, taking photos, reading maps, etc. — being things that you can do on a phone, which is significantly easier and more intuitive to use. On top of that, many people were concerned about Google Glass opening a myriad of safety and security concerns due to its ability to record photos, videos, and audio, with many institutions preemptively banning their use, and the device being heavily stigmatized in social situations due to not exactly appearing inconspicuous (users being derisively referred to as "Glassholes"). After an initial consumer test run in 2013, Google ceased public sales in 2015, and while the product received further iterations for those aforementioned niche professions, Google fully discontinued production and support in 2023 (including app support, meaning that if you're to get Google Glass today, it's effectively a paperweight). Funnily enough, Apple released the Apple Watch in 2015 (the same year as the public discontinuation of Google Glass), which became a vastly more successful execution of wearable smart technology due to actually being easy to use and less intrusive. * Project Ara was an effort by Google to develop a modular smartphone. You know how with PCs, you, the user, can swap parts like the RAM, CPU, hard drive, and graphics card rather than having to buy a whole new PC? Picture that, but with smartphones. No more having to buy a brand new phone every couple of years, just swap parts in for gradual improvements! And replacing defective parts sounds equally convenient, as opposed to having to buy a replacement phone or take your phone into a repair shop or make extremely risky fixed involving solders and other delicate tools. Unfortunately, various issues with this concept, such as poor performance, high cost of all the combined components, bulking up of the phone due to each component needing to be safely contained, and power inefficiency led Google to cancel this project. * The ELP laser turntable is a turntable that plays records with, well, a laser, eliminating wear and tear on the grooves. However, they never caught on due to how unwieldy they were. Not only is the price quintuple-digit for the basic model, but the laser is highly sensitive, picking up dirt and dust more readily than a stylus (since it doesn't push debris out of the way) and being unable to read vinyl that isn't the standard opaque black. Consequently, owning one requires keeping a limited record collection and constantly cleaning the discs like they're covered in nuclear fallout every time you want to play them. To rub one final handful of salt in the wound, the device was in Development Hell for ages and didn't hit the market until 1997, by which point vinyl had already been displaced by the Compact Disc, which offered all the same benefits and was more reliable. Tellingly, when Optora attempted to revive the laser turntable in 2018 following renewed sales of vinyl records, the device sat in limbo and was ultimately canned. * From time to time vendors floated the idea of phones docking & having their internals powering an otherwise empty shell in the form factor of a tablet, laptop, or even desktop. No need to worry about syncing when it's literally the same device, right? + The display and battery in the tablet shell themselves already cost similar to a standalone product, indeed, the lack of production scale meant the Asus Padfone (a standalone phone that can power a tablet shell) was launched for more than the combined unlocked price of an iPad and an iPhone. + Early laptop shell suffers from the phone's relatively underpowered internal and Android's lack of multitasking features. If all you can get is an acceptable performance for web apps, might as well just buy a proper tablet with a keyboard case, which, again, due to production scale can be cheaper than a laptop shell. + A dedicated desktop-sized shell is doomed once people can just wireless cast and connect a bluetooth keyboard & mouse. This means travelers can just carry their mouse & keyboard (or even just buy one at a nearby store), and for places that expect customers/employees to require such a setup, the cost of a proper PC is negligible compared to the profit. + The idea finally died thanks to Technology Marches On. Android-based phones became capable of decent multitasking to the point where Samsung has an alternate "desktop" mode whenever it's plugged into a display via HDMI (something Samsung brands as DeX), and since the OS is usable with Bluetooth keyboards and mice, you now portable desktop. There's still one manufacturer of a laptop docking station, but its functionality is more akin to being a portable monitor, keyboard, and trackpad in a laptop formfactor and can be used in any computer with a USB-C output that supports display and USB signals. Apple's iPhone, while it can be used with an external monitor, doesn't have similar functionality. Instead, they'd prefer if you bought an iPad. * Flamethrowers are obsolete for military use, but still have a small number of legitimate non-criminal uses, all of which can be accomplished by operating by hand. However, now a flamethrower-wielding robot dog is now available for purchase. * Frigidaire once made a series of washing machines that have unique piston agitators that swirl clothes around throughly to help them get as clean as possible and can spin-dry the clothes at blistering speed due to being so overbuilt to take the stress. However, they tend to be rather expensive to run electrically, they're not particularly designed to be water efficient and in 1950's historical dollars, a machine could easily cost over $3000 in 2024 dollars, making them a rather luxurious but solidly built machines that remain memorable for their unusual pumping action. With energy and water efficiency taking priority in legislation, they're unlikely to see a return. * Certain vintage appliances. They have much more character and charisma than modern appliances, and are much more durable and long lasting. However, certain vintage appliances are extremely difficult to find, and parts even more so. In addition, vintage fridges in particular are major energy consumers, compared to their modern counterparts. And as for vintage appliances with heating elements, such as hair dryers and space heaters, they pose an asbestos hazard. * Some power banks have built-in charging cables for both lightning and USB-C, saving you the trouble of having to carry both the power bank and a separate cable. But since these chargers are built into the device, they aren't designed to be removable or replaceable. So if one breaks, you will have to replace the entire power bank, which is more expensive than replacing a separate charging cable. * Carbon fiber, ultimately. It's very lightweight and several times stronger than steel, but it's also brittle, and it corrodes metal in contact, making it a very situational or poor choice for reinforcing armor and equipment. In addition, CF-reinforced polymers are actually weaker than many alloys, on top of fragility. Not helping matters are production difficulties. * Theoretically, antimatter would be an incredible fuel, with every gram allowing for prodigious amounts of energy — making possible things such as far-space travel, or tiny power plants that could energize entire countries. The only problem is, antimatter is astronomically expensive (62 trillion dollars per gram) and slow to produce (to the point we've only ever managed to make a few hundred atoms), very complex to contain (a momentary containment failure of a significant quantity could result in explosions such as the human race has never yet seen) and has a bad shelf life (varying from a few seconds to a few minutes). * Any modern technology when it was in its early stages. The ENIAC, arguably the first digital computer, took up a room. The first cell phone weighed 80 pounds (36 kg). The first modern cars from around a century ago were not only unreliable, but there weren't that many decent roads to drive them on, or very many stations to refuel them at. And before that, the first trains were just as bad (cinders from the steam engines starting fires, later on the wood-burning stove in a wooden framed car being a fire hazard (and wooden framed cars are no protection in a crash), the rails (which were metal straps on top of wood) impaling people through the floor of the carriages, horribly slow by modern standards, etc...). This is why the And You Thought It Would Fail page for real life is so long: it's because most people at the time of the technology's release couldn't reasonably count them as anything useful, no matter how revolutionary, and as such, considers them as a fad or a novelty, at most, before their full potential had become more apparent. * The Manned Space Program. There is very little for scientific pursuits that a manned mission can do that can't be accomplished by an unmanned vehicle for a fraction of the cost (other than things like measuring human performance in space, where a human is part of the question). But it's too cool to resist. + In particular, colonies on the Moon or Mars. Getting people and some buildings over there, hard as it is, is only a one-time effort. Then there's the ongoing resupply of food, medicine, and anything else they can not produce, without which the colonists will die. A lot of the R&D toward space colonies goes toward making them able to produce their own necessities and something else that can't be had more cheaply on Earth to pay for what still needs to be imported (such as computer chips), as well as for more colonists. (This is one reason why space stations mining asteroids moved into Earth orbit has been proposed before colonizing either the Moon or Mars.) * Project Orion: Using nuclear explosions to propel a spacecraft. (Un)fortunately, the project was shelved after various test ban treaties. However, there were plans to build a freaking battleship with enough firepower to blast the Soviet Union into the Stone Age and have China for dessert. Thankfully it was shelved when the planners realized that it's essentially a game for two. + To be fair, the only things that made the spacecraft impractical were legal issues. From an engineering perspective, it was perfectly reasonable, even if it did sound a little over the top. Well... that and its inability to land anywhere with an atmosphere. * The concept of a Space Elevator sounds cool: Bringing materials and people up to orbital altitudes without needing fuel-burning rockets. However, many issues prevent the concept from working in practice, the threat of meteors and satellites colliding with the elevator cable being an obvious concern. As mentioned above though, most new technologies start out impractical and require a lot of work to bring into the realm of feasibility, space tethers are far from even the prototype stage. There are proposed alternatives like the skyhook and the launch loop, which would still involve building structures that are impossibly massive. * Back during the Cold War and the Space Race the USA got the Saturn V rocket working, and the USSR wanted something better. Enter the N1, a massive five-stage rocket intended for launching space stations and other large cargo. It was properly huge and employed the novel concept of a cluster of smaller engines instead of the traditional four or five big ones. This gave it a significantly higher thrust than its American counterpart... in theory. In practice, the higher thrust didn't actually give it a better lifting capacity, and the engine cluster required complicated plumbing that was never able to withstand the forces and vibration of launch without exploding the whole damn thing to bits. The second launch crashed back on the pad and caused one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions ever recorded; though that probably qualifies as awesome in the traditional sense of the word, it wasn't exactly what the Soviet engineers had in mind. + The choice of clustered (relatively) small engines was not due to such cluster being better, but due to the political infighting. Those who were able to produce big engines were intensely disliked by Korolev, and those he was on speaking terms with had no such experience... + The first stage rocket engines used by the Saturn V had a different problem. They were actually a bit too powerful for 1960s technology to completely handle. (Let's put a human-sized handle on this: Sure the engines each delivered around 1.5 million pounds of thrust, but who can grasp that? Instead, try this: Each had a rocket-fuel-driven turbopump to pump fuel and oxidizer to the main engine. Those turbopumps produced roughly 55,000 horsepower. Each. Just to pump the gas.) NASA had a large enough budget to work around this problem and completely redesign the Apollo spacecraft after the Apollo 1 fire that killed 3 astronauts. The center engine of a Saturn V was programmed to automatically shut down before the end of the 1st stage burn when the acceleration rate passed a certain point or when pogo oscillations were detected. Both of those could destroy a Saturn V during launch. The Saturn V was designed so that it could lose a first-stage engine partway through the climb to orbit (which did happen twice) and still make it to the moon and back. * The Space Shuttle. The idea was to build a spacecraft that could handle any mission the US government needed to fly, then land on a runway and be reused. Sounds awesome, but it turned out to be impractical. They designed in all sorts of reconnaissance satellite launch features that became obsolete by the time it flew; they had to risk the lives of astronauts on missions that could have been launched fully automated and couldn't design a way for the astronauts to escape during a launch malfunction; and "reusable" ended up meaning "reusable after a refurbishment that cost almost as much as building a non-reusable rocket". NASA went from suborbital flights to three-day stays on the Moon with a Moon Jeep without ever losing an astronaut in flight to losing two crews of seven to the Shuttle's impractical design; the government, therefore, switched back to expendable rockets for military satellites, and industry didn't use it very much either. The Shuttle wasn't a total waste - it did fly every manned NASA mission for thirty years and it accomplished many important missions, including two jobs (repairing the Hubble Space Telescope and building the International Space Station) that no other vehicle could have done as well - but it's hard to believe we wouldn't have been better off dropping used rockets in the ocean for another twenty or thirty years and/or developing reusable launch systems a la Space "X". * During the gas crisis of the late 2000s, there was interest in crop-based biofuels as an alternative energy source to oil. The appeal to environmentalists was obvious on the surface — biofuels are made from plant oils rather than petroleum, and as such, they're renewable, generate less pollution, and has a lower carbon footprint. Furthermore, as many biofuels can be extracted from homegrown agricultural crops, there was an additional appeal for energy independence. However, while the actual biofuel product itself is inexpensive and environmentally friendly, the process of mass-producing it isn't. These fuels require more land, leading to further deforestation that only released trapped carbon and thus increasing global warming. It didn't help that growing biofuels siphoned resources like water away from growing food crops, leading to food and water shortages, and caused ripple effects on food prices, i.e. allocating huge amounts of land to grow corn for biofuel drives up the price of corn, which in turn makes every foodstuff that uses corn (of which there are a hell of a lot more than you might think) more expensive. Subsequently, most businesses and governments have shelved the notion of immediately replacing petroleum with biofuels, though this idea of sustainable biofuels may become viable again provided that they can be successfully extracted from non-edible and sustainable sources like algae. * Speaking of alternative energy, there have been a lot of proposed and prototyped devices that harvest both wind and solar energy at the same time. These all reveal the same basic flaws though, the ideal orientation to collect the wind power and the ideal orientation to collect the solar power are usually different. Most damning of all though, there usually isn't a real reason to build one hybrid device and not separate solar and wind harvesters. * Solar and wind power sound really cool on paper: there's free, clean energy all around us, all we have to do is tap into it. But large-scale production requires huge amounts of land that might otherwise be used for food farms or CO2-scrubbing forests, not every location is suitable for a solar or wind farm (and even those that are are inconsistent and subject to the whims of nature), and building the panels, turbines, and batteries requires rare and expensive materials that tend to be mined in countries that don't have stellar environmental (or humanitarian) track records. Thus, without a significant advancement in technology, such alternative energy sources are limited to a supplemental role at best and we're still stuck with fossil and nuclear fuels for the forseeable future. * Project Gnome was the first technologically possible design of a fusion power plant. Notice we didn't say fusion reactor. Gnome worked by exploding hydrogen bombs in large underground spaces (created appropriately enough by also exploding hydrogen bombs) and then using the gasses from the explosion to power a turbine. As a side business, the process contains almost all the nuclear fallout in an easy to harvest form, which can then be sold to satisfy the demands for exotic isotopes while un-reacted fissile isotopes can be made into more hydrogen bombs. As crazy as the concept sounds the most impracticable thing wasn't that it needed H-bombs for fuel and actually didn't have a significant environmental impact. Instead, the impracticality came from the fact that it generated enormous amounts of power in seconds and it's economically unfeasible to store power on an industrial scale and set up enough of these things so that one would constantly go off every few seconds was just not logistically possible. * Geothermal heat pumps are a very energy-efficient way to heat and cool a building and can work in very cold climates where air source heat pumps are inefficient, but the excavation required to install the coils means that they are only practical for new construction. That's why air source heat pumps employing a conventional refrigeration cycle similar to refrigerators or air conditioners are more popular in temperate climates. Even though air source heat pumps don't work well in very cold temperatures, they have the advantage of taking up relatively little physical space, the same as a conventional air conditioner, and they are much easier to retrofit in existing buildings. An air source heat pump is essentially an air conditioner that has a reversing valve to change the direction of the flow of refrigerant so that it pulls in heat from outside air and moves it inside in heating mode, while it works like a conventional air conditioner in summer. Heat pumps also have electrical heating coils anyway as a backup for really cold temperatures or for a malfunction of the outdoor unit in a split system. * The Energia rocket, developed in the late 1970s-1980s in the Soviet Union, was the most powerful launch system ever built, and was intended to be entirely reusable in its second incarnation — but it was too powerful: the projects it was envisioned for, chief among them Buran, the Soviet space shuttle, and eventually a lunar expedition, got axed by the end of the Cold War that happened just as the system was reaching its full capacity, and The New Russia didn't have the funds to run it. As it later turned out, the project was so ambitious that even the US would have had a hard time finding funding. Naturally, the project was canceled. * Particle accelerators can fulfill alchemists' dreams of converting metals such as lead into gold. However, the amount of energy needed to get even a tiny amount of gold is far more expensive than even the price of the gold produced. There are a few other elements which could be produced via neutron irradiation, proton bombardment or other nuclear reactions, but none of them are anywhere close to cost-effective as of 2022. The only exception are nuclear reactions that produce more usable energy than they consume - notably nuclear fission. However, a select few radioactive substances (whose radioactivity is not something to be avoided, but the point of using them) are indeed only commercially produced via one of those routes (fission, neutron bombardment, proton bombardment etc.) and consequently insanely expensive. There are - in some cases - proposals to instead extract them from "nuclear waste" (i.e. the "spent fuel" left over by commercial power reactors), but there are major technological, political and commercial hurdles to that, chief among them that it would require "hot reprocessing"(Reprocessing spent fuel with no or only very short cooling period after discharge from the reactor - usually commcerical "spent fuel" is not reprocessed (if at all) before years have passed from the time it left the reactor) - a technology that is currently not used at large scale anywhere in the world as it has large requirements of radiation protection, cooling and puts strains on materials that are not necessarily found in any other current application. * Single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicles have been proposed since the early days of spaceflight as a way to reduce costs by removing the need to expend hardware or integrate and design multiple stages. In practice, the performance requirements for SSTO from the Earth's surface mean that an all-chemical SSTO RLV would have margins so ridiculously tight that any increase in component weight would completely eliminate the payload - and alternate methods of propulsion, such as hybrid rocket-ramjets, nuclear engines and laser propelled rockets, would need enormous expense to develop and build. While popular in concept designs in the 90s and 2000s the concept has largely gone out of favor since the mid-2010s, as simply reusing the stages on a more conventional multi-stage rocket has proven simpler to develop while offering much higher payload margins. The concept would be much more practical on smaller bodies such as the Moon and Mars, and has already been done by the Apollo Lunar Module. * Home solar power setups, at least depending on how it's implemented. The main draw with home solar power setups is now you can produce your own energy, lowering your usage from the power grid and hence, lower electricity bills. But the mainstream way to provide solar panels is that they're grid tied solar, meaning most of the savings you get back from it are because your home becomes basically a local energy generator; the electric company will only discount your electricity usage rate. If they have a separate charge for delivery, you're likely not getting a discount on that as you're still using the grid and it still needs maintenance. Plus, in the event of a power grid failure, you must shut off your solar panel generation because it'll keep that section of the grid live, preventing workers from being able to troubleshoot or make repairs. A better implementation is use a battery backup system with solar, combined with enough solar power generation to both charge the battery and to power things. Then use the grid as a backup to that system or provide electricity during times when rates are lower (usually during the night). This system doesn't have to power the whole house; it can be on a separate circuit so it can be isolated from the grid and provide electricity if the grid experiences a failure. * Humanoid robots, if mastered, would undoubtedly be a revolutionary invention for all sorts of fields. There are plenty of functional humanoid robots out there that can do predetermined tasks convincingly, but making them do anything more than that is proving to be an immense challenge. The shape of the human body is an accident of evolution that is ill-suited to doing the kind of hard, repetitive labor that we would prefer robots to do. In-particular, being bipedal makes us top-heavy, which in-turn makes balance and the ability to carry heavy objects a lot more difficult and even dangerous than a different body shape would be. The mundane reality is that we already use semi-autonomous robots for lots of things; they just aren't shaped like humans, and are instead things like robotic arms that are designed to do one specific task well. * Sharpening a pencil with a CNC Lathe. As a commenter pointed out, it's 90 euros for an hour with the machine, but 10 cents to buy a new pencil. * Cooking with lava. Not lava rocks, liquid hot magma. A favorite demonstration of Syracuse University's Department of Earth Sciences' "Lava Project" is to grill steaks with a stream of lava. Since the lava furnace takes at least 72 hours to prepare lava, and unless you like your steaks cooked very well done, it's obviously not a practical way to cook anything. Not only that but coming into contact with the lava would lead to some excruciating injuries, provided it didn't outright kill you. Even breathing too close to the stuff is exceedingly dangerous; Convection, Schmonvection ain't a thing in real life, folks. + Of course, we lava good barbecue. * Wireless Charging tends to be this. Sure, it is indeed a neat little method of powering your device - no cables to get in the way. So why is it that, despite this method being around for decades, electronic devices such as smartphones still rely mostly on cords? Because those cords are not only faster but more efficient. A significant amount of energy is released as heat rather than going on to charge the device, with that extra heat not being very good for batteries. Combine the fact that cords are just more convenient (you can still move around your smartphone when charging with a cord as opposed to it having to be on a special charging pad), and wired charging still remains the default way to power your device. Perhaps the biggest problem is that wireless charging is only available for phones made out of non-metal materials, and can also be negated by having a metal phone case or a magnetic pad on your phone (if you use a magnetic phone mount in your car), hence why iPhones starting with the iPhone 8 started using less durable glass cases. + That being said, while there are multiple drawbacks withstanding if you are concerned with the lifespan of your charging port, wireless charging does have the advantage of keeping down wear and tear on that component, plus if you're setting your phone down in the short term, you can give your phone a booster before you head out. * Extreme couponing. Getting a lot of groceries and spending very little money sounds enticing, but it can be more trouble than it's worth. Between doing research, collecting coupons, and purchasing products, it can be a massive time sink. Moreover, the practice involves buying groceries in such quantities that would be either impractical or extremely unhealthy for most people to use in a timely manner. * Paid Surveys. While they are an easy way to make money, they don't pay a lot and many of them will reject you. * To all those people who get C's, this entry will make you feel better. Sure, getting straight A's in school/college will be a massive flex, but the time and effort (and focus!) is so exceedingly large that it is unsustainable, and won't even be something employers are gonna use as a reason to choose you over the others. You are better off studying in such a way that you have time for other activities, which is what employers will be looking for. So, sorry nerds. Or not. * Throwing knives are cool because of the dexterity required to use them, which is why they're used in circus acts and as a hobby. But compared to bows or firearms, they have very short range and comparatively limited accuracy. You can't use them to silently pick off enemy sentries from a distance like in fiction because they lack the power to reliably kill someone at long distances, and Instant Death Stab is not Truth in Television: unless you just happen to sever the trachea, the sentry will definitely get the chance to at least scream in pain, alerting their crew, before succumbing. Plus, you're basically throwing away your weapon and giving it to your opponent if you miss and it lands near them. + Shuriken, thrown blades resembling stars or darts, are an example of how throwing knives can actually be used: mainly as a concealed weapon that can surprise and distract your opponent, either to open them up for an attack with a different weapon or to slow down their pursuit. Most real shuriken were cheaply made, seeing as they were disposable. Unfortunately for some people who want to play ninja today, shuriken have been banned in several countries on the grounds that they are inherently scary. Shuriken are, however, also impractical, because they're nothing but blade. If you're as likely to cut yourself as not when you grab your weapon, it's not a great weapon. They also have no real weight behind them unless they're sufficiently large that they're no longer easy to conceal, meaning they're unlikely to do damage. Unless they're poisoned, in which case see above re: all blade and cutting yourself. * Nunchucks. They're certainly a flashy weapon to show off within martial arts demonstrations, and being able to master one's use requires a very high level of discipline and finesse. Unfortunately, they're very difficult to train with, pose almost as much of a risk to you as to your opponent even when used properly, and simpler weapons do their job better(Historically, nunchaku were adapted from grain flails, and they were used the same way a Western flail is: by simply swinging it upside an opponent's head). Their main use is for honing coordination and visuospatial awareness since effectively training with them requires intimate knowledge of where you are in space and where you need to be. But if you want something to actually hit people with, you'd be better off with a staff or baseball bat, which can deliver more force more easily. * Six-foot longbows were devastating weapons in the hands of the English from roughly 1250-1500, combining a high rate of shooting with considerable range and power, but the English went through a lot of trouble to keep adequate numbers of bowmen available. + It took a whole boyhood and adolescence to grow into using progressively bigger bows with heavier draw weights, while also learning to hit distant targets using only instinctive aiming, so kings of England needed to do things like make weekly archery practice mandatory and ban the playing of football to prevent youths from skipping archery. The English system of recruiting longbowmen required a class of free, usually land-owning commoners who had enough time to devote to archery, came from regions where archery was practical and valued, and were attracted to paid, short-term service in the king's wars as semi-professional soldiers. Most other European countries that tried to create their own longbow forces after the English fashion became disillusioned with the difficulty of changing their institutions and the amount of time it would take to produce results, while also being suspicious of giving their commoners the tools they needed to revolt. They ultimately preferred to use militias or mercenaries armed with crossbows, and later with guns. + Making the bows required high-quality wood, preferably from yew trees, which the English over-harvested until they needed to import bow wood from Spain or Italy; the arrows, meanwhile, were sophisticated hand-crafted items and therefore pretty expensive to stockpile. Crossbows were a bit more complicated to make but didn't require such rare materials—especially after the invention of steel crossbows in the 14th century—and bolts didn't require the same delicate fletching as arrows. Later came the handgonnes, where the powder involved some chemistry, but the manufacturing just required iron and ordinary wood, while the ammunition was cheap lead balls. + By the 16th century, although various English leaders and military experts tried to keep archery alive, the system was on its way out. An arquebus was a weapon that could punch through a breastplate at close range regardless of the user's strength, and even a man who hadn't trained in shooting since childhood could learn to be accurate at normal combat ranges in a more reasonable amount of time. The longbow still shot faster, but that didn't really matter if you couldn't field as many bowmen as the enemy had arquebusiers. Thus, the military bowman passed into legend. * Among civilian firearm enthusiasts, this trope is often known as "tacticool", describing a gun that's been dressed up with scopes, laser sights, flashlights, bayonets, bipods, and other "tactical" attachments that don't actually improve the function of the gun, and may, in fact, detract from it. Related is the stereotype of the "mall ninja", an inexperienced/ignorant gun enthusiast (typically a young man who's played too much Call of Duty) who obsesses over these sorts of guns. There are, of course, gun owners who embrace this to the point of deliberate parody, going out of their way to make the most ridiculous guns they can imagine, up to and including tactical muskets. * Fully-automatic machine pistols, such as the Glock 18, MAC-11, and Tec-9, when it comes to anything other than suppressive fire. They burn through ammo, rapidly overheat, jam easily, and are very inaccurate if not equipped with shoulder stocks. Although there have been some exceptions, like the Škorpion, Mauser M712, Micro-Uzi, and Steyr TMP, most machine pistols can be easily replaced by more reliable, controllable, and accurate submachine guns. + In particular, the Ingram MAC-10 and MAC-11 machine pistols were good examples of this trope. Being more compact than submachine guns and being robust and extremely easy to manufacture, they possessed an awesome firing rate - almost double that of similar-looking Israeli Uzi machine pistol. However, the extremely rapid firing rate and flimsy wire stock also meant they were horribly inaccurate at any ranges beyond 20 m or so, earning a reputation of "bullet sprayers". International Association of Police Chiefs weapons researcher David Steele stated that the MAC-11 was "fit only for combat in a phone booth." It was also all too easy to shoot the whole magazine empty with just one squeeze of the trigger. While some special forces got interested in the MAC-10, MAC did not get contracts and went bust in 1975. As well as that, the .45 ACP/9x19mm MAC-10 had its strengths, but the MAC-11 was a complete disaster. It was tinier than the MAC-10 but chambered in .380 ACP, which gave it extremely heavy recoil. The MAC-11 also had a faster rate of fire, which emptied the magazine even quicker than before and with the heavy recoil, making it practically inaccurate unless at close range. - The MAC-10 was intended to be packaged and used with a suppressor, which when fitted to the gun makes it much more controllable, not to mention it looks pretty damn cool. It's also nearly a foot long and over two inches across, and using it kind of defeats the purpose of a submachine gun if the MAC-10 is now nearly as big as a rifle (it also now weighs 6.5 pounds unloaded.) Despite this they still had quite a bit of interest from the foreign market, however the U.S. government enacted a (since repealed) law banning the export of suppressors, thus the contracts getting cancelled and the company going under. - Ingram machine pistols have such a horribly great firing rate - 1600 rounds per minute - that they empty the magazine on one squeeze of the trigger. But those who have actually shot them describe them as "incredibly funny". + The original Trejo Pistol takes the impracticality up to eleven, being a miniaturized 1911-style .22 pistol with full auto capability and an 8-round magazine, which it burps out in less than a second. The only real purpose it can be said to have is that it's got plenty of "giggle factor", as evidenced in the video by Ian of Forgotten Weapons chuckling like a kindergartner after each magazine he puts through it. * Even with automatic fire off the table, the MAC series' semi-auto successors like the Cobray M-11 also have problems of their own, being comically oversized for a handgun and having very poor ergonomics. They're decently accurate and incredibly hard to jam, but the bulky grip, top-heavy overhead bolt, and sharp edges from the stamped sheet-metal construction make it a gun that's both fun to shoot and not fun to shoot at the same time. * The Thompson submachine gun, also infamously known as the Tommy Gun, is partially famous for the drum magazines available for its earliest variants that can hold either 50 or 100 bullets. Sounds impressive for an early SMG, yeah? Well, feedback from military users had some genuine criticism of the drums - they were noisy, slow to load, not as reliable and a fully-loaded 100-round drum is impractically heavy unless you're built like an action hero. Eventually, they issued 30-bullet box mags (that replaced the old 20-bullet mags) and discontinued use of the drums in professional circles. This doesn't stop collectors from keeping and using the old drums, because it's such an iconic part of the weapon's heritage. * It's generally agreed among gun enthusiasts that, for self-defense and law enforcement purposes, anything more powerful than a .357 Magnum is essentially overkill if you're not built like an Action Hero, unless you expect to be attacked by bears. If that's the case, then .44 Magnum is the minimum recommended cartridge. However, these handguns are still outclassed in every regard by the high-caliber rifles that hunters have been using for decades, so their only value might be as an emergency backup weapon. * Aftermarket hi-cap magazines that can hold up to 100 rounds or more are often ridiculous, especially in the civilian sector (where they are the most popular; armed forces are normally fine with sticking to whatever magazines their weapons' manufacturer built to work with it). In exchange for not having to reload as often, the shooter has to contend with having several pounds of weight added to the gun, sometimes more than the gun itself when fully loaded. Hell, some even weigh more when empty than a standard magazine does when it's full. Add to this that these mags are often ridiculously unreliable, meaning you'll spend much more time clearing jams than you would have saved not swapping magazines. * Dual Wielding: + The Guns Akimbo style. Sure, you look badass pulling it off, but having a gun in each hand makes aiming and reloading impossible. Carrying two pistols in a hypothetical action movie scene, it is better to fire them one at a time, switching to the second pistol when the first one is empty to delay the need to reload one. + It's possible in real life if you're a trained expert with years of experience. It's easier to learn to shoot one gun well than two guns with varying success. + Dual-wielding swords may look awesome, but they're hard to use and aren't as useful as a single sword with a shield. No military culture ever used two swords in serious combat. A dagger or short sword in the off-hand (a "main gauche") was used to parry in dueling and/or fencing, but in real warfare, a shield could parry and better protect you from being skewered. - Though some historical armies (such as the medieval Portuguese) used a sword and a knife, it's still not much better. When it did pay off, it was often because of its novelty. - However Miyamoto Musashi taught the "Niten Ichi" two-sword technique, using a Katana and a Wakizashi (short sword) and used it quite effectively. He also recommended training with two long swords, one in each hand, in order to learn to not use two hands with your long sword. Once you learn that, you switch to the long sword and companion sword. Musashi actually discouraged the use of just one sword. (But then, Musashi was just THAT good.) + Sword and Gun was practical at one time since a flintlock pistol could only hold one shot and even a cap-and-ball revolver held only 6 or so shots and took too long to reload in the middle of a melee; you'd need the sword in order to defend yourself against anyone who rushed you while your gun was empty. It was also unnecessary to grip the pistol with both hands, since you'd be using this technique in a situation where the enemy was really close to you, and such early guns didn't have the best accuracy even under ideal conditions. Further, guns at the time were smithed as single pieces of solid wood and iron with a minimum of moving parts, meaning that they could, in a pinch, be used to block and as effective melee weapons (early modern manuals of arms show how to use a musket as a heavy quarter staff). However, the arrival of metallic cartridges and clips or magazines made reloading in combat a lot easier. You might as well use the gun for both short and long range if reloading it is easy, and you can't reload quickly or use a two-handed grip if your sword's in the other hand. Besides, a scabbard is cumbersome to wear if you don't really need a sword. * The Mateba Model 6 Unica, known to most people as the "Autorevolver". It's a revolver that cycles like a semi-auto, removing the need for a heavy trigger pull. It looks super cool, but it combines the drawbacks of both semiautos (less durable and more prone to malfunction) and revolvers (smaller magazine capacity and difficult to reload) into one rare and extremely expensive package. + Cocking the gun semiauto-style is possible (for show, as otherwise you'd prepare the first shot by simply arming the hammer), but as the carriage lacks grippy surfaces you can only do it by... pushing on the barrel. + The Model 6 Unica was also available as the Grifone, with a lengthened barrel, hand rest, and stock, effectively turning it into a carbine. The Grifone was available in .454 Casull too, which is a ridiculously powerful round that's overkill in pretty much any conceivably practical scenario. And in those scenarios where it's not overkill (ie big game hunting), there are still plenty of better and/or less expensive options. * Nearly all "collectible" "fantasy" type knives and swords are this. Lots of wicked-looking pointy bits, but you're at least as likely to injure yourself if you try to use them in combat, either from the excess pointy bits on the weapons or from the brittleness of the cheap steel used to make them. That's to say nothing of the fact that a barbed blade could easily get snagged in your opponent's body or armor, which could be very bad if the thrust didn't kill them, or they have friends. * The Desert Eagle handgun, especially in .50AE chambering. Awesome looks, awesome power, awesome boom, loved and used by every action hero ever, kills bad guys like nothing else. The concept doesn't translate well in reality though: excessively heavy and bulky, unmanageable recoil (to the point where fractured wrists are a very real possibility), expensive ammunition (.50 Action Express rounds go for over 2 USD each in 2024... if you can find them, which has been difficult since COVID-19. If that doesn't sound like much, you've never been to a range during practice shooting), small magazine size and too much power ensure its status as a toy for rich people, but not a practical weapon. Deagles chambered in smaller calibers like .357 are marginally more practical, offering less recoil and a slightly bigger magazine capacity, but are still oversized, more finicky, and heavier than almost any revolver with the same chambering (and such revolvers with a 7- or even 8-shot capacity aren't as rare as you'd think). + It also sports two design choices that make it impractical for anything other than range use and occasionally hunting regardless of which caliber it's chambered in — it operates off of what is basically a rifle-style gas relay system (meaning that unjacketed rounds, such as those commonly used in .357 and .44 Magnum revolvers, will quickly clog the gas valve, so the cheapest options for its already expensive ammo are a no-go) and uses a "free-float" magazine that will jam if there is any upward pressure placed on the magazine during cycling— not that you should be using the (also cool-looking but impractical) Hollywood "teacup" grip◊ on such a massive pistol to begin with. + All types of handguns, even Olympic target pistols, are woefully inaccurate at long range. A rifleman can be trained in a few weeks (and hundreds of rounds fired) to hit an apple beyond 100 yards. To get the same performance from a handgun at 25 yards, it takes years of training. So the gigantic .50 caliber round of the Desert Eagle may be awesome at a few yards if the bear charges you, but nothing else. + Nearly all decently-powered pistol rounds actually have a much, much longer effective range than one might expect — up to several hundred yards in some particularly stellar examples. Submachine guns like the 9mm caliber MP5 and the .45 ACP caliber Thompson are effective out to about 150-200 yards, while there also exist rifles and carbines chambered to fire pistol rounds that have similar ranges and are often used for home defense. The problem is that, while rifles have stocks that significantly dampen the natural motion of a shooter's arms, handguns are subject to every tiny tremble and muscle motion of the wrist, resulting in the angle of the barrel changing much more unpredictably. + Expanding on the mention of the "teacup" grip above, the stance is popular in movies and on TV because it allows for a better view of the handgun, but actors are firing blank cartridges and they don't have to deal with the recoil that comes with live ammunition. In real life, cupping your non-dominant hand beneath the grip makes the weapon considerably harder to control because that hand is doing nothing to help brace the gun, resulting in a heavy, bucking muzzle flip that severely hurts your follow-up accuracy. Speaking of severe hurting, try using that grip on an especially powerful handgun and then have fun explaining how you got that nice, shiny new lump on your forehead (read: Do not try it). * Pistol swords. Sure, the idea of a sword and gun together sounds more efficient than just going Sword and Gun, as bayonet-fitted rifles have shown, but in practice, all one got was an overly heavy, poorly-balanced sword and a pistol that was difficult to aim properly. * The long, proud history of trying to make swords, knives, or hatchets that are also guns or swords, knives, or hatchets that turn into guns mostly belongs here, but the trend hit its zenith (or nadir, depending on your perspective), with the Apache revolver, an attempt at making a gun that's also a knife that's also a knuckle-duster. In practice, the revolver is horribly inaccurate outside of extreme close range, since it lacks both sights and a meaningful barrel, and unreliable, since the trigger has no guard or safety and the barrel actually points back to the user while folded into knuckle-duster configuration. The knife is a fold-over that's pretty short and just as imbalanced as most such melee weapons that're also guns. Also, changing configurations was a pretty involved process in the heat of combat, negating most of the advantages of having a gun that's also a knife that's also a knuckle-duster. * Large-capacity cylindrical magazines, such as the notorious 50-round drum on the Thompson SMG or the helical magazine on the futuristic-looking Calico M690. They allow a user to fire more shots between reloading, and look cool besides, but they're notoriously unwieldy, prone to malfunction, and take an age and a half to restock. Military forces, by and large, have decided to just continue using the Boring, but Practical stick or box magazines instead; a soldier might only have 30 rounds in the magazine, but at least they won't need dozens of extra-large pockets to carry the spares. * Civilian legal semi-auto versions of submachine guns might seem handy as a general idea but are often impracticable due to other gun laws. Nearly every country that allows semi-auto guns also bans short-barreled rifles and almost all submachine guns fall under this category. You either have to buy the sub gun as a ridiculously oversized pistol or have it with a comically oversized unsupported barrel. They can be legally owned in most U.S. states, but doing so requires registration with the Federal ATF Bureau, which requires multiple forms, months of waiting, a $200 fee (until 2026, when the tax disappears), and the knowledge that Uncle Sam is well aware of your cool new toy (if this doesn't sound like much of a deal-breaker, you don't know many gun nuts). + The reason submachine guns have such long receivers in the first place is to reduce the rate of fire and recoil stress during full auto bursts. When converted to semi-auto, this space is useless as the action time of a semi-auto can be as fast as the magazine can load. There are several commercially sold carbines that account for this and move the magazine into the pistol grip rather than in front of it. These also tend to support the barrel more since they are designed with a sixteen-inch barrel in mind. * The 10mm Auto pistol cartridge was designed by Jeff Cooper to get the best of the flat trajectory of the 9mm with stopping power on the level of the .45 ACP and was further scaled up in production. What resulted was a semiautomatic pistol cartridge that delivered more energy than a .357 Magnum. It proved to be overkill, with cartridge cases too long and with too much recoil for comfortable and effective handling and shooting by many shooters, as well as being overpowered for defensive use (where overpenetration is an issue), and so was redesigned into the .40 S&W. It still exists in the 21st century for those who insist on having that level of performance (despite the relative scarcity of ammunition options), or for people who need a semiautomatic for potential defense against bears in the wilderness. It's also gained modest popularity for handgun hunting. * Due to a Grandfather Clause, there exist eleven miniguns that are legal in the United States for people with a decent gun permit. The guns cost 400,000 dollars, plus the price for a decent gun mount, plus another sixty dollars for firing the gun for a single second. In this case, just forget practicality, hunting, or personal defense, unless you consider another nation's entire armed forces to be a likely home invasion scenario and cloned dinosaurs to be a likely hunting target. * In the United States, there is nothing but a lot of paperwork and some minor fees keeping you from buying a cannon, whether it be one of the old-timey black powder muzzleloaders or one of the more modern artillery pieces. Explosive shells are out of the question (except very special occasions) as each one of those will require the exact same amount of paperwork and fees. But unless your property suddenly has a tank infestation or you have a need to lob t-shirts at extremely high velocities, there isn't a need. Even if you are up to something nefarious, it's hard to imagine you wouldn't achieve whatever your goal is with many other guns that aren't nearly as much of a pain in the butt to acquire, transport, store, maintain and feed. * Owning full-auto firearms, for the private civilian owner. More Dakka will never not be cool, but obtaining one legally is an outright impossibility in most countries, and in the few where you can it's absurdly expensive and difficult to acquire one. Without a Federal Firearms License (which is this in and of itself, because the only practical use for an FFL is for people who trade in firearms as a living such as gun importers, manufacturers, and dealers, as it entails an expensive ($500 for sub-$500k annual receipts) annual tax, a mountain of paperwork, and very stringent legal requirements), the only legally purchasable automatic guns in the United States were all made prior to 1986, with an ever-dwindling supply of older guns that may or may not have been maintained very well; prices on these generally start at the $10,000 mark and go up from there. Add on the previously-mentioned federal registration and $200 tax stamp, and you have a weapon that is difficult to control and hard to practice with, by way of being prohibited at the vast majority of gun ranges. Even in a self-defense scenario, full-auto is likely overkill for a single shooter (as in, not part of an armed squadron that might need to lay down a large volley of suppressing fire) as you might have to worry about collateral damage. Furthermore, Bottomless Magazines don't exist in real life, and you can only "spray bullets" for about 2-3 seconds before your average assault rifle or submachine gun goes \click!\*. If you wish to handle full-auto guns, it is more practical to do so under supervision with range-provided guns. + In a similar vein to the above we have the bump-fire stock, which is an attachment to your semi-automatic rifle that uses the recoil of the gun to help you repeatedly pull the trigger much faster than your unassisted finger can. Essentially it gives you a rate of fire comparable to full auto without the hassle of the tax stamp, paperwork, and incredibly limited supply that make it difficult to obtain a fully automatic firearm in the USA(According to the Associated Press, "The US federal government approved the sale of bump stocks in 2010 after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concluded that guns equipped with the devices should not be considered illegal machine guns under federal law." The 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting led the ATF to reclassify them as illegal machine guns starting in 2019, but then in 2024 the US Supreme Court struck down this ban on the grounds that the ATF had overstepped its authority by stretching the definition of "machine gun" to this extent.). The drawbacks are a more sporadic fire rate compared to built-in automatic fire and making you unable to hit whatever you were aiming at: it requires you to repeatedly slam the entire upper assembly of the rifle against your shoulder, completely wrecking accuracy and precision. The rubber-band Gatling gun. The ultimate in rubber band small arms technology, it can fire over a hundred bands in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately it costs $500.00 (not including shipping), takes around half an hour to load, has a tendency to jam if not loaded very carefully, and is horribly inaccurate. * The Franchi SPAS-12 shotgun is another weapon that became famous through action movies and video games but the weapon's handling makes it unwieldy to use. The pump action is difficult to operate for a shotgun and the weapon weighs in at 10 lb (4.53 kg) fully loaded. Another problem was a notoriously unreliable safety that required a manufacturers' recall to address. In short, it may be cool-looking in movies and video games, but you're better off with another shotgun for regular use. The final nail in the coffin at least for the United States was a ban on its importing in 1986(Along with pretty much every other long gun made by a foreign company with a couple exceptions. Guns made by a foreign company but manufactured in the U.S. are exempt from this. Contrary to popular belief the SPAS-12 is NOT banned in the U.S. (at least on a federal level, state or local laws may say otherwise), it's considered no different than any other semi-automatic shotgun and no special tax stamps or permits are required to buy one that was in the U.S. before the 1986 ban went into effect. Bringing one in from anywhere outside the U.S. is a felony, regardless of when the gun was made.), making it both very hard to find and an impractical shotgun that may possess an unreliable safety. * Every single gun created by Cobray Company falls to this with varying degrees of awesome, although also universally impractical. + They produced some of the above-mentioned MAC-10/MAC-11. Accuracy and reliability are surprisingly adequate, but the huge size, bulky, angular grip, top-heavy bolt, and sharp edges from the gun's sheet-metal construction make them range toys that are both fun to shoot and not fun to shoot at the same time. + The Pocket Pal was a dual-barreled revolver that could fire both .22 long and .380 special rounds. The problem was that it could only either hold one type of cartridge at a time, requiring that the entire cylinder be replaced to change bullets, or even just to reload. The gun was also entirely cast steel, so it was quite heavy for its tiny size. + The Terminator's only awesome feature is its name. The gun is a single-shot slam fire shotgun. The Terminator is infamously unreliable. Forgotten Weapons took one to a range and it misfired far more often than it actually shot anything. However, since it is a slam fire, I.E. the heavy barrel launches backwards to make the bullet hit a static pin (and against your shoulder), it has uncomfortable "recoil" even when it doesn't fire. Despite its questionable ability to even act as a single-shot weapon, the Terminator got legal attention over the possibility that it could be easily converted into a machine gun (although doing such an act would require an expert gunsmith, lots of steel, and lots of money, making the prospect of an easy machine gun completely impossible). + Their most infamous design is the Street Sweeper. A copy of the Armsel Striker, this shotgun has a large cylinder that can hold up to 12 rounds and gives the weapon a fearsome appearance. However, reloading the gun is a long procedure as the spent casing has to be manually removed and the cylinder has to be cranked by hand between each bullet insertion. The weapon suffered from Cobray's patented reliability issues, and its steel buttstock made it incredibly uncomfortable to shoot. Even though the weapon's combat effectiveness is highly questionable, the gun's name and fearsome appearance gained unwanted attention from the ATF, who declared both the Street Sweeper and the original Striker "destructive devices" without sporting purpose, requiring a tax stamp (and a mountain of paperwork) to buy or transfer them. - Cobray retooled the Street Sweeper into the "Ladies Home Companion". It was a Street Sweeper in pistol form and was marketed for women to use as a personal defense weapon at home. This made the gun effectively a high-capacity revolver with a "cool" appearance. However, the "pistol" was 8 pounds (for comparison, the M16 rifle is only 7.5 pounds when fully loaded), with a huge amount of weight in front of the shooter's firing hands so keeping the weapon pointed at a target is exhausting, the recoil is insane thanks to be being chambered in a .45-70 caliber rifle round, on top of all the existing issues with the Street Sweeper.(Hilariously though, the ATF just considers this a revolver, and so it's perfectly legal to own anywhere that pistols are legal to possess. Theoretically you could place one in a holster and open carry it where permissible by law.) * Firing red-hot rebars from a battery-powered crossbow may seem awesome, but the concept doesn't translate well from the Half-Life 2 source material to real life. Red-hot rebars don't make the ideal projectiles because they're so soft from being heated and there's no fins to stabilize the bolt so accuracy will suffer. Not to mention, you need a supply of batteries to heat up the rebars and not simply arrows for your ammo. * 3D-printed firearms have been the bane of gun control advocates (to the point that distributing blueprints for such guns online is now practically a felony), owing to the fact that 3D printers are becoming more and more widespread. However, politicians and gun control advocates have ignored several problems with 3D-printed guns. The feed polymer used in most 3D printers is the same kind used for making LEGO bricks and does not put up with the stress of actual gunfire very well (most 3D-printed guns are single-shot guns or revolvers which can't shoot many live rounds before their barrels rupture from heat stress). 3D-printed firearms cannot work without ammunition, which must be purchased from a store or a second-hand supplier. And last, but not least, 3D-printed firearms are considered disposable due to their extremely short service lives. Even the much-feared FGC-9 pistol-caliber carbine, which is the most common 3D-printed semiautomatic weapon in the criminal/terrorist world, has a very random service life for individual parts depending on the user's choice of ammunition, the feed polymer used in construction, and even the printing environment used in the creation of the weapon, with the cheapest examples literally rotting away within less than a week of manufacturing. + On the other hand, the Boring, but Practical way of manufacturing a clandestine firearm is an old-fashioned drill press and a milling machine. Any machinist can manufacture a fully functional and safe firearm faster than what it takes for a 3D printer to print the plastic parts. If one does not have machinist's skills, a CNC lathe and CIM milling machine can be used instead. * Sputter guns. They are basically submachine guns or machine pistols which shoot the whole magazine empty when the bolt is released, thus overriding the need of trigger. They were invented due to a loophole on automatic weapons law in the USA. Needless to say, they were quickly prohibited in almost all countries in the world. * The Taser 10, developed by Axon Enterprise, improves upon older models by being able to be loaded with up to ten cartridges at a time, as opposed to older tasers only being capable of loading two cartridges at most. This sounds fantastic until you dissect how tasers work. They create neuromuscular incapacitation (NMI) by striking the target with two wired probes (basically tiny harpoons) fired by the taser which then sends an electrical current to the target and painfully prevents muscle use between where the probes hit. The bigger the probe spread, the fewer muscles the target can use. Older models such as the Taser X2 and the Taser 7 utilize cartridges that fire two probes at once at different angles, ensuring probe spread. The individual cartridges for the Taser 10 are loaded into a large magazine and are synonymous with individual probes, meaning that a police or probation officer would need to fire their taser at least twice to have a chance of incapacitating their target. In a life or death situation, an officer may not be fast enough to aim and fire a Taser 10 a second time, and not in an incapacitating area, while an older taser model would be able to create NMI with a single shot. * In general, owning a gun as a personal defense firearm, even in countries where the laws around such are relatively lax (most famously the United States, where the right to own a gun is enshrined in the 2nd Amendment, and some jurisdictions even allow openly carrying weapons in public, a.k.a. "open carry"). As a ranged weapon, it can feel like no one can mess with you, but at the same time, guns are very dangerous things, both to the target and the user, the latter especially if they aren't well-trained or otherwise skimp on the Gun Safety. Perhaps most of all are the legal ramifications, because guns aren't just designed to immobilize others or defend yourself; they're designed to kill. If your shot kills someone, even in a genuine self-defense situation, you better have a very good lawyer who can advocate your self-defense plea very well, and even then there's a high chance you are still going to face life-changing consequences for taking somebody else's life — legal, social, and psychological. In short, owning a gun for self-defense can be viable and can save your life, but it's not a no-effort "make your assailant go away" magic spell and you may need to justify yourself in court afterwards. * Using walking canes to conceal weapons is crafty, but not a legal loophole in the slightest. + Sword canes can exude a level of awesome, providing a walking support for those who need or prefer the added support when walking on foot, and concealing a bladed weapon for a nasty surprise to attackers. Alas, the legality of these weapons is variable, some regions banning them outright, or prohibiting concealed weapons in general. Sword canes are also a figurative double-edged sword as their concealable nature also makes them attractive to criminals, and thus usable for nefarious purposes. As with owning a firearm, an assailant dying isn't a "make your problems disappear" button, as use of deadly force again needs legal justification. Several English martial artists instead advocate for the use of a solid cane. > R. G. Allanson-Winn: The sword-stick is an instrument I thoroughly detest and abominate, and could not possibly advocate the use of in any circumstance whatever...they are poor things as regards length and strength, and 'not in it' with a good stick...the hollowing out of the cane, to make the scabbard, renders them almost useless for hitting purposes. + Gun canes have concealed firearms in their structures but are just as subject to firearm and concealed weapon laws as dedicated firearms. Again, they are also highly desirable in the world of crime and thus easy to use for illegitimate tasks. * Exotic pets, or just numbers of ordinary ones, were used to show off the owner's wealth and easy life. The most common ones were big cats, monkeys, bears, elephants, and non-native birds, but anything that took their fancy was fair game. Royalty and nobility were also known for herds of horses when even one horse was a sign that the owner was well above everyone else. + Dangerous exotic pets, such as lions, tigers, chimps, wolves, and wolfdogs, are seemly cool and awesome to have...but come at the high cost of high chance of eventual mauling or death. They also are often illegal and expensive as hell to keep—a single tiger, for example, will cost upwards of ten thousand dollars a year to feed and take care of—and it's a good way to make sure your loved ones never visit you again for fear of your pet. + Domesticated servals. They embody the best character features of the cat and the dog, they're fast and agile and in general great fun to have around. They're also extremely expensive to buy, require rather more food and open spaces than your average cat, and need very caring and committed owners. + This is the origin of the term "white elephant". The legend goes that the kings of Siam would gift white elephants to people they found troublesome or obnoxious, so as to ruin them financially with the costs of their upkeep. Since white elephants are held to be sacred in both Hinduism and Buddhism, there were laws protecting them from being killed or used for labor, meaning that the recipient of this gift now had to care for a large, hungry beast that he couldn't get rid of or put to good use (and it's not like you could turn it down, either, since refusing a gift from the king, much less a gift of a sacred animal, would be a grave offense). + In Asian households, arowana fish are believed to bestow good fortune upon their owners, the legend being that they're juvenile forms of Chinese dragons. However, a single silver arowana can cost upwards of 1,000 USD young, and several thousand when matured (rarer colored ones go for double or even triple the price of the silver ones). And they're not easy to keep either; they are carnivores and must be fed a specific diet (usually live), and when matured can grow to a length of two feet and become strong enough to break the tank they're in. Wealthy Asian businessmen are known to not only buy the most high-end tanks for them but also specifically hire people to keep these things alive (which is pretty much a 'round the clock job). It becomes somewhat Hilarious in Hindsight that the original legend said that the dragon born of an arowana would come back to either punish a bad owner or shower the owner with riches (anyone actually rich enough to take care of one would probably be better off just spending the money!). + Even the basic octopus is very expensive and has specific needs that require extensive planning to keep as a pet, made worse by the surprising frequency people try to buy them for their home aquariums. First, their extreme sensitivity to changes in their water combined with their messy eating habits means that their water needs to be changed very frequently. But most prominently, the fact that they are so intelligent means that they are prone to boredom and escape attempts, meaning they need tanks with locks and toys just to keep them entertained. And what does even the most dedicated octopus owner get under the best conditions once all of these needs are checked? A pet that requires a lot of work to keep healthy and entertained and whose natural lifespan almost guarantees they won't live more than a year or two anyway. * Dog breeds that are extreme distortions of the original model, such as bulldogs with such big heads and narrow pelvises that they can't give birth naturally; their puppies always have to be delivered by Caesarean. + Or pugs, which will self-destruct (that is, grow infections and illness, quite possibly leading to death) if not cared for very scrupulously. + Big debates have sprung up over slope-backed or straight-backed German Shepherds. + Cat breeders are doing the same genetic damage to several breeds. Purebred Persians have breathing problems, eye problems, and are more likely to have stillbirths. The original breed type is still around (usually called Traditional Persian or Doll-Face Persian), but cat shows won't let them compete because they don't have the malformed skull that has become breed-standard. + On the other side of things, a few bulldog breeders have realized that the current breed standard for bulldogs is unhealthy to the well-being of the bulldog so they're setting a new standard to make it more robust (and even looking like how the breed was in the 1800s). + Genetic disorders are one of the pitfalls of so-called "certified breeds". One popular breed, the golden retriever, can suffer from disorders such as hip dysplasia due to the lack of genetic diversity in the family tree, a problem not found in "mutt dogs". Mutts don't have the "awesomeness" of purebred dogs and may not command the same high prices, but tend to have fewer recessive traits that can plague pure breeds and can still make great companions. Often overlooked because of the priceless nature of a family pet, but still a major consideration before adoption. * Cloning your pet. Imagine bringing your beloved animal companion back from the dead! Only cloning doesn't work that way in real life. The clone may be genetically identical, but it'll be a unique and new individual with its own temperament and personality. Not to mention that cloning would cost tens of thousands of dollars to get the same kind of pet you could buy from conventional sources for much less. * Many reptile owners decide that they're bored of common reptiles found in the pet trade today—bearded dragons, box turtles, ball pythons, etc.—and go for something far more unusual and exotic: monitor lizards, emerald tree boas, large tortoises, something along those lines. Maybe even a venomous, aka "hot" reptile. However, even if legality isn't an issue (owning a hot is either outright banned or heavily regulated), these pets can cost thousands of dollars to purchase, with equally-expensive care requirements due to their size, natural habitat, and diet. They might also have a defensive nature and be more prone to hiding from and/or attacking their owner. And this is assuming the pet doesn't die from inadequate care. Indeed, the reason the more common reptile species are so popular in the first place is because they do well in captivity: docile temperament, manageable size, and relatively-simple needs. + Some large snakes, such as anaconda (Eunectes murinus) are very aggressive and have a vicious temperament, and can be dangerous to the owner or family members. * Parrots, especially larger ones like the huge Hyacinth Macaw and smart ones like the African Grey, are very difficult to care for properly, and as they can be capable of living for decades, may even require posthumous arrangements for their care. They are great companions, but it is exactly that capacity of sociality which makes their care so difficult. They are social animals who require interaction, and isolation makes them dangerous to themselves and others. If one is a professional working with animals, then they are an excellent choice, but casual pet owners would be far better off simply getting a dog or some fish. Oh, and if they've picked up a habit of swearing, they may be harder to rehome. * Working dog breeds as pets. They look cool and are really smart and strong, but being bred to work and have lots of energy also means they have the mental urge to be constantly active. They generally need a large amount of space to play in, lots of daily physical exercise (rain or shine), and lots of mental stimulation. If they don't get those things, they can become destructive, anxious, and/or aggressive. Many types of working dog also have a high prey drive that makes it difficult for them to coexist with children and smaller pets. For this reason, they're not usually recommended for first-time dog owners or anyone who can't give them the time, space, and exercise they need. As this Tumblr post says, "If you get a work dog and do not give it a job, it will give itself a job, and that job might just be disassembling your couch." + Huskies are beautiful, intelligent, friendly dogs. They also have a high prey drive, are notorious escape artists, shed like crazy, and need a ton of space and exercise. They will also be unhappy in hot or warm weather, because their thick coats are meant to help them survive Arctic cold. Reportedly, there was a large increase of huskies being adopted and then surrendered in short order during the peak of Game of Thrones' popularity, when fans went out to get huskies because they look like the direwolves from the show and then found out how much work it was to care for one. + Belgian Malinoises became popular in the 2010s as a result of the publicity surrounding Seal Team 6's 2011 raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound, which involved a Malinois, and from the films Max (2015) and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Besides all the standard features of a working dog (high energy, a need for lots of space and exercise), they also like to play rough and can be reactive towards unfamiliar people or animals. * In the tennis world in 2007, an exhibition match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal called Battle Of The Surfaces was held. Federer vs. Nadal on a half-grass, half-clay court. So awesome. So impractical. + In 2011, Federer vs. Nadal on a tennis court floating on the ocean. Jesus, that's cool. * Speaking of sports being played on things floating in the ocean we also had the Carrier Classic, a series of college basketball games on American aircraft carriers in 2011 and 2012. There's two problems with this idea, one that's pretty obvious and one less so. The obvious one is that aircraft carriers are very expensive pieces of high tech military hardware that can be put to much better use other than hosting basketball games, the less obvious one is that depending on the ambient air temperature too much condensation can form on the court and make it unsafe to play on. Of the five games scheduled to be played in 2012 two had to be cancelled (one outright and one deemed null and void after the first half), the games two days later were completed as scheduled and since then basketball on aircraft carriers has been limited to actual soldiers on rec time. * Most martial art styles you see in the movies is this trope. You see all those cool backflips, dodging moves that Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee know? They're real, though choreographed for movies. The most effective techniques are the simple ones you learn early. Some less-than-practical examples from Shaolin Kenpo: + Defensive Maneuver Eleven. During the course of that, you redirect a punch, knock them down, break your attacker's legs three times, knee them in the spine, and leave them face-down on the floor after kidney-shotting them. Good luck doing that one in real life. + Another offensive technique merely involves grabbing the top of a person's arm while they punch, slapping their ears, and then kneeing them in the face. You'll notice the technique begins with what is effectively catching a punch. + Bruce Lee once commented that a person who has trained for a year in boxing and a year in wrestling could beat any eastern martial artist in a no-holds-barred fight. This is why he created Jeet Kune Do, which wound up quite influential on Mixed Martial Arts: he felt that other Eastern martial arts forms had grown too rigid to the point of being useless in a real fight, referring to them as "organized despair". + Any flying kick or other technique that causes the attacker to leave the ground in various martial arts. The purpose of these techniques is to teach control and balance and pulled off well they definitely look cool. But they are often highly telegraphed and leave the attacker without any sure footing until they land. A sufficiently savvy defender can simply sidestep these or even knock the kicker right out of the air. They also have the disadvantage of taking you off the ground. The whole "equal and opposite reaction" thing works better when you're braced against the ground and can really push your opponent with your kick or punch. * No matter how cool it looks, a roundhouse kick is easily telegraphed and can be countered in many ways even with proper training. * Everybody who achieves dan (black belt) rank in Shotokan karate will have spent years learning and demonstrating a variety of impressive stances, spins, jumps, and sweeps. Any competitive fight between practitioners of this rank will be dominated by simple punches, plus maybe a few basic kicks at targets of opportunity. Overall a practitioner will learn everything they might practically need during the first months of training, with the next decade being spent building the speed, reflexes, precision, and stamina to better deliver that day-one punch. * Aikido in general tends to earn this accusation, to the point that even many of its defenders will usually admit that it's pretty useless in any kind of actual fight (or even spars, or sport fights like MMA), if not outright claiming it's not meant for fighting at all. Aikido prioritizes flashy, impressive-looking throws and grabs that, when executed successfully, allow the user to flip someone over their shoulder like a ragdoll while barely moving themselves. However, many of said techniques are also based on countering an opponent who does nothing but walk at you in a straight line throwing clumsy punches. Aikido training also places almost no emphasis on conditioning and fitness, and features no real sparring; in fact, a significant part of the art is in the person being thrown or forced into a hold actually assisting the other person in doing so. As Seanbaby once put it: > Combat in aikido is centered around using your opponent's own force against him. When you watch high-level demonstrations, it's one grand master in the center of 50 aikido lunatics. They take turns sprinting at him and when each of them gets close, something subtle causes them to front flip. Suspiciously, this front flip-causing ability only seems to work against people who are voluntarily practicing aikido with you. Against regular people, it only seems to be very unpleasant on your joints. * Ironically, Krav Maga, despite its pragmatic, modern military reputation also falls into this trope in the eyes of many martial artists. As a style focused entirely on military and self-defense situations, Krav Maga provides a massive repertoire of brutal incapacitating moves meant to end a fight, aimed at vital points of the target such as their throat, eyes, and most infamously, groin. However, in practice, it's become a victim of its own excessive brutality and emphasis on potentially lethal takedowns... there simply isn't much ''room'' to actually spar instead of rely on rehearsed motions when you're learning how to gouge people's eyes out, and this lack of combat experience can often cause it to fall apart even in a relatively simple situation (as used by the IDF, it's primarily a way to disable or restrain your enemy long enough for you or a buddy to shoot or stab them in the face). The form normally taught to civilians for self-defense is essentially Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under a different name. * It's difficult to say whether or not basketball (mostly the NBA) subverts or plays this trope straight with slam dunks. Many NBA players will not hesitate to perform a flashy dunk if they have the chance, mostly on fast breaks. The 360s, reverse dunks, and windmills look a hell of a lot cooler than standard dunks, but they're still worth the same number of points... and the fancy dunks have a higher chance of missing. However, some people are of the belief that performing flashy dunks can spark a home crowd (or deflate an opposing crowd), thus giving the team more momentum than a normal dunk would.(You could make a case that this does have a practical value, players that are known for this flashy but not particularly fundamentally sound plays do draw in TV ratings, especially in the coveted "Key Demo". Players salaries are a fixed percentage of total league revenue (currently 50% per the agreement between the owners and player's union), and most of that revenue comes in the form of TV rights fees, you can do the math from here. These showboat players also tend to do better in terms of endorsements than a more low-key guy with similar stats. No player will ever admit this out loud, but while it might not help your team win it could be a big help to your personal finances.) + The defensive equivalent of a flashy dunk in this regard is blocking the shot so hard that you hit it out of bounds. Sure, you look like a badass in the process of stopping the team from scoring, but in most cases, having touched the ball last, you let the other side retain possession of the ball. A more practical technique would be to try to tip the ball softly toward a teammate and gain possession (that's not gonna make SportsCenter, though). Bill Russell, one of the greatest defenders and shot-blockers (if not THE greatest) in NBA history, went on record many times as saying that blocking shots out of bounds, unless absolutely necessary, is a basketball sin. + This trope also applies to passing in basketball. Some players are simply incapable of making a routine chest pass (Jason Williams, formerly of the Sacramento Kings, was benched during fourth quarters because of this — after retiring from the NBA, he now plays a lot of exhibition matches, which give him a lot more room to try fancy passes) at all, and would rather risk a turnover by doing a flashy behind-the-back pass. + Related to fancy passes and dunks, we have street basketball, an entire style based on flashy movements. Yes, it looks awesome, fancy and it's a good way to throw off one's opponent in an amateur match. In a standard match, however? Chances are the player would be exhausted very quickly because of all the useless movements, not to mention that a trained player with good reflexes can easily steal the ball. * Most Professional Wrestling moves qualify. Sure, they look cool and can be deadly if done incorrectly, but they would be completely useless in a real fight. Most of the throws usually require the opponent to assist, or at least allow it to happen, meaning they can be easily countered by a resisting opponent. + These days you could almost say there's an in-universe example of this during many matches, where guys (and girls) do moves that are not only useless in a real fight but useless even in the context of a professional wrestling match. Examples being contrived complicated spots involving international objects instead of.. you know, just hitting someone with it, flipping piledrivers when a regular piledriver is not only safer but actually looks more dangerous, and just a general willingness to do legitimately dangerous stunts that really make no sense in context to diminishing crowd reactions. * The "ripped look" bodybuilders have while on-stage during competitions looks awesome, but the bodybuilder is actually very low on body fat and is usually dehydrated, enough that it's not uncommon for bodybuilders to pass out at competitions. By comparison, if you look at world-class competitors for weightlifting and other competitions of strength, notice how few care about their overall body image (and some are even fat, making it Stout Strength) despite being the strongest men alive. Looking like you could bench 150 kilograms is not the same as actually being able to. * Free-running, which is a descendant of the much more Boring, but Practical Parkour. Sure, it's cool to make all those backflips and land on your feet just to keep running, but the training, agility, and stamina required are prohibitive for most people. * In the National Football League, many teams are tempted to draft a Quarterback first overall, given half a chance. However, there are only two ways to acquire the first overall draft pick: Either being the worst team in the league in the previous season or trading for it, which in effect means giving up either top tier players or several draft picks, which translates to less room for growing the roster and filling weak spots with better young talent. Sure signing the exciting new gunslinger who just won the Heisman Trophy and led his team to the national championship is tempting, but even if he does not prove to be a bust (surprisingly common) he will most likely be surrounded by a team that earned their spot as the worst team in the league, and a relatively inexperienced new quarterback can sometimes be a detriment. If the first draft pick was acquired in a trade, you might get a good team in the first year (when the new QB is still learning the ropes), but having given up all those picks to trade up to number one will hurt you in the years afterward. Boring, but Practical solutions like trading away first overall and/or building defense and the offensive line instead can be much more rewarding in the medium or even long term. However, this is kind of a Luck-Based Mission, because in some cases the first overall pick really does live up to the hype, like the Manning brothers, both of whom enjoyed long NFL careers and won two Vince Lombardi Trophies. And because of the NFL's rookie salary scale a QB on a 4 year rookie contract is making a pittance compared to what a star veteran quarterback is making (around $50 million a year these days), so you'll have some extra cap room to fill those holes left by the picks you traded away. At least for the first 4 years... + Oh, and if your first-round QB turns out to be good? Like, really, really, really good? This trope gets invoked again once his rookie deal is up and you're either losing him to free agency or giving him a contract that eats up roughly a quarter (or more) of your cap space(Or franchise tagging him, which means you're giving him a quarter of your cap space, but for only one season). Good luck being able to afford anyone decent for him to throw the ball to, or any high-caliber player that can prevent the opposing team from scoring. Case in point: Patrick Mahomes. Drafted 10th overall in 2017, was NFL Most Valuble Player in 2018, won (and was MVP of) Super Bowl LIV following the 2019 season, signed a 10 year $503 million contract extension in 2020. - Averted in this particular example, as with the sheer inflation on salaries at the quarterback position, in just three seasons, Mahomes has fallen out of the top five earners at his his position, and nearly out of the top ten, in favor primarily of players he outperforms, while he is tied into a contract that provides immense long-term security at the cost of the year-to-year increased salaries he could have commanded with contracts of a more standard length. * In soccer flashy offenses like the Dutch Totaalvoetbal of the 1970s have many admirers and are admittedly a delight to watch, but they have netted the Dutch team a grand total of zero World Cup wins. Meanwhile, Italy, which is well known for the more defensively oriented Catenaccio, which has been described as "stirring concrete" has won the World Cup four times. Sadly the flashy awesome offensive powerhouse of world soccer has nothing against the incredibly boring (but practical) style of just keeping the opponent from scoring until they make a mistake or are too exhausted. With very few exceptions, the best defense will win against the best offense when measured in goals scored/permitted per game. This is part of the reason why the number of goals scored per game at the highest level has trended down ever since the 1954 World Cup set a record at 5.38 goals per game. Today it is below three and trending downwards still. * Butterfly stroke in swimming. It is considered as the most difficult to learn and the most energy-consuming swimming style, whilst it isn't the fastest (the front crawl, universally used in freestyle events, is).("Freestyle" is not a stroke; it's actually a race condition. Freestyle events allow competitors to use any stroke that's not the backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly. In the olden days (say, well over 100 years ago), the sidestroke was most common in freestyle, but the front crawl proved much faster.) It has little use aside from swimming competitions — breaststroke is the most energy-efficient overall and backstroke is the easiest to teach to a non-swimmer. The one selling point butterfly has is that it has the highest top speed when performing the motion, but this is offset by the long recovery afterwards that makes front crawl more consistent. * Martial arts aimed against a single set of opponents, such as jodo. Jodo was originally developed by Gonnosuke Musō after his defeat to Miyamoto Musashi and it is aimed against a katana-armed unarmoured opponent to defeat him. It is next to useless against anyone who a) has any body armor or b) is armed with a different weapon. * The National Football League tries its damnedest to avert this trope. Over time the NFL has turned into more of a passing league and (arguably) Boring, but Practical "three yards and a cloud of dust" offenses are becoming rarer and rarer in favor of high-risk high-reward gunslinger offenses and trick plays are usually encouraged rather than looked down upon. There was one area in which the NFL did play this trope straight for a long time, namely extra points. Teams that just scored a touchdown would get the ball at the two-and-a-half-yard line and get one extra point for a field goal from that position and two extra points for a touchdown. Statistics show that a field goal from so short a distance has a success rate well north of 99% and there is only a roughly 45% chance of the two-point conversion being made, making the two-pointer Awesome, But Impractical in all situations but games where one point is useless but two points make it a tie game(This chart shows when simple math dictates going for two, though it mostly gets ignored if the lead is more than 10 points). The NFL, however, decided to move the line of scrimmage for kicked conversions back to the 15-yard line (while leaving two-point attempts at the same point), which has proven to make teams a little more inclined to go for two. + Specialty football offensive schemes like the run-and-shoot (four wide receivers and a single running back, with an emphasis on passing) and the option family (wishbone, flexbone, veer—three running backs with the quarterback able to shift between handoffs, pitches, and scrambles, with lots of fake plays and deception) are a lot of fun to watch when they're executed properly, utterly slicing up the defense and lighting up scoreboards, with the seeming ability to score from any point on the field. Problem is, they're one-dimensional and so specialized that the players are largely drilled only on how to run that particular offense. If a defense can figure out how to stop it, the offense sputters. On the college level, only a handful of teams still run the pure versions of these offenses. Notably, the rise of the spread offense addressed this issue by combining elements of the single-back and option offenses to allow more flexible play calling. + Blitzing. Sending lots of guys after the quarterback looks cool, and can get spectacular results, but if the rush doesn't get home the defense is highly vulnerable to a deep pass. Worse, NFL offenses these days have a ton of tools to handle blitzes and a preponderance of veteran quarterbacks who have seen every blitz in the book and will see them coming a mile away. The increasing focus on quarterback mobility in particular hurts blitzes badly. Teams are increasingly giving up blitzing the game's top quarterbacks, because it's simply counterproductive. * Submarine (better known as underhand) windups in baseball. A truly skilled submarine pitcher can generate groundball outs and prevent batters from hitting fly balls at a 70% ground ball/fly ball ratio or better (the MLB average is around 48%), and the unusual arm slot and motion enables them to throw pitches that no one else can, like literal rising fastballs (otherwise impossible due to air resistance), or changeups that seem to break upwards before they fade. The catch? It's ridiculously difficult to master. As of the 2016 season, there were no true submarine pitchers in MLB, with only Brad Ziegler, Joe Smith, and Darren O'Day fitting the criteria of partial submarine pitchers (guys who throw from an extremely low sidearm slot, but not a purely vertical one). They are somewhat more common in the NPB and KBO Leagues of Japan and Korea, respectively, however. * Kicksaves by pitchers also fall under this umbrella in baseball. They're amazing, and can be hilarious depending on the situation (here's a great example of Cleveland's Zach McAllister kicking a line drive out of the air), but they're amazingly impractical. There's no way to control where the ricochet goes, meaning that sometimes you save your team an out and sometimes you cost them an out. It's essentially luck as to whether it works or not. On top of that, there's a huge risk of injury trying to intercept a line drive (liners can reach up to 120 mph) with your body, especially from as close as the pitcher's mound. Pitchers are often told to let a hit go through rather than risk a kicksave. * In Handball the "Kempa-Trick" (throwing the ball to a teammate while already in the goal circle who catches it in the air and throws on goal) may look flashy and has a high success rate when properly done, but it is hard to master, increases the risk of injury and if it isn't timed to fractions of a second, someone steps into the circle before the goal is scored. A "normal" goal is usually much easier to achieve than this showboating. * Banked-track Roller Derby is a lot of fun. It's faster-paced than flat-track roller derby, lends itself to a more wide-open play style, and has tighter scores. The problem is the track itself, which is large, heavy, expensive to maintain, and costly to store. There is a reason why flat-track derby, which can be played on any smooth flat surface that can take tape, is the dominant style of the sport. * In golf, there are two types of swings that would belong here: + The overswing, which is where someone winds up their club almost to the point of touching their back. It provides more strength to the swing on paper and carried John Daly to being the PGA Tour's first player to average 300+ yard drives and 2 major wins. But for most golfers, it increases the difficulty of stabilizing a swing, leading to more erratic and inconsistent drives. With few exceptions, you generally only see it used by players new to the sport. + The Happy Gilmore swing. Yes, the famed run-up and swing that Happy uses in the movie is indeed technically usable in real golf, and while it's unlikely to make you start hitting 400-yard drives(For those wondering, that kind of distance is generally only seen consistently from the types of people who compete at long drive competitions, even after 2 decades since that movie with updated golf technology.), most tests find that it consistently adds 10% distance to a golf shot if done well. The problem is that it makes major sacrifices of accuracy and consistency in the process, which are already problems enough for even the best of professionals. This is why no real-life pro actually uses it in a serious setting. * Hosting international sporting events like the Olympic Games or The World Cup can be this. + While hosting the Olympics or the World Cup is often presented as a prestigious honor, the events often play merry hell with the host city. Besides just building the stadiums, host cities also have to build additional infrastructure like housing for athletes, media centers, ceremonial spaces and transportation networks, which only drives up costs and saddles the host city with massive amounts of debt. At the same time, clearing out sites for Olympic venues can result in thousands, if not millions, of residents becoming displaced either by state-ordered evictions or inflated living costs associated with the sporting events(The number of displaced residents can range from a minimum of 30,000 people with the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta to as many as 1.5 million with the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.). It also doesn't help that international sporting associations IOC and FIFA refuse to help cover costs while pocketing the lion's share of TV ad and merchandise revenue, making the games very unprofitable. Once the games are over, the stadiums are left to decay as the indebted host city doesn't have the funds and workers leftover for maintenance, rendering them useless for future sporting events or any other activities. While international sporting events can lead to infrastructure projects that wouldn't otherwise happen, most of the roads and housing are too specialized to be used by ordinary citizens. Given the diminishing returns, fewer cities are making bids to host upcoming Olympics and World Cup games. + The Olympics in the "spend gargantuan sums" era that are widely seen as successes (albeit limited successes) all went a Boring, but Practical route. Los Angeles in 1984 used several pre-existing stadiums and "solved" the traffic problem by simply telling the locals so often that traffic would be horrible so that they would avoid the freeways. Traffic was among the calmest it had ever been during the Olympics. Atlanta in 1996 would rely on Coca-Cola, whose world headquarters is in the city, to spend huge amounts in sponsorship and advertising and like Los Angeles, had several pre-existing stadiums used by its professional and college teams as well as a large state-owned convention center. London in 2012 likewise relied on both pre-existing structures and temporary buildings for sports that aren't popular enough in the UK for an Olympic-sized venue to make much sense. Apparently, the IOC has learned from some of its mistakes and now prefers cities with more pre-existing venues as well as regional cooperations to apply in order to cut down on costs. However, LA was more or less openly bribed to let Paris have the 2024 Olympics and was instead awarded the 2028 games and a handsome sum of money. The Munich Olympics, while overshadowed by the events surrounding the Israeli Olympic team were another relative success, especially when it comes to long-term use of facilities (Olympiastadion was the home of FC Bayern for decades and is still used for concerts) and other infrastructure like the Munich S-Bahn and U-Bahn. The Olympic village was converted to housing, which is in chronic short supply in Munich. + The 2014 Sochi Olympics, widely criticized for the "enormous waste" the investment in preparation to them allegedly was, actually were a clever ploy of the Keynesian faction within the Russian Government to outmaneuver the monetarist faction that is opposed to all infrastructure investments on the matter of principle, insisting that it will only lead into inflation. The Olympics were the useful pretext to develop the area's infrastructure, building new roads, hotels, power stations, railways, etc., which turned the pretty forgotten corner of the Caucasus, only vaguely popular among the budget skiers beforehand, into the bustling whole-year resort which also regularly hosts new sports events ever since, including a Formula 1 race and several matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The stadiums were built from scratch, true, but the event brought enough attention to the city that they didn't stay empty afterward — it helps that Russia actually still lacks modern state-of-the-art venues, which were needed to be built anyway. * Due to electronic scoring, Olympic fencing encourages behavior which a time-travelling swordsman might call "suicidal hyperaggression", producing athletes who are the best in the world at rapidly closing distance and scoring first touch. While this sort of dramatic flair has been popular for generations, if a fight with cold steel blades lasts three seconds and requires high-speed footage to clarify which combatant was the first to be stabbed, then most people also instinctively understand that nobody has won. Even among experts, 'historical' matches tend to be slower, more methodical, and far more cautious, with frequent pauses when both combatants pull back to probe for safer openings. * Lifters who skip leg day, and focus on sculpting their upper body, may look powerful waist-up, but one look below the belt shows embarrassing-looking twig legs that would get them laughed at anyways. More importantly, though, the legs are a person's foundation, and the lower body ones are some of the most powerful muscles in the human body (to the point where a 300-400 pound couch potato can still walk despite their legs being thin as sticks muscle-wise), and you'll achieve more strength with Leg Drive (one of the foundations behind Kinetic Linking) than without it. Plus, a lot of people find a sculpted butt attractive, so there's also aesthetic reasons for it. There's a reason that skipping leg day became a meme. * Kipping is this when doing pull-ups and muscle-ups. Yes, it adds a style factor and makes it easier, but it takes less strength, and it's difficult to transfer to the traditional variant. All things considered, doing the regular versions is the best way to go. * For a short moment in the 2000s, Hydraulic Launches on rollercoasters were all the rage, with Intamin via their 'Accelerator Coaster' models demonstrating that they could allow roller coasters to reach speeds over 200km/h and generate a forceful launch that can clear a hill of over 400 feet. They are also massively unreliable, which has led to these launch systems eventually being phased out of new coaster designs. Technology Marches On comes into play, as the Linear Synchronous Motor (LSM), which launches trains using an electro-magnetic system, turned out to give all the benefits of hydraulics while being far more flexible and reliable. * Vertical loops work well on rollercoasters, but they fall into this trope when they are put on waterslides. Action Park attempted a looping waterslide known as the "Cannonball Loop", debuting in 1983, and it became infamous for just how unreliable and dangerous it was even for a park known for having No OSHA Compliance. There's a significant difference with riding a loop on a secure cart attached to a rail and simply riding all by yourself, and many people reported coming out with broken noses and bloody teeth from smashing against the sides of the loop. In addition, waterslides rely solely on gravity, so there's no way to accelerate a guest's speed when they are going up the loop, meaning guests who otherwise fit in the slide's tube tend to get stuck at the top if they get that far, resulting in Action Park having to add an escape hatch at the top. It also carried the problem that any debris in the ride's water, often things like dirt and sand washed off the riders' feet or the aforementioned lost teeth, would often be too heavy to make the loop, meaning it would collect in the section just before it and mean the riders were sliding across what felt like sandpaper. Action Park's distant successor, Mountain Creek Waterpark, announced in 2015 their attempt to revisit the idea in a ride called the "Sky Caliber", which would attempt to solve this problem by putting guests in aluminum capsules that ran along runners, but it has since appeared to have fallen into Development Hell. * Disney's "Galactic Starcruiser" hotel was a Star Wars-themed hotel at the Galaxy's Edge side of the Walt Disney World. The hotel was a theme park marvel that offered an immersive, beautifully designed blend of Dinner Theatre and LARP-style activities. For its innovation and quality alone, it was highly praised by critics and guests. It was also an expensive, low-capacity hotel (probably better described as a very long dinner theater show) that resulted in extremely high ticket prices while appealing only to the most hardcore Star Wars fans who were willing to spend $5,000 and two nights of their Disney vacation doing LARP-style activities. All of the activities ran on a tight and mutually exclusive schedule by necessity and made it likely that guests could miss events and plotlines if they couldn't keep up with the pace for any reason, and that's if the mobile app provided to guests (to track their progress in said activities) didn't malfunction. Any glitch with the app, such as not correctly logging that a guest interacted with an Disney cast member or set piece, could lock you out of progressing in whatever storyline the guest was pursuing. The hotel closed after just over a year. * Schlitterbahn Waterparks opened a water slide known as "Verrückt" on 2014 in Schlitterbahn Kansas City, made with the expressed purpose of being "the fastest and most extreme water slide ever built" — it was not only the fastest water slide (rafts could go up to 70 mph/110 km/h, comparable to an above-average roller-coaster), it was also the tallest (about 168 feet 7 inches/51.38 meters tall). While that certainly looks good in the record books and for marketing, the ride faced an insurmountable problem with physics, where the air resistance of such speeds and the fact the rafts weren't built on rails like traditional rollercoasters gave riders the occasional tendency to go airborne (even early tests with rafts filled with sandbags tended to send rafts flying, something Schlitterbahn got away with due to Kansas having relatively lax regulations on theme parks). This had tragic consequences when in August 2016, the raft going airborne injured two passengers and killed a third, the 10-year-old son of a local politician, leading Schlitterbahn to permanently close the ride and irreparably tarnishing their legacy, with their financial difficulties leading to them being absorbed by competitors Cedar Fair and Six Flags by 2024. * NERF and NERF knock-offs: + NERF shotguns. On the one hand, shotguns are awesome. On the other hand, they shoot two standard shots, when most guns can hold 3-12 times that many, before reloading. And the kinds that use shells, like the Buzz Bee Double Shot, look really cool but take forever to reset the shells. This doesn't include other blasters that are primed in shotgun fashion such as the Alpha Trooper and Rampage, Shotguns Are Just Better in that case. + The NERF Sledgefire, a new addition in the ZombieStrike line, uses three-dart shells that eject when the breech is opened. Cool, but it can only hold up to 4 at a time, and only comes with 3 since a fourth one makes reloading even more cumbersome. Refilling the shells take about as much time each as swapping out a clip from an N-Strike blaster. + In terms of cost, the NERF Cam ECS-12, a neat integration of a camera and blaster in one but at somewhere around $80 with a camera around 0.3 MP and 20 FPS, it's cheaper just to strap a GoPro to a Stryfe or use your iPhone attached to a blaster by an official holder. Not to mention, the Cam ECS-12's microphone is essentially right on top of the flywheel motor, so the only thing you will hear in a recording from it when it's ready to shoot is "WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR". * Die-cast metal. Between the weight and the durability, it has enough of a high reputation amongst collectors that some lines flat-out name themselves after the fact that their toys have metal in them, such as Soul of Chogokin or Titaniums. But it also has a fair number of downsides, especially in action figures - that heavy metal can also overpower any joints, the more pliable plastic tends to handle mechanisms or tolerances more easily, and since the metal's base colors can't change, it's reliant entirely on paint that can chip off. Making a figure mostly or entirely out of die-cast metal is reserved for model vehicles, which don't have to worry as much about these downsides. * Water guns: + The CPS 2000 was the first "CPS" Super Soaker and was in a completely different league to anything before it. As of 2020 it remains the most powerful toy water gun ever, capable of expelling a litre of water in a second at anything within a 15 metre (50 foot) radius. But after that 1 second of firing, it needs loads of pumps to re-pressurize, and after 4 such shots, you'll need to refill. It was succeeded by the CPS 2500; same size, a bit less power, but selectable smaller nozzles for longer shot time. + The Monster XL. As of 2020 still the largest water gun. This double-barreled monster has 6 nozzle options on each of its twin barrels and even comes with a bipod. But it weighs 9 kilos (20 pounds) fully loaded. And despite its size, it's not as powerful as some smaller guns. + Additionally, both the CPS 2000 and the Monster XL are now somewhat valuable collector's items, often selling for over $100 second-hand, so owners may not want to risk them in an actual water fight. * Gunpla (Gundam plastic models) + High Grade-level models of battle platforms such as the METEOR System, GP-03 "Dendrobium Orchis" and Neo Zeong. They are an amazing test of skill, usually composed of both the platform and the Mobile Suit that controls it and comes with numerous moving parts. However, the models are gargantuan (two to three feet in length, meaning you would need a dedicated spot to display the model). They're also stupidly expensive, between $100-300 USD depending on the unit. + The Advance of Zeta line of Gunpla has a gimmick that is carried over from the manga series it came from that allows builders to create new variations of certain machines. While the original retail releases never had this, the more recent P-Bandai lines do. While making a new machine is pretty awesome, as kitbashing is always beloved with modelists, the sheer amount of leftover parts is staggering. For instance, to build the Gundam Hazel Owsla, parts are needed from the original Gundam Hazel, the Advanced Hazel, the Hazel II, the Hrududu and the Primrose. By the time you build the Hazel Owsla, you have a scattering of Hazel, Advanced Hazel and Primrose parts left over, a Hazel II without its backpack and the Hrududu without its main gun. * LEGO VIDIYO was an ambitious LEGO theme focused on Augmented Reality multimedia, with the pitch being that sets consisted of wacky, music-themed stages and compact "BeatBoxes", containing minifigures and elaborate tile sets that could be scanned by an app that could create LEGO-themed AR music videos, a novelty akin to those seen in TikTok. Unfortunately, it sank dramatically due to two factors: the price (most BeatBoxes cost $20 for around 70 pieces, one of the most lopsided price-per-piece ratios in the history of LEGO, and most of the pieces are just 2x2 printed tiles), as well as the fact the AR gimmick was only available on a dedicated app that was not only notoriously buggy, but by design didn't allow anyone to export video recordings to share on more widespread platforms like TikTok or Instagram, limiting its audience and quickly drying up in novelty. The theme launched in 2021, and despite praise for the aesthetic designs and LEGO's plans to continue the line in years to come, it was discontinued in January 2022 due to being a commercial disaster. * Many tabletop RPGs involve rolling a 100-sided die or d100 to determine certain outcomes. This is usually simulated by rolling two d10s instead, with one being the ones place and the other the tens place, as a concession to the fact that, while physical d100s are possible, they're practically spherical and therefore 1) they don't readily stop rolling, 2) it can be difficult to tell which face is uppermost, and 3) they're easily jostled off whatever value they rolled to. * Sparking gimmicks, where the figure uses a built-in flint and wheel to create small sparks. They look cool, and were a part of a lot of toylines up until the early 90s, when it was discovered that they were an active safety risk if the sparks got on anything too flammable. Also, as many collectors can attest to, most of the time the sparker stopped working if regularly played with, due to the flint being worn to a nub. * When Toy Biz had the license to make X-Men figurines, one of them was a large box set known as the "Mutant Hall of Fame" - 10 figurines comprised of five heroes and five villains with their weaponry. Costing $50 practically made them a steal! Unfortunately, many a kid would find out that everything was glued sealed and mounted on a base and all their gimmicks removed. It was basically an adult collector's item mismarketed for kids. * Transformers: Unicron's War for Cybertron Trilogy figure, released via crowdfunding campaign, is to date the most impressive rendition of the Planet Eater — it remains the largest Transformers toy ever produced as of 2025, standing 27 inches tall in robot mode, and 30 inches wide in planet mode. However, this sheer size results in it taking up a lot of space, transforming it is a complex and tricky procedure, and it lacks play features such as those found in Unicron's earlier Transformers: Armada figure. It also costs a whopping $575 USD (not including tax), making it little more than an imposing display piece for collectors. * Fossil fuels such as petroleum and natural gas provide incredible amounts of energy, but they are easily hoarded by a few countries/organizations and produce greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Also, as much as they serve a lot of Boring, but Practical things, like the car, the Zippo lighter, etc. they are effectively non-renewable — once the current supply runs out, it will take millions of years for new deposits to form (if they even can: coal can't form anymore because it resulted from the fact nothing had evolved at the time that could break down lignin from plants). * Rube Goldberg Devices are unnecessarily complicated contraptions that are nonetheless fun to watch. * Memorizing pi to a large number of decimal places. Just 42 digits are accurate enough to calculate the circumference of the sun given its diameter to within the width of a proton. But since nobody knows where pi ends, finding it will forever be a source of curiosity to mathematicians. * This Cracked article lays it down in the first entry; ask a kid about fighting sometimes, and he'll tell you that 90% of a fight is being able to generate enough raw hell-yeah to make your opponent shit his pants with the force of a cannon. * This is what the Japanese "art" of chindogu is all about. Essentially, chindogu are makeshift inventions that seem ideal for solving common problems but are so impractical, create so many new problems, or are just plain embarrassing to use that they're almost entirely useless. One such example is the Butterstick, which is butter in a glue stick form. It allows you to put butter on food without dirtying a knife, but it doesn't work well with soft food such as bread, or small items such as peas. It is practical when serving corn on the cob, though. * Certain synthesizer patches, specifically ones that provide very un-musical effects like engine noises. They're fun to play around with, but no musician would seriously consider using them in their work. * The Alcubierre Drive is a physically viable idea for Faster-Than-Light Travel. It's only insanely expensive, requires an absurd amount of fuel, is nearly impossible to steer or turn off, and has the added effect of creating a large black hole each time it's used. Also, the volume it moves through reaches preposterously high temperatures in transit. * Necomimi ears are cat ears that move in response to your forehead muscles, and while they look cute, they'll run you at least 100 USD. They can also, as a promotional video shows, completely ruin a poker face should you wear one while playing cards. * Fountain pens. They look cool and require less pressure to write with, but also need to be held at a very specific and uncomfortable angle, or else the result is a mess of missing ink. It gets worse depending on your writing hand; left-handed people can't write in left-to-right languages as their pinkie will smudge the ink everywhere, and for the same reason right-handed people cannot write comfortably in right-to-left languages. Additionally, they are rather expensive. The far more convenient ballpoint pen has replaced the fountain pen in modern ages. It takes some particular skill and need (e.g. professional-level writing) to make fountain pens more useful than, say, a high-end gel pen. * Antarctic Press released a series of books on how to draw manga in the early 2000s. One installment focused on swords and pointed out that ridiculously-designed fantasy swords with wild blades, skulls, and encrusted jewels are only good for mantelpiece displays. They would work well only as a weapon of last resort, and would probably hurt the wielder more than the target. * Giant flags have the challenge of making sure to treat the flag with respect at all times. The act of setting a flag on the ground or tying it around the body can be seen as disrespectful, even if it's easier to carry around. In fact, there are sometimes rules against doing such things. * Siberia. It's got a lot of untapped natural resources and lots of space to do things, but it's cold and lacks a lot of the resources needed for people to survive. Every Russian regime seems to try though, to point that Russians say that you can tell when a leader is weak by how much they invest into Siberia. * Personal rapid transit might sound nice, combining the advantages of cars (spacious individual cabins that can get you anywhere on your own schedule) with those of rapid transit (lower costs, better utilization of infrastructure), but they instead combine their disadvantages. They can be as dirty and limited in network size as the suckiest subways and as inefficient as cars in handling peak demand in big cities. There is a reason why there are only four such systems in existence. * Most commercially viable forms of nuclear energy utilize only uranium-235 (about 0.7% of naturally-occurring uranium), with the unusable uranium-238 producing large volumes of waste, so technologies that do something useful with the ^238^U sound rather tempting. However, due to the myriad political and economic factors, none of the known processes have found widespread adoption. * Many sexual practices from pornography tend to fall here, as the depictions of sex within tend to focus more on heightening the sexual arousal and fantasy of the viewer over the practical mechanics of sex. As many performers have discussed, "porn sex" is shot to look exotic and exciting, but actually tends to be rather awkward, uncomfortable, and even painful for the people involved. Furthermore, particularly exotic shoots may require lengthy preparation to be safe and hygienic for those involved. Consequently, it tends to be less useful for the purposes of enjoyable lovemaking than straightforward "vanilla" sex would be. * Entirely hand-drawn animation (that is, animation done on paper and possibly even with hand inked and painted cels) has since become this, though is more of a downplayed example as some smaller studios still use it for the love of the medium. While it can capture the fluid motion that 2D animation made with a computer cannot, it is extremely time-consuming and resource intensive, and as such has become far less common today. This is why, since the 2000s, and for some as early as the late '90s, many studios had since abandoned this technique and instead rely on digital ink and paint, CGI, ToonBoom and/or Flash, with digital ink and paint being the closest comparison to cel animation, as while some of these options may not be as fluid as traditional cel animation, they're not only cheaper, but they're also less time consuming and can help production much faster. * Large drum setups may look flashy and cool, but unless you have a road crew to handle the transportation, setup and breakdown, tuning, and sound checking of your setup, they are more trouble than they're worth on the road. For one, some components (namely kick drums, floor toms, and mounting racks) are very large and heavy. Setting them up also takes a great deal of time, and that's before the soundchecks on each component. * Polyphasic sleeping. The idea is that instead of sleeping for 8 hours a night to get well-rested, you instead take a 20-minute nap every four hours to the same effect while needing to sleep less every day. First, you need to be able to do the scheduled naps on command, and it's likely that you'll end up trying to sleep and be unable to as a result. Second, there's the matter of having enough control over your daily schedule to have time for these naps, with things like school and work making it very difficult to take the necessary time off. Even if you follow the schedule perfectly, you will be unable to sleep deeply, let alone fulfill your proper sleep cycles. * While having your own swimming pool might seem the height of luxury, the costs of building one and the upkeep are very expensive for something you can only use a few months out of the year in most climates. They can also be dangerous to pets and small children. Also, if you have annoying neighbors, they may want to use the pool or even sneak into your backyard when you're not home to use it. * Elaborate Christmas light displays at one's house, particularly those synced to music. While they may look awesome at night, such an elaborate display can take days to set up and subsequently take down. Also, neighbors and homeowners' associations may not be tolerant of the light pollution as well as strangers regularly driving by to see the light display. The more lights used, the more energy is needed for the display, driving up the electricity bill during November and December. There is also the possibility of a fire if a strand of lights is defective or the circuit is overloaded. * Large telescopes if you're into amateur astronomy. With larger telescopes, it is possible to see fainter objects and more details of objects. The bad news is that larger telescopes suffer more from the effects of air turbulence and light pollution. They are also harder to transport, set up, and take down. * Asbestos is a lightweight, fireproof insulator that could be woven into cloth, mixed seamlessly with other materials, and was a plentiful natural resource. There's just one problem: it's an extremely toxic carcinogen that sends microscopic Flechette Storms into the lungs if inhaled. * Waterbeds were originally made for therapeutic purposes because they conform to the sleeper's body. This is especially convenient for side sleepers because it removes the usual pressure spot under the shoulder. However, water beds take lot of work to set up in someone's home and are vulnerable to springing leaks or getting punctured, requiring frequent repair or replacement. That is also a risk with portable air mattresses, but at least those don't soak the sleeper or flood the room with water if they fail. The waterbed also has no movement isolation, meaning if your sleeping partner shifts position you're going to feel it on your side too. After peaking in popularity during the 1980s, waterbeds were found to be impractical for most customers and have since fallen almost completely out of use. The concept of a mattress that deforms to match your body was eventually resurrected with memory foam mattresses, which use soft, durable foam to provide a very comfortable place to rest without the risks that water beds have. * All-in-one art supply sets (crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc.) might seem like a nice, inexpensive gift for the young artist in your life, but the items tend to be cheap and poor-quality that the kid won't use if they have access to anything better. For what you're paying, you'd be much better off finding out what their favorite medium is and just buying that. For instance, if they like colored pencils, you could buy them a lovely 100-count set that they're much more likely to use. * Four Walt Disney Treasures collections from the early 2000s had animated shorts hidden as Easter Eggs on their discs: Mickey Mouse in Living Color ("Mickey's Surprise Party"), Silly Symphonies ("Water Babies", "Who Killed Cock Robin?", "The Practical Pig", and "Farmyard Symphony"), Mickey Mouse in Black and White ("Minnie's Yoo Hoo"), and The Chronological Donald ("The Volunteer Worker"). While fun to search for, they were pretty inconvenient for people who just wanted to watch the shorts without having to remember where to look for them each time. Future collections did away with the Easter eggs and one short, "The Volunteer Worker", would show up on The Chronological Donald, Volume 2 as a bonus feature. * In the 1994, DC Comics had two specialized comics (Superman: The Man of Steel #30 and Worlds Collide (1994) one-shot) with a unique cover. The covers would be a background scene and come with stickers that readers can use to customize the covers with replaceable stickers of the characters and special effects. Looks neat, but the stickers would ultimately lose their adhesivity, meaning a lot of lost stickers. * Lo, and behold, Jetpack Samurai, undoubtedly impractical (as they can be shot out of the air), but cool as hell nonetheless. * Sure, building a second Nile valley is cool but those responsible for the New Valley Project soon learnt the Western Desert has high saline levels and aquifers, meaning that any irrigations would meant that it could result in saline, non-potable water. * In a similar vein, the various "giga-projects" of Saudi Arabia. While intended to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil, the projects seem more like vanity projects rather than anything practical, such as the Mukaab in the Saudi capital city of Riyadh, which is a city-within-a-city enclosed within a massive cube-shaped building 400 meters (1,300 feet) tall as it is wide. Even if any of the projects come to fruition, the Kingdom still has to overcome its massive abysmal human rights record, particularly its long history of state-sanctioned misgyony, xenophobia, and homophobia, in order to become a tourist hub. * World's tallest bike. Unsurprisingly. * The One-Time Pad. Used correctly, it's a completely unbreakable encryption method, as even brute force (trying out every possible key) will not work on it. However, it has drawbacks that make using it awkward at best. The biggest drawback is that the key must have the same length as the message - to put it simple, to encrypt 1 gigabyte of data, the key would also have to be 1 gigabyte in length. Second, the key may never be reused for encryption again. And third, the key must be kept secret, though that is a requirement for reliable encryption in general. * For the longest time mathematicians have been searching for a multiplication algorithm that's faster than O(n^2) (that is, the number of steps to complete grows by the square of how many digits there are). While a Russian mathematician Karatsuba found one that's faster, it still has exponential growth at O(n^1.59). But in 2019, a pair of mathematicians found an algorithm that grows by O(n log n), which while much faster than exponential growth, requires using Fast Fourier Transforms... which is a calculus level topic. In fact, the mathematicians that discovered the algorithm stated in their paper that it's only really useful for really huge numbers, as in, numbers with more than 2^4096 digits and it's only really useful in binary multiplication. For all other numbers, they recommend the "standard algorithm." * Fireworks look cool, and the explosive sounds they make can certainly add excitement to whatever festivities are being held. However, they're also very dangerous and can cause severe burns or death if handled poorly, and even if handled properly, their extremely loud nature can cause trauma to animals and some humans, most notably veterans with PTSD (due to the explosions resembling gunfire or artillery), the smoke can cause local pollution and impact visibility, and the possibility of starting fires, particularly in dry environments. Because of this, a growing number of city- and county-level jurisdictions ban the personal use of fireworks, and in the case of occasions frequently associated with fireworks (such as American Independence Day, New Year's Eve/Day, and Lunar New Year), they may not even do sanctioned fireworks shows at all either, sometimes substituting them with laser light shows or LED-carrying drones that form patterns in the sky, both of which avert many of the aforementioned problems. * Getting a matching tattoo set with your romantic partner. It may be a beautiful tribute to your relationship, but if you ever break up with or divorce that person, you have two options—have an unwanted reminder of your ex staring at you every time you look in the mirror, or shell out hundreds to have it removed. And it will make things awkward if you get a new partner. ---	AwesomeButImpractical	null
StarWars	# Visual Effects Of Awesome - Star Wars The Star Wars saga is filled with wonderful effects: Original Trilogy: ----------------- * The original and the best, the opening of A New Hope. A speedy rocket ship flashes by — eleven engine nozzles and not much else; it's moving too fast for us to get a good look. Then, lumbering after it, a gigantic wedge-shaped behemoth, so large it takes a full eleven seconds before we see its drive nozzles. Supposedly the effects team spent a sizeable percentage of their time on this one shot... and it shows. * The AT-ATs in The Empire Strikes Back. * Speaking of Empire, say hi to Darth Vader's new ride. Rebel pants-soiling ensues. * These days it's more obvious that the Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is a puppet. But what a puppet! Star Wars special effects have become somewhat dated, but even now they don't hold up terribly at all. + It should be noted that at the time, there was actually a small movement that attempted to get Frank Oz nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as Yoda. + You think Yoda was an impressive puppet? If you're looking for an impressive puppet in the original trilogy, look no further than Jabba the Hutt! His huge size makes it much easier to believe he's real, and the actual puppetry works well, too. * While the space battle in Return of the Jedi is impressive on its own, it becomes a thing of beauty when considering that every single ship on screen is a model, the incredible sense of scale created with these tiny little things. Even more impressive is the fact that the Star Destroyer models were around 2.5 meters long — and moved smoothly. Prequel Trilogy: ---------------- * Even if most fans ended up disliking Jar Jar, he was still the first major character in a live-action film to be animated entirely in CGI. General Grievous also has a lot of detail put into him (you can even see his heart beating when he prepares to attack Obi-Wan!). * No Clone Trooper suits were built for Episodes II and III. Yes, they're all Serkis Folk. The effects are that realistic! * The opening sequence of Revenge of the Sith. Calm flyover of a lone Star Destroyer, two fighters appear, then just as they look down below the Star Destroyer, WAR! In a long take, you have two fighters winding their way through a massive warzone. The juxtaposition of sedate view vs. intense warzone is a reminder that Lucas is a hell of a visual director. And did you know that the minutes-long battle between Anakin and Obi-wan took over 700 days to complete? And it was wonderful, wasn't it? * Much of Count Dooku's saber duels in Episodes II and III featured a body double for Christopher Lee with his head composited into the shot. In fact, his part in Episode III was filmed at a different time than Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen's, but you'd never know it in the final film because the compositing and editing is absolutely seamless. The Force Awakens: -------------------- * The brief sequences from the trailer look absolutely stunning. Even more impressive is that most of the effects are apparently being done practically rather than the CGI approach of the prequel trilogy. Special mention to the Millennium Falcon dogfighting with some TIE fighters. * Another mention goes to BB-8, who is a controllable practical effect as proven at Celebration Anaheim 2015. Most of the shots were puppetry, but remote-control electronic BB-8 models have also been made fully functional and independent. * The muffin Rey makes. She puts the mixture into a bowl right in front of the audience's face, and while the audience is distracted watching her in the background the water seamlessly forms into a muffin. None of that shot was CG. * Maz Kanata is very good motion-capture that really brings her to life. Rogue One: ------------ * K-2SO looks so incredibly realistic it's very easy to forget that he is completely digital - in a movie that has quite a lot of Practical Effects robots and creatures, put the digital K-2SO next to any of the others and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. * The appearances of \|\|Peter Cushing, who has been dead for over twenty years, as Grand Moff Tarkin, and a forty-years-younger-looking Carrie Fisher as a young Princess Leia, thanks to some ridiculously good CG/motion capture. Some people have claimed they fall into the Unintentional Uncanny Valley, but they're nonetheless stunningly realistic-looking. If you didn't know they were CG, you probably wouldn't be able to tell their parts weren't filmed forty years earlier. Even Carrie Fisher herself thought it was actually her and that they recycled a deleted scene she didn't remember filming.\|\| * The battles in general are gorgeous, some of which is down to some excellent cinematography but a lot more of which is down to ILM's usual fantastic effects work. * The Death Star's power is given a minor test in this movie, leaving behind a massive explosion with waves of debris. In the words of Director Krennic, "It's beautiful." * When a Hammerhead corvette forces two star destroyers to collide, the blade of one shearing the conning tower of the other right off, scattering clouds of debris everywhere. Seeing the painstaking detail put into the 3D models just so they can be slowly torn apart is immensely satisfying. The Last Jedi: ---------------- * Out of the shadows, motion-capture Snoke looks completely real despite his obviously impossible features. * The thala-siren milked by Luke was a practical effect, but the puppetry and detail are so good that it's not only hard to believe that it's not a real creature, but also that it's not CG. * \|\|Admiral Holdo's Heroic Sacrifice by ramming the Raddus into the Supremacy at lightspeed. Snoke's massive Mile-Long Ship is split in half in a flash of blinding white light and absolute silence.\|\| * \|\|Yoda's triumphant return, portrayed by an actual puppet!\|\| + \|\|Yoda looks exactly like he did in Empire, to the point where it's a little unnerving. There's a reason for that. The filmmakers tracked down the molds used to create the original puppet. They even found the woman who PAINTED HIS EYES just for the sake of 100% accuracy.\|\|	VisualEffectsOfAwesome	null
SquareEnix	# One Winged Angel - Square Enix Square Enix probably loves this trope even more than Disney does. It's almost a rule that their games MUST have a giant transforming final boss (if that was not already evident from the fact that it has its own subpage, and even named the trope). --- * Dragon Quest: + Dragon Quest I provides the first example in the series and one of the first examples in gaming. In spite of persistent rumors about a "pet dragon", the Dragonlord in the Japanese version did indeed transform into his more powerful true form: from a warlock to a huge purple dragon. Even the US translation of Dragon Warrior flat out states that he "revealed his true self" when you defeat his first form. At the time of this game's release, this was quite surprising. However, as seen throughout this page, this trope has become standard practice and numerous examples have occured since. In turn, looking back at the Dragonlord's transformation comes across as yet another example out of many. + Malroth in Dragon Quest II, Zoma in Dragon Quest III, and \|\|Calasmos\|\| in Dragon Quest XI are the only final bosses in the series who don't transform into more powerful forms. + Dragon Quest IV features this as a plot element. One of the main prizes sought by the villains is the mysterious "Secret of Evolution" originally discovered by Estark, King of Hell, which allowed him to become the Ultimate Life Form. Everyone who obtains the SoE is transformed into a large, fearsome creature: Estark took the form of a monstrous insectoid wielding a pair of Sinister Scimitars, the Marquis de Léon became a giant lion monster with an extra four arms, Balzack became an obese, inadequately-winged demon wielding a club(in the NES original, he simply became a vaguely more monstrous humanoid; incidentally, Balzack's newer form is also a lesser version of Pruslas, a monster encountered later in the story), \|\|and Psaro the Manslayer became Necrosaro, or Death Psaro, a massive creature that can be best described as a hideous mutation of the form Estark took\|\|. \|\|This mutated-Estark form is later imitated again by Aamon in the Remakes.\|\| - An extra note on the Final Boss instance of this in the game, which actually lends to an impressive sense of the passage of time: \|\|the final fight against Psaro actually has seven phases — the first three consist of Psaro — having achieved Estark's insectoid form — losing his limbs as you do battle with him, but in the fourth phase, he loses his head… only for the SoE to take effect and force him to a new form, called Death Psaro, with a face growing out of what used to be his abdomen. Each phase after that consists of him growing new limbs and a second head, which in narrative terms implies that you're not causing real damage as this mutation is taking effect. However, once the mutation is complete, Psaro can be killed\|\|. So ferocious is this last stage that it gets its own new battle music. \|\|Again, Aamon imitates this progression as the True Final Boss.\|\| + In Dragon Quest V, \|\|Grandmaster Nimzo\|\| uses the Secret of Evolution himself, but only has two forms and fight phases, total. + In Dragon Quest VI, \|\|Archfiend Mortamor\|\| has three forms total, passing from Evil Old Folk to a giant red hulk of a demon, to a monstrous, demonic face with a pair of free-floating hands. + Dragon Quest VII plays this straight with \|\|Demon King Orgodemir\|\| the first time you fight him. The second time, he starts out in his One-Winged Angel form before reverting back to his humanoid form, then transforming into a hybrid of the two forms and finally melting in his final form. While this is a Clipped-Wing Angel in appearance, it is still a One-Winged Angel in function, as it is the most powerful of his forms by far. + Special mention must also go to Dhoulmagus of Dragon Quest VIII, who is a \|\|mid-boss\|\| who does this, by imbibing the power of the scepter he stole from Trodain Castle. \|\|The staff has a mutating effect on several of its subsequent owners, including Jessica and Sir Leopold, a fearsome dog owned by the Magician Dominico. Lord Rhapthorne, the demon who resides within the scepter, also has this — he first appears as a firefly-like spirit, but later grows to his titanic and obese second form\|\|. + Dragon Quest IX: - Anyone who eats a Fygg — a wish-granting fruit of the World Tree — tends to have this forced on them; four of these seven fruits grant their respective wishes by turning the wish-maker into a monster with the power to act out his desires — surprisingly, there's really only one (maybe a second) case of With Great Power Comes Great Insanity that results. \|\|The Final Boss eats all seven, so stand back, y'all.\|\| - King Godwyn of the Gittish Empire transforms into a skeletal serpent dragon after his first defeat. He even warns the Hero about it in advance. > King Godwyn: ...Hmph. I see I shall have to beat your lesson into you with a good deal more force. Very well. But I'm warning you: you won't like it...! - Inverted with the Hero, who starts the game with angelic powers and wings, only to wake up wingless and powerless after the title sequence. \|\|To defeat the Big Bad, he must eat a Fygg and become completely mortal, which continues the inversion in narrative terms, but in actual gameplay, he retains all of the fighting power and skill he's achieved until then.\|\| + Dragon Quest X: - Version 1: Nelgel the Netherlord uses his Netherscythe to open a portal that summons Dark Hands to transform him into a giant hulking ape-like creature known as the Netherfiend after his first defeat. - Version 2: Maldragora transforms into a dragon god like deity with a snake for a tail via the Dark Hands. Anlucia the Maluminary, Anlucia's Evil Twin, also does this when confronted near the end of the first half of Version 2's story. - Version 3: Nadraga calls upon the Dark Hands (Noticing a trend?) to transform him into a very large Dragon monster after being defeated the first time. - Version 4: Kyronos takes a page from Orgodemir's book, first starting off as a Frezia-like monster and then transforming into a metallic angel. - Version 5: Jagonuba, the true villain of the game, as well as \|\|the summoner of the Dark Hands that Nelgel, Maldragora, and Nadraga use to transform into their respective final forms\|\|, starts off as a hulking red demon ala Mortamor, before absorbing lots of light from Goddess Luciana's butterfly body to transform into a eight-armed monster with a lean ghost-like body. Pujyu, one of Jagonuba's Dark Deities, transforms into a grotesque turtle creature at Temple of Rufa's highest level. - Version 6: Jia Red Genos, the true, TRUE villain of the game and \|\|Jagonuba, aka Jia Gonuba of the Jia Kut Clan's father, merges with the Evil Eye Moon to become Jia Meld Genos, a form that he once used to eradicate Kyururu's kind.\|\| - Version 7: Enforcer Gangabra uses the Curse of Unmaking to transform into the Execution Beast, a demonic gorilla monster when fought in the Sword of Condemnation. His cohorts, Jibuajib and Ninielsa, also transform into their Execution Beast forms when confronted during the events of 7.3. + Dragon Quest XI: - After being defeated the first time, Mordegon unleashes the full power of the Sword of Shadows and transforms into Mordragon, a giant skeletal serpent with the Sword of Shadows becoming an actual dragon that serves as his "tail". - In his final confrontation against the party, Jasper transforms into a purple muscular demon with wings. * The Final Fantasy series has a ton of examples. + The original Final Fantasy had \|\|Garland\|\|, who transformed from a human knight into a gigantic demon named Chaos. + Killing Emperor Mateus in Final Fantasy II causes his soul to split into two of these. The main characters fight one at the end of the main story. Their dead comrades fight the other. + Final Fantasy III had monsters shed their human forms, though a few of them just got bigger. Inverted with the Final Boss, who is more humanoid in battle than on the map. + Final Fantasy IV had Zemus the Lunarian wizard transform into the demonic insectoid Zeromus, which transforms into a more boney form when the heroes shine the light of the Mineral MacGuffin on him. Various bosses also do this — Scarmiglione transforms into an undead monster, Baigan turns his arm to snakes, the Dark Elf transforms into a dragon, and several monsters show up on the map as hooded, cloaked figures, although if that is actual transformation or just a limitation of map sprites is unclear. + Final Fantasy V had Exdeath twice, first into his true form of a sentient evil tree, and then into a hodgepodge of various monsters out of the Void when he learns that Evil Is Not a Toy and becomes Neo Exdeath. - Also Gilgamesh, who gets extra arms and more demonic looks. - Siren in Final Fantasy V, Chardarnook in Final Fantasy VI, and the Fake President in Final Fantasy VIII all do the 'suddenly undead' schtick. It's not especially surprising... and not typically effective. + Final Fantasy VI had Kefka, who began the game as a skinny human in jester garb. In the final battle, he became a muscular, towering God of Magic with purple skin, four angel wings, and two demon wings. His angelic form and golden backdrop evoke Lucifer as an angel of light. + Sephiroth (pictured) from Final Fantasy VII, whose Ominous Latin Chanting Leitmotif is the Trope Namer (having one wing instead of an arm, ignoring those other wings on the underside). He began as a human, then transformed into the aptly named (if only due to mistranslation) Bizarro Sephiroth, a cocoon for what he intended to be his ultimate form, the angelic Safer Sephiroth. - Aside from Sephiroth, there's also Hojo: Beat him in human form, and the Jenova cells he implanted in his own body will turn him into Helletic Hojo, a hideous, writhing, grotesque mass of flesh. Beat him in that form, and he crosses the Bishōnen Line to become the much more humanoid but still eerily non-human Lifeform-Hojo N. - Referenced in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, where Sephiroth really does grow a single wing, \|\|before he dies.\|\| - Returns again in Advent Children COMPLETE: this time, he grows it just before unleashing a brutal and bloody stab fest against Cloud. - Returns yet again in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, in which he can sprout his one wing to power his attacks after taking enough damage, and Safer Sephiroth is his Final Smash. - And again in Final Fantasy VII Remake, \|\|midway through the final boss fight\|\|. + Crisis Core is quite possibly the hugest example of this trope. Two of the four main male characters become one winged angels — one of which is black-winged and the other is white-winged. Then when you fight them, they in turn transform into monsters, still retaining the wings. - There are even several varieties of mooks and monsters who have been infused with genes from those two and thus have a single wing sprouting from their back. The second half of the game feels like the monsters from the first half decided to reappear after having visited a grand Unpaired Attachable Wings clearance sale. It reaches a point where you expect everything that isn't a robot to have a bizarre feathery wing graft. Ironically, the only character who you would expect to sprout a wing doesn't in this game — Sephiroth. + In Dirge of Cerberus, Azul, one member of the Super-Soldier Quirky Miniboss Squad, is on his own a pretty large bruiser who hefts an assault cannon, but on top of that, he can turn into a Behemoth for extra headaches. And unlike traditional Boss Encounters, he can switch between them at will. + Final Fantasy VIII had the fake president turn into the zombie Gerogero. And Ultimecia, who you fight as a "normal" witch, after which she summons Griever, then junctions herself onto Griever, then finally morphs into an eldritch horror that has her human form as legs and a skirt that's so large it's literally seen to be under and behind the party, as her time compression begins. Yeah. + Final Fantasy IX had Kuja invoke the game's Limit Break Super Mode Trance, shedding his clothing to become a glowing super-powered being covered in red fur and feathers. Earlier in the game, Zorn and Thorn fuse together to form Meltigemini, a two-headed demonic entity that's also their true form. + Final Fantasy X had Yunalesca, Seymour, and Jecht all turn into various monstrous forms. - Interestingly, Jecht's is justified by the plot. \|\|The game's summons, Aeons, are acquired by receiving them from a fayth, a precursor of sorts. In order to gain the Final Summoning and combat Sin, one of the summoner's guardians must become a fayth. Braska chose Jecht, and his one-winged angel form is that of the aeon Braska summoned.\|\| - And then there's \|\|Seymour\|\|, who has three separate boss fights (after the first where you fight him as a mere mortal) with increasingly larger and more powerful forms. The fact that he's basically this entry's Expy of Sephiroth, complete with long Anime Hair, Faux Affably Evil persona, megalomania, and a motivation to achieve a twisted form of apotheosis in order to wipe out humanity doesn't help things. + Final Fantasy X-2 inverts the trope. Each of your party members finds a unique Dressphere which allows her to become a huge multi-target monstrosity — essentially a Boss — for a limited time. + Final Fantasy XI is a bit more reserved. The Shadowlord and Promathia (initial release and second expansion) have two-stage battles, but rather than undergoing a physical change for the second stage, they just get a new set of abilities and a fresh HP Bar. - The third expansion features three bosses back to back in the final battle, though the final one, \|\|Alexander\|\|, takes over the fight himself after you deal enough damage to \|\|the Prince who is piloting his current body\|\|. This is played a bit more straight in the first expansion, Rise of the Zilart, when \|\|Eald'narche is knocked off his floating platform and his eyepatch comes off, revealing a glowing eye and he starts flying for the rest of the fight\|\|. Lady Lilith \|\|plays this traditionally straight, going from her normal attire to Lilith Ascendant◊ for Round 2\|\|. + Final Fantasy XII had Vayne use the power of nethicite to Hulk Out and become Vayne Novus. - After a lengthy battle with his 2nd form — he transforms into his one-winged angel form. \|\|The scene plays out which Vayne absorbs a portion of the Dreadnaught Bahamut fortress onto his body...Thus becoming a hideous monster/dragon himself.\|\| + Final Fantasy XIII features \|\|Galenth Dysley, who masqueraded as a frail old man and the leader of the Sanctum. His true form is\|\| the giant-robotic-rape-face fal'Cie Barthandalus. - Orphan, the true final boss, has his own one-winged angel form. \|\|Which makes it a one-winged angel form of a one-winged angel form.\|\| - Additionally, mid-game boss \|\|Cid Raines\|\| goes One Winged Angel by transforming into a \|\|Cie'th hybrid, complete with patches of crystal-looking skin and hair, and an enormous claw. Halfway through the fight, he mutates further and sprouts a pair of wings\|\|. - And in Final Fantasy XIII-2, \|\|Caius has two One Winged Angel forms; the first being Chaos Bahamut, a Palette Swap of Fang's Eidolon. The second, which serves as the final boss, is a gigantic purple dragon known as Jet Bahamut...and then Caius summons Amber Bahamut and Garnet Bahamut.\|\| - The third game in the trilogy, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII features its own One Winged Angels — \|\|much like Raines, Snow Villiers transforms into a hybrid Cie'th during his boss fight, gaining a claw-like growth on his arm similar to the one Raines had and black markings covering parts of his skin. The game's final boss, Bhunivelze, also goes through multiple different forms.\|\| + Final Fantasy XIV is rife with these. Ironically though, these were largely absent in Legacy and for the most part, A Realm Reborn but become increasingly common as the story progresses in its expansions. - Gaius during the Praetorium raid shows off his armor taking on a more powerful golden sheen when confronting the Warrior of Light, implying that he had been holding back during 1.0. - Returning from Legacy, Nael van Darnus appears during the Second Coil of Bahamut raid, her enthrallment from Bahamut in its most advanced stage as she shatters her armor and transforms into a dragon-like humanoid with large wings to fight the party. - During the early Coerthas part of ARR, an impersonator in the guise of an Ishgardian inquisitor uses magic to turn into a dragon, only for Drillenmont to point out that he's simply using a glamour for intimidation. The Harriers on the other hand, have access to real enchanted dragon blood that lets them transform into draconic beasts. - Ysayle during during the post 2.0 story demonstrates that she can uniquely summon Shiva by using her own body as a medium, effectively transforming into her. - Slightly adverted when Hraesvelgr states that she's only summoning a phantom of what she believes to be Shiva. - Speaking of Hraesvelgr, he reveals thathe supposed heretical blood magic that the heretics use to transform into dragons is tied directly to their own lineage as every living Ishgardian, high and lowborn, are all descended from King Thordan I and his knights twelve, who all devoured Ratatoskr's flesh and eyes to gain power and longevity. Only a mere sip can trigger the transformation, meaning the entire population is one drip away from turning into the creatures they fear the most. - Happens to Estenien at the end of the initial Heavensward story where he's possessed by Nidhogg's blood magic from still wearing his blood soaked armor and holding both of his eyes, allowing Nidhogg to revive himself through his body and take on his original complete form. He can also shift between this form and Estenien's though the armor is now corrupted with his eyes fused to his mail. In his final battle, he displays not only an inbetween humanoid dragon form wielding a spear, but also a version of his real form with his wings and spikes glowing hot red, which he previously used to overpower his own brother. - Of course, the current King Thordan and his knights, the Heavens' Ward are no exception to this as each of them can take on a primal-like form, together becoming the Knights of the Round from Final Fantasy VII with Thordan himself becoming his original predecessor (now calling himself a god king) after absorbing both Haldrath's corpse and Nidhogg's lost eye which kept the body preserved. - Lahabrea and Igeyorhm can fuse to form a lich-like creature called an Ascian Prime, forced to do so when pushed into a corner by the Warrior of Light's overwhelming power. - \|\|Zenos himself merges with Shinryu itself by using his Resonant power, effectively becoming the Primal itself.\|\| - \|\|Yotsuyu pulls a Ysayle and summons Tsukuyomi into her body, though unlike Shiva, Tsukuyomi more resembles a transformed Yotsuyu with her skin being half jet black and pure white, grows in size and has a pair of bunny ears along with a crescent moon formed behind her. Slightly turns into Clipped Winged Angel territory as the transformation seems to be temporary regardless of the Warrior's intervention and is bleeding out her own life force, feeding on her misery and sorrow to sustain it.\|\| - Each of the Four Great Lords has a large animal form and a more humanoid form for when they go all out, though Genbu's animal form is much smaller. - \|\|Soroban after having Genbu's soul take refuge in his body is able to shift between his and Genbu's forms at will, though it's only temporary until Genbu finishes his training.\|\| - \|\|Vauthry\|\| in Shadowbringers turns into a angel...Well, at least as angelic as a Sin Eater can be. \|\|His fat, ugly body turns into a beautiful, golden haired archangel-like Light Warden with wings made out of swords, stylized heavily after the biblical Archangel Michael.\|\| - \|\|Emet-Selch\|\| does this twice. \|\|First, he reveals his true name and shows his real, Ascian form, looking like a gigantic sorcerer with a huge mantle. In the second half of the fight, he summons all the souls of the dead Ancients and fuses it to himself, becoming a huge, torso-less thing, with 'wings' formed entirely out of Ascian masks.\|\| - \|\|Elidibus as the Emissary knows he's not nearly strong enough to confront the Warrior of Light with his own power, so instead he borrows the corpses of others, namely Zenos and later Ardbert. In the final battle however, he merges with shades of heroes he's summoned from history and other worlds, transforming into a giant version of the original Warrior of Light with chalk-white skin and an off-colored mostly black organic version of his armor.\|\| - \|\|In the Puppets' Bunker, 2P's unconscious form gives birth to a legion of white blank female bodies that form that stick to each other to form a sphere made out of them and when that form is depleted, they reconfigure into a giant humanoid resembling her original form with half-fused bodies forming her skirt and heels. Even her sword is made out of them.\|\| - \|\|Ryne herself gets one when she decides to be the vessel for Shiva just as Ysayle did. Unfortunately because of her inexperience and underdeveloped power, she succumbs to the will of the Primal. Her first form gives her longer white hair, pale skin and a blue robe. She can switch to a decidedly more skimpier light-based form patterned after Hydaelyn when using her light powers.\|\| - \|\|On Savage, she gets a third form in which Hraesvelgr becomes her clothing and his head for a weapon.\|\| - \|\|As revealed in the final part of the Eden raid, it's revealed that the very first Sin Eater was actually a horribly mutated Mitron when Ardbert's Blade of Light struck him, causing his body to overflow with light and transform into Eden.\|\| - \|\|After merging with Gaia (now revealed to be the reincarnated Loghrif), they become an Ascian Prime, but rather than fight the Warrior of Darkness in that form, they used the aether accumalated from the Primal fights to transform into a more interpretation of the mythological Eden.\|\| - \|\|And just like the previous tier, the final battle's Savage mode has Gaia forcibly turned into the Oracle of Darkness, wielding a stylized black robe and a hammer as her weapon of choice.\|\| - \|\|Albeleo in the Lacus Litore raid becomes the demon Adrammelech from Final Fantasy XII.\|\| - \|\|All of the bosses fought in Delebrum Reginae are your former Blade comrades already enthralled by Misija's Save the Queen and horribly mutated further into unrecognizable forms, the only thing remaining of their original forms being their Resistance Weapons. Even worse is that the two Trinity bosses are actually trios of soldiers merged into a single being, rendering their condition irreversible.\|\| - \|\|Misija herself gets one at the end of the raid when she uses Save the Queen on herself combined with the wellspring of aether at the center of the dungeon, transforming into a version of her ancestor's corrupted form, still retaining her hairstyle. However, she instead chooses to fight you in some some strange throne-like contraption with three Save the Queens holstered in it. The horror might have been complete if it were not for the contraption's humanoid torso wielding a tooting horn...that she uses as her auto-attack to hit you with.\|\| - Staying true to the series tradition of "angelic" final bosses, the Endwalker expansion gives us \|\|the Endsinger\|\|. After spending most of the game as a Non-Action Big Bad, when finally cornered, \|\|Meteion\|\| fuses with \|\|the other Meteia\|\| to become \|\|a giant airborne monster heavily remniscient of a Seraph\|\|. + Interestingly enough, Final Fantasy XV significantly downplays this. The penultimate battle against \|\|Ifrit\|\| simply has him stop holding back when he realizes that lazing about and tossing out the occasional attack isn't working. The Final Boss, \|\|Ardyn Izunia\|\|, has no form change at all. The closest he gets is \|\|summoning Armiger\|\|. + In Final Fantasy XVI, \|\|Ultima transforms twice in the final battle - his second phase has him transform into a dark version of Ifrit Risen called "Ultima Risen", and after he's bested in that form, he shrinks down back into a humanoid form called Ultimalius, this time clad in armor and bearing the powers of all Eikons at the same time.\|\| + The Final Boss of SquareSoft's "introductory" RPG, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, mutates through four different forms. + In the Dissidia Final Fantasy games, every character has an "EX Mode", and for many of the villain characters, it's their One-Winged Angel form. Kefka, for instance, gains his 'God of Magic' appearance, and the Emperor assumes his 'Emperor of Hell' form. Ironically, as a result of loading issues, Sephiroth doesn't assume his 'Safer Sephiroth' form from his game, instead taking on his Kingdom Hearts single-black-wing look. Similarly, Exdeath doesn't use his Neo form as his EX Mode. Instead, it shows up as an alternate costume in the prequel. Its default setting is based on artwork — when it goes EX Mode, its colours change to match the actual game sprite. - And then, since Chaos is now his own character and not just Garland's transformation, he too gets his own One-Winged Angel form. In fact, he gets two — during "Utter Chaos", he changes color and goes to huge proportions, then in Dissidia 012, an Alternate Universe version of Chaos goes berserk and insane to become Feral Chaos. - Shinryu himself has three forms in Dissidia NT, first as the Planesgorger golden serpent that's mainly encountered in cutscenes and then fought during the CGI cutscene near the end by both the heroes and villains and their deities. It's only when they destroy that form that Shinryu reveals a second, more traditional form with crystal wings. Even when that form is defeated, Shinryu pops up again with an even bigger and more sinsiter jet black and gray/silver form with multiple tentacles. + The original Final Fantasy Tactics's entire villainous cast did this, with a Zodiac theme, giving at least six One-Winged Angel forms. The final boss does this as well, in typical Square fashion. + In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, we have Queen Remedi, who turns into the Li-Grim, the spirit of the book and responsible of changing the world. - Averted in Final Fantasy Tactics A2. After defeating Illuia towards the end of the game, you'd expect her to regain her power and transform, but she just vanishes as she dies. Her death, however, summons a demon from another dimension that the party has to deal with right after, making it a Marathon Boss. + In the final battle of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, \|\|the Big Bad fuses with an airship and transforms the ship into a giant red crystal. At the same time, the main character follows this trope more when his telekinetic powers manifest themselves as a blue surfboard thing, some sort of face guard, and a giant blue wing\|\|. * Kingdom Hearts has a ton of these. Let's start with the first one. + First of all, some of the Disney villains use their canon One-Winged Angel forms: Jafar becoming a genie, Ursula becoming a giant, and Maleficent becoming a dragon. Also, Oogie Boogie merges with his manor upon his first defeat, though that doesn't help him very much at all. + One of the first bosses in the game is Guard Armor in Traverse Town. When you return to Traverse Town to seal the Keyhole, you fight it again, and it almost immediately transforms into the much more powerful Opposite Armor when you do. + Shortly after arriving in the penultimate level, Hollow Bastion, you fight Riku, who has grown to wield the darkness and subsequently grown powerful. Later, after Ansem possesses him, you fight him again. This form of him falls under the category of That One Boss, enough said. + Lastly, the final battle against Ansem has multiple phases, but he doesn't actually transform until you reach part 4 of the fight. Departing from the usual thing with bosses transforming, people tend to find his form when he first possessed Riku harder, and his final form in End of the World to be a pushover. + In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the final boss Marluxia will first fight you in his human form, and after a short break to give you time to heal and save, you'll fight him again when he's merged with a living machine armed with sickles for hands. - And in Re:CoM, after you beat that form, he manifests all the life force he has left as a giant angelic grim reaper. Less HP, but more devastating attacks. * Kingdom Hearts II was more generous with original versions of this. + In Beast's Castle, once you defeat the Shadow Stalker Heartless, it immediately turns into the much bigger and stronger (and cooler) Dark Thorn. + On the second visit to Port Royal, the Grim Reaper Heartless is a mild challenge at first, but then it gains immortality from the cursed Aztec treasure. The rematch has you periodically forcing the Grim Reaper out of One-Winged Angel mode so that you can actually hurt it. + In Halloween Town, the Prison Keeper Heartless is a miniature version of this. It keeps Lock, Shock, and Barrel in a cage hanging from its body, and eats one of them to gain power: it can throw giant fireballs if it eats Lock, rain down mini-fireballs if it eats Shock, and charge and bite if it eats Barrel. Beat it up enough, and it coughs up the brat it ate. When its health gets low enough, it eats all three of them, gaining all three attacks for the rest of the fight. + In the Pride Lands, Scar fights Simba as he did in canon. Then he recovers from his Disney Villain Death and fights the heroes as a Heartless, corrupted by darkness. Then, on the second visit to the world, his lingering ghosts form a titanic Heartless called the Groundshaker. + Most notably, final boss Xemnas fights you as himself, then as a spaceship, then as a suit of armour with a BFS, then as a suit of armor again this time hurling everything he can at you (including the landscape), then himself again with different powers, a different robe, and the ability to clone himself. And unlike Ansem in the first game, he's no pushover. + Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days brings us a One Winged Angel form for \|\|Xion\|\|. It's… rather difficult to describe… It's sort of like an armored monstrous Nobody form of none other than Sora. Interestingly, this is the form the boss assumes for all four phases of the fight \|\|(which correspond to five Limits Sora learned in KHI: a combination of Ragnarok/Strike Raid, Sonic Blade, Ars Arcanaum, and Trinity Limit)\|\|, with each phase bringing new weapons rather than new transformations and the final phase bringing a bit of a growth spurt too. + Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep notably averts this. Aside from Maleficent, who takes her dragon form in Aqua's story, every character's final boss remains human. Vanitas simply takes off his helmet and pulls out a different Keyblade for his 2nd stage; Master Xehanort \|\|migrates into Terra's body, with the player taking control of Lingering Will\|\| for his 2nd fight; \|\|Terranort\|\|, the True Final Boss, simply summons Xehanort's Guardian familiar from Kingdom Hearts I for his last battle; and for Aqua's story, the final bosses are two different characters. + Inverted in Kingdom Hearts coded, the final boss first appears as a giant Darkside, then as a humanoid, then a simple Shadow Heartless. + In Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Ansem transforms his Guardian into a new form and shifts the battlefield for the second phase of his fight. However, of the four final bosses, he's the only one to do this in another aversion. + In Kingdom Hearts III, Master Xehanort \|\|mostly averts this. The start of his fight is against his replica vessels, which are just armored humans, then he absorbs them and gains a creepy goat armor, but doesn't change the fact you're still facing an armored human. Finally, you face… good old Master Xehanort in his regular outfit, but wielding the χ-Blade this time.\|\| * In Bahamut Lagoon, Alexander does this. He's already a massive dragon by default, but after killing him, a dozen of the creatures that are used for vessels of reincarnation for dragons rush into the room and sacrifice themselves to him. He ends up coming back as a multi-headed monstrosity that takes up half of the map. * Bravely Default has \|\|Airy with three monstrously powerful forms, a grotesque larva, an equally grotesque pupa, and a butterfly-winged human form that has nearly TWO TIMES the HP of her first form with nasty spell combos\|\|. * Chrono Trigger contains at least two instances of this, in various forms: Masa and Mune combine to form a hulking beast, while \|\|Queen Zeal\|\| becomes a giant, crowned mask and gloves with increased magical power. + The 'Dragon of Fire' fight in Chrono Cross. While the first time you fight him, he's fairly small and humanoid, partway through the second fight, he will change into an even larger (and cooler) dragon in the style of muscle growth. + Happens again in Cross to \|\|Dark Serge/Lynx\|\|, who transforms into a bizarre-looking giant purple humanoid embedded into the floor. * Drakengard has two examples: Manah, when the gods give her a Villain Override, and \|\|Furiae\|\|, after being placed inside a Seed of Resurrection. * Live A Live: + The evil daimyo Ode Iou transforms himself into Gamahebi just before the Boss Battle with him begins. + Odio, the Lord of Dark \|\|aka Fallen Hero Oersted, who was originally human before he rejected his humanity and claimed the power of the Lord of Dark\|\| appears to the heroes as an ominous cloaked figure in the final chapter. When the final battle begins, he opens up the cloak and becomes the entire battlefield. A battlefield that seems to be made up of corpses. Your opponents in the first phase of the battle are grotesque creatures that vaguely resemble the parts of a human face. After destroying all but one part of the "face" (which almost can't be destroyed in the first phase), it "blossoms", revealing a winged vaguely humanoid thing sitting on a flower called "Purity of Odio". \|\|The 2022 remake adds another form after the Boss Rush with its incarnations from the previous chapters, as Odio draws upon all of the hatred of the world to manifest as a massive demonic form, trapping Oersted's body within it in the process. This new form is known as "Sin of Odio".\|\| * Octopath Traveler II has the True Final Boss, and main antagonist of the game, \|\|Vide\|\|. The fight starts off with them in a cocoon-like form, which, once it's taken enough damage, the active party is sucked in and rendered unusable, forcing the second half of the party to take control and finish the phase. Once it's taken a second beating, the second phase begins, where \|\|Vide\|\| suddenly becomes humanoid, grows two giant "Wicked Arms", which function as shields for the main body, not allowing it to be damaged at all, forcing the party to take down the two arms first, and also releasing the first 4 Travelers, having all 8 Travelers active on the field, letting all passive abilities trigger every new turn, and forcing the player to switch between the two parties to strategize which skills to use and when to heal. Once this phase has taken enough damage, \|\|Vide\|\| spawns a field that bans any form of healing or reviving, meaning the player has to strategically use Breaks to heal. And once they've taken enough damage again, they Turns Red one last time, causing the arms to have more shield points, gaining another action, and gaining their strongest attack. * Parasite Eve (1998) has this for Eve, the main antagonist. She starts off by possessing the body of a woman, changes into a slightly disturbing form by having a giant fin instead of feet, long arms with sharp claws, and crazy hair. By the time you see her near the end of the game, she becomes a multi-breasted bloated monstrosity as she prepares to give birth to the Ultimate Being, which changes slightly when you fight her for the last time, but she also changes form from here by becoming an almost angelic figure once her HP gets low enough. + The protagonist accomplishes this as well in the first game, with her ultimate attack (of the two pure attacks in the game) 'Liberation', the form being angelic, but in a biological manner. \|\|And the 'secret boss' from the first one manages the same form. Only she remains in it throughout the fight.\|\| + The sequel also has the final boss look and fight in a similar way as Eve's final form from the first game. * SaGa (RPG): + Romancing SaGa: \|\|Saruin has two forms, his second being his upper half of his body sticking out of a sphere while he grows extra appendages on his torso and back\|\| (in the remake anyway). + Romancing SaGa 2: \|\|The 7 Heroes gradually join the amalgamated form every 6,000 HP dealt.\|\| + Romancing SaGa 3: \|\|Oblivion changes to a more crazed, shinier form with more wings that can also change into four other forms representing the four Sinistrals, but only if the form chosen was that of a Sinistral not defeated.\|\| The protagonists can transform too. + This is brought to an extreme in SaGa Frontier, which offers 7 characters and 7 final bosses. Unfortunately, Emelia's Big Bad is ultimately a rather unimpressive human, so they give us a boss from nowhere who is giant and can transform. * In Super Mario RPG (co-developed by Squaresoft), Final Boss Smithy first looks like an evil bearded robot with a hammer, but he's so ticked against Mario and his friends for defeating him he assumes his second form: \|\|the same robot, except with a giant skull for a head which can be switched to four alternate forms\|\|. + Also, the Czar Dragon falls into the lava of Barrel Volcano and turns into Zombone. * Guildenstern in Vagrant Story is a textbook example. He turns black, spouts wings, merges with the game's main religious symbol to turn into a giant cross-shaped... bug... thing, and flies around casting things with names like "Judgment" and "Bloody Sin". * In Valkyrie Profile, specifically in the Seraphic Gate, if you depleted Iseria Queen's HP by half, you're in for a surprise. + Loki goes into One Winged Angel mode before he fights Lucian, and then again during the A ending events; you never get to fight his original form, though. * High-ranking Reapers in The World Ends with You have the ability to transform into a Noise form for combat. Higashizawa becomes a giant ram, Minamimoto a lion (though unlike the others, he alternates between his Noise and Reaper forms during the battle), Konishi a tigress, and Kitaniji a snake. \|\|The latter truly takes the cake, though, as he then pulls a One-Winged Angel of his One-Winged Angel form, fusing with Joshua to become a five-headed dragon that takes up the majority of both screens.\|\| + This returns in the sequel, NEO: The World Ends with You, with \|\|Tsugumi\|\| becoming a crane, Ayano becoming something resembling a flower, \|\|Minamimoto becoming a lion again\|\|, and \|\|Susukichi\|\| turning into a giant deer/elk. The only Reaper you fight who DOESN'T do this is Shiba (although it's implied that he can do this and chooses not to). * World of Mana: + Trials of Mana: All three of the final bosses transform into giant monsters before you fight them. One of them has two forms you fight, though to avoid scarring anybody, his two forms collectively about as much HP as the other two bosses. + In Secret of Mana, only you never fight the human bosses in their normal form; instead they tend to go One-Winged Angel right from the start. Even Big Bad \|\|Thanatos\|\| ends up becoming the \|\|Dark Lich\|\| for his fight. + Legend of Mana does have human bosses, and they're much harder than the One-Winged Angel bosses due to being smaller and faster. ---	OneWingedAngel	null
RealLife	# Obvious Rule Patch - Real Life It's often said that behind every rule is an event which caused such a rule to be required, and as seen here, that is very close to the truth. * The International Obfuscated C Code Contest added a rule in 1995 that required all submissions to have source code at least one byte in length. Why? In 1994, "the world's smallest self-replicating program" won an award for "Worst Abuse of the Rules" by being zero bytes in size. Another rule, banning machine-dependent code, was added after the first winner in 1984 wrote the entire main program as a block of PDP-11 machine code. * The World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction is an extremely prestigious award intended for short stories, but was originally only defined as "speculative fiction under 10,000 words". That is, until 1991, when the judges selected Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess' "A Midsummer Night's Dream" issue of The Sandman, which is a comic book. Comics use pictures to do what would have to be done in narrative text, so they are able to tell longer stories than other media for the same word count. The World Fantasy Convention changed the rules almost immediately, relegating any future graphic novel submissions to the Special Award: Professional category. This means The Sandman is the only comic book that ever has or ever will win this particular award. According to Gaiman, "It wasn't like closing the stable door after the horse had gotten out, it was like closing the stable door after the horse had gotten out and won the Kentucky Derby." * In 2011, UK supermarket chain Tesco ran a promotion that if whatever they had happened to be cheaper at its competitor Asda, they will pay you double the difference (e.g., an item that costs 8 pounds but is only 5 at Asda would earn you 6 pounds). However, the difference in prices could be big enough that shoppers would get back more money than they spent. Naturally, many savvy shoppers exploited this by finding products they didn't even need but potentially gave them the biggest profit and using that to do their actual grocery shopping. Tesco subsequently put the difference cap to 20 pounds, then eventually discontinued the promotion. * In 2009 a large German electronics chain ran a promotion where you could buy any product without the Value Added Tax (currently 19%). It turned out, however, that a company can't just waive the VAT, they had to pay it nonetheless. The products were just discounted by the amount of the VAT. Customers looked at their receipt and found that they indeed paid the tax, so they went back to the markets and got another discount for the taxes. Needless to say they added a clause for that in their next promotion. * During the Steam Summer Sale of 2014, Valve held a daily contest for one week where each Steam user was assigned a team color and people could earn points for their team by crafting the event badges through specific cards. Said cards could only be obtained by either getting them for every 3 votes made for the next batch of sales, trading them with other people, buying games on Steam, or buying the cards on the marketplace. The winning team would have 30 random people on that team obtain 3 games on their wishlists. An organized group on Reddit tried to rig the contest in a way that would allow each team to win at least twice before the week was up, which meant that each team would only craft badges on specific days of the week to give their team a massive lead. While it seemed more "fair" for the people participating in the contest, Valve wasn't too happy about it since it meant that fewer people would be buying games and marketplace items, which also meant Valve would make less money. Valve introduced a new rule to the contest that would allow teams finishing in 2nd and 3rd place to win games as well in order to encourage people to spend more money and compete against each other. * In 1944, Barry Fitzgerald was nominated for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for his work in Going My Way (he won Best Supporting Actor... his co-star Bing Crosby won Best Actor). The rules were subsequently changed so that an actor could only be nominated in one category for a performance. * The Academy Award for Best Original Song has undergone a few of these since its introduction in 1934: + Originally, the only rule was that a song simply had to appear in the film. This was changed after the 1941 ceremony, where "The Last Time I Saw Paris" from Lady Be Good won. The song's original composer, Jerome Kern, was displeased that it won, since he had not written it specifically for a film, and successfully lobbied the Academy to patch the rule so that a song must be specifically written for the film to be eligible. This also disqualifies covers, remixes, and samples. A song can be released before the film and still be eligible so long as it is verified the material was written for the film. For example, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's "Falling Slowly" for Once was available on two albums prior to the film's release, but the Academy determined the long production of Once was protracted enough to keep the song eligible. + Since successful theater musicals have an inherent advantage with a film adaptation — namely that the musical presumably has songs great enough to warrant an adaptation — the rule also means that all the existing songs from a musical adaptation are disqualified. This is why many modern musical adaptations now include a new song written specifically for the film. + While a film scoring two nominations is not unheard of, only four have scored three nominations in a field: Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Lion King (1994), Dreamgirls, and Enchanted. However, when the latter two dominated their fields in the 79th and 80th Academy Awards at the expense of other movies, the Academy swiftly patched the rule starting with the 81st Awards with a nomination cap of two per film. Ironically, this came despite both Dreamgirls and Enchanted ultimately losing even with their combined six nominations. * The Power Metal band Sabaton is based in Falun, Sweden, but its frontman Joakim Brodén is half-Czech: his mother emigrated to Sweden during the Communist era. In 2016, Joakim entered the Czech music competition Český slavík (similar to the American Grammy Awards) and came in fifth place. The next year they changed the rules so that only artists who primarily perform in the Czech Republic could enter, and booted Joakim off the list. * Robot Wars had a number of weapons on their combat robots that were not allowed, but tinfoil was not one of them. American competitor Tentoumushi (which on the outside looked like a ladybug, hence the name) used this to great effect: In the form of a large plastic shell lined with tinfoil on the inside, it would cover the opposing bots, jamming their signals from their operators and effectively shutting them down. As said combat is done over a pit on all sides (albeit with a short fence) and one in the middle, Tentoumushi would then shove the opposing bot into the pit to win by Ring Out, or, if a Ring Out was not possible, then via incapacitation as the opposing bot cannot move. The Robot Wars staff decided this had gotten out of hand when Shunt, a Purposefully Overpowered House Robot four times its weight, took on Tentoumushi and was defeated, and banned tinfoil and other such jammers from then on. * Its American counterpart, BattleBots, had a few such incidents: + Blendo was the first robot of the "full-body spinner" class, introduced in 1995. Its weapon was a dome-shaped spinning shell made of steel, but it was unable to start on its own—rather, Jamie Hyneman (who would go on to be a co-host of MythBusters) had to enter the arena, then stick a power drill into the hole on the top to start it. The safety issues of doing this did not go unnoticed, and from then on, robots would be required to be able to start on their own, with the humans safely behind protective walls, though Blendo was grandfathered as an exception until it was retired in 2002. + A bot during its Comedy Central run, Spare Parts, was coated in ablative armor, a type of protection that works by having fragments chip off any time it's hit. In this case, some of the armor would disintegrate into a fine powder. It caused such a mess in the arena, with cleanup taking so long, that ablative armor was banned from then on, despite it being extremely rare outside of space travel and science fiction. Ablative armor was made legal again in 2019, though the kind that turns into a fine powder is still banned. + Initially, any robot with a means of locomotion other than wheels was deemed a "walker" and was allowed to go over a weight class's weight limit by a particular amount to compensate for its speed and balance disadvantages. Even with this bonus, walkers struggled a great deal, rarely making it past the first round. In came Son of Whyachi, in Comedy Central's Season 3.0, a robot with a rapidly spinning canopy lined with hammers. Son of Whyachi walked, but took very small but rapid steps, allowing it to scoot along the floor much faster than other walkers, and because the steps were so small, always remained perfectly balanced. Son of Whyachi proceeded to rip apart all of its competitors, thanks to the weight bonus, and defeated The Dreaded Biohazard to become the heavyweight champion. Once the competition was over, both BattleBots and Robot Wars revised their rules, deeming robots with Son of Whyachi's means of locomotion as "shufflebots" and designated them as wheeled robots, thus prohibiting Son of Whyachi and any would-be imitators from the weight bonus from then on. Son of Whyachi entered the following year, unchanged, in the next weight class up. It didn't do nearly as well, and Son of Whyachi would be rebuilt as a fully-wheeled bot after that. + In 2015, nets were not on the list of banned weapons, despite them being present before. This did not escape the eyes of Derek Young, builder of Complete Control, who covertly put a rope net into a sealed cardboard box covered in gift wrap and attached it to the front of Complete Control before its fight with Ghost Raptor. Despite it looking obviously like a trap, Ghost Raptor drove straight into the box, causing the net to come out and jamming its spinning blades, resulting in officials calling a halt to the match almost immediately. In one of the fastest cases of this trope, nets and other entanglement devices were immediately banned once more, and the match between Complete Control and Ghost Raptor was restarted, except with no net for Complete Control. + Two robots entered the 2016 competition that were discovered to be so unsafe that new rules were written to prevent them from happening again: - HellaChopper had the fastest-moving weapon in BattleBots up to that point, a pair of spinning flails that maxed out at over 300 mph (over 480 kph). When placed in the test box for functionality and for safety, HellaChopper was discovered to be so destructive that not only was it forming air vortices around it that would pull anything nearby towards it, the protective walls of the arena could not safely protect the staff and spectators from it. From there on out, the rules cap a weapon's top speed at 250 mph (402 kph) while HellaChopper was disqualified. - Invader did compete, but because its spinning weapon's default state was "on," a situation occurred in which its signal from the operators got cut off and it was unable to move about, yet its weapon, a spinning shell that envelops the entire robot, could not stop. The safety commissioner deemed that the only way to safely remove Invader from the arena for the following match was to let its battery drain out until it stops moving, which wound up taking three hours. From 2017 and onwards, all robots are required to have their weapons defaulted to "off," though a malfunction to fellow full-body spinner Captain Shrederator four years later caused it to spin uncontrollably in place too. + Team Whyachi would force another rule change in 2020, during which Hydra, in order to fight HUGE, had its weapon, a launching arm, replaced with a wall made of steel rods specifically to prevent HUGE's weapon from reaching it. Due to neither robot being able to actually fight the other,(Hydra won the match due to loopholes involving the judges' scoring system and rules regarding no pinning) the rule stating that every robot must have an active weapon, which was originally created to ban weaponless robots, was revised to also include a penalty to any robots that never actually use that weapon. * Eurovision Song Contest: + At varying points in its history(1966-73, then again from 1977-1999), Eurovision had a rule that each entry must be performed in an official language of the country it represents, but in the 90s, things started bursting at the seams as the breakup of Yugoslavia and the USSR led to more countries and more languages being represented, not to mention the heightened fluency in English as a second language among viewers. This caused Ireland to nab a total of four wins in the 90s, three of which being part of a win streak, and the UK taking another win immediately after Ireland's last victory. (Another song in this time period also won by having the barest minimum required amount of singing, essentially being an instrumental otherwise.) To level out the playing field, entrants in the contest can sing in any language they please starting in 1999. + There hadn't been any rules on what to do in the event of a tie in the earliest years of the contest because they didn't think of the possibility. Then 1969 ended in a four-way tie. They quickly made rules providing for it after that. + A rule was preemptively patched when Promoted Fanboy Australia joined the contest: to avoid the possibility of Australia winning and everyone having to travel there for the contest (which would be an expensive and logistical nightmare), it was decided that Australia would jointly host with a European country of their choice (Germany and the UK being touted as possibilities), should they ever win the contest. * Every year, the National Cartoonist Society gives out the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonists of the Year. For a long time there were no rule against repeat winners (Charles M. Schulz, for example, won the award twice in 1955 and 1964). The rule was changed in the 1990s due to two of the repeat winners, Gary Larson and Bill Watterson, never showing up to receive their awards (both cartoonists are notorious reclusive artists). Today, each individual can only receive one Reuben Award in their lifetime. + Note that this only applies to the Cartoonist of the Year award. The Silver Reuben division awards have no such restriction. * Hal Mohr won an Oscar for Best Cinematography for the 1935 film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream despite not being nominated. He won the award due to a write-in campaign. The following year the Academy made it a rule that they will no longer accept write-in votes. * In 1996, Pepsi ran a TV campaign for the ability to collect "Pepsi Points" from cans and bottles, which could be traded in for prizes. The commerical culminated in a Harrier vertical take-off fighter jet, listed for seven million points. The rules allowed points to be purchased at ten cents each to meet the target. With the help of an investor, John Leonard sent in $700,000 to buy the $37.4 million military plane. Pepsi then returned the check after pointing out that the jet was not for sale. Consequently, Leonard sued Pepsi, arguing that they had to pay up with the promised jet. The assigned judge threw the case out, with one of the three reasons being: any reasonable person would understand that the offer of a military fighter jet was just a joke. But in the interim, Pepsi re-released the ad with the price of the jet increased to seven hundred million points, followed by a "just kidding!" disclaimer along with it. Ad companies learned quickly to add similar "prize not actually available" disclaimers to joke offers in their promotions, just in case somebody thought to try this again. In 2022, the Netflix documentary Pepsi, Where's My Jet? detailed the entire story. * It is common for many "race around the world''-style events to offer a bonus prize to whoever completes the race while spending the least amount of money. It is a common additional rule for those competitions that only travel expenses count towards your spending total - in order to prevent the risk that competitors may try to avoid food and accommodation to save money. * On the subreddit "Am I The Asshole", there was a story about a group of neighbors who started the "Pup Olympics", an amateur dog show for the neighborhood. There were no limits on what dog could enter the competition. However, after a woman entered her show Poodle and won every single competition (except for the senior dog competition, which the Poodle didn't qualify for), the rules were revised to bar competition dogs. * There is a saying that goes along the lines of "Safety laws/rules/regulations are written in blood". This is from the tendency of any problem with a process, machine, or whatever, to be ignored until something happens that causes severe injury or loss of life. After this, the (now obvious in retrospect) problem/rule/law is "patched" to prevent a recurrence, or at least reduce the likelihood of one. * A very significant and serious example is gun laws in the United Kingdom. The most significant pieces of firearms legislation in the last thirty years have been introduced as a piecemeal response to rampage killings - for instance, the banning of semi-automatic long-barreled firearms in a calibre greater than .22 rimfire, and shot-guns with a capacity of more than three shells, following the Hungerford massacre, and the criminalizing of nearly all handguns following the Dunblane school massacre. * In many places, there are obsolete, oddly specific, and/or downright weird laws that are still on the books, many of which are clearly patches created due to some Noodle Incident: + One has to wonder what prompted lawmakers in San Francisco to prohibit elephants from strolling down Market Street unless they're on a leash, or wiping one's car with used underwear. + It's illegal to drive more than 2,000 sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at the same time. (So exactly 2,000 sheep is fine, but 2,001 sheep and you're in trouble.) + In Canadian law, it's illegal to give alcohol to a moose. They are surprisingly destructive creatures and do get drunk quite frequently (most commonly by consuming fruit that has started to naturally ferment). A drunk Moose is enough of a problem without someone giving them a free swig because they think it's funny and/or cute... + Averted in the tale of the "It is illegal to enter Wisconsin, from the Minnesota border, while wearing a duck on your head". There is no such law on the books of either state.(This rumor may have come from a misunderstanding. There is cotton "duck" fabric - a corruption of the Dutch term for a type of cotton fabric. Confusion of that term with actual ducks may have caused this rumor.) + In Arizona, it's illegal to allow your donkey to sleep in a bathtub. This came from a case in 1924, where a man let his donkey sleep in a bathtub and, when there was a flood from a dam breakage, a lot of effort and money went into rescuing the poor equine (as can be read here under Number 4). Not surprisingly, a law was made so this sort of thing wouldn't happen again. + Probably done to pre-empt an incident, California required Google to include manual controls (steering, brakes, throttle) on their self driving cars before being allowed on public roads. After all, technology can still fail. - Also not allowed is Silly String (and its competitors) on Halloween, at least in the Los Angeles region. This very specific law came about because Halloween was the day that these cans were used the most by far, and the substance used to make the stuff, as it dries, is incredibly flammable. As California is very vulnerable to wildfires, Californian law, at every level, is very harsh on actions likely to accidentally start a fire. + Thanks to a farmer objecting to a publicity stunt pulled by circus owner P.T. Barnum, in North Carolina it's against the law to plow a field with an elephant. + According to Danish law, if the sea between Sweden and Denmark freezes and a Swede crosses over the ice, one is allowed to, and encouraged to, beat them with sticks. This stems from an incident from the 17th century in which the Swedish army took advantage of the sea freezing(a rarer event in this part of the world than you'd imagine, since the Gulf Stream runs through those waters) to take the Danes by surprise and win the war. + The Constitution of Wisconsin allows the governor to veto only part of a bill by deleting portions of it before signing it into law. In April 1990 they had to amend the constitution to add "the governor may not create a new word by rejecting individual letters in the words of the enrolled bill" after then-governor Thompson repeatedly did exactly that, something dubbed the "Vanna White Veto". In April 2008 they amended it again to prohibit "using the partial veto authority to create a new sentence by combining parts of two or more sentences". The ability to do this in the first place itself was an Obvious Rule Patch made in 1927 to counteract omnibus bills forcing the governor's hand to either accept things that they ordinarily wouldn't, or reject things that they do want; Thompson was just the first to abuse the power to functionally give himself authority to write his own bills. - Disputes about the line-item veto continue; with recent examples in 2021 and 2023. * If stating what a law does sounds ridiculous (such as "you can't put an ice cream cone in your back pocket", referring to the wafer and not the entire sundae), it's probably one of these. The given example came about because of horse/donkey theft. If an animal wanders onto your property, it's yours. So if you want a free horse or donkey, all you have to do is bait it in a non obvious manner (such as allowing it to smell the food in your pocket), and walk home, allowing it to follow you. + Similarly, there are many regulations that elicit reactions of "What kind of idiot would do this?!" because somewhere along the line, someone did it. Such as in zoos, where they post many, many signs and barricades saying "Do not feed/touch/scare the animals," and yet people do all of them anyway. + Among many government regulators and bureaucrats, as well as people who work in potentially dangerous professions with a lot of safety rules, there is a saying that goes "regulations are written in blood," describing how a lot of seemingly dumb rules are created in response to easily preventable tragedies that made those rules seem reasonable. * In Germany, should a motorist be caught by a speed camera, their face must be visible in the shots taken in order for them to be prosecuted. As a result, it is illegal to cover your face while driving via garb like balaclavas or a combination of a face mask, sunglasses and hat. If it's medically necessary, you can drive with a mask, but if you're caught speeding and are found to have falsely denied being the driver, eventually you will be required to record all your trips via a logbook. * The U.S. Constitution was designed to allow these, because the framers realized they couldn't flawlessly predict every possible circumstance that might face the country going forward. + The U.S. Constitution requires a census every ten years, and for districts of the House of Representatives to be reapportioned and redrawn according to the new figures. This was to avoid the British problem of Rotten Boroughs, where the boundaries of Parliament constituencies hadn't changed in many years, so that they didn't reflect changes in population. Booming cities like Salisbury or Manchester ended up having just as many seats in Parliament as an abandoned cathedral on a hill or a town that had fallen into the sea. In extreme cases, a "pocket borough" might be controlled by a single landowner, whose tenants would naturally vote for his preferred candidates. The British finally fixed this themselves with The Representation of the People Act 1832. + Article II, section 1: "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President". Well, it would be a bit inconvenient to wait thirty-five years for the first natural-born citizens to meet the age requirement, wouldn't it? + The 5th Amendment, the one that allows witnesses to refuse to answer questions that would incriminate them, was later held by the US Supreme Court to apply to both the federal and the state levels rather than just the federal level. This is because people were getting caught in no-win situations in which if they answered the questions, they would get convicted at the federal level via the information given, but if they refused to answer the questions, they would get convicted at the state level for contempt of court. + The 11th Amendment, the first non-Bill of Rights amendment, was passed to fix a loophole in Article III which allowed creditors of one state to sue other states in federal court when states were normally immune from suit. This followed a case where Chisholm (the creditor) got a judgment against Georgia (the state) in federal court, prompting Georgia to pass a statute declaring that anyone attempting to enforce the judgment would be "guilty of a felony, and shall suffer death, without benefit of clergy by being hanged." + The 12th Amendment changed the way candidates were elected for President and Vice President after the elections of 1796 and 1800 exposed multiple flaws with the old balloting system. Previously, a bunch of candidates ran for President and whomever got the majority of votes (half plus one) from the Electoral College became President, with the runner-up becoming VP. - The 1796 election led to members of opposing political parties (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson) becoming President and Vice President, respectively. The 12th Amendment changed it so that the Electoral College votes separately for President and Vice President, severely reducing the likelihood of two members not of the same party. - The 1800 election had no candidate receiving the majority of the electoral votes. With nothing in the Constitution about what to do, they revoted, but everyone voted the exact same way for 34 more ballots. It was only after the 35th re-vote a mere 15 days before Inauguration Day that one of the electors changed his vote to produce a majority. The 12th Amendment established several layers of contingency plans for if no candidate received a majority of votes, and described what happens if nobody is selected as President by Inauguration Day. + The 14th Amendment was several obvious rule patches baked into one amendment. In the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1857, one of many incidents widely credited with paving the way for The American Civil War, the Supreme Court effectively ruled that African Americans could never be citizens. The 14th Amendment redefined citizenship so as to explicitly include African Americans. It also quashed the ability for former Confederate government personnel from being elected to Congress, and stated the US never had to pay a dime of the debt incurred by the Confederacy. + The 15th Amendment tried to prevent Southern states from blocking voting rights to former slaves. Unfortunately, it didn't work, in large part because said states were masters of My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours.(For instance, passing laws prohibiting convicted felons from voting. With all-White juries it became very easy to convict Black defendants of all sorts of felonies, often having to do with vagrancy.) This has also resulted in many states of the former Confederacy having their own obvious rule patches, in order to maintain their existing social structures without running afoul of the federal courts. + The 16th Amendment. Federal income taxes had always been permitted under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, and had even been ruled to be "indirect" taxes not subject to apportionment as early as 1875. However, one exceptionally wonky 5-4 Supreme Court decision declared taxes on income derived from property (e.g. from renting land or from holding and selling stock) to be equivalent to a tax on the value of the property itself, and therefore a direct tax subject to apportionment. The 16th Amendment was drafted specifically to plug that loophole and re-classify all income taxes as indirect taxes regardless of the income's source. + The 22nd Amendment. It has been tradition for a U.S. President to serve only two terms since George Washington... until Franklin D. Roosevelt ran (and won) for four terms.(Multiple Presidents had tried to run for a third term before him, including his cousin Theodore Roosevelt, but none had succeeded.) Soon after FDR died early in his fourth term in office, the 22nd Amendment was put in place allowing only two terms per president. + The 24th Amendment was another attempt to stop people from being denied the right to vote, making it illegal to require people to pay a tax before they could vote, in direct response the aforementioned rule-fu of the Southern states. While White people were also impacted by these taxes, Black people made up most of the poor underclass in the South and were most likely to lack the means to pay the tax, and what's more, since people often had to pay the tax separately from when they went to the voting booth, sharecroppers and tenant farmers (who were mostly Black) found themselves further impacted still, as they moved around frequently and often didn't keep the receipts proving they paid. As such, it was well understood who these laws were targeting. + The 25th Amendment. In 1967, after several Presidents (most recently John F. Kennedy) had died in office and their Vice Presidents assumed the office of President, this amendment finally made the succession official. Previously, if the President was unable "to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President", with some ambiguity about whether the office of President came with the duties. (John Tyler had already resolved the ambiguity his way after the death of William Henry Harrison; this amendment basically codified the precedent that he set.) Note that the 20th Amendment(ratified 1933) provides a procedure for a President-Elect dying before being inaugurated or an election not being settled before Inauguration Day, but not his dying afterwards. + The 27th Amendment patched a rule that was so obvious, the Amendment to fix it was submitted in the late 1700s. Basically, Congress can vote itself a pay raise, but the raise will not take place until after the next general election. On the other hand, this rule has itself had unintended consequences, namely that it applies to all laws that change Congress's pay, including laws that lower it. So Congress can't immediately stop itself from being paid during a government shutdown, or give itself extra motivation to reach some goal by cutting its own pay if a bill doesn't pass. * In 2008 when the State of Nebraska tried to implement a Safe Haven Law, it neglected to notice that their law did not define the term "child", thus defaulting it to the regular definition of "anyone younger than 18". 36 teenage children were driven in from out of state and abandoned at Nebraska hospitals, and the law was patched to include only infants later that year. * In past presidential elections, members of the Electoral College have occasionally voted for someone different from the candidate they were pledged to. While this never seriously affected the outcome, many states passed laws to prevent faithless votes. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of states, allowing them to penalize faithless electors accordingly. * Prior to the 1970s, no U.S. state had a law saying two men or two women couldn't get married. Then two gay activists from Minnesota, Jack Baker and Michael McConnell, walked into a district court and applied for a marriage license. The clerk turned them down on the grounds that they were both male, so Baker took the case to court, pointing out that under the letter of the law, this was not grounds to deny them a right to get married. Baker's suit failed, but crucially the Supreme Court simply dismissed his case because they didn't consider it a federal issue, rather than setting any precedent. Cue social conservatives all over the country rushing to bring in laws explicitly banning gay couples from marrying. This caused a conflict with previous civil rights laws (especially the 14th amendment) and was resolved in a 2015 Supreme Court decision that found those laws unconstitutional. + On the contrary, Baker v. Nelson did set precedent which was cited by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in upholding state-level same-sex marriage bans. + Even when the federal law was struck down, many churches patched their official documents outlining their beliefs to specify marriage as between a man and a woman only; if the pastor turned down a request to officiate a gay wedding while the church charter didn't have this clause, the couple could potentially sue the church. * In 2010, the polar bear was granted the status of Threatened under the Endangered Species Act... with a rider attached by Secretary of the Interior stating that the bear's new status couldn't be used to sue companies for greenhouse gas emissions. The environmental activist organizations that had planned to do just that were not amused. * The RCRA Mixing Rule for hazardous waste. Most hazardous waste determination is based on properties (flammability, corrosivity, or reactivity) or concentrations (0.2 mg/L of mercury means that it is toxic). Some genius had the idea that if you take oil and mix enough sand in it, it will not be flammable, and it won't exceed any concentration limits. Voila, a giant pile of non-hazardous waste to cart off to landfill. This led to the infamous mixing rule. Anything mixed with hazardous waste is hazardous waste no matter what its actual properties are, so mixing oil with sand gives a giant pile of hazardous waste that must be properly incinerated. * The British "Constitution" (see British Political System) has one obvious rule patch when Edward VIII decided to Abdicate the Throne in 1936. The Act of Settlement 1701, which regulates royal succession in the UK, pretty much stated the most senior descendant of a granddaughter of James VI and I would automatically be the monarch, but nothing was said about abdications. So when Edward signed his Instrument of Abdication◊(In Layman's Terms: "I and my descendants will not be monarchs.") on 10 December 1936, it meant nothing — the law defined the king by the royal family tree, and said king's opinion in the matter was irrelevant. Parliament was quite eager to see him go, though, and had to pass a law to make this work. The law said three things: (1) At the time His Majesty signs this piece of paper, in terms of royal succession he is as good as dead; (2) No matter what any other law says, His Majesty and his descendents cannot become monarch(Of course, as he and his wife had no children, this became a moot point at his death in 1972.); and (3) We're not going to stand in the way of his marriage to Mrs. Simpson any more. * Ireland has a lot of constitutional patches. + At the time of the Edward VIII abdication crisis, Ireland was still a Commonwealth Realm which means they have to have the same succession rules as with the UK, etc. But Taoiseach(Technically, "President of the Executive Council") Eamon de Valera hated the British monarchy in general, and had been planning to remove the word "King" from their constitution (while retaining the King as the head of state so that they're still in the Commonwealth—Ireland was too dependent on Commonwealth trade). Edward VIII's abdication gave him a good chance to implement these plans, and he immediately tabled a constitutional amendment which did just that.(Anything that was done by the King (or practically the Governor-General) "on the advice of" the Cabinet is now done by the Cabinet on their own, and laws are effective after the Speaker certifies them. The King? "Provided that it shall be lawful for the [Cabinet], to the extent and subject to any conditions which may be determined by law to avail, for the purposes of the appointment of diplomatic and consular agents and the conclusion of international agreements of any organ used as a constitutional organ for the like purposes by any of the [Commonwealth Realms].") Somebody told him immediately afterward, however, that the large body of laws that existed before Independence meant the King had more powers than those listed in the Constitution(This would even include things that Americans would considered to be constitutional law, such the appointment of judges and local officials, as long as the King's power was performed in a way not violating the Constitution.), and removing most of the constitutional powers of the King does not mean the post of Governor-General is abolished. A law that was passed in the following year immediately declared that the aforementioned amendment covered all laws describing powers of the King, and assigned those powers instead to the Cabinet. + Ireland has delegated the power to issue adoption orders to an Adoption Board in 1952. Only some 25 years later the realized since the Board is neither a court nor filled with judges, any of their adoption orders may be constitutionally shaky. It's why the Sixth Amendment existed; it pretty much means "any adoption order made after 1937 pursuant to valid laws cannot be invalidated merely because it did not come out of a court or signed by a judge." + Due to the extremely strict interpretations of the government's and the legislature's treaty powers, constitutional amendments need to be passed, by referendum, every time when the government wants to enter into a treaty that causes some governmental powers being delegated to a multinational party. This include the EU or its predecessors (3, 10, 11, 18, 26 and 28), the International Criminal Court (23), or even just with North Ireland (parts of 19). + Some other parts of the 19th amendment also leads to some citizenship issues, as it declares "It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish nation. That is also the entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to be citizens of Ireland." This is originally used to placate those who wanted an unified Ireland, and is used to grant Irish nationality to people in Northern Ireland if those people wish to, but when Ireland itself became the center of birth tourism because that line is similar to the US Constitution's birthright clause... 27th Amendment it goes. * When Westboro Baptist Church announced their plans to picket the funerals of the Sandy Hook Shooting victims in 2013, Anonymous launched attacks that included a petition to have the church's status as a legitimate place of worship revoked, removing their protection of separation of church and state. While this was deemed unconstitutional, the Justice then added that, though he couldn't do that, it was possible for protesting to be illegal within a radius of certain events on a state by state basis. Cue several states that had suffered the WBC's obnoxious hatred banning protesting at funerals for several miles, effectively gutting the church's most infamous way of drawing attention to themselves. * The original Grandfather Clause. When southerners regained control over the governments of Southern states after the American Civil War, they proceeded to set up many roadblocks to prevent freed slaves from voting. One of these roadblocks was the literacy test; if you failed the test, you were not allowed to vote. Naturally, it was almost always rigged so prospective black voters would fail(The questions would be difficult even to many modern audiences, let alone people at the time affected by artificially enforced barriers in education, such as interpreting vague parts of the US Constitution under arbitrary scrutiny. See a sample test from 1964 for yourself). However (as noted in this political cartoon), many poor white voters also failed the tests. So the Southern governments added rules saying that anybody whose grandfather could vote before the Civil War would automatically be allowed to vote... which, naturally, never applied to black voters since almost all of their grandfathers were slaves. * An old Israeli fishing ordinance had several clarifications added, including redefining "fish" as "any water animal, whether it is a fish or not a fish, including sponges, shellfish, turtles and water mammals". * The ATF used to define a machine gun as any firearm that shoots more than one shot per pull of the trigger. This was quickly changed to define a machine gun as any firearm that functions automatically after some enterprising rules lawyers tried to make machine guns with no triggers. * In most jurisdictions, the penalties for fraud are less than the penalties for selling drugs, inadvertently encouraging people to try selling "beat bags" — fake drugs, like bags of oregano labeled as marijuana. Some jurisdictions patch this by specifying that selling fake drugs carries the same penalty as selling the actual drug would have, and in some cases is even considered the same crime. * Arkansas used to permit (or more specifically, not ban) adopting families to "re-home" their adopted child without ever contacting the Department of Human Services. This quickly changed in 2015 when a case of this resulted in one of the children in such a situation being raped by their new foster-father, and was certainly not helped by the fact that the person to do the re-homing was a state legislator at the time. * In the U.S., it was at one point common for a divorcing couple to avoid the Divorce Assets Conflict by settling all the money stuff right away... only for the person making payments (usually the husband) to skip down over to the federal courthouse to declare bankruptcy. This would wipe out a good portion of equitable distribution, among other things. Congress therefore patched this by banning the practice in 2005. * In most US states the age of consent is 16 or 17, so anyone who has relations with a partner under the age of 18 risks jail — unless the age difference is small. Per Wikipedia "Some jurisdictions have passed so-called "Romeo and Juliet laws", which serve to reduce or eliminate the penalty of the crime in cases where the couple's age difference is minor and the sexual contact would not have been rape if both partners were legally able to give consent." So an 18-year-old who is dating a 16- or 17-year-old doesn't risk jail. + In the UK, there are no "Romeo and Juillet" laws. Instead, sex between children is an "unenforced law", meaning it's illegal enough for the police to investigate (as well as inform the parents, if the kids have been having sex in secret), but there won't be any legal action taken against any of the children, provided there are no aggravating factors, like if one child is coercing their partner into sex, or is significantly older than their partner. In these cases, the aggravator can be prosecuted. * The city of Hialeah, Florida outlawed animal sacrifices in order to prevent practitioners of Santería (a Caribbean religion that, among other things, uses animal sacrifices in some of its ceremonies) from opening a church. This one was so blatant that the law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on the grounds that it was religious discrimination. * Enough enterprising law school graduates filed for bankruptcy to discharge their student loans that Congress changed bankruptcy laws to make student loan debt non-dischargeable. There is now a movement to change the rules back, or even to abolish tuition at US public universities altogether, because of how much many students are having to borrow to pay for college. (Note that in most Western countries, tuition is indeed free.) * The nation of Israel has a law that foreign lawyers are not permitted to appear in their courts. When infamous Nazi Adolf Eichmann was tried, the courts realized that no Israeli lawyer would defend him, and made an exception for capital cases. This law was only used for Eichmann himself, as he was the only person ever to receive the death penalty in Israel. * In the United States of America, the legal age of consent varies between 16 and 18, depending on the state(In thirty of them and D.C., it's 16, in seven states it's 17, and the rest has 18 as the age of consent). According to U.S. Federal Law, taking a minor into a state where the Age of Consent is lower for the purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse if the minor in question is under the Age of Consent in their home state is considered statutory rape. * For the longest, the Americans with Disabilities Act didn't define what a "service animal" was. Cue a lot of people (with disabilities or otherwise) bringing their whatevers into public places, claiming them as "service animals". After a long time of this, in about 2010, ADA was changed to define "dogs and miniature horses" as recognized service animals. Unfortunately, while it did help in some circumstances, people with service animals still face the fallout from before the rule patch. * The abdication of the Japanese emperor Akihito in 2019 also required a one-off law, and it is far more complex than its British counterpart. This is because: + Akihito abdicated on good terms (the reason is at 85, he was too old and frail for a constitutional monarch), so there was a necessity to create the position of Emperor Emeritus, which was abolished during the Meiji Restoration to avoid Just the First Citizen. A lot of the law deals with establishing the positions of Emperor and Empress Emeritus, their legal treatment, and their government grants; + Naruhito's heir is his brother Fumihito. Technically, Prince Fumihito is only heir presumptive, since Naruhito could theoretically have more children, one of whom could be a son and thus displace Fumihito in the succession; Fumihito thus cannot be made Crown Prince, since that title is reserved for an heir apparent who cannot be displaced. However, as Naruhito was 59 at his accession, has only one child (a daughter), and is extremely unlikely to have any sons (given that his wife was also in her late 50s at accession), Fumihito is de facto the heir apparent—in the reasonably likely event he outlives his brother (Fumihito is five years younger), he will be the next Emperor. The current law, while allowing this succession, does not say anything about the treatment of a de facto heir apparent who is not a Crown Prince. The law established Fumihito will be treated as if he was the Crown Prince. + Tax laws already provides an inheritance tax waiver for the transfer of the imperial regalia as a result of a demise of crown. But in this case, Akihito is still alive, which means those are gifted to Naruhito instead, which causes a new tax trouble. The law provides this act of gifting is also free of the Gift Tax.(Incidentally, this bit might betray the American hand in writing the Japanese constitution. Classic constitutional monarchies make sure to distinguish between the Crown—the institution of the monarchy—and the person of the monarch. In this scheme, the Crown is usually a corporate-like entity that exists continuously even as monarchs come and go. As such, property of the Crown like regalia and palaces and such never actually change hands, since they belong to the Crown, not the monarch. (Example: the British Crown Jewels and most of the royal residences are property of the British Crown, and thus are never truly left behind or inherited. By contrast, Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle are the personal property of the British monarch. When Edward VIII abdicated, George VI got possession of Buckingham Palace right away, but had to buy Sandringham and Balmoral from his brother.) In Japan, however, the distinction isn't as clear-cut, so special tax exemptions have to be carved out for the imperial succession; this lack of a clear distinction between the Crown and the Emperor might be the result of the current Japanese constitution having a heavy American influence (and of course the republican Americans' understanding of how things work in most constitutional monarchies would be a bit tenuous).) * Jeff Bezos goes to space. What does the Federal Aviation Administration do in response? To change the legal definition of "astronaut" so that Bezos does not officially qualify as one. This followed disputes regarding previous space tourists to the International Space Station, who were officially listed as "spaceflight participants" and not astronauts because they weren't doing any of the station crew's tasks. * Unlike many other laws, English defamation law puts the burden of proof on the defendant, not the plaintiff — basically, if someone charges you with libel in England, you're considered guilty until proven innocent. Many non-English citizens forum-shopped libel cases in England to increase their chances of winning, called libel tourism. It wasn't until 2013 that a law was passed to introduce a requirement that England had to actually be the right place for the case in order for it to be valid if the defendant isn't British (or EU Citizen before Brexit). Other countries even passed similar laws before England did; the US's 2010 SPEECH Act, for instance, made foreign libel suits unenforceable if they didn't meet the US's (stringent) free speech standards unless the plaintiff proved that it would likely win even if it had originally brought the suit in the US. This was in response to Saudi banker Khalid bin Mahfouz's Frivolous Lawsuit against American author Rachel Ehrenfeld for her book Funding Evil, where she alleged he was financially backing terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. * Before the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act was passed in 1970, mobsters were tried one-by-one, but it created a "merry-go-round" effect in that bosses evaded trials as they didn't commit the crime personally and that someone else would quickly fill the void. RICO closed it for good on the grounds of respondeat superior(AKA the master-servant rule), the idea that bosses indirectly supervise their employees' crimes. Despite its harsh clauses, RICO can be easily proven as it focuses on psychological behavior and most offenses under it are considered inchoate(a crime of seeking to commit another crime with intent such as conspiracy, subornation of perjury (encouraging someone to commit perjury), or being an accessory). It was successfully used against The Mafia in 1985. Besides that, many states also passed their own RICO laws. + RICO expanded the Statute of Limitations indefinitely on a criminal basis, depending on when the last — not the first — racketeering crime was committed. + As the crimes were committed for the "enterprise", past state-level convictions can be used in federal trials as they were deemed exempt from double jeopardy. RICO broadly defines racketeering and includes many offenses that usually don't violate federal laws such as gambling. + Through court orders, violators are forced to give up their ill-gotten gains and post a performance bond, allowing the feds to seize something if a guilty verdict was passed down. It was included as The Mafia often gobbled up the assets of indicted companies. * Prior to the late 1990s, Israeli law forbade the extradition of Israeli citizens. In 1997, Samuel Sheinbein fled to Israel to escape murder charges, and despite having lived in the US his entire life up to that point, claimed Israeli citizenship through his father. Israeli courts ultimately upheld his claim and blocked his extradition, and Israel passed laws modifying its extradition policy to prevent a repeat incident. * This is why legal documents can appear bloated to laypeople, to patch over loopholes that were abused or caused great inconvenience to the people for whom these documents were prepared. For instance, a generic power of attorney states that, "anything I can do, my agent can do." However, some businesses stated that, if the document did not specifically grant a specific type of authority to an agent, they would not deal with the agent. Enforcing the power of attorney would thus require litigation. It even got to the point where a bank would recognize an agent's ability to store the principal's goods in a safe deposit box, but refused to allow said agent further access to the box, because the document did not include such a specific provision. Thus, professionally prepared power of attorney documents grew from one or two pages to as much as 50 pages to cover all possible contingencies. * Downplayed example, regarding underaged sexting and its relationship to child pornography. During the late 2000s and early 2010s, there were reports of teens sexting images to each other, with some getting prosecuted for "child pornography". This led to fears that, due to the way child porn laws are written, a child could (potentially) be given a hefty prison sentence (typically 10 years) for something as innocent as sharing a racy picture of themselves. Although, no such sentence has been given for this sort of thing, many states and countries have since altered their child pornography laws to make a separation between adults who commit the offence, and children who do the same, with the latter have only minor penalties attached. However, the truth is, is that despite fears, no child was ever in any danger of receiving such a disproportionate punishment in the first place(Except in cases where the judge is really corrupt) as juvenile courts focus more on rehabilitation then punishment. As such, judges must take account whether incarcerating a child is necessary (which in this case it wouldn't be, unless that child was really out of control and posed a sexual threat to others), and they would definitely not receive a sentence of more than two years, unless they do something really heinous like murder. Essentially, meaning the law wasn't so much changed to save kids from being unnecessarily incarcerated, so much as to stop people threatening over the idea of it happening. + Played a lot straighter in the UK (a country known for its leniency towards crime) where the issue wasn't so much fear of kids going to prison for sexting, but rather the fact that kids were even being prosecuted for it in the first place(changing a law to make child produced porn a less serious offence doesn't stop kids being prosecuted). The argument being that even though judges do typically go easy on children, it doesn't change the fact that that child still had to go through the unpleasant ordeal of being arrested, taken to court and put in front of a judge just for taking nudies, which itself could be considered a "harsh" response. As a result, Outcome 21 was introduced to allow police offices to drop an investigation if it's not in "the public interest" (meaning, the person who committed the crime isn't a danger to anyone). An outcome that's not only used to tackle sexting, but any crime (typically committed by children) that can be solved without prosecution. * An example from the Philippines is the story of the ILOVEYOU virus, which affected over ten million Windows computers in 2000. The Philippines police caught up with its creator, only to discover that they didn't actually have a law that prohibited the creation of malware. The closest they could get was a law criminalising 'malicious mischief', but they couldn't prove that ILOVEYOU was created and intentionally released with that in mind. The creator ultimately wasn't charged, and the 2000 E-Commerce Law was passed to fix this gap. * In France, between 1834 and 1836 the brothers Louis and François Blanc from Bordeaux got rich thanks to an inside trading scheme by taking advantage of the optical telegraph network. They bribed civil servants to put code words inside actual optical telegraph communications, in order to get data from the Paris stock exchange a few days before they were officially communicated to the Bordeaux stock exchange. Once caught, the trial of the Blanc brothers and their accomplices ended with everyone's acquittal, since technically no illegal act had been performed. The law giving monopoly on telegraphic communication to the state is a direct result of this event. * Before the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 became law, the vice president's role in the quadrennial Electoral College vote count as presiding officer was unclear. This was an issue after the 2020 election as then-president Donald Trump controversially claimed the VP can unilaterally replace a candidate's slate of electors with an alternate slate, which was debunked as nonsense. The law cleared up the confusion by specifying that the veep's role in the Electoral College is purely ceremonial. + The threshold that Congress can object to a state's electors was made harder by raising it to 20% of both chambers and in writing. It also limited the objection types to either the electors being improperly certified or their vote was not being counted. Previously, an objection required the signature of only one member of each chamber for basically any reason. This clause was included because during the 2020 Electoral College vote count, nearly 140 Republican representatives and 7 Republican senators objected to Arizona and Pennsylvania's slate of electors by latching on to Trump's debunked claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election. + Unless specified otherwise, the governor of each state (and the mayor of Washington, D.C.) would sign off the winning candidate's slate of electors. + Any claims will be adjudicated by a panel of three federal judges. If the panel erred in their decision, all appeals to the Supreme Court will be expedited, who would have to render pending verdicts the day before the electors' meeting in mid-December at the latest. This was included due to the 60+ Frivolous Lawsuits filed by Trump rehashing his bogus voter fraud claims in his attempts to flip the 2020 election results. + States selecting their electors by popular vote can only change rules due to events beyond their control based on laws passed prior to the voting period. + If there is no clear victor 5 days after the election, the law allows multiple "apparent successful candidates" to receive presidential transition funds from the General Services Administration (GSA), who cannot delay disbursement of said funds either. It was included as the GSA head at the time deliberately stalled for two weeks until Congress warned her. * In the US, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 that created the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was passed in response to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, an exposé on the nightmarish conditions at meatpacking plants in Chicago and what went into a lot of the meats they were selling. Since then, the law has been amended twice, both times in response to scandals involving bad medicine. + The first was the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) of 1938, passed in response to the elixir sulfanilamide scandal of 1937, where the S. E. Massengill Company created and sold a liquid form of sulfanilamide using diethylene glycol (a toxic chemical normally used as an antifreeze) as the solvent without testing to see if it was safe, killing over a hundred people. (Harold Watkins, the chemist who came up with the preparation, committed suicide out of guilt at what he'd done.) The only reason S. E. Massengill was punished at all was because their drug was misbranded as an "elixir" when it contained no alcohol. Had the drug been labeled properly, there would have been no way to remove it from shelves because the FDA's regulatory authority on the safety of medicine operated on the Take Our Word for It principle. After the FDCA was passed, animal safety tests had to be performed before the FDA would approve a drug or a new preparation of a drug for sale. + The FDCA's limits, in turn, were exposed in the late '50s and early '60s with the thalidomide scandal, which saw an estimated 10,000 babies worldwide born with birth defects, some of them fatal, because their mothers had taken a drug marketed as a treatment for morning sickness. Thalidomide had gotten past regulators in Western Europe, Canada, and Australia with only animal testing, having never been tested on humans and certainly not on the pregnant women it was marketed to, which would have revealed how dangerous it was to a developing fetus. Fortunately, FDA pharmacologist Frances Oldham Kelsey (who had participated in the research exposing the aforementioned elixir sulfanilamide as a pharmacology student) heard about alleged dangers from the British doctor Lesley Florence, causing her to have her doubts and order clinical trials on test subjects before she was willing to approve it for sale in the US. The resulting scandal led to the Kefauver-Harris Amendment to the FDCA in 1962, which clarified that drugs had to be safe and effective, and moreover, pharmaceutical companies had to conduct clinical trials on human test subjects proving that their drugs were safe and effective, including reporting any side effects and adverse reactions. * Onions are the only agricultural product that it's illegal to trade futures for in the United States. In 1955, one man, named Vincent Kosuga, was able to corner the market on onions. At one point, he owned every onion in the United States. He hoarded the onions causing the price to go up, took out short positions (betting the price would drop), and then flooded the market with all of the onions he had been storing. A 50-pound bag of onions sold for less than the cost of the mesh bag it was packed in. The Onion Futures Act was passed in 1958 to ban the trading of onion futures forever.(Interestingly, in the early 2000s, when onion prices were more volatile than those of corn (maize) or oil, the son of a farmer who had lobbied for that ban advocated a return to onion futures trading.) * In 2007 the UK legislation on construction industry holiday schemes was amended: such schemes could "only be used by construction companies where their employees are personally involved in construction operations at the time the holiday pay accrues.". Employers had realised that in its original form, the legislation allowed any employer to operate the scheme and benefit from the accompanying incentives, whether or not they had anything to do with the construction industry. * Impoundment once allowed the president to not spend money appropriated by Congress, but its rampant abuse under Richard Nixon was fixed with the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which requires presidents to alert Congress if they want to rescind monies, who has 45 days to vote on the request. The Supreme Court also sided with Congress on this area and closed remaining loopholes created by the act in the Train v. City of New York ruling. After the 1994 election, a GOP-led Congress tried it again via the line-item veto, which allows the president to selectively remove parts of a bill without vetoing the whole thing, but the Supreme Court shot it down in 1998 because it usurped Congress's spending powers. Donald Trump tried pausing the disbursement of grants already approved in his second term, but the attempts were met with widespread public backlash. * A person could still be buried at Arlington National Cemetery even if they committed a serious crime as long as they met all eligibility requirements and the crime was committed after they were honorably discharged. In 1997, a law was passed that banned those convicted of federal or state capital crimes and sentenced to death or life imprisonment without parole from being buried there. The law was aimed at preventing Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrator of the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing and honorably discharged US Army veteran, from being buried there. * Following the publicity surrounding David Berkowitz(who was nicknamed the "Son of Sam" for the letter he wrote to the Daily News explaining his crimes during the late 1970s) and his serial killing spree, New York passed a law to prevent criminals from profiting off the publicity. While the initial law was later struck down due to First Amendment violations and for being too broad, the state passed a revised version that now requires criminals to notify their victims or their relatives if the proceeds exceed $10,000, allowing the victims to sue them for monetary damages. This enabled other states to pass similar laws, and even if they didn't, victims may include a clause in the plea bargain agreement that states any profit made from media deals would instead go to the US Treasury. * Science and math have been known at various times to have Obvious Rule Patches. A couple of the famous ones: + Euclid's Elements, which was the geometry textbook for 2,000 years, begins by assuming some axioms and postulates that are obvious enough to make a solid foundation — with one exception. Euclid's fifth postulate is clumsy and not at all self-evident. Countless mathematicians over the years tried to derive the "parallel postulate" from the others instead of assuming it. But the old Greek's intuition was right. The postulate can't be proven or disproven that way; if you choose a contradictory postulate, you get a "non-Euclidean" geometry that's perfectly consistent but describes some surface other than a flat plane (to which Euclidean postulates apply). Attempts to deduce the 5th Postulate did lead to the discovery of a number of equivalent postulates that, when added to the other four, also produce the normal Euclidean results. + Bertrand Russell essentially broke set theory with his paradox: is "the set of all sets that are not members of themselves" a member of itself? To escape this paradox, mathematicians had to put restrictions on what constituted a set. The current system basically says no set can be a member of itself — anything big enough to do that is too big to be a set, and has to be a "proper class" or some such. Some mathematicians find this unsatisfying, and the debate over whether there's a better solution continues. The underlying nature of Russell's paradox unfortunately indicates that any better solution will also need to be logically "patched". + Should the number 1 be counted as a prime number? There's a case to be made either way, and in fact it was widely considered prime for a while, per the classic definition ("a number whose only factors are itself and 1"). But 1 doesn't act like a prime in most of the ways we need primes to act; in particular, it has to be left out if we want the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic to work. Thus we now define primality in ways that are less intuitive but exclude 1, such as "a number with exactly two factors" (and hence, 0 is right out). + The cosmological constant was an obvious rule patch in Einstein's Theory of Relativity, originally added to hold back gravity from crunching space-time, because Einstein had a personal preference for a static universe. Later it was discovered that the Universe isn't static at all, but is actually expanding - so the constant was patched again, this time with good reason! Except now the universe's expansion seems to be accelerating, and one proposed solution is at least very similar to the cosmological constant. + This is essentially why Pluto is no longer considered a planet. In 1992 when the Kuiper belt was discovered in the same region it became apparent that Pluto was not particularly special compared to many of the other objects close to it and defining Pluto as a planet would mean many more objects would also have to be classified as planets. This is actually the second time this has happened; in 1801, Ceres, a planet between Mars and Jupiter was discovered, but fifty years later several other planets where discovered in the same region, leading scientists to rename them asteroids and the region the asteroid belt. Classifying Pluto as a planet would at the very least mean reclassifying Ceres as a planet, but also probably most of the dwarf planets in both regions. + Thermodynamics has a First, Second, and Third law... and later they added a Zeroth Law. * Caltrops are banned in all barracks on Fort Benning, Georgia. * "Catapults, Trebuchets, and Other Siege Machinery" are banned in the dormitory areas at Texas A&M University. * The White House website under Barack Obama allows people to post petitions (the "We the People" system), and if a petition garnered 25,000 signatures, then it would get an official response. After people started posting obvious troll petitions (Such as "Build a Death Star") as well as divisive and somewhat disturbing ones (e.g. "deport Piers Morgan" or petitions to secede from the Union) but with enough signatures, the White House required 100,000 signatures for a response. + And of course one of the first petitions under the new rules was to reduce the number of signatures required to consider a petition back to the old limit. + Incidentally, the White House's official response to the Death Star petition was amusingly tongue-in-cheek, making points such as "Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that could be exploited by a one-man starship?" + Hilariously, the petition by Americans to the Obama administration demanding the deportation of Piers Morgan led to a petition by British citizens to their own government demanding that they refuse to accept Piers Morgan back. * Happened even in Ancient Greece: Plato was trying to come up with a definition for "man", and eventually settled on "a featherless biped", a definition that many of his peers praised him for. Diogenes, seeing a flaw in the logic, proceeded to pluck a chicken, bring it to Plato and declare "Behold! I have brought you a man!" Plato's definition was quickly updated with "...with broad, flat nails". * "Kickstarter Projects cannot offer genetically modified organisms as a reward". * Following several people listing their souls for sale on the auction site eBay; the company clarified that that is prohibited under policies prohibiting "no item" sales (given souls do not exist as physical objects) and under policies prohibiting sales of body parts (if souls do exist as physical objects). Objects claimed to be haunted by souls are allowed to be listed. Another eBay loophole that was later patched was sellers listing items for a single cent and charging the actual value of the item in shipping costs (for example, if a person wanted to sell a TV for $200, they would list the item for $0.01 and then charge the other $199.99, plus any actual shipping costs, in shipping), as at the time, seller fees did not apply to posted shipping costs. Following multiple sellers listing electronics for a single cent and charging the hundreds of dollars they were actually worth in shipping, eBay changed their policy so shipping costs would also be subject to seller fees. * The Oxford Union, the student debating society at Oxford University, does not allow dogs, but is not permitted by law to prohibit guide dogs or police dogs from entering the premises. This is the reason for Rule 51: "Any Member introducing or causing to be introduced a dog into the Society's premises shall be liable to a fine of £5 inflicted by the Treasurer. Any animal leading a blind person shall be deemed to be a cat. Any animal entering on Police business shall be deemed to be a wombat. Any animal that the President wishes to exempt from the Rule shall be deemed to be a mongoose." There was an attempt a few years ago to have this rule removed on the basis that it discriminated against the blind, but the motion was overwhelmingly voted down by members in the best-attended debate of the term. * The Villains Wiki is supposed to be website about villains, but many users kept adding characters that are not really villainous but just jerks so they could complain about characters they don't like (some such characters that made it onto the wiki include Patrick Star, Princess Bubblegum, and the Titans from Teen Titans Go!). As a result, these articles eventually ended up getting deleted and the mods added a new rule that only truly villainous characters are allowed in the wiki. Despite this rule, the "protagonist" of Velma (as well as Daphne, and hilariously not Fred who was supposed to be unlikable) was deemed to be so horrid that they were allowed to have articles. * Billboard has done this many times to its flagship chart, the Hot 100, to reflect changes in airplay, single purchases (obviously adding in downloads when they first took off), and later adding in other Web factors such as streaming, YouTube, and Spotify. One of the more notable changes was in late 1998, when songs were allowed to chart even if they did not have physical singles; this had previously resulted in many songs ranking high on the Hot 100 Airplay chart despite being ineligible for the Hot 100. * Billboard also changed the Hot Country Songs many times: + In 2004, both "Somebody" by Reba McEntire and "Girls Lie Too" by Terri Clark were involved in payola schemes, where several stations played the songs incessantly during the dead of night to force them to the #1 position on Hot Country Songs (which succeeded). Once Billboard found out about the manipulation, the chart formula was altered to determine audience listener impressions proportionate to each spin of a song, instead of just counting the spins themselves. + The rules for songs entering recurrent rotation (i.e., being taken off the charts after a certain threshhold) were constantly tweaked over time. For most of The '90s, songs over 20 weeks old would be removed from the charts if they were below the #30 position and decreasing in airplay, which was generally not a problem due to the charts moving much faster back then — almost no songs before about 1998 spent more than 20 weeks on the charts, and it was not rare for a former Top 5 hit to be well below #40 by the time its 20 weeks were up. But over time, slower radio turnover often resulted in massive chart logjams, as former Top 3 hits would often linger in the mid-20s on their way down, thus preventing lower songs from ascending more quickly. One of the first such examples was "Just to See You Smile" by Tim McGraw, which took nearly three and a half months to descend from the #1 position (stretching from February-June 1998) before finally going recurrent. The problem of songs lingering near the cutoff range persisted even when the range was raised to #25 starting February 20, 1999, #20 on January 13, 2001, then to #15 in 2003, but raising it to #10 in 2006 finally seemed to do the trick. In addition, a spate of rapid ascents and descents in 2008 (most prominently "Should've Said No" by Taylor Swift and "All I Want to Do" by Sugarland, both of which climbed and fell so fast that they were near the #30 range by their 20th week — runs that would've been far more common in the mid-90s) resulted in the recurrent rule getting a further amendment: songs below #10 that fall for three consecutive weeks are now taken off automatically, regardless of how old they are. + Several other changes were made starting with the January 13, 2001 chart. After a ton of album cuts swamped the bottom of the charts in 2000 (most notably, "Let's Make Love" by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill racked up so many weeks as an album cut that it actually passed the 20-week threshhold and fell off before re-entering upon its official single release), the number of positions shrank from 75 to 60 and as a result, songs had their tally of total weeks on the chart refactored to count only weeks spent at #60 or higher (a rule that particularly benefited Gary Allan's "Right Where I Need to Be", as knocking its total number of weeks from 23 to 16 allowed it to keep climbing and eventually reach Top 5). Also, due to a vast number of Christmas songs flooding the charts at the turn of every year (nearly everything below #30 on the first chart of 2000 was a Christmas song), the rules were changed around the same time so that Christmas songs could only chart once, ever. + The bigger change came in 2012, when the country chart and a couple others were refactored similarly to the Hot 100: into a "main" chart factoring in downloads, streaming, and non-genre-specific airplay akin to the Hot 100; and one that kept the "old" formulation of only tabulating genre-specific airplay. This has been a Broken Base for chart watchers and music fans alike, especially in country, where the "new" charts are dominated by heavy hitters such as Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, and Sam Hunt, who set new chart records constantly despite doing so in ways that are in no way congruent to the previous record holders. To their credit, Billboard still treats the airplay-only chart as its own entity (still ranking new chart records and acknowledging songs that top it), as opposed to treating it like a little-known component chart like Hot 100 Airplay/Radio Songs. Also, American Country Countdown switched back to using the Country Airplay chart in August 2017, having previously switched to Mediabase in 2009. + In November 2016, another patch was made to the recurrent rules on Country Airplay, due to more complex reasons. Billboard and Mediabase have significant overlap in the stations surveyed for their country airplay charts, but each publication has different rules on how positions are determined, and when songs can fall off. As the Mediabase charts are easier to manipulate, this means that many songs get a massive push to #1 on that chart, then freefall the next week (songs on Mediabase have to fall for three consecutive weeks before they are removed from the charts, regardless of how old they are). On Billboard, such pushes usually translated to either a.) the song hitting #1 and then plummeting to the #8-#10 range the next week, or b.) the song only getting to #2 or #3 and then falling completely off the charts the next week. But when Justin Moore's "You Look Like I Need a Drink" became the first song ever to fall off the Country Airplay chart from the #1 position, Billboard changed its rules so that songs can no longer fall entirely from the #1 position, and songs that "have a bullet" (i.e., are gaining in airplay) in the #2-#5 positions cannot fall entirely off the chart if they completely freefall the next week. + In 2003, for the first time, a song had to be put back on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart because it had suddenly gained in airplay after disappearing from the charts. Specifically, it happened to "Almost Home" by Craig Morgan: the song decreased in airplay after its 20th week, and was thus taken off the charts after only peaking at #33. However, stations suddenly started playing it again, so Billboard had no choice but to put it back on the charts three weeks later, a move which allowed it to ascend to #6 over the next few weeks. Since then, Billboard has reinstated songs that have a sudden gain in airplay after disappearing, but only in a couple of cases has it been beneficial in the long run. * Insurance companies specifically require that bank vaults have alarm systems before insuring them against theft, in response to a bank heist that worked specifically because the bank and the insurance company had thought there was no need to put an alarm on a supposedly invulnerable bank vault. * In October 2018, Microsoft discontinued the SAM Lock Tool, also known as "Syskey". The utility was originally meant as a security measure, but was rarely used for legitimate purposes and instead used almost exclusively by tech support scammers to lock out their victim's computers. * During a Tough Mudder mud run event in 2013, one participant died after jumping into a pool of water. While it remains dubious as to how he died, most obstacle course races took steps to correct the possibility of such a death happening again. If a course features water diving at all, a rescue diver will be wading in the pool to pull up anybody who doesn't come up fast enough. In addition, if a course has water that's not deep enough, racers will be told not to dive in. And in all cases, if a racer dives headfirst into water, regardless of why, they're disqualified; the companies that run these courses don't want anyone to get ideas. * In response to people trying to weasel out of deals that involve signing multiple forms (like closing a mortgage) to close because their name is written out slightly differently in one of them, it is not unheard of for an additional form to be included that states that for the purpose of this business deal, "John Smith", "Jonathon Smith", "John H Smith", "John Henry Smith" (and various other possible permutations) are the same person. * Some charity stores (such as Rescue Mission) have a flat "pay by the pound" instead of pricing each and every item. But some people exploited this with certain items (such as CDs and DVDs) by removing the disc from the case (which was opened anyway as it was used) and weighing only the discs while leaving the empty cases behind. Because of this, the pay-by-the-pound stores in question switched to a flat cost for media (e.g. fifty cents per CD, a buck per DVD, etc.) and often limited pay-by-weight to items like books and clothing. Also due to books generally being heavier (especially hardcovers), they can be bought at a discounted rate per pound. * Wash sale rules are imposed to deter investors from selling a security at a loss so they can claim tax benefits, only to turn around and immediately buy the same or a closely-related security again after a certain time period. * Dr. James Naismith did this a lot when he created Basketball. The game people play today is very different from the original set of rules Dr. Naismith came up with. He used his YMCA gym class to playtest the game, and extensively changed the rules based on their experiences. + For one example: Originally, basketball was played with a regular basket with a bottom. Play had to be stopped whenever anyone scored to get the ball back. So Naismith replaced the basket with a hoop. * Due to the controversial boycotts of the 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games, the National Olympic Committee revised its charter to penalize countries who fully boycott a certain Olympic Game by suspending the offender from participating in the Games for 2 years, with North Korea being a good example when it boycotted the 2020 Olympic Games. * It took until 2018 for Wikipedia to disable the ability for administrators (who can "block" and "unblock" users to prevent them from editing) to unblock themselves when they get blocked by another administrator for behavioural problems. However, before then trying to do so was generally treated as grounds for the immediate confiscation of administrator powers. * Due to the convoluted way airline tickets are priced, it's sometimes cheaper to book a flight where your actual destination is a stop on another route rather than have the route end at the destination itself. This is known as "Skiplagging." Since this cuts into the airline's revenue (among other possible issues), most airlines have a policy against skiplagging. Though there's plenty of downsides to this anyway for the passenger.(Which include: this only works on one-way flights, you can't check-in any baggage, and the airline may alter the original route for some reason so your actual destination may not be one of the stops) * The SCP Foundation was blacklisted from discussions on the VSBattles powerscaling community in spring 2024. While the website itself argues their use of this trope is because the Foundation's userbase started scaling up to narrative/metaverse destroyers (and higher!) on purpose and thus ruined the fun, this actually isn't much of a true statement — rather, the wiki's authors would argue the opposite for implementing the ban, that a lot of the more esoteric themes across all branches require scaling up in such a way that defies and even laughs at the hierarchy enforced by powerscaling. * The creation of leap day - and by extension, the Julian Calendar - exist because The Earth's rotation on it's axis and the Earth's orbit around the Sun do not completely line up with each other. With a 365 day calendar, the seasons would all start one day sooner approximately every 4 years. So they came up with the idea to just add an extra day every 4 years. + The Gregorian Calendar's little known rule to skip leap day every 100 years (and to skip the skipping of leap day every 400 years), exist because the Julian calendar would actually make the seasons drift one day later every 100 years. * The "Undo" command, commonly seen in many different types of computer software, would undo the last command you entered. If you tried to undo twice consecutively, the second command would undo the first. This was fixed in later software, creating a new rule that undo cannot undo itself, instead undoing preceding commands. A new "Redo" command was created just incase someone sincerely intends to undo an undo.	ObviousRulePatch	null
FanWorks	# Good Is Not Soft - Fan Works Being good doesn't stop you from going back to the main page. --- Arrowverse * Call Me Kara: Upon discovering that he can't be killed without Hawkgirl, Kara throws Vandal Savage into space. Buffy the Vampire Slayer * In The Pride of Sunnydale, Xander tortures a vampire by nailing her upside down to a pillar, breaking her legs, and pouring holy water on her to get information on the Master. Code Geass * Wasabi: In the present-day of the story, taking place years after an alternate season one, Lelouch is the benevolent emperor of Britannia and Suzaku is his noble Knight of One, both of them ending Britannia's past of war and conquest while being devoted husbands to their respective wives. However, as Suzaku recalls their initial team-up years prior, both were willing to be ruthless for the sake of their loved ones. Lelouch had used his Geass to force enemies to obey him several times, including commanding Rolo to kill himself after he almost assassinated his Love Interest Shirley. Meanwhile, Suzaku had used the Lancelot to slaughter several Britannians in his quest to rescue Euphie after she was arrested for 'treason' when she opened the Special Administrative Zone to grant Numbers equal rights. Crossover * All For Luz: + All Might proved this to All For One when he finally killed him. + Despite not wanting to kill anyone in the Deadly Game set up by the Governor, Team Alpha Squadron are more than willing to the their Quirks to fight back against enemy teams attacking them. - Luz might be trying to be a good person, but make her angry or be stupid enough to try and kill her and her loved ones, and you'll soon realize that's a really bad idea as she's not afraid to use lethal force and steal your powers with All For One. - The normally Gentle Giant Stanley repeatedly slams Cody's head into a tree until he's unconscious for trying to kill him and his new camper friends, once he gets his hands on him. - Judy, in particular, is more than prepared to fire a Boom, Headshot! at an enemy with her Quirk to defend herself and her team. She's also the only one who advocates killing the unconscious Cody in a form of Paying Evil Unto Evil before agreeing with the others to let Luz De-power him instead. + \|\|King\|\| maybe a chill guy when you get to know him, however, he's still a giant, powerful demon that can match Toshiko blow for blow and can be very dangerous when enraged. * Downplayed in Amazing Fantasy. Peter is no Wolverine or Punisher, but he's a Combat Pragmatist who won't hesitate to beat supervillains black and blue through dirty tactics like ambushing them or trapping them inside objects. He doesn't lose any sleep when he tricks a teenaged villain who went around assaulting and robbing people into mangling his hand by punching a brick wall with a rocket-powered glove. * Child of the Storm (Massive Multiplayer Crossover) has a number of these. + Thor (formerly James Potter) is a devoted father to Harry, a loving boyfriend to Jane Foster, and an all round Nice Guy. He's The Wise Prince, a Friend to All Children, and even willing to play up his Fish out of Water tendencies to amuse others. He is also a Physical God who can devastate entire planets, a Warrior Prince, first among a pantheon of nigh immortal warrior gods and a truly terrifying Papa Wolf. Rest assured, if you harm someone he loves, he will show you quite literally 'the Wrath of God', and he will only hesitate in utterly obliterating you if he's setting an example for his son, or if Steve Rogers asks him to. + Charles Xavier is a polite, gentle and kindly man. He is a pacifist at heart, happiest when he is teaching, and has very strong views on psychic ethics. He is also a Badass Pacifist, and as Weapon X found out, if you come after one of his, he will utterly destroy you. He is also willing to drop very sincere threats to the near universally respected/feared Doctor Strange, and slaughter demons by the thousand. He warns \|\|Essex\|\| that he knows every psychic trick the latter does and more besides, so if he doesn't comply, Xavier will just open up his mind like an orange. + Jean Grey is described as 'big sister to the world', most particularly to \|\|her Separated at Birth twin sister Maddie Pryor\|\| and her formerly estranged cousin, Harry Potter. She is warm, kind, and genuinely lovely, taking those who need it under her wing, and functioning as Team Mom to the young X-Men. She is also the most powerful psychic ever born, capable of feats of power at 17 on par with a Greater God or a Queen of Faerie, and informs Agent Coulson very calmly that she doesn't trust SHIELD after how HYDRA hid in plain sight amongst them, considering them to be potentially the same, and therefore if they even breathe the wrong way towards Harry or \|\|Maddie\|\|, she will single-handedly bring SHIELD down around his ears. + Steve Rogers is, well, Captain America, and practically the dictionary definition of Nice Guy. He is also \|\|father, grandfather, and great-grandfather to a moderately sized family by Peggy Carter\|\|, something he finds out towards the end of the first book. In the sequel, when \|\|Harry and Carol (his great-granddaughter)\|\| are kidnapped by the Red Room, his response is to consider it calmly, get as much information as he can, make sure that an enraged Thor can keep his temper... and then personally goes to kick down the doors of the Kremlin and inform the Russian President that if they don't get \|\|Harry and Carol\|\| back, and the heads of those responsible on a platter, there will, as they say, be repercussions. + Wanda Maximoff is another shining example. She's a good teacher and loving girlfriend to Harry Dresden, a fine Parental Substitute to her godson Harry Thorson who (after a rocky start) comes to adore her, and a generally lovely woman. However, she's also the Sorceress Supreme in Waiting \|\|(now Sorceress Supreme in full after chapter 32 of Ghosts of the Past)\|\|, trained in magic by Doctor Strange, and having long since mastered her terrifyingly vast Probability Manipulation powers, and though she doesn't get on very well with her father, when those she cares for are threatened or harmed (particularly her godson, who she loves as her own), it becomes very clear that they are far more alike than she is generally willing to admit. Exhibit A? She cornered \|\|Sinister (or a clone of him, at least)\|\|, the man who was behind much of the misery in Harry's life, and used her probability powers to melt him alive. + Speaking of Magneto, he spends most of the first book as The Ghost, occasionally discussed, but not actually appearing until chapter 77 of an 80 chapter story. While he is often described as being The Dreaded, a godlike Angel of Death, who was not only vastly powerful but capable of viciousness fit to chill the blood and send shivers down the spines of both heroes and villains alike, he doesn't come off as such in his appearances - instead, he seems charming, gentlemanly, and even grandfatherly with Harry, with no trace of either his prior extremism or his storied ruthlessness. Then, in the sequel, the heroes unleash him on the Winter Guard, the elite superhuman strike team of the Red Room, an organisation that was Eviler than Thou to HYDRA. He didn't kill all of them... but after seeing what he did do to those that survived, it might have been kinder to let them die. + Albus Dumbledore, as per canon. A grandfatherly man who always has a kind word for his students, expects no more or less than the best that they can give, and goes out of his way, in general, to help them out with their problems. He enjoys Muggle sweets, spending time with colleagues, and sitting back with a good book. But when HYDRA sent four wizards hand-picked to kill him, he disarmed them with two absent-minded spells and vaporizes their wands. When Fudge plays the Obstructive Bureaucrat, Dumbledore just steamrolls him, throwing in an almost casual Declaration of Protection as he does so. This is the man who taught Nick Fury how to be The Spymaster, and who makes a bit of a habit of Staring Down Cthulhu, even if none of the beings he does this to are strictly villainous (just ridiculously more powerful than him). * In Echoes of Yesterday, Kara is extraordinarily kind-hearted and empathetic... but bullies set her off. Sophia found out the hard way when Kara rescued Taylor from the filthy locker where Sophia had shoved her into: Sophia decided to push the older woman and found herself neck-lifted and glared by two angry glowing eyes. > I buried my anger, and turned to the assembled students, keeping one protective arm around the girl, "Where's the nurse's office?" I demanded. > The response I got, was, "Who the fuck are you?" > This came from one of the trio, a short slender girl with dark skin and brown eyes. She wore a track and field uniform, and her look told me all I needed to know. I was in no mood to play nice. > I grabbed the girl by the shirt and lifted her into the air with one hand. There were a few shouts of surprise, and the other two girls hastily backed away, wide eyed. It was weak, but I felt that familiar heat building at the base of my eyes, and I had a good idea of what this girl was seeing. > "Nurse's office. Where is it?" * Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship (The Fairly OddParents! & My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic): + Rainbow and Gilda jump at the chance to teach Timmy to become a stronger person. But they don't pull punches in doing so. The former is willing to have Scootaloo steal his hat to motivate him to run faster, and the latter is willing to pull sneak attacks on him to get him in shape. The latter also has little problem with breaking bones of some really nasty people \|\|as shown by her beating Crocker within an inch of his life for tormenting Timmy. She later comes close to killing the Dazzlings for their monstrous treatment of the boy, and was only stopped by Princess Twilight\|\|. + \|\|All of Canterlot High subject the Dazzlings to an absolutely vicious beating for what they did. Principal Celestia doesn't like violence, but seeing how horrible the Dazzlings were, she implicitly gives her students permission to enact violence upon them\|\|. * Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls (Bleach & My Little Pony: Equestria Girls): The girls prefer to fight without aiming to kill, but if push comes to shove they won't hold back for those they hold dear. \|\|Coming to terms with this is key for Rarity unlocking the full power of her Fullbring.\|\| + Best shown when \|\|Gilda\|\| attacked Sunset in her apartment. She calmly told her that she will be allowed to crawl back to Hueco Mundo if she apologizes but she will still lose a limb or two. When \|\|Gilda\|\| doesn't back down, Sunset's ready to kill her if it means protecting any innocent bystanders. It briefly concerns her how readily she thought about killing someone, but she says she will worry about morality later. * In Fate/VRAINS, Hakuno Kishinami Zaizen embodies this trope. She is one of the kindest people in the setting. She enjoys friendly duels in the world of VRAINS just as much as any other person. Hurt her friends and try to cause the world to collapse just to get at her and she will unleash Gilgamesh on you. * In Fractured (SovereignGFC), a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands crossover and its sequel Origins, this comes up a lot. Given the universes involved, it makes sense. + Samantha Shepard bounces all over between this trope, Good Is Not Nice, and even Anti-Hero (to the point of Nominal Hero at her worst). She gets better eventually. + Urdnot Wrex, given his species, is as "kind" as you're going to get from a krogan. That doesn't stop him from plotting the downfall of more violent/backward-looking krogan in the interest of trying to save the species. He's happy to let his rivals off each other, saving him the trouble. + Admiral Grayson and the Trans-Galactic Republic definitely count. They'll protect and assist less-advanced species, but anyone who ends up on the wrong side of their turbolasers and huge Star Dreadnaughts is dead. + Though most of the cast from Borderlands falls into Good Is Not Nice, Moxxi stands out for taking in the homeless and hopeless Jackie Jakobs, as well as being a Mama Bear—arranging the murder of a Hodunk who had untoward designs on her daughter Ellie. She even stands by Jackie as a mother figure when she has no where else to turn. * Word of God considers Queen Majesty to be this in the Hasbroverse, due to her depiction in the G1 comics. * Harry and the Shipgirls has Cathy, spirit of the Sword of Saint Catherine. A textbook Jeanne d'Archétype, Cathy is one of the kindest characters in the setting...who becomes significantly stronger by praying to the Lord, making her uniquely suited to cutting down hordes of dark creatures. * A Hollow in Equestria (Bleach & My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic): Has Villain Protagonist Ulquiorra Cifer. He works for Princess Celestia, he abides by the rules she's placed on him, and he's polite but curt. But other than that he WILL use violence if he deems it necessary to achieve his assigned mission, or otherwise protect Equestria where others can't. * In The Infinite Loops, Equestria is declared to be sanctuary to all visiting loopers; whether you want to join in the fun, get some much-needed therapy for whatever trauma ails you, or just be left alone and not have to deal with anything at all for once, you have it, no questions asked. You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't cause trouble or hurt anyone. The ponies are nice like that. But if you do try to start anything, you'll find out that they're anything but soft. * Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: Chloe Cerise would rather not have to resort to violence and hurting others. However, during an incident when one of her bullies dumped red paint over her ala Carrie, she snaps and violently beats said bully up with the same paint can and looking like she's drenched in blood as she threatens to kill her classmates if they ever do this again. And when it comes to fighting baddies in the Fog Car, she ends up defeating the Final Boss by \|\|summoning Lucifer.\|\| * The Lone Traveler: The goblins of the Traveler's original universe called him Maarek Ilumian, which translates as 'Fury of the Light' * Mass Effect: Human Revolution: Adam Jensen is one of the few good people in a Crapsack World. Ever polite and considerate, he is always thinking of others before himself. He really wants to practice Thou Shalt Not Kill. He has no qualms against punching people out or taking An Arm and a Leg. And if you're far enough beyond the line, he won't even regret it. * The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: Kara Kent actually is a very nice, well-meaning person who is open and friendly to most even outside of costume, but she does have her limits with how much she will take from others and won't hesitate to deal with them, as Dash, Lancer and \|\|Sam Manson\|\| find out the hard way. * The Next Frontier: The Kerbals are a Proud Scholar Race of Bold Explorers and scientists who haven't known real war in decades, but their first interstellar mission uses a starship that is quite well armed, and they also aren't above employing a bit of subtle Gunboat Diplomacy by being quite up-front (purely in the spirit of full disclosure, of course) about just what their FTL drive is capable of doing to a planet. * In The Night Unfurls, Hugh, Lily and Soren are the more pleasant members among Kyril's apprentices, but don't let this trait overshadow the fact that they are hunters who are more than capable of hunting down their prey, human or non-human, without mercy. * The Ninth Sekirei Pillar (Naruto & Sekirei): Naruto largely only wants to protect those close to him and keep Sekirei from being bonded to abusive Ashikabi. If this requires killing Ashikabi, starting a gang war, or crippling/killing their employees, then that's what's going to happen. * The Second Archon War: All of the Archons generally fall into this category. Each of them has dramatically improved the living standards and conditions of their own countries under their rule, and truly love and understand their people. That said, even though they want to avoid doing anything terrible, they have shown that will not hesitate to use any means nercessary if it means protecting their people and country. + The Raiden Shogun effectively reduced the crime rate of Japan to the lowest in the world, and kick started a technological and cultural boom. In just a few years under her rule, Japan effectively became the most prosperous nation on the planet. That said, she had to use an overwhelming show of force, and even introduce methods like public executions and so on. A common reason for her being a Base-Breaking Character in universe is because of her extreme methods that everyone dislikes, but at the same time, they are also forced to acknowledge the results and efficiency of her methods. + Venti shows no regards for human governance and their policies, and does whatever he feels like. He went to war against the Nazis without caring about the government and what they think. That said, he loves his people and is a stalwart defender of them. However, those in the government and ruling party all see him as a source of great comfort and also potential trouble because he comes and goes as he pleases. + Nahida overthrew a ruthless dictator and even turned her land into the most fertile place on the planet. For the most part, she lets the people do as they please. However, should anything threaten her people, she would not hesitate to use any means to protect them. Just ask the \|\|Simurgh\|\| whom Nahida dealt with by trapping in a mental dream and Mind Raping her thousands of times over until she finally surrendered to her. * The Secret Return of Alex Mack: Alex really is a wonderful person, who tries to help people pro bono in all sorts of ways, and always tries to protect life. She's also seen a lot of nasty, scary things, and has learned to defend herself against all manner of monsters including those in human form. Threaten her and she will put you down for the count, gently if she can and with electrical burns if she must. It gets to the point where she worries about how ruthless she has necessarily become. > She wasn't sure she was going to be able to look herself in the face once this op was over. She was thinking about wiping out a forest of cute, furry animals. She was thinking about killing zombie-guys who maybe could be saved by some super-brilliant scientist. She wasn't thinking like Alex Mack anymore. The thought scared the tar out of her. She didn't want to become the kind of person who would say ‘why don't you just shoot him.' * Shadows over Meridian (Jackie Chan Adventures & W.I.T.C.H.): + Elyon makes it clear to Caleb that even if whoever disobeyed her orders by having Kage immediately imprisoned (instead of being kept in the castle as a guest) in the original story was acting with the best of intentions, she will have them punished for their role in inadvertently making an enemy out of the Shadow Realm. And when she later starts seeing how Caleb's Irrational Hatred towards Kage threatens her plans to make peace with the Shadow Realm's Queen, she declares that while she still values him as a friend, she will remove him from command if he doesn't get his act together soon enough. + Though Vathek has his Heel Realization about Kage and becomes The Atoner, he concludes she has nonetheless allied herself with Phobos and must be stopped violently if she's beyond reasoning. Furthermore, he resolves himself to putting a stop to Elyon's reign becoming a Full-Circle Revolution, even if he must go up against his old comrades. * What Happens in Vegas (Harry Potter & Teen Titans): After Raven crashes Johnny Rancid's motorcycle, Robin tells the team to "Go check and make sure he's still alive. And if he's somehow still intact enough to fight back, blast him until he's not." * Zero Context: Taking Out the Trash produces the Infinite Defense, a crime-fighting organization consisting of alien cats and dogs, plus one retired human. They might be all for keeping the peace, helping their friends, leaving well enough alone, generally having a good time and standing up for what is right, but that doesn't mean they won't resort to such things as Mind Rape, beings of mass destruction, borderline eldritch entities, raw chaos, or Kill-Sats to do it. The DCU * Dance with the Demons: + Batman has no qualms about beating/squeezing/mind-reading answers out of crooks as investigating an attempted murder. > Batman: "Back to Gotham for the moment. Where we will take every crook in Gotham from the Joker to the lowest pickpocket, grab him right where it hurts, and squeeze till we get some answers." + If you're a member of a terrorist cell looking to murder Superman's best friend's wife, butler and sidekicks, don't expect the Man of Steel to go soft on you. > Two Kobras skidded against the side wall at the end of the hall, their weapons twisted around their necks. They were on the far side of consciousness. > The sounds that came to the defenders now were different. Men yelling incoherently, but having their voices stopped after sharp cries of pain. There was some gunfire, but it didn't seem to matter. And more Kobramen came flying, piling up against the side wall like so much thrown garbage. > [...] > Finally, the tenth or so Kobra Cultist joined his brothers on the heap. Alfred knew who the man was who had put them there, and drew a great, sighing breath as his shoulders sagged. > The man stepped into sight, his hands on his hips, and grinned. > "I thought you might need me here," said Superman. * The Day After You Saved the Multiverse: When a boy named Clark Kent gains his namesake's powers in a lifelike universe, the local Mafia Boss tries to coerce him into working for him by kidnapping his parents. As Superboy tracks down and angrily roughs up the gang members, he states they are gravely mistaken if they think they can push him around. > Larson coughed. "We hold the..." > "Shut up!" Clark Kent bulled him up against the wall of the garage, not far from the fallen hoods. He held him there, Larson's feet not touching the floor, one hand firmly on Larson's throat, putting a bit of pressure on it. > "Get this straight. I am not the Superboy you read about in your comic books." * In Funeral for a Flash, the Rogues don't murder people because they really don't want to find out what would happen if The Flash got mad. > More than once, he said, "I'm glad I have guys like you to tangle with, and not the Gotham mobs or some megalomaniac like Luthor." But he also let them know that if they killed anybody, the gloves and good feelings would be off. So they didn't. * In the Supergirl (2015) fic Future Shock Kara is undeniably the hero and genuinely has the best interest of mankind in mind, fighting for them, providing them with tech to fix cancer and pollution and so forth. She will also kill you dead, engage in some ruthlessly illegal interrogation, and what the Survivor does to \|\|Sam and Lillian following the battle of little Krypton is considered even by her allies to be close to monstrous.\|\| + None of that gets into Kara's actions during the prior war, where blowing up a planet with four billion people on it is just another Tuesday. * Hellsister Trilogy: + Supergirl is gentle and compassionate by nature... but when her evil duplicate threatened innocent lives as well as her friends', making clear the whole time she would never stop, Supergirl hurled her into an anti-matter star. + During "The Apokolips Agenda", The Spectre -the embodiment of God's Wrath- comes face to face with Trigon -massively powerful otherworldly demon-. The Spectre thrusts a hand through Trigon's chest and then makes Trigon explode. Literally. > The Spectre looked into Trigon's eyes, let him glimpse the skulls that served him for pupils, and thrust a hand into and through his chest. It protruded from Trigon's back, in ghastly fashion. Trigon's left hand went limp, and Raven flew to freedom. > Then the Guardian Ghost sent a surge of white energy through his arm, at full power. > Trigon exploded. > It was hard for the nonmystics to see or perceive. For those who could see it, bits of red psychomatter radiated away from the Spectre's outstretched arm, and Trigon's face, for the second time in a lifetime, held an expression of terror before it disintegrated. There was little audible noise, but a psychic roar for those who were attuned to hear it. * In Kara of Rokyn, Supergirl goes against Faora Hu-Ul, the deadliest Kryptonian female alive, and beats the crap out of her. Fire Emblem * Robin in Fire Emblem Awakening: Invisible Ties is generally pleasant and easy to get along with, but on the battlefield, he shows no mercy. Case in point: he admits to Lucina in chapter 21 that after all of the atrocities Gangrel committed against Ylisse, if he were in Chrom's shoes, he would have gladly mounted the Mad King's head on a pike and paraded it through the streets of Ylisstol. Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire * The Raven's Plan: Jon Targaryen is perfectly fine with giving out cruel punishments if the people are fully deserving of it. The only caveat is that he (officially) cannot be the one responsible for it, since he has to be seen as honorable and merciful. Gravity Falls * In this Reverse Falls AU fan comic, Pacifica Northwest is portrayed as a kind, curious, and adventurous Granola Girl. But, as the evil version of Mabel finds out, she's not harmless > Reverse!Mabel: But you're, damn, a hippie! How then will you explain your insane actions? > Reverse!Pacifica: You know, when I first met you, thanks to you I realized that not everything in this world can be solved by being nice. And desperate times call for desperate measures! Harry Potter * In Kaleidoscopic Grangers, Ariadne has no qualms about showing no mercy to her foes, unlike how her canon counterpart often refuses to kill - Ariadne sometimes outright delivers a killing blow immediately, as she does several times during the Battle of Hogwarts. Additionally, Ron, \|\|who is a werewolf after their third year, goes berserk when Fenrir Greyback attacks Bill and very nearly kills him.\|\| Of the New Marauders, the only individual to have killed nobody after the war is Hermione. How to Train Your Dragon * Dark Valkyrie: Astrid and Hiccup are both still as good-hearted as they were in the series, but will resort to murder if pushed far enough (Astrid especially, with Hiccup much more reluctant). Various hunters found this out the hard way. Jackie Chan Adventures * The Ultimate Evil: The Guardian of the Book of Ages is a wise and kindly old man, but he's also terrifyingly powerful and fierce when he encounters evil forces. According to Shendu, he had the power to erase him and Valerie from existence if he chose to when they entered the Book's temple. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure * JoJo: Emerald Morioh: Noriaki Kakyoin, surviving his canon death by DIO, arrives to Morioh to help Jotaro investigate the Stand-users created by Akira Otoishi and other supernatural incidents. Though initially on edge, Kakyoin bonds quickly with the younger Morioh Stand users like Josuke and Koichi with his friendly mentor demeanor. However, Kakyoin still has the same ruthless streak from his youth, demonstrated when he \|\|use Heirophant Green to invade through Yoshikage Kira's mouth before he could use Bites The Dust, breaking his bomb-trigger fingers from the inside, and hold him still long enough for Josuke to pummel Kira with Shining Diamond in vengeance for Reimi, Shingechi, and the countless other victims\|\|. The Land Before Time * The Seven Hunters: Littlefoot and his pack certainly count. Considering they now have to kill to survive, they are not above brutally killing the enemy fast biters. The Loud House * Leni Loud is considered by the fanbase to be the nicest kid in her family and the fanfic Mall Rats uses the characterization flawlessly. Then some jocks decide that it's a good idea to push around Lincoln in front of her. Leni tries to get them to leave peacefully but they ignore her. So she kicks the crap out of them. Love Hina * Contract Labor: Keitaro Urashima is friendly, polite, and a caring big brother figure. He will also beat up, torture, and kill as necessary anyone who threatens or harms someone he cares about. Marvel Cinematic Universe * Bucky Barnes in Ain't No Grave. For a traumatized, mentally ill, semi-amnesiac, former tortured brainwashed assassin, he's surprisingly kind and amiable to his friends and innocent civilians, and he does his best to be a conscientious Parental Substitute to his unofficial foster children. But since his traumatic backstory is all Hydra's fault, he's not inclined to show Hydra loyalists any mercy, even if they're noncombatant scientists. And his Vigilante Man efforts can be pretty brutal. * The HYDRA World Revenge Tour brings out Steve's ruthless side in Bucky Barnes Gets His Groove Back & Other International Incidents, because this is Bucky he's avenging. He happily uses guns and knives, gets halfway decent at espionage, and kills a hell of a lot of people (who were working for HYDRA, so they deserved it). When he returns to the states in the sequel, the FBI gets on his ass for taking matters into his own hands, and the Wilson family's collective asses for daring to associate with Steve, and to say he's not pleased is an understatement. > [Steve] can play nice. He'll be a perfect fucking gentleman. He'll be the nicest brick that's ever been thrown through the FBI's window. * "Honey" in Except It Abide in the Vine, an Alternate Self of Steve Rogers from a Hydra-ruled dystopian Alternate Universe. If you aren't a member of the fascist conspiracy that killed his best friend, used his boyfriend as their dehumanized killing machine, and turned the world into a fascist hellscape, he's as kind as any other Steve Rogers. If you ARE, he'll kill you and be glad of it. (The characters from Lighter and Softer universes find this a bit disturbing.) * Peter Parker's Field Trip (Of course it's to Stark Industries): The moment Peter's class started their tour, Natasha has SPI-DER following them, listening in on the whole thing to check up on them. When she confronts Peter, she questions why he lets Flash push him around the way he does when he can bench-press a city-bus. Peter insists that its because he wants to be the better man between the two of them. Justified, considering that not only is Peter still keeping his secret-identity, but he has trouble controlling his strength and does not want to do anything permanent to Flash. It also doesn't help that unlike Peter, Natasha was trained at a very young age to use violence and is less likely to let Flash get away with his behavior. Merlin (2008) * Loaded March: Just like in the source series, Merlin and Gwen are two of the nicest, sweetest people in the series and both are shown to be extremely reluctant to pick up a gun and shoot people. However, Merlin didn't hesitate in killing to save Arthur's life in Avalon, while Gwen doesn't take fools or villains lightly. Miraculous Ladybug * A Frozen Supervillain: Plagg is overall a heroic Kwami, despite his sardonic, snarky, and lazy nature. He also knows that Cat Noir is not ready to confront Hawk Moth yet, both as a super villian and as a father. That does not mean, however, that Plagg is not getting back at Gabriel, specifically sabotaging the Agrestre house's heating system to trap Gabriel in his lair during a blizzard with the intent of inflicting frost bite on him, leaving lasting damage on the man. * Weight Off Your Shoulder: After Marinette reaches the breaking point with the stresses she is suffering Living a Double Life, she hands over the Ladybug Miraculous and Guardian role to a new Ladybug, who instantly reveals all of the villains and either gets them arrested or makes sure they are Convicted by Public Opinion. The shock of revealing to everybody (especially Adrien) that Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste is of no care to her. She also remains on patrol 24/7, which unnerves Tikki (who, ironically, wanted Marinette to be this driven). MonsterVerse * Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Godzilla, Scylla and the half-Ghidorah Monster X get special mention, but technically all the Titans are this trope, having no hesitations about throwing down without mercy to save the world. Monster X in particular is highly benevolent towards humans generally, but when it comes to their enemies they can be as ferocious and merciless as Ghidorah. My Hero Academia * In Live a Hero (MHA), Izuku is a Kindhearted Cat Lover who would prefer not to hurt others if he can help it. If he is pushed into a fight, he showcases his skills as a Tyke-Bomb raised to be a Serial Killer, easily dodging the Sludge Villain's attacks before immediately throwing three knives to gouge out its eye. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic * Diadem in Echoing Silence is one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. She has no problem killing if she thinks the situation calls for it. Naruto * She Who Dwells In Eternity: Naruto Sarutobi seals an infant Naruto away in order to prevent the Kyuubi from escaping again (as it's unknown how it got free from Kushina) with intentions of unleashing the Kyuubi upon Konoha's enemies and sealing it into a new infant should Konoha ever need its power. He might hate himself for it, but he'll do what's necessary to protect Konoha. * In Sugar Plums Ume is a very nice and empathic person to her friends, her siblings and to nonshinobi whom she's very popular with because they aren't used to shinobi treating them with respect. This doesn't change the fact that she is a very potent warrior with an in story body count higher than most of the Rookie Nine. If you threaten her or anybody she cares about she will not hesitate to kill you, usually in the fastest most efficient way possible. Neon Genesis Evangelion * A Crown of Stars: + The people of Avalon are pretty nice and kind. Their enemies are the kind of people prone to mistake goodness and compassion for weakness and folly. Every time they have fought them, though, the Avalon folk have proved they are not pushovers. + This is especially applicable to their divine rulers, Daniel and Rayana. They are compassionate, kind monarchs, driven to help everyone in need and committed to protect their subjects. Threaten or hurt innocents, though, and... it is told that Daniel sometimes shows mercy, but Rayana doesn't do it. Whoever harms children finds out why she is the patron deity of Mama Bears. Pokémon * Pokémon Reset Bloodlines: + Clair, the Blackthorn Gym Leader, is depicted as this. She can be strong-willed and doesn't go easy on her challengers, but is very nice to those who earn her respect. That being said, she has little-to-no tolerance for people with an ego bigger than they can back up, and is very fond of knocking them down a peg or two to teach them their place. + Steven Stone, the Hoenn Champion, has many virtues, but "patience" is not one of them, and he makes that point clear to a group of Team Zenith grunts to get them to spill the beans about their plans. Puella Magi Madoka Magica * The Soulmate Timeline has Mami Tomoe. Mami is many things. She's kind, she's sweet, she believes in being respectful of society's laws. She puts on the airs of The Paragon publically, she wants to live up to these ideals wherever possible, and is the happiest she's been in years in story once she starts meeting her Soulmates. However all of this does not mean Mami is a pushover who won't get her hands dirty. Homura outright notes that Mami has always been willing to display and act on lethal intent and has been willing to do so for years, something another Magical Girl Homura encounters can't do even when starving and half-mad from desperation, and while Mami desperately wants friends she has expectations of them. Even Kyoko coming back to reconcile with her doesn't mean she will give Kyoko any leverage to argue with her about her rules. As she later tells Madoka, lethal force is never to be used as a first option, but it is also always an option on the table. When a Serial Killer Magical Girl shows up in Mitakihara and holds one of their friends hostage, Mami is adamant on seeing her killed, only by the hands of someone who has killed (she doesn't expect Nagisa or Yuma to kill her), but is clear the girl will die. And Mami makes good on this when she catches her. Very clear. RWBY * The Choices We Make: \|\|By the same token, Qrow is even willing to use his own niece as bait for Tyrian if it gives them a shot at taking him out, though he notes that it was a decision he made pretty much on the spot and it tears him apart later\|\|. Sherlock Holmes * Mortality has this with Watson. Smith had to find out the hard way why pissing off a gentle soul like him by messing with a detective is....not a smart choice, and generally un-survivable. + The captured criminal too. He was an idiot for begging for mercy in playing a part in Holmes's whereabouts. He gets calmly, coldly murdered. Basically? Screw around with his friend and it's not survivable. You'll get murdered. Star Wars * In Double Agent Vader, Vader is working to bring down Palpatine and the Empire but he is still more than willing to kill if he has to. In one chapter, he deliberately sets up some Inquisitors to fail then executes them for it. * Wilhuff Tarkin, Hero of the Rebellion has a few examples, most notably Rivoche Tarkin and Luke: + While her uncle is more of a Token Evil Teammate for the good guys, Rivoche is a sweet and nice girl, who helps people because she can. When a coalition of Tusken Raiders prepared to attack Anchorhead and the elder Tarkin pointed out that the Imperial garrison was too far away to come in time, she went with her uncle's plan and shot to kill, even taking out \|\|the rogue Jedi leading them\|\|... Whose deactivated \|\|lightsabers\|\| she now wear as accessories. + Luke, like his uncles, is shown to be a kindhearted young man... Who lives on Tatooine, and you don't survive on Tatooine by being soft. Case in point, Luke was right at Rivoche' side with the Tusken, providing her with the distraction she needed to take down the \|\|rogue Jedi\|\|, and had been learning how to shoot a gun from his uncle since he was a kid. Steven Universe * While their intentions are still noble, the Crystal Gems from Blue Au-niverse have made it a priority to show no mercy to any Diamond they find and capture them. This has pragmatic reasons, as because Diamonds are able to create gems, leaving them to their own devices can lead another Gem War. Subverted in the cases of association, as when Amethyst kidnaps Connie, Peedee and Ronaldo under suspicions of being associated with Nora, everyone else scolds her for doing so. Total Drama * Reality Collides: The Ezekiel Chronicles: While Ezekiel is a team player and shows a great amount of empathy for his teammates, he's also pragmatic and aware of the contest involving elimination. A good example is when he gives Katie and Sadie a Brutally Honest lecture in chapter 4, where they're on the verge of elimination due to their co-dependent Pseudo-Romantic Friendship being unhealthy and a Fatal Flaw to both themselves and the team. But not before ending it by encouraging them to grow on their own as individuals. Warrior Cats * In Warriors Redux, the Clans in general are shown to have serious punishments for wrongdoing, especially shown when Bluestar, after Tigerclaw tries to take over the Clan as in canon, decides to have him executed rather than just exiling him. Xenoblade Chronicles * Momentary Weakness: In the sequel series Endless Strength, Rex offers a chance to surrender for the people who have invaded his home to murder his family and children. He warns them that he's not giving them a second chance. When they refuse, he kills one... and then offers the survivors another chance to surrender. This pretty much continues until they're all dead. Young Justice (2010) * Johnny from Cranes is a very nice person, but that doesn't mean Scarecrow is any more merciful. Artemis and M'gann have shades of this as well. * Life Ore Death: + Ferris is this if you consider her 'good' enough to count. She's trying to not kill people and respect rule of law now that she's in a world where human life isn't worth spit, but she will beat people senseless, break bones, and emotionally traumatize people if it becomes necessary. + It's also mentioned that Batman is this, as part of her justification for breaking fingers in an interrogation is to ask Robin what Batman does and use those as guidelines for appropriate behavior. * In Risk It All, Ren is a fundamentally nice person and squeamish at the thought of leaving someone with crippling injuries. But his Soul-Crushing Strike is the best attack in his arsenal in his early days as a vigilante, and he's more than willing to use it if it means people won't end up dead. \|\|When Black Mask points out that he'll be free within hours of being arrested, Ren decides to cripple Black Mask to render him incapable of harming anyone again. But turning Black Mask's insides into soup troubles Ren enough to make him fight the urge to vomit afterward.\|\| * With This Ring: Paul is friendly, sociable, committed to the good of mankind and the betterment of the universe, and very open to persuasion and reason. He puts a lot of effort into rehabilitating villains of various kinds, and is willing to cut pragmatic deals with those he can't fully redeem. When he decides that a person or species is beyond saving, though — let's just say that even he doesn't know his full body count. It's hard to accurately count the casualties of a Colony Drop, after all. But he suspects his kill total is greater than any other human in history. > Paul: Now, I know I'm not going to scare you or intimidate you by saying this. That's.. not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to save your life. Because if you disobey me, I will kill you. I will not feel happy or sad about it, but I will not hesitate, and I will not lose any sleep over it. I will simply consider it necessary and do it. ---	GoodIsNotSoft	null
Music	# Missing Episode - Music * A 1976 fire destroyed a Long Branch, NJ department store building. The fourth floor was used by Atlantic Records for storing their tapes. That means thousands of hours of outtakes, alternate takes, unreleased songs, and studio talk are gone. Affected artists include Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, Ornette Coleman, and The Drifters. * According to a 2019 NY Times Magazine article, the Universal Studios backlot fire on June 1, 2008 resulted in the loss of over 118,000 recording masters from Universal's subsidiary labels. The material lost ranges from artists like Chuck Berry to Nirvana to George Strait to Otis Redding (and many, many, many more), and included countless outtakes, unreleased songs, and studio chatter that will never be heard again. * According to music historian Tom Graves, Robert Johnson is known to have recorded 59 tracks in his career. Only 42 are currently available. * The second album of the Tiny Tot Pwaise series is the only one of the six that is not available on digital platforms. However, one song from the missing album, titled "I Love You, Lord", is featured on the album Top 25 Kids' Praise Songs 2012, which is available digitally. * An endless list of compositions by almost any composer from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical eras (including Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, etc.) are considered lost or an autograph has never been found to confirm whether it has been rightly attributed. These range from small works to larger scale works such as operas. To name an example, several unique manuscripts of Haydn were lost when the opera house at Esterhaza (where he was employed) burned down in 1979. * Felix Mendelssohn mentioned in various correspondences that he was writing a cello concerto at around the same time he composed his famous violin concerto. The manuscript is said to have fallen off the back of a coach while Mendelssohn was travelling to present the concerto to its dedicatee; it was never recovered. * The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius published very little in the last twenty years of his life, and he indicated an interest in adding an eighth symphony to the seven he'd already done. It suffered massive Development Hell until the 1940s, when Sibelius destroyed the manuscript. To this day, it's unclear whether he finished or even started this work, and it remains one of the biggest mysteries in classical music. In 2011, three manuscript fragments speculated to be from the symphony were discovered and performed, but while they have been authenticated as the work of Sibelius, there is no consensus on whether or not they truly are from the lost symphony, and opinion is even more divided on whether, even if they are, completing the symphony from the sketches is possible or worthwhile. * What is now known as Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No.9 in E-flat major, first performed in 1964, is actually the second version of the work. Shostakovich told Beethoven Quartet first violinist Dmitri Tsyganov that the first version was "based on themes from childhood", but he became dissatisfied with the work and destroyed the manuscripts in a fit of depression in 1961. A draft version of the first movement was recovered and recorded in 2003. * The French composer Paul Dukas, best known for "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", was an ardent perfectionist and destroyed the manuscripts of pieces which he felt were not up to standard; his surviving works only constitute around half of his total output. Among the lost works are several operas and ballets, a symphony, and a violin sonata. * This is sometimes the explanation for an opera that seems particularly disjointed. Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore lost a lot of explanatory material due to the libretto being savagely edited for time constraints, resulting in the long jumps between acts. * Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele was yanked and radically reworked by the composer after a cataclysmic debut in 1868 (two performances). He deleted (and destroyed both music and words for) a whole act between what is now Act 4 and the Epilogue, which would have filled in some of Faust's adventures and further character development after his dalliance with Helen of Troy. He also trimmed and slimmed the story, which allowed time to interpolate the well-loved "Lontano, lontano, lontano" duet for Faust and Margherida in Act 3 (it was recycled from another of his failures). Finally, he recomposed the role of Faust from baritone to tenor. The revised version made a successful debut in 1875, though Boito continued to tinker with it until 1881. * Many works by Alberic Magnard (a contemporary of Dukas) were also destroyed, albeit not directly by the composer's own choosing. In the early days of World War I, Magnard spotted German troops marching by his home. He opened fire on the soldiers, killing one of them. The Germans responded by burning down Magnard's house - without letting Magnard out. Several unpublished works, including at least two operas and a song cycle, were lost in the blaze. * It is estimated that 80% of the works of Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt were destroyed in a fire at his home in 1970. The damage includes six piano concertos and several works for Hardanger fiddle. The charred bricks that were once those manuscripts are still archived in Oslo in the hopes that technological advances will make these burnt remains readable. * Maurice Duruflé shared his teacher Dukas' fanatical perfectionism; so self-critical was he that he only assigned opus numbers to fourteen compositions over his (84-year) lifetime.(He also admitted that he found the process of composition tedious, leading him to devote more energy to performing and teaching.) And he wasn't even happy with some of those; several, he simply refused to include in concert programmes, but he never actually submitted his Op.1, Triptyque (a set of three fantasies for piano on Gregorian chants), for publication. It is possible the manuscript still exists,(Duruflé later wrote that he decided against destroying it, as he did most of his unpublished works, after it won him second prix in a composition competition.) but his wishes that it not be published have continued to be honoured, and it has never been recorded. * English composer Roger Sacheverell Coke enjoyed success early in his career, but the fact that he composed in a Romantic idiom that was half a century out of fashion meant he struggled to retain his audience, and this, combined with intense self-criticism and mental health problems, caused him to withdraw his Opp.1-12 from circulation and destroy them. The lost compositions include his first two piano concerti, his first piano sonata, and an assortment of chamber works. He also either destroyed or never got around to writing the first and last movements of his Piano Concerto No.5; only the (presumed) second movement survives. * "Weird Al" Yankovic has several cases of this. He has several songs, most notably song snippets that comprise his food medleys, which were denied permission for official release by the artists being parodied (though fair use laws state that permission is not required for a parody of a work, Al nonetheless likes to ask the artists directly for permission, to maintain good relations within the music community). He's only ever performed these songs, including "Pizza Delivery" (a parody of "My Heart Will Go On" by Céline Dion) and "Laundry Day" (a parody of "Come Out and Play" by The Offspring), in concert. + To a lesser extent, his 1981 Another One Rides the Bus EP is looooong out of print (though all songs but the title track were re-recorded for his 1983 Self-Titled Album), as is his 1994 box set Permanent Record: Al in the Box due to the artwork masters being lost forever (ironic given the title). The song "Headline News", released as a standalone single in 1994, did not appeared on any other official release until the Squeeze Box set in 2017. * Actress/comedian Melissa Peterman (Reba, The Singing Bee) was supposed to have released a standup comedy album via Big Machine Records in 2010. While it was supposedly recorded, it was never released. * For some reason, the streaming release of The Worst of the Brent Lee Band is missing Track 4: "The Water Song". The iTunes Store used to have an extra release of the album that does include the song, but it was removed in late 2023. * Jason Aldean narrowly averted this when the studio holding the masters to his second album, Relentless, caught fire but stopped just shy of the room holding the masters. * River Road released a single in 2000 titled "Breathless" via Virgin Records Nashville. It was to have been the lead single to their second album Somethin' in the Water, and while advance copies of the album were sent to radio stations, the album itself never saw the light of day due to Capitol Records buying out Virgin Nashville's roster. The title track of the album later became an example of this trope a second time when its writer, Jeffrey Steele, cut it for an album that was also never released due to his label, Monument, closing its Nashville arm (although it later appeared on an independently-released album). * In 2004, The Jenkins (a mother and two daughters) cut two songs: "Blame It on Mama" and "Getaway Car", both for Capitol Records. They were to have been singles for an album on Capitol that had Rodney Crowell as producer, but it never saw light of day due to the singles' underperformance, and The Jenkins were never heard from again. However, "Getaway Car" had previously been a minor hit for Hall and Oates. * Ricochet's original third album, What a Ride, was supposed to come out in 1998, but was never released due to the underperformance of its three singles, "Honky Tonk Baby", "Can't Stop Thinkin' 'bout That", and "Seven Bridges Road". Eventually, the band released another album titled What You Leave Behind before being dropped by Columbia Records. According to an interview with the band, Sony still holds the recordings for what would have been What a Ride, but some of its tracks (including the "Seven Bridges Road" cover) still carried over to What You Leave Behind. * Lionel Cartwright's fourth album, supposedly to have been titled The Real Story, was never released despite producing two singles ("Be My Angel" and "Standing on the Promises"). The former had a music video made, while the latter was published in sheet music form. * Somewhere in Mercury Records' vaults is the only album by Daisy Dern, titled Little Dreams. Lead single "Gettin' Back to You" notched the Hot Country Songs charts, but no trace of the disc exists otherwise. However, "Gettin' Back to You" and some of Dern's other songs appeared on the After Hours album issued by her husband, Dave Gibson (formerly of the Gibson/Miller Band), in The New '10s. * Rick Trevino's fifth Columbia Records album was never released, despite charting the single "Only Lonely Me". According to Trevino himself, he had asked out of his contract before the single's release and Columbia told him no... only to drop him anyway when "Only Lonely Me" bombed. * Jake Owen released "Real Life" in mid-2015 as the intended lead single to his fifth album American Love, but after the single underperformed, the album was delayed to 2016 and "Real Life" was axed from the tracklist. * When the label Category 5 Records went out of business in 2006 due to the owner misallocating funds intended for assisted-living facilities that he owned, four singles were canned without ever being released: "Wake Up Dancin'" by Odiss Kohn, "All Kinds of Beautiful" by Shauna Feagan, "The One That Got Away" (irony abounds in the title) by Jerrod Niemann, and "Something Stronger Than Me" by Travis Tritt. Both Niemann and Tritt re-released their Category 5 material independently in 2013, but Kohn and Feagan immediately disappeared. * Craig Hand had this happen twice. He was also a victim of Category 5's closure right after his single "Direct Connect" was released, although the single does exist on iTunes. He later suffered this a second time as the lead singer of Bush Hawg, which barely scraped the bottom of the charts with "Crushin'". A second single, "More Than Corn", was announced but apparently never released, and Bush Hawg was never heard from again. * Clint Daniels had this happen twice. His first album for Arista Records Nashville was never fully released, although a few promo copies exist and lead single "A Fool's Progress" made the charts. He later moved to Epic Records and released "The Letter (Almost Home)", which also never made it to an album. * Country Music duo LoCash Cowboys were originally signed to R&J/Stroudavarious Records from 2010 to 2012. They issued three singles: "Here Comes Summer", "Keep in Mind", and "You Got Me", all of which reached the lower regions of the country music charts in anticipation of their first album. A fourth single, "C.O.U.N.T.R.Y.", was advertised in Billboard in May 2012, but the label closed and their debut album This Is How We Do It was shelved. "Keep in Mind" and "C.O.U.N.T.R.Y." were later put on an album released by another label, and the duo would later find success upon changing labels yet again and renaming themselves LoCash. * Chris Stapleton's debut single "What Are You Listening To" was never put on a full album. He didn't break out until "Nobody to Blame" two years later. * Brian McComas's debut album was delayed after its first two singles failed to hit Top 40 on the country music charts. It was finally released in late 2002 after "99.9% Sure (I've Never Been Here Before)" was a hit. A second album was to have been led off with "The Middle of Nowhere", but he instead left the label. * Brothers Osborne's debut single "Let's Go There" never appeared on a full album. It isn't even on the five-song EP released on the heels of its followup "Rum", which contains three other exclusive songs and an early version of what would later be their Breakthrough Hit "Stay a Little Longer". * In 2006, The Lost Trailers recorded "Chicken Fried", written by Zac Brown of the then-mostly unknown Zac Brown Band. Brown had given the Trailers permission to cut the song on the condition that they not release it as a single. While the Trailers complied, their label ignored Brown's request and shipped the Trailers' version of the song to country radio. When Zac heard the Trailers' version of the song, he had his lawyers issue a cease-and-desist order to their label. As a result, the version by The Lost Trailers never saw the light of day again, but the ZBB would later have success when a re-recording of "Chicken Fried" became their Breakthrough Hit in 2008. * Kip Moore had this happen twice. His debut album was delayed when his first single "Mary Was the Marrying Kind" did poorly, and that song appears only on the deluxe edition. Later on, his second album was stalled for nearly two years when its originally intended lead single "Young Love" and followup "Dirt Road" both completely flopped at radio. Neither song made the final cut. * Eric Paslay had this happen twice, too. Similarly to Kip Moore, his debut album was delayed when intended lead singles "If the Fish Don't Bite" and "Never Really Wanted" failed to make an impact. The latter did not appear on the album, which was finally released in 2014 off the success of the single "Friday Night". His second album was stalled when the lead single "High Class" performed miserably with radio and critics in 2015. A second single, "Angels in This Town", came and went without even charting at all, and a third single did not come until March 2018. * Jo Dee Messina's last chart single "I'm Done" never appeared on an album. * Craig Morgan's 2010 single "Still a Little Chicken Left on That Bone" was never put on an album due to the closure of BNA Records a few months later. * Curtis Wright charted in the Top 40 in 1990 with "She's Got a Man on Her Mind", later Covered Up by Conway Twitty. The song was supposed to be included on an album for the small Airborne label titled Slick Hick. It was also supposed to have a second single, "You Saved Me", which Wright wrote for Patty Loveless a few years prior. However, the label closed soon afterward, leaving both "You Saved Me" and the rest of Slick Hick unreleased. Wright later released a solo album for Liberty Records in 1992. * Scotty Emerick, a longtime collaborator of Toby Keith, had this happen several times. Before he started working with Keith, he had a deal with Rising Tide Records, which closed before he could release anything. His self-titled debut for DreamWorks Records in 2003 was canned when its singles "I Can't Take You Anywhere" (originally recorded by, and featuring a guest vocal from, Keith himself) and "The Coast Is Clear" failed to light up the charts. A third single, "The Watch", also didn't go anywhere and never made it on an album. However, all of these singles, plus "What's Up with That" from the soundtrack to Broken Bridges (in which Keith starred), are all on iTunes. * Terry Radigan had an album titled Pawnbroker's Daughter recorded in 1995 for Asylum Records, but it was never released. Lead single "Half a Million Teardrops" had a music video, and promotional copies of the album exist, but that's it. * Lee Ann Womack has had this happen twice. In 2006, she moved from MCA to Mercury Nashville and released "Finding My Way Back Home", the title track to an album of the same name. Due to its underperformance, the album was shelved and she moved back to MCA for the album Call Me Crazy. After that album, she put out a new single titled "There Is a God" (Covered Up Trent Willmon), but it also bombed, its corresponding album disappeared, and she left MCA. Womack has not charted since. * Pinmonkey released a cover of Robbie Fulks' "Let's Kill Saturday Night" for a proposed second album in 2003, but when it was charting, they abruptly left the label and one of the members quit. * Brad Paisley intended to lead off his eleventh studio album with the Demi Lovato duet "Without a Fight". When the song bombed at radio, the album was delayed for nearly a year, and "Without a Fight" was excised from the final tracklist. * Wade Hayes had this happen twice: + His third album was originally to have been titled Tore Up from the Floor Up, with a cover of Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" as the lead single. When the cover bombed, the album was retooled, the cover was removed from the tracklist, and the album was finally released as When the Wrong One Loves You Right in 1998. + In 2003, he teamed up with fiddler Mark McClurg (formerly of Alan Jackson's road band The Strayhorns) to form the duo McHayes. They recorded a full album titled Lessons in Lonely, and although the lead single "It Doesn't Mean I Don't Love You" charted, the album was never released. Their second single was a cover of Don Williams' "Tulsa Time", which doesn't appear to have been intended for the album. After this, they went their separate ways and Hayes continued to record solo. * Amy Dalley released seven singles between 2003 and 2008 but never got an album out because, at the time, Curb Records had a policy that leadoff singles had to hit Top 20 before the album dropped, and her most successful only got to #23. * Curb Records' policy also screwed over Steve Holy, who had five singles between his biggest hits "Good Morning Beautiful" and "Brand New Girlfriend". Those five songs were "I'm Not Breakin'", "Rock-a-Bye Heart", "Put Your Best Dress On", "Go Home", and "It's My Time (Waste It If I Want To)". The latter three are all available for download, and both "I'm Not Breakin'" and "Put Your Best Dress On" were put on a compilation album in 2013, but "Rock-a-Bye Heart" remains out of print. Another stray single, "Might Have Been" from 2008, was also never put on an album, and the only circulating copy is on iTunes. * Two examples happened in the early noughties when Record Producer Keith Stegall got fired from his position of president of A&R at Mercury Records Nashville. + David Nail's debut album had been fully recorded, lead single "Memphis" was on the charts, and promotional copies of the album had been sent out, but the full product never saw the light of day. Nail was absent from the music business for nearly five years before resurfacing in 2009 on MCA Nashville. + Eric Heatherly had a second album for Mercury lined up, but it never got so far as having a single released. He then had this happen again when he moved to DreamWorks Records in 2002; a single titled "The Last Man Committed" had charted, and promotional copies of the album Sometimes It's Just Your Time had been sent to radio stations, but DreamWorks never chose to release it for some reason. * James Otto ended up subverting this. While his debut album had a few advance copies dropped around in 2002, the actual album didn't see the light of day until 2004. He had to change a couple tracks because another artist wanted to release one of them (specifically Montgomery Gentry with "Gone") as a single. * John Berry also had two unreleased albums in a row: the first, Crazy for the Girl, was dropped (and its single withdrawn after only a couple weeks on the chart) because he was having vocal cord troubles and couldn't finish recording it. After recovery, he recorded Better Than a Biscuit, which didn't get released because he asked out of his contract the week before it was supposed to come out. * Yet another example of this happening twice to the same artist is Jessica Andrews. Also signed to DreamWorks at the time, she was slated to release Ain't That Life in 2005, but it never saw release: the lead single failed to chart at all, and the second single was blunted by DreamWorks Records' closure. (However, Kellie Pickler later had a top 20 hit with her own rendition of "Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You", a track that Andrews recorded for the unreleased album.) She eventually moved to Lyric Street, where she released the single "Everything", only to get screwed over by that label closing. * Also on Lyric Street, Bucky Covington perhaps got the shortest end of the stick. His second album was delayed due to its first two singles ("I Want My Life Back" and a cover of Nickelback's "Gotta Be Somebody") underperforming (although both appeared on digital-only EPs). And just when "A Father's Love (The Only Way He Knew How)" started to take off, Lyric Street closed its doors. A second label propped the song up to #23 on the charts, but it took until 2012 for the corresponding album Good Guys to finally get released. * Jon Randall also has two unreleased albums in the can: Great Day to Be Alive in 1996 for RCA Records, and Cold Coffee Morning in 1998 for Asylum. The former produced no singles, but title track "It's a Great Day to Be Alive" was later a big hit in 2001 for Travis Tritt. The latter had two chart singles in its title track and "She Don't Believe in Fairy Tales". * The Sky Kings, a supergroup consisting of John Cowan (New Grass Revival), Bill Lloyd (Foster & Lloyd), Patrick Simmons (The Doobie Brothers), and Rusty Young (Poco), recorded an album for RCA Records in the early 1990s, but it was never released. After Simmons left, they continued as a trio and charted the single "Picture Perfect" for a Warner (Bros.) Records album which was also never released. All of the RCA and Warner Bros. material — coincidentally, including another take on "It's a Great Day to Be Alive" — has since been released in compilations. * Rebecca Lynn Howard takes the cake, though. She was first signed to Rising Tide Records, but they closed in 1997 before she could release anything (except for a rendition of the Christian hymn "Softly and Tenderly" for the soundtrack to The Apostle). She then moved to Decca Nashville, which also closed before she could release anything. She finally signed to MCA in 1999 after that label acquired the Decca Nashville roster and had one unsuccessful debut album. Her second album, Forgive, was cut off after only one single due to a label restructure. After that, her third MCA album Laughter & Tears was canceled in 2003 due to underperforming singles; an album for Arista Records titled Alive & Well, slated for a 2005 release, suffered the same fate. Then after that, she moved to Show Dog Nashville (now known as Show Dog-Universal) and released only one single in 2006 that went nowhere. She finally got a third album out in 2008. * Diamond Rio had this happen twice: + They had planned to release an album titled Stuff in 2000, but it was delayed when radio resisted the lead single of the same name. Some of the tracks from Stuff later ended up on One More Day a year later. + Their 2004 album Can't You Tell was shelved when its two singles (the title track and "One Believer") both failed to crack the top 40. In exchange, the band threw some new songs on a Greatest Hits Album in 2005 and left Arista Records Nashville. * Ty Herndon's fifth studio album for Epic Records was never released when its lead single, "Heather's Wall", stalled out at #37. Epic then released a Greatest Hits Album, and Herndon was sidelined for several years due to a full-fledged Creator Breakdown. Ty said in an interview with CMT that the song's corresponding music video was part of a trilogy that would have included videos for "I'd Move Heaven and Earth for You" and "Stones", but neither video was made. "I'd Move Heaven and Earth for You" appeared on the Greatest Hits album, but "Stones" did not surface until Ty released a re-recorded version in 2011 on a small independent label (although a version also appears on Tracy Lawrence's 2004 album Strong). * Montgomery Gentry planned to release their sixth album for Columbia Records, Freedom, in late 2009. But when its lead single "Oughta Be More Songs About That" bombed, the label changed tactics and decided to instead release an EP with a mix of old and new songs titled Hits and More: Life Beside a Gravel Road, with "While You're Still Young" as the lead single. But when that also did poorly at radio, the duo asked out of their contract, leaving the EP unreleased as well. * Country Music singer Sylvia (best known for her hit "Nobody") has one unreleased album, titled Knockin' Around, which was slated for a 1986 release. Although lead single "Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained" made the country top 40, the album was shelved and she left the label. * Pirates of the Mississippi were to have recorded an album for Giant Records in 1995 titled Sure Sign. Two singles were released from it: the title track and "You Could Do Better", but neither charted and the album was shelved. "You Could Do Better" was made into a music video, but there is otherwise no trace of this album anywhere. * Anita Cochran's third album, God Created Woman, was never released. The album's lead single was "I Wanna Hear a Cheatin' Song", a "duet" with Conway Twitty which was created in a very bizarre fashion: Twitty's part was fashioned by stitching together existing recordings of him, due to him having died in 1993. * Ray Stevens was supposed to release an album titled Ear Candy independently in 2000. No trace of it exists, but some of its songs showed up on Osama — Yo' Mama just over a year later when he re-signed with Curb Records. A later album titled Thank You also seems to have gone unreleased as well. * Lee Brice's first single was supposed to be "Overrated", but it was changed quickly to "She Ain't Right", and no trace of "Overrated" exists. After that, his debut album Picture of Me was never released due to "She Ain't Right", "Happy Endings", and "Upper Middle Class White Trash" all underperforming. He finally released an album in 2010 titled Love Like Crazy, which came on the success of its title track; this album did include "She Ain't Right" and "Happy Endings" in the track listing, but left "Upper Middle Class White Trash" in the dust. * Shawn Camp recorded an album for Reprise Records in 1994, but it was never released due to Creative Differences. Parent company Warner (Bros.) Records finally released the disc in 2010 under the title 1994. Two tracks from the album were cut by other artists in the interim: both Randy Travis and Sammy Kershaw cut "Little Bitty Crack in Her Heart", and both Joe Diffie and Patty Loveless recorded versions of "The Grandpa That I Know". * Dusty Drake had this happen three times. He had out a single titled "I Am the Working Man", slated for a second album for Warner (Bros.) Records in 2004, but the single failed and he exited the label. He then attempted to release an album titled Dusty Drake at a Honky Tonk Near You on Big Machine in 2007, but its lead single "Say Yes" stalled out and the album was shelved. Then a Pittsburgh Steelers tribute song called "The 12th Man" (set to the tune of Mark Chesnutt's 2004 hit "The Lord Loves the Drinkin' Man") came out in 2009 but never appeared on an album either. * In late 2007-early 2008, Dierks Bentley tested a song in concerts titled "I Sing for Free", which was going to be the lead single to his fourth studio album. The song ultimately ended up not making the album's final cut, and no trace of it exists (except through a cover version by Brad Cotter). * In 1988, Marty Stuart recorded an album titled Let There Be Country for Columbia Records. The album charted two singles in "Mirrors Don't Lie" and "Matches", but it was never released. After Stuart had two hit albums on MCA Records, Columbia decided to cash in on Stuart's newfound success by finally releasing Let There Be Country. In the interim, Pam Tillis covered the album's closing track, "Don't Tell Me What to Do", and took her version to #5 on the country charts. * Carolina Rain had their first album Weather the Storm delayed due to single underperformance. "I Ain't Scared" charted way back in 2004, but the album didn't come out until 2006. In between, the singles "Louisiana Love" and "Let's Get It On" were cut from the tracklist. Then in 2008, they were slated to release a second album titled American Radio, but it was shelved due to their label closing. The only thing that's happened since is Rhean Boyer pulling a Fake Shemp by singing James Otto's part on the radio edit of Colt Ford's 2010 single "Chicken & Biscuits". * For no apparent reason, Johnny Cash's album Out Among the Stars was unreleased for thirty years after its recording in 1981 and 1984. It's not due a matter of quality - it's actually quite a lot better than some of the other music Cash was releasing at that time. A few overdubs were performed in 2013 and the album was finally released in 2014 to positive reception. * The Wilkinsons had their third album Shine finished in 2001, but it was never released due to their label, Giant Records, closing. It had one charting single, "I Wanna Be That Girl". There have been some copies issued in Australia though. * Neal McCoy recorded an unreleased album for Warner (Bros.) Records in 2003 called The Luckiest Man in the World. Although the title track was released as a single, the album never saw the light of day. However, Allmusic gave it a positive review. (Interestingly, the album included a version of "Put Your Best Dress On", which met this trope a second time through Steve Holy's version mentioned above.) After this album, he then moved to SEA Records, which closed before he could release anything. * In 1995, a singer named John Bunzow recorded an album for Liberty Records titled Stories of the Years, which included the single "Easy as One, Two, Three." Although the album was reviewed (favorably) by at least Entertainment Weekly and Allmusic, it was never released due to a label management change that merged it back into parent company Capitol Records. The song's music video has at least two copies floating around YouTube, however. * Sons of the Desert never had their second album for Epic Records released, due mainly to a clash between them and the Dixie Chicks over who got the rights to release "Goodbye Earl" as a single (obviously, the Chicks won out). The unreleased album had two singles ("What About You" and "Albuquerque"), plus at least one other known cut ("Bless the Broken Road", later Covered Up by Rascal Flatts). "Albuquerque" later appeared on their only album for MCA Nashville in 2000. "What About You" had a music video that can be found on Vevo, but other than that, any trace of the second Epic album is unaccounted for. * 4 Runner had a second album, One for the Ages, nearly done when their label underwent a management change in 1996, causing them to get dropped in lieu of releasing the album. Its lead single, "That Was Him (This Is Now)", written by a then-mostly unknown Keith Urban, has yet to see the light of day anywhere despite entering the charts. * T. Graham Brown's debut single "Drowning in Memories" was never put on an album due to underperformance on the charts. Collectors' Choice Music licensed all of his Capitol Records output, including "Drowning in Memories", and compiled these songs onto Deja Vu All Over Again/The Best of T. Graham Brown in 2007. * Terri Clark's sixth studio album Honky Tonk Songs was supposed to be released in 2004, but it was canceled when lead single "The World Needs a Drink" (written by a then-unknown Eric Church) faltered. The album then underwent a Retool and was issued as Life Goes On in fall 2005. "The World Needs a Drink" was not included on the tracklist, although Mercury Records later put it on a 20th Century Masters compilation. Her final disc for Mercury, 2007's My Next Life, also failed to materialize when both "Dirty Girl" and "In My Next Life" fared poorly with both critics and radio (although the latter went to #1 on the Canadian country charts). Finally, a 2018 duet with Dallas Smith titled "One Drink Ago" also never appeared on an album despite making #3 on the Canadian country charts. * Rodney Atkins was supposed to have released his debut album in 1997, but he asked the label to can it because he wasn't satisfied with the material (even though the lead single "In a Heartbeat" had already charted). It took six years of almost total inactivity before he finally released an album. * Thompson Square's originally-planned third album for Broken Bow Records never materialized due to the failure of the singles "Trans Am" and "You Make It Look So Good". According to the duo themselves, they split amicably from the label in 2017 and went on to release a third album independently in 2018. * Love and Theft's second RCA Records album was never released, despite producing a single in "Night You'll Never Forget". One of the tracks for the album, "Going Out Like That", was later recorded by Reba McEntire. * Eddy Raven has a lot: + His very first singles, "Ladies' Man" and "Once a Fool", were cut when he was only a teenager. Both singles were put on an obscure independent label in The '60s and even by the time he began having hits in The '80s, their whereabouts were largely unknown. + Many of his early singles for ABC/Dot Records were never put on an album. However, a few of them were later compiled on a disc called Thank God for Kids in The '80s on ABC/Dot's successor, MCA Records (including his version of the title track, which had been Covered Up by The Oak Ridge Boys in between). + After leaving ABC/Dot, he signed with Monument Records, who closed their doors not long after releasing his only single for them, "You're a Dancer". + In 1981, he signed to Elektra Records and released one album. He quit the label partway through the run of another single, "San Antonio Nights", which ended up never getting an album. * Caitlin & Will won the first season of the CMT singing competition Can You Duet and were slated to release an album titled Dark Horse following their first single "Address in the Stars". However, the duo abruptly split up while the single was charting, and the album disappeared with them. * Tucker Beathard's first album never materialized due to a label policy that albums are only released on the second single, and said second single happened to bomb. The label also closed the division to which he was signed, thus meaning that the single "Rock On" has also become victim to Keep Circulating the Tapes. * Ray Vega's 1996 debut album Remember When was never released by BNA Records, although there is evidence that promotional copies exist. At least two copies of the title track and only charted single exist on YouTube. * Chad Brock released five singles for Broken Bow Records between 2002 and 2004: "A Man's Gotta Do", "That Was Us", "It's a Woman Thing", "You Are", and "That Changed Me". All but "It's a Woman Thing" made the Hot Country Songs charts, but no known copies circulate of any of the five singles. * Kellie Coffey's second album A Little More Me was never released after its lead single "Texas Plates" bombed. * James Wesley had this happen twice. Under his real name of James Prosser, he recorded an album for Warner (Bros.) Records in 1999 titled Life Goes On, but it was never released due to poor single performance. In 2010, after shortening his name to James Wesley, he cut an album titled Real for Broken Bow Records, but it also never saw the light of day. * Tim McGraw was slated to release an album for Columbia Records in 2019, but the two singles ("Neon Church" and "Thought About You") both bombed, so he was dropped with the album unreleased and moved back to Big Machine Records. * Aaron Tippin's fourth Lyric Street Records album He Believed never materalized after its lead single "Come Friday" stalled out. * Darryl Worley had two albums go unreleased due to label closures: God & Family on Stroudavarious in 2010, and One Time Around on Tenacity Records two years later. * Dean Miller was one of the first artists signed to Universal South (now Show Dog-Universal Music) in 2002. However, his intended album Just Me was never released, and there is no trace of lead single "Love Is a Game" anywhere. * Julianne Hough's second album Wildfire never materalized due to the lead single "Is That So Wrong" failing to chart. Although she revealed in a 2012 interview that the album was completed, she also expressed no interest in releasing it due to her acting career taking greater focus. * Jamie Lee Thurston's I Just Wanna Do My Thing was supposed to be released on View 2 Records in 2003, but they went out of business. He then signed with Warner (Bros.) Records, but they dropped him when the lead single "It Can All Be Gone" under-performed. He later released the album independently in 2009. * In 1999, dance music singer Shana Petrone, who had a Top 40 hit with "I Want You" in 1989, attempted a comeback as a country music singer. Her debut country single "This Time" became a minor hit on the country charts, and promo copies of her debut Something Real were sent out by Epic Nashville, but the official release was pulled for unknown reasons. She has since recorded indie material. * Electronic experimental group Black Moth Super Rainbow completed an album titled Psychic Love Damage in 2011, then decided to scrap it, reworking some of the material for Cobra Juicy in 2012 (Cobra Juicy has a song titled "Psychic Love Damage", which presumably would have been the Title Track to the scrapped album). Frontman Tobacco put out a Facebook post explaining that, after the album was finished, he decided "it wasn't very exciting. and not good enough in my opinion for you to spend your $ on" As a reward for fans who funded Cobra Juicy on Kickstarter, the band put out a vinyl-only EP that was also titled Psychic Love Damage, consisting of five songs not remade for Cobra Juicy. * KMFDM's 1984 debut album Opium only saw an initial release of 200 cassettes in Germany, and the master tapes were lost for nearly two decades before being salvaged from a house ravaged by fire and water damage. It finally got a full release in 2002. * Kraftwerk's Techno Pop. A few of the songs were moved on to Electric Cafe, and the single "Tour de France" became the basis for its own album nearly two decades later. + According to the band, there are no missing tracks and everything they planned for Techno Pop has been released. In fact, in the 2009 Der Katalog re-release, Electric Cafe was renamed as Techno Pop. * Front Line Assembly's first album Nerve War was never released past the demo tape run, probably due to the loss of the master tapes, although an MP3 bootleg has been leaked. * Boards of Canada claim to have released 5 albums/EPs before the "Twoism" EP in 1995 that first got them noticed. They were allegedly called (in chronological order) Catalog 3, Acid Memories, Closes Vol. 1, Play by Numbers and Hooper Bay, and the cover art for these release has been released. Short snippets of Acid Memories as well as the latter two were released on the band's website, but it's unknown wherever these are genuine or wherever these albums did even exist or not. * Momus has had two songs deleted from albums due to lawsuits from their subjects: The first was the Hippopotamomus track "Michelin Man", which compared the tire company mascot of the title to an inflatable sex doll. The second was the Little Red Songbook track "Walter Carlos", which was about transgendered musician Wendy Carlos traveling back in time to marry her pre-sex reassignment surgery self. * Skrillex allegedly had a finished EP with the working title Voltage set to release in 2011, but when his laptops and hard drives were infamously stolen that same year, the project was scrapped and never released. Despite this, bootlegs of the supposed title track have surfaced online since, and fans have speculated that versions of songs from Voltage were folded into his next two proper releases, More Monsters & Sprites and Bangarang. * Meat Beat Manifesto's debut album was meant to be released in May of 1988 and titled Armed Audio Warfare, but the master tapes were damaged in a fire. Their actual first album, Storm The Studio came a year later and consisted of re-recorded and re-invented elements of Armed Audio Warfare itself. Their second full length release was also titled Armed Audio Warfare - it was a compilation of rare and unreleased material, including alternate versions of songs included on Storm The Studio, and was meant to be a taste of what the original Armed Audio Warfare might have been like. * Black Rain's 1994 Concept Album based on William Gibson's Neuromancer ended up as lost media until 2012, when a select few tracks were included on the compilation Now I'm Just A Number: Soundtracks '94-'95. The full album finally saw release in 2024. * According to Follow The Geography, David Bridie and John Phillips (along with several other artists) were secretly working on an album throughout the late nineties called Dumb that for some unknown reason, was never released. What survives was what was supposed to be the single from the album; a song called Crow (which was a reworked version of an instrumental piece called The Sleep of Rhythm) that eventually got released as part of David Bridie and John Phillips Projects 2... In 2011. + Another David Bridie rarity that has eluded a proper release was a grunge-y cover of "Map Ref. 41ºN 93ºW" by the post-punk band Wire. It was initially slated for release on Bridie's Act Of Free Choice album. However it was cut at the last moment. It was then going to be included on an Act Of Free Choice DVD along with some other rarities, but the project got shelved for some reason. Thankfully, someone managed to find a leak of the song (apparently with Bridie's permission), so at least it's not lost forever. * The Mechanisms deleted "The Ballad o' Lil Lemon" from the band's Bandcamp page and removed the lyrics from their website after a fan notified them that one of the verses was quite racist. You can read their statement about it here. * Many of Tay Zonday's earlier songs have been taken down, including "Year 6000", "Say No to Nightmares", and "Demons on the Dance Floor". Others are still on the channel but unlisted, such as "Roll Your Dice", "Musicolio", and "Traffic Machine". Tay has said on Twitter that he considers most of these songs an Old Shame. * Welsh psychedelic outfit Super Furry Animals have an almost legendary selection of unreleased and lost material. There's the fabled electronic album, reportedly lost around 2000 when keyboardist Cian Ciaran accidentally deleted it, but most infuriatingly to their fanbase, a project titled "Steelworks in Stone", recorded around the same time as their third album "Guerilla", which was released in 1999. It's unlikely to ever see any kind of official release, as each member of the band seems to be very busy with their solo and side projects at the moment. According to an interview given in 2015, it made heavy use of the Moog Taurus, a synthesizer you play with your feet. * Godspeed You! Black Emperor's first album, All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling was limited to a release of 33 cassette tapes. Until 2022, when the band made it available on their official Bandcamp page, none of the songs had leaked to the Internet and all that was known about it were the album title, song titles, and the album art. * Lifter Puller, a Minnesota art-punk band best known as the progenitor of The Hold Steady, released a cassette with the track "Bitchy Christmas" and sold it at shows in 1998. To this day, no fan has ever shared it online and nobody (not even the band) has revealed what it sounded like. * For a couple of years, Red House Painters' last album, Old Ramon had become one of the most famous lost albums of all time. Recorded in the summer of 1997 and originally slated for a 1998 release, Island Records dropped the band before the album came out and cancelled the album's release. The record company absolutely refused to let the band have it back claiming copyright issues. After several companies tried to buy the rights for the album and got denied, Sub Pop finally offered enough money for it and the album was released in 2001. + The early RHP demos from before the well-known 1991-92 demos are considered mostly lost. What remains are 2 or 3 songs that were featured on a rare 1988 interview that didn't surface on the internet until around November 2012. While there are a few tastes given by Kozelek alone on acoustic guitar, it is likely that we will probably never know what those songs sound like with a full band, or if there are possibly more songs missing. * Microdisney's songs "Harmony Time" and "Money for the Trams". These were originally B Sides of the single 'Birthday Girl', and soon after appeared on the cassette version of the album The Clock Comes Down The Stairs. In 1995, when the band were going through their master recordings at Rough Trade, this master tape could not be found. As a consequence they are the only Microdisney songs from this period to have not been released on CD. Considering 'Harmony Time' was included on at least three releases (7", 12" and Cassette) it is confusing that this happened, as surely master tapes would exist for all three releases. + In 2013 they were finally released on CD on a reissue of The Clock Comes Down the Stairs. It isn't known if these are master tape sourced or simply very clean vinyl rips. If the master tape is still missing, then it still technically counts as a missing episode. + Their 1980/1981 demo tapes and most of the radio sessions from that era are also thought lost. Some apparently exist in the channel archives. - And the band have no control over their Virgin material either, which means that it can only see a reissue if the label sees fit. * Cloud Cult's 'first' album (actually a Craig Minowa solo album) "The Shade Project" is one of the most notoriously mysterious albums, owing to the extreme lack of information about it. What is known is that it was made by Craig on an absolutely miniscule budget to the point where he used all sorts of items and objects in his house as substitutes for instruments, and it garnered positive attention from record companies that he ultimately turned down in favour of starting his own environmentally-conscious one. Beyond that, almost nothing is known about it. It's unknown in what format it was released (if it had a proper physical release at all), how many copies were made, the cover art or even a proper track listing (there are a few track listings here and there, but it's impossible to properly verify them). There is speculation that even Cloud Cult themselves don't have a copy. Although a good percentage of songs from it were re-released with other rarities on Cloud Cult's "Lost Songs From the Lost Years" (which is itself difficult to track down), "The Shade Project" remains not only a source of frustration to die-hard fans trying to get a complete collection, but one of the greatest mysteries of the music world. * Car Seat Headrest's album Teens Of Denial originally included "Just What I Wanted/Not Just What I Needed", which included musical and lyrical quotes of The Cars' "Just What I Needed" as a Shout-Out: Matador Records failed to properly license "Just What I Needed" and Ric Ocasek nixed the use of his song, so all original copies of the album were destroyed before its initial release date and the group rearranged the song and re-titled it "Not What I Needed". * Buddy Bolden was an important figure in the early (1890s-1900s) development of jazz, with many crediting him as the inventor of the whole genre. Some of his fellow old-time New Orleans musicians recalled that his band had made a cylinder recording during that era, but it has never resurfaced. Rumors were rife about the Bolden cylinder's existence during the 1950s, but it sadly turned out that it was left in a storage shed that was destroyed in the early 1960s, and even if it had been recovered the poor storage conditions would very likely have made the cylinder unplayable anyway. * When Richard Carpenter began remixing their Christmas albums in the early 1980's as a Special Edition he intended those to be the definitive mixes going forward. This resulted in the two albums being awkwardly combined resulting in the original transitions and pacing being affected. Another notable difference that listeners found objectionable was the reinsertion of the backing choir in Karen's “Ave Maria”. Richard has claimed the original masters have deteriorated due to the safety tape used and has such made no effort to rerelease the original versions. + A bright spot has appeared for those seeking a higher quality version of the original Christmas Portrait mix however as the original masters were accidentally used in the late 1980's for a rare West-German release of the album on CD. Upon learning of this mistake Richard had it taken out of print and replaced with the new version. It has been suggested that Richard could use this version for a new remaster of the original mix but it has not been confirmed whether he is aware of the solution or not. * When Rachel Stevens was recording her second album, Come and Get It, a song called "Nothing in Common" was recorded but didn't make the cut, which led to a few whispers among Rachel's fans about wanting to hear it, since her previous collaboration with producer Richard X had given Rachel her biggest hit, "Some Girls." Six years later, Richard X, leaked the demo on one of his websites. * V V Brown's second album Lollipops & Politics was completed, then for over a year the release was repeatedly put back, until eventually it was scrapped altogether. Only the single "Children" ever saw a release, and that only in North America. * Kirsty MacColl's proper second album Real remains unreleased; when it was ready for release, Kirsty had just had her biggest solo hit with "A New England" and her record label chose to cash-in with an Updated Re-release of her debut album instead. It didn't sell particularly well, and subsequent singles flopped, so the Real album never appeared. * Bernie Taupin wrote a third verse for "Daniel" explaining the reason the title character was injured, why the narrator missed him, and so on: he was a veteran of The Vietnam War. However, Elton John cut it because he felt the song was too long, and unfortunately, neither Elton nor Bernie recalls it. * Tony Bennett's first record, "Vieni Qui" b/w "Fascinating Rhythm", recorded for the tiny Leslie label under the name "Joe Bari" in 1949, was believed completely lost for decades. A 1968 Billboard profile of Bennett mentioned that his personal copy of that record had crumbled in his hands and no other copy was presumed to exist. At least two copies have surfaced decades later: one found by a collector in 2004, and one which was uploaded to the Internet Archive in 2022. Both tracks were included in the massive The Complete Collection CD boxset in 2011, transfered from one of those surviving 78s as the masters are of course long gone. * For some reason, The New Cities' "Murder Me" isn't available on their Spotify and YouTube channels, with it playing "Mugshot" instead. There is one single YouTube upload of the song by an unofficial channel. * Louis Chauvin was considered by his peers to be one of the most gifted of the ragtime performers of the turn of the century, both as a composer and as a performer. He was said to be able to play even complex songs by ear after hearing them. He was also totally illiterate, and as such couldn't write down any of his compositions, so he never had a body of work. The only remnants of his music that survive are collaborations he did with Sam Patterson ("The Moon is Shining in the Skies"), Elmer Brown ("Babe, It's Too Long Off"), and the best known of the three, "Heliotrope Bouqet" which he co-wrote with Scott Joplin. * All of Venom now that Chamillionaire and his record label have been released from Universal Records. * Kid Rock's The Polyfuze Method and Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp are not available on any streaming services due to uncleared Sampling. * Wu-Tang Clan's (in)famous Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, a double album the group worked on from 2007-2014 with Cilvaringz, an aspiring producer and close associate of RZA. In 2015, RZA and Cilvaringz planned to have the album be released in one copy for auction, and RZA enforced an 88 year ban for it to only be heard by the buyer and not to be commercially released. It was intended to be shown in museums, but this was scrapped. Things became more controversial when the album was bought for $2 million by controversial figure Martin Shkreli; while Shkreli has shown interest in leaking it if people really want to hear it, it's unknown if he will. + It became a lot more complicated with a slew of other controversies. These include the fact that most of the members (excluding RZA) have barely heard it, and the implications it's not an actual album by the Clan, but an originally planned fan project by Cilvaringz as an "album" for the fans. Which makes his infamous "This album isn't for the fans" quote more hypocritical. + There was a 51 second snippet uploaded by Forbes regarding the album, but fans are divided whether or not the music is good, considering how the album is suffering Hype Backlash. + After Shkreli was arrested and convicted for securities fraud, the album was sold off again to a group of NFT collectors operating under the name "PleasrDAO". A public listening party was held at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania by the group in 2024. After the listening party, they auctioned off five minute samples as NFTs for one dollar each, saying that anyone who buys them will move the release date forward by 88 seconds. Clearly, there wasn't any rule against it... * Recorded in 1970, Os Mutantes' Tecnicolor was meant to break the Brazilian group to the English-speaking world, and thus most of the songs were remakes of songs they'd released on their prior albums translated to English from Portuguese. It finally saw release in 2000, after reissues of their early albums rekindled public interest in the group. One story has it that the tapes were truly "lost", while another has it that the band just shelved the recordings because they weren't very happy with them. * Green Day recorded the album Cigarettes and Valentines in 2003, only to have the master tapes stolen (though some have suspected this to be a nothing more then a rumor). As it turned out, the band wasn't all that happy with the album anyway, so instead of re-recording it they elected to write an album's worth of new material. The whole thing turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since the new album became American Idiot. The band has confirmed they have recovered the master tapes, but have decided not to release them as of 2017. * The release of happy hardcore group Dune's planned 2000 album Reunion and the single "Heaven" were cancelled due to a lawsuit from A7 (not to be confused with Avenged Sevenfold) accusing them of plagiarizing their song "Piece of Heaven". A couple years earlier, while Verena was on hiatus from the band, they had another cancelled album, Five, due to poor performance of the singles. * Self's Ornament and Crime was supposed to be released in 2004, but was indefinitely shelved once Universal Music Group acquired DreamWorks Records. The unreleased album did leak, however, and the band themselves put up a collection of its outtakes for free download under the title Porno, Mint, And Grime. The album is probably never to see official release, but the band are slowly working another album, Super Fake Nice. The story of that album is another trope. * The Beatles: + During the lads' engagement at Hamburg's Kaiserkeller in 1960, their manager, Allan Williams, invited John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison to serve as the backing band for a recording session by Lu Walters, the bass guitarist for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes (who were sharing the stage with the Beatles at the Kaiserkeller). As the Beatles' drummer, Pete Best, was out buying new drumsticks at the time, Walters' bandmate from the Hurricanes, Ringo Starr, played the drums, making this the first time Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr played together. They recorded three songs, "Fever", "Summertime", and "September Song", but the current status of the recordings is unknown. + Some of the songs from the band's 1962 Decca session were included on the first The Beatles Anthology compilation, but many are still only available as bootlegs. + "Carnival of Light" is the only confirmed Beatles song to still be unreleased. In fact, not a single excerpt of the song, which is a nearly fifteen-minute psychedelic jam composed for The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave (around the time Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band came out), has never been released or bootlegged after the festival ended (any "leaks" turned out to be fake). Only descriptions of the song by people who composed or listened to it survive. Paul McCartney, who has the master tapes for the song, has expressed intentions to release the song at some point, but he hasn't received the unanimous consent necessary. + "Now and Then" was originally recorded as a John Lennon home demo, and was given to the surviving Beatles in the 1990s by Yoko Ono to flesh out and make a new song. It was never finished and never made it out for Anthology. It was finally finished by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with some help from artificial intelligence and an unreleased George Harrison guitar part, seeing release in November 2023. At around the same time, a new song, "All for Love", was rumored to be on an Anthology album as an all new song. It never was finished, and if there are any recordings, we don't know where they are. * George Harrison recorded hundreds of demos in his home during the 1970s onwards of which only a tiny fraction has ever been released. There are also several demos from the All Things Must Pass sessions that were never released, and also several other songs that gained an official release but haven't been reissued in decades. * The Beach Boys: Despite constant releases since 2011, the legendary Smile Sessions is still incomplete. Lost material that hasn't resurfaced includes The original Mix of Heroes and villains, the vocal tracks for Song for Children, I wanna be around and On a Holiday, and the Paul McCartney sessions. * Hawkwind's 1975 album Warrior on the Edge of Time, arguably their most psychedelic and inventive, has not been included in the remastering programme because the copyrights are owned by all the participating band members, making royalty negotiations difficult. It wasn't until May 2013 that a remastered version of the record was finally released. * The Enid's debut 1976 album In the Region of the Summer Stars was not reissued in its original form for many years because of an apparent dispute between the band and EMI Records. With only the multitracks for side 1 available, the band were forced to remix and overdub side 1 and completely re-record side 2 for the 1984 reissue. It was not until 2010, when a bootleg of the 1976 version appeared, that EMI finally supplied the band with a digital transfer of the original 2-track masters and the band were able to re-release the original album officially on CD. * Twelfth Night's self-titled album was released in 1986, but because of a dispute over royalty payments, no CD version appeared until 2005. * Abominations of Desolation, recorded in 1986, was meant to be Morbid Angel's debut album, but they decided not to release it due to both dissatisfaction with how it turned out and the acrimonious departure of Mike Browning. It was eventually released in 1991 by Earache Records. * Butthole Surfers' 1998 album After the Astronaut had promo copies sent out, but the official release was pulled, reportedly due to record label disputes, and the Butthole Surfers were dropped from their label. About half of the album's songs would get reworked for their next album, The Weird Revolution, which was released on a new label in 2001. Also, bizarrely, the back cover of After The Astronaut ended up becoming the front cover of Marcy Playground's Shapeshifter: At the time, Marcy Playground were on Capitol Records, the same label Butthole Surfers were dropped from; Capitol retained the rights to the After The Astronaut artwork, and offered it to Marcy Playground without revealing it was originally meant for another album. * Powerman 5000's Anyone For Doomsday? similarly got pulled from official release two weeks before it was planned to hit stores. This was such a late development that review copies had already been sent out, Rolling Stone and Allmusic had already published reviews and the album's first single, "Bombshell" was already climbing the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart (it reached a peak of #26 before being quietly pulled). In this case though, the band themselves decided not to release it. Rumor had it that this was because the album title was unfortunate after 9/11, but frontman Spider has said it was just because he felt it was too similar to their previous album. For several years, "Bombshell" was the only song from the record legally available (it eventually found its way onto the soundtrack album for the 2003 film Freddy vs. Jason), but the whole album became available for purchase on iTunes some time in the late 2000's. * When Minutemen's double album Double Nickels on the Dime was released on CD, it was missing three songs from the original release ("Mr. Robot's Holy Orders", "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", and "Little Man with a Gun in His Hand"): The album ran too long to be compatible with all CD players without splitting it into two discs, so the band personally picked their three least favorite songs and cut them. The songs aren't available as digital downloads either, at least not the versions that were on the album. To hear these missing songs you have to either buy the still-in-print vinyl version, or settle for different version of them on other albums (live versions of "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Mr. Robot's Holy Orders" are on Post-Mersh Vol. 3 and Ballot Result respectively, while an earlier recording of "Little Man with a Gun in His Hand" is on Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat, and a studio version of "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" is on the Tour-Spiel EP). Or of course you can find digitized versions of the record out there. * Between Tin Planet and Suburban Rock 'n' Roll, Space made an album of songs with the working title of Love You More Than Football. The provisional tracklisting was published on the band's website, and song titles were leaked to magazines. One of the songs, 'Diary Of A Wimp', was released as a single in 2000, while 'Gravity' was premiered at gigs on the Bad Days Tour in 1998 and included on the Greatest Hits Album. However, due to problems with the record company and increasing delays, the album was never actually released and is now only available on bootleg. It's also the last album with Jamie Murphy on it, and also the last album with lead vocals by other band members besides Tommy Scott (or instrumentals). It would not be until 2019 when the album finally got a release, included as part of an all-encompassing box set of the band's complete discography. * Velvet Revolver supposedly recorded a song entitled "The House Is Alive", and was going to be used as the theme for the 2006 animated film Monster House. The song was never included in said movie, and has never been released to the public. * Minna Tanoshiku, the debut album by Japanese punk-pop trio Shonen Knife, was only released in limited copies and the band halted all further pressings. Unless you bought the album when it first came out, you're out of luck. * Pink Floyd: + The legendary rejected third single "Scream Thy Last Scream"/"Vegetable Man", despite being hailed as two of Syd Barrett's finest songs, did not see release outside of a bootleg until the Early Years 1965–1972 box set in 2016. The reason speculated is that the band felt it was too connected with Syd's Creator Breakdown. + After The Dark Side of the Moon, they experimented with a recording to be called Household Objects. The project was eventually scrapped, and although some bits were eventually incorporated into other songs (two full length recordings were also included in expanded re-issues of The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here), the rest of the project will most likely never see the light of day. * Michael Jackson has a considerable number of songs locked away, having never had official releases for whatever reason. Following his death in 2009, however, a number of these songs were leaked online, and a year later, Jackson's estate gave Sony Music Entertainment permission to include some of his unreleased songs on ten posthumous albums that will be released throughout The New '10s; so far two of these albums have been published. * In a 1998 Time magazine article, Bruce Springsteen said he has recorded a country album and a hip-hop album, neither of which he has released. Nor have any tracks leaked, either. * Neil Young has done this several times throughout his career, most notably with the 1975 album Homegrown which was withdrawn at the last moment and replaced with Tonight's The Night, recorded 2 years earlier. Some tracks showed up on other albums before the album was finally released in 2020. * Toadies' second album Feeler was planned for a 1998 release, but was rejected by the label - an album's worth of songs were recorded, but the recordings weren't mastered and a track-list hadn't been decided upon. When their official second album Hell Below/Stars Above came out in 2001, it featured only three re-recorded songs that were intended for Feeler, though a fourth re-recording, "Joey, Let's Go", appeared on a compilation album. Following a reunion, the band attempted to have the original Feeler recordings released on an independent label in 2008, but their old label wouldn't relinquish the rights. Feeler finally came out in some form in 2010 - the release consisted of newly recorded versions of nine songs from the period, leaving five additional songs that are still only available via bootlegs. * Mike Doughty recorded his solo debut, Skittish, in 1996, shortly before the release of Soul Coughing's Irresistible Bliss - the label rejected it for sounding too different from Soul Coughing. The album's first "release" was in the form of homemade copies that Doughty started selling as merch during a 2000 solo tour; Much of his set at the time consisted of songs from the Skittish sessions, and he had found that material had become popular with fans after it started circulating as Leaked Content. Skittish finally saw a more proper release in 2004, as a two-disc set that also featured outtakes, live songs, and the later EP Rockity Roll. * Canadian doom metal band Woods of Ypres recorded 5 songs for their unreleased EP Woods 4.5: You Were The Light in August 2010, but it was shelved after their label Earache Records showed a desire to have them release a full length album. As a result, the Juno award winning Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light was recorded instead, and while two Woods 4.5 songs came out in 2011 on the vinyl single Home, the other three tracks have never surfaced. Following frontman David Gold's death that December, it's unknown if they'll ever come out. * The critically acclaimed and highly influential My Life In the Bush Of Ghosts by David Byrne and Brian Eno lost a song between its first US release and its original UK release/CD release. The track "Qu'ran" (which features a reading of the Qu'ran set over a music track) was omitted at the request of several Muslim groups who asked the UK record label to omit the track. It was replaced in all subsequent pressings with the B-Side "Very Very Hungry". The track is present on CD on the 1989 US release, so is not totally a missing episode. Another song, "The Jezebel Spirit" itself exists because of licensing issues that propped up before the album was released. Originally it was a track called "Into the Spirit Womb" and has completely different dialogue from "The Jezebel Spirit". "Into the Spirit Womb" remains unavailable as a legitimate release. * Cradle of Filth's demo tape Goetia - the masters were taped over because the band couldn't afford to buy them. * The B-52s' "Don't Worry" appeared on their album "Whammy!" on vinyl and cassette. The band credited Yoko Ono for writing "Don't Worry", but did not realise they had to pay her. Her lawyers asked the band to pay Yoko the money they owed her in royalties up until that point. This, plus the fines for not doing so, ended up being so much that it meant the band made almost no profit off the album, so it was replaced on reissues with "Legal Tender"'s B Side "Moon '83" (starting with the 1986 vinyl reissue and all CDs.) Don't Worry has never appeared on CD, and is unlikely to as the band are no longer with Warner (Bros.) Records or Island Records, who handled the release of the song in different territories. * The Ramones' "Carbona Not Glue" was taken off of Leave Home due to a threatened lawsuit by Carbona, a trademarked cleaning fluid. Most versions of the album replaced it with "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker", which means that "Sheena..." is now on two of their albums, Leave Home and Rocket To Russia - harder to find copies replaced it with the B-Side "Babysitter" instead. A live version of "Carbona Not Glue" was a Hidden Track on one version of the Live Album Loco Live, and the studio version appeared on the box set Weird Tales Of The Ramones, but it's still not on the most recent reissues of Leave Home. * The Kinks recorded an album in 1968 called Four More Respected Gentlemen, intended as a companion piece to The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. The project was scrapped when Village Green tanked commercially and the band temporarily broke up. Reprise released several of the tracks on 1973's The Great Lost Kinks Album, but that album lived up to its title, ceasing printing when Kinks frontman Ray Davies - no longer with the label - sued Reprise. It's only with the 3-CD deluxe edition of Village Green that many of the tracks have seen wide release. * 10,000 Maniacs' 1987 album In My Tribe originally included a Cover Version of "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens. In 1989, the song's original performer made some controversial public remarks regarding Ayatollah Khomeini's death fatwa against Salman Rushdie, so the song was subsequently removed from the US CD version of the album. However, their version of the song remained on international CD copies of the album, as well as on vinyl, and it was re-released in the US in 2004, as part of a 2-CD greatest hits / rarities compilation called Campfire Songs. * One of the most notorious missing songs was a track called "Ready 'n' Steady" by a group only known as D.A.(As luck would have it, the band Daniel Amos has its name commonly abbreviated to "DA", and even did official releases with that monicker, so they were briefly suspected of doing the song until they conclusively denied it.) The song charted on Billboard's "Bubbling Under" chart (the songs that just missed the Hot 100 Charts, essentially #101 and so on.) for three weeks in 1979. Initially believing it was a small run of an independent label that managed to get some airplay in Midwestern markets, music historian Joel Whitburn - considered to be the foremost expert on the Billboard charts - searched out the address of the track's record label to an empty building in Detroit, and found no evidence of the song, the group, or the alleged record label. Information about this song was so impossible to find that until 2016, it was generally accepted that the record actually didn't exist and was merely some sort of practical joke. Then one resourceful investigator realized that no one had ever bothered to check copyright records for the song. Once he did, he found a listing for a "Ready & Steady" from 1979 written by Dennis Armand Lucchesi and Jim Franks. He passed the info on to Whitburn's assistant Paul Haney, who tracked down Franks and learned the whole story: the San Francisco based band was actually called D.A. & The Dukes, the song was never officially released as a single and its placement on the charts was due to the band's publicist pulling strings at Billboard (Billboard's chart director at the time, Bill Wardlow, was notorious for manipulating the rankings and accepting bribes). Lucchesi himself died in 2005, apparently unaware that he was at the center of a notorious music mystery. Franks also passed on the audio for "Ready 'n' Steady" to Haney, then Haney and Franks appeared as guests on Crap From the Past, a Minneapolis radio show dedicated to pop music obscurities, which gave "Ready 'n' Steady" its "world premiere" after 37 years, revealing it to be a fairly decent bit of bar band Hard Rock (here is a link to the song). * Shudder To Think's Funeral At The Movies originally included a Cover Version of "Crosstown Traffic". Copyright issues caused the song to be omitted on the most recent CD and vinyl reissues of the album, as well as on digital releases. * The 2015 remix of Prowler in the Yard by Pig Destroyer omits the song "Evacuating Heaven" entirely: The liner notes explain that the vocal track was missing from their archives, and "in keeping with the edict that we NOT add anything new to this CD", they removed the song rather than having to re-record the vocals. * A few Nine Inch Nails songs have not yet seen the light of day: + The most known being "Just Do It" that was for The Downward Spiral, never finished because album co-producer Flood objected to the Suicide Dare theme; another track left off was "The Beauty of the Drug", though nothing but the title is known. + The Fragile (1999), which was already a double album, had a few songs not included on the original release. Some of these were included in the all-instrumental album The Fragile: Deviations 1. Trent Reznor also noted that new tracks with '(Instrumental)' in the title have a version that has either an outline of vocal parts, or full vocal parts. Two other songs that showed up in lists shown in the Fragility tour book, "Rotation" and "Stained", remain unaccounted for and were not included in Deviations (a third track, "Anomaly", was actually a working title for "The Way Out Is Through"). + When posters and .PDF documents for With Teeth were released with song titles and lyrics on them, "The Life You Didn't Lead", "Message To No One", and "The Warning" (Year Zero also included a song of the same name, though it likely has little else to do with it) were included. These, along with three other songs "Non-Entity", "Not So Pretty Now", and "My Dead Friend", ended up being left off the album. "Non-Entity" and "Not So Pretty Now" were performed live for a few years and finally saw their studio versions see a release online as part of the NINJA 2009 Summer Tour EP, but the other tracks haven't been so lucky. * Inverted when it comes to The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet. The song is available across the internet and its airing, which occurred in the early 80's, is mostly known. The artist, however, was unknown as was the actual name of the song for over 17 years, until it was finally discovered to be a song titled "Subways of Your Mind" by German New Wave band FEX in early November 2024. * Possibly due to licensing issues, Melvins' The Crybaby is missing its opening track, a Cover Version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", on Spotify or other major streaming services - however, the song is still included on physical copies, as well as being available for download on the band's official Bandcamp site. + The Trilogy, a vinyl Boxed Set of the albums The Maggot, The Bootlicker, and The Crybaby, is missing some material from the original CD releases due to its 3 LP format: The Maggot and The Bootlicker are simply stripped of their hidden tracks, but Side B of The Crybaby is missing two minutes of "Divorced" and the last 4 songs are cut entirely. Something similar happened with the vinyl release of Hold It In, but only two songs had to be left off ("Eyes On You" and "House Of Gasoline"), and it was remedied somewhat by making those two missing songs B Sides of the separately issued 10" single "Bride Of Crankenstein". * The third album from Hanzel und Gretyl, Oz Factor, was completed but never released due to the record label they were under collapsing. The band has talked about attempting to get the rights back, but so far nothing has happened. * Busted has only had the uncensored version of 'Who's David' released on a promo CD with a few other songs from their second album. It's since been ripped from one of those CDs and leaked online. * McFly have many demos of their songs that have only been bootlegged. Notable examples include the original version of 'I Wanna Hold You' and 'Star Girl.' * Industrial Rock band Deadsy's Self-Titled Album was never released and is not available on any streaming services. * Void's Potions For Bad Dreams notably would have been their first full length album ({after a split album with The Faith and various compilation appearances)) as well as a New Sound Album, adding Heavy Metal influences to their previous Hardcore Punk sound. The band split up shortly after completing the album, and their label opted not to put out an album by an already defunct band who wouldn't be around to promote it - on top of this, the band themselves weren't happy with the album and preferred to leave it unreleased, leaving it to be heavily bootlegged by fans. * Pearl Jam, in the mid '90s, recorded a cover of Blues Traveler's "Run-around", which was played on Seattle's 107.7 KNDD station, but vanished from the airwaves after a few weeks, perhaps due to legal reasons, and seemingly no record of its existence can be found online. * The film version of "Lapti Nek" from Return of the Jedi was never included on any soundtrack albums, and has since been only available on the VHSs, the documentary “From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga”, and the 2006 Limited Edition DVD. The Max Rebo Band source music, though retained in the Special Edition, didn't get a soundtrack release either as the masters for these tracks have gone missing. There was also an unused piece of Source Music composed by Joseph Williams that has been lost entirely. * One half-Live-Action TV and one half-Music: Back in 1979, NBC attempted to reinvigorate themselves through their "Proud as a Peacock" initiative. However, as NBC was in last place due to the ineptitude of Fred Silverman, many people were cheesed off with the network. As such, the people who created and sang the "Proud as a Peacock" jingle created a parody known as "We're LOUD". The song was distributed to various employees and affiliates as jokes to listen to. Then, Don Imus made the mistake of airing it over the air. This pissed off Silverman enough to go on a hunting spree to find and retrieve those copies. Some do still exist, but not in a state that they could be played crisply. * Disney Hits, a station on Sirius XM, has not played "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" despite the song being one of the signature songs of Disney. This also applies to the Splash Mountain medley from a few Disney Parks CDs. Probably justified, considering the source material it originated from. * In a bit of a crossover with Film, but a scene in the movie Spice World features the Spice Girls singing the beginning of the song "Leader of the Gang (I Am)" by Gary Glitter as a concert in Italy. In the original version of the movie, the performance was supposed to lead into a cameo appearance from Glitter himself. However, once Glitter was arrested for his child pornography scandals, his cameo was quickly deleted from the final cut of the film, and the performance of "Leader of the Gang" cuts off halfway through. Eventually footage of Glitter's cameo made it online, which also showed the Girls singing the second verse of the song, proving they recorded a full version of the song (which was likely to appear on the Spiceworld album), which has never been released. * Jinkaku Radio's song "Hikizan" will probably never be released simply because one member criticized a seiyuu for the show it was supposed to be the closing theme for. * The original video for Nas' "Hate Me Now" featured Puff Daddy (as he was known at the time) being crucified alongside Nas. Puffy, who initially agreed to acting in the scenes, changed his mind before the video was set to premiere and wanted his cross scenes removed. However, when the video premiered, the uncut version was shown by mistake, and Puffy and his bodyguards then forcibly seized the video. The only apparent version of the video visible today is the recut version, with only Nas being crucified. * For a long time, fans of The Police were not aware that a music video had ever been made for the song "Bed's Too Big Without You." Snippets have been posted by the band's official social media pages, but the video in its entirety has yet to be fully released. It's still somewhat unclear as to whether this was merely a promo video, an actual unreleased music video, or scrapped before completion (in which case these snippets may be all that remains). * The music video for Lady Gaga's "Do What U Want" has never been fully released, though snippets of it do exist online. Gaga originally announced that the video would be directed by fashion photographer Terry Richardson, and promised that it would push boundaries. Additionally, Interscope Records announced that they had plans to release the video in a bundle (distributed through file-sharing networks) that would also include behind-the-scenes footage, photos and interviews. However, the full video was never released — in a statement made just after the video's proposed release date, Gaga claimed that it wasn't up to her usual standards of quality. Nothing more would be heard about the video for several months until TMZ published several previously-unseen clips from it, which showed Gaga in an operating room and presumably being groped by R. Kelly while being heavily sedated, along with clips of her writhing around naked on a pile of newspapers. According to the TMZ story which accompanied this, the video was pulled due to a then-ongoing sexual harassment scandal against Richardson from models who had worked with him, as well as a fear of backlash regarding Kelly's previous criminal trial regarding a pornographic video he shot with a minor. * Lostprophets' final music video, for the song "Somedays", was never released because lead singer Ian Watkins was arrested and convicted of child sexual abuse. The rest of the band formed No Devotion and now refuses to perform Lostprophets songs again. * Several Nine Inch Nails music videos have gone unreleased, specifically videos for "Hurt" (replaced with a video consisting of concert footage), "The Day the World Went Away" (rumored that Trent Reznor found it hit too close to home in regards to his grandmother's passing, though fragments of the video appeared in an Easter egg on the And All That Could Have Been DVD), "Every Day Is Exactly The Same" (with only behind the scenes photos having been released), and "Everything". In regards to "Everything", Reznor stated in a Reddit AMA that "for whatever reason it just didn't turn out that great and I shelved it. This is not an uncommon occurrence in my world." + Clips from the "Everything" video later resurfaced on the directors' website in two different compilation reels (though without the song itself). * The original recording of Sparks' first Top of the Pops appearance (playing This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us) is still yet to be found. No bootlegs of it seem to exist (owing to how expensive home taping was during the 1970s), and it is likely that it was indiscriminately "purged" in the same way that Doctor Who was. This performance was particularly notable for being the only one to feature the full lineup that recorded Kimono My House, as bassist Martin Gordon was fired soon after the album charted. * George Strait's first music video, for "You Look So Good in Love", was pulled because he hated it to the point that he refused to do videos for years afterward. No copies seem to exist online, either. * Alternative Hip-Hop group Brand Nubian's original music video for their song "Wake Up" was banned from MTV after airing. One surreal section involved a black man in white face dressed as Satan who was in a corporate office esque room where he gladly watched as the 1990s crack epidemic and white supremacy wreaked havoc upon the black community & manipulating people into engaging in toxic & destructive behaviors to further destroy black america. This was considered rather controversial and they ended up banning it. Lord Jamar, one of Brand Nubian's members, stated in an interview "Yes, we were trying to say the white man is the devil, but we were also trying to say that the devil really starts with you, that's why it was a black man in a white face." * This article goes into detail about how the music video for Lari White's 1993 single "Lead Me Not" seems to have fully disappeared from RCA Records' archives, nor does anyone at the label remember it being made. In the same article, the author highlights news footage indicating its director, along with a column in a music magazine indicating that the video was put in rotation on CMT and the former TNN (now Spike TV). So if it is out there, it likely got mis-filed. Even the official upload of the song on YouTube shows a live performance in lieu of the actual video (which, according to its director, had White performing it in front of a candle-lit piano). * A music video for "Rabid Child" by They Might Be Giants was created in 1985 or 1986, but it was never released because John Linnell and John Flansburgh were dissatisfied with the results. The music video is said to primarily consist of Flansburgh leaning against a doorframe while Linnell plays accordion in the background. A request to include the whole thing in a 2003 documentary was declined by the two Johns, and only a 12-second clip is publicly available. ---	MissingEpisode	null
TropesQToZ	# Family Guy - Tropes Q to Z A – C \| D – I \| J – P \| Q – Z Back to Main. Beware of spoilers! --- Tropes with their own pages: ---------------------------- * Take That Other Tropes: ------------- * Quicksand Sucks: In a deleted scene Peter makes a quicksand pit while drunk, which Lois falls into. * Quirky Doctor: Dr. Hartman is the least competent doctor in his hospital. He has a tendency to use misleading words and schtick to make the characters think they are sick, even when they aren't. He is also an alcoholic. * Quit Your Whining: In the episode "Lethal Weapons", while the family is in the car, Meg complains about Chris putting his foot on her side. > Stewie: Meg stop your whining. Chris stay on your side. Lois, for God's sake, get off your ass and do some parenting! * Radiation-Induced Superpowers: Played straight and subverted in the first "Viewer Mail" episode. The Griffin family is exposed to toxic waste and gain superpowers, using them to wreak havoc over the town. Mayor West tries to do the same in order to fight back, but ends up with lymphoma. * Raiders of the Lost Parody: The show usually throws in an Indiana Jones parody (or two), but season four's "The Courtship of Stewie's Father" takes the cake by dedicating the entire final act towards the final minutes of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. * Raised by Humans: In "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows", a bird makes a nest in Peter's beard before being frightened away. The bird had laid eggs in said beard which hatch and Peter ends up taking care of them until they are old enough to take care of themselves and fly away. * Random Passerby Advice: Meg is continually trying to attract her hunky new neighbor, Kevin, throughout his first appearance; however, he seems completely disinterested. Eventually a police officer (long story) suggests that she stop talking about herself and ask something about him. Meg asks Kevin what kind of music he likes and he immediately becomes a chatterbox. * Rap Is Crap: In one episode, Peter listens to the police scanner hoping to pick up a crime in progress so he can stop it and become a hero. Brian overhears a gang shooting being described over the scanner, and says "is it me, or is rap music just getting lazier?" * Rash Equilibrium: Stewie and Bertram's first confrontation. > Stewie: You came unarmed? > Bertram: As we agreed. > Stewie: Admirable - but foolish! (pulls out a gun) > Bertram: (immediately pulls out his own gun) * Raw Eggs Make You Stronger: In "New Kidney in Town", Peter makes his own energy drink. One ingredient is a raw egg, including the shell. * Reaction-Seeking Feint: In one episode, Stewie agrees to give Brian one free punch as payback for a couple of beatings he gave Brian earlier in the episode. Brian responds on several occasions by raising his fist as though he's about to hit Stewie, but is only doing it to watch Stewie cringe in fear and become ever more paranoid about when Brian is actually going to hit him or what Brian will do. * Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: The reason why Straw Feminist Gloria Ironbox disliked Lois was because she seemed to be happy as a housewife, and not having a "real" job. Lois then replied saying that feminism is about women being free to choose what they want to be, then beats Gloria up when Gloria implies that her mothering is what screwed up her children—which, sadly, would be considered true now. * Really Gets Around: Quagmire, Brian, and Lois before she married Peter. * Rearrange the Song: During season 3, the end credits music (an instrumental version of the opening theme) was rearranged with a big band motif. It was rearranged again during season 4. * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: + In "Play It Again, Brian", Brian delivers one to Peter regarding of how bad a husband he is. However, Peter countered with another one regarding Brian's inability to hold a relationship. + Quagmire delivers one of these to Brian in "Jerome Is The New Black." + Brian is once again on the receiving end of one from Bill Maher, Dana Gould, and Arianna Huffington in "Brian Writes A Bestseller", when he completely dismisses what he said in his own book in a desperate attempt to impress Bill when Brian guest stars on his show. + In "Seahorse Seashell Party", Meg gives one each to Chris, Lois, and Peter. + In "Valentine's Day in Quahog", Stewie calls over all of Brian's ex-girlfriends in order to find out why all of Brian's dates go wrong. While the speech is very brief, all the women tell Brian that he's egotistical, pretentious, insecure, and has a tiny penis. Naturally, Brain denies all the claims and fires back by telling all the women how flawed they are and then tells Stewie that he acts like a woman the most of out everyone in the room. This gets Brian chased by Stewie and all the women down the street. * Red Shirt: Spoofed with "Ensign Ricky". > Capt James T. Kirk: All right, men, this is a dangerous mission, and it's likely one of us will be killed. The landing party will consist of myself, Mr Spock, Dr McCoy, and Ensign Ricky. > Ensign Ricky: Aww, crap. : Inverted when William Shatner is the one who dies later in the episode, with Ensign Ricky coming out of nowhere and stating he "did not see that coming". * Relationship Reboot: Played with when Quagmire lets slip one of his fantasies about Lois to Peter: > Quagmire: Is it possible she's a whore? ...You know, like on weekends, just to pay for her mom's dialysis? ...Like in my fantasy? ...Y'know what, let's start over. Hi, I'm Quagmire! (offers his hand) * Religious Robot: Apparently Optimus Prime is Jewish. And Soundwave met his wife in a Christian chatroom. * Replacement Scrappy: In-Universe. When the family fears Brian is getting too old and adopts a new dog, Stewie comes to hate the replacement, since he is unable to troll or tease him. * Repeat Cut: Played straight to the point of being mocked in "Peter's Daughter" with Stewie, Brian, and the exploding, run-down house. * Repeated Rehearsal Failure: In "Dog Bites Bear", Lois sends Peter out for groceries and, in a direct parody of the Sesame Street sketch, his memory of her instructions devolves. > Peter: [Skipping down the road] A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter. > A loaf of milk, a container of bread, and a Joe Dirt DVD. > A Joe Dirt DVD, Scarlett Johansson, and treasure from a fish tank. * Resentful Guardian: Lois Griffin has been shown to have feelings of contempt towards her daughter Meg for being unable to have an abortion and therefore getting disqualified from participating in the Olympics. Instead, she is now stuck raising her. * Reset Button: Lampshaded. > Peter: Yeah, everything'll go back to normal next week, so who gives a damn? * Resigned to Inevitable Misfortune: Used as a Take That! in one scene where a publisher is asking Stephen King what his next novel is going to be about, and King reveals it will have a couple attacked by a "lamp monster". > Publisher: You're not even trying anymore. > Stephen King: [oblivious and waving a lamp around] Ooooooooo! > Publisher: [sighing] When can I have it? * Retcon: + The revelation that \|\|Peter's biological father is not Francis, but an Irishman named Mickey McFinnigan\|\|. + Also the revision of the founding of Quahog and mythicalization of the earlier Magic Clam story. + Joe lied \|\|about a fight with the Grinch being the reason he's paralyzed\|\|. He was actually \|\|shot in the legs by a heroin dealer named Bobby Briggs who then went on the lam for 15 years\|\|. * Revenge Is Not Justice: Subverted in "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q". Quagmire suggests that he and the guys should kill Jeff (Brenda's violent boyfriend). Joe says he could easily arrest Quagmire just for saying that, and that no matter how awful Jeff is, it's still murder. However, Joe ends up changing his mind once he sees Jeff beating up Brenda, and allows Quagmire to murder Jeff so that Brenda can be free. > Joe: Let's waste this dick. * Revenge via Storytelling: In one episode, Brian finds out Stewie wrote a book where he is portrayed as an idiot. He gets angry and by the end of the episode writes his own book where Stewie is the idiot. * Rhetorical Question Blunder: From "Chick Cancer": > Stewie: I can't hide from this relationship. It's my responsibility to deal with it. I mean, what kind of man would I be if I just left my family and all my responsibilities like that? > Brian: Well, you'd be a black man. > Stewie: (shocked) Whoa, what was that?! > Brian: (realizes what he said) Agh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that was my father talking. > Stewie: You, uh, you gotta work on that, man. Bad dog. * Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Carter Pewterschmidt. * Ridiculously Alive Undead: Death (who is The Grim Reaper) can drink coffee, as shown in "Death Lives". In "Wasted Talent", he also ends up getting completely drunk at a frat house. * Ridiculous Future Sequelisation: In Rocky VI (which came out before Rocky Balboa did) Rocky goes to Mars for a fight. * Ridiculous Repossession: In "Switch the Flip", Brian is convinced by Peter's new virtual assistant into buying a lot of new stuff, eventually maxing out his credit card. When the repo man comes to collect all his purchases, he chooses to take the virtual assistant too, on the grounds that he himself doesn't have one. * Rimshot: Done twice: Once in "Meg Stinks!", where the walls of the Griffin house collapsed and Peter is forced to crawl over to his drum kit to play a rimshot for his own joke. Done again in "Yug Ylimaf", where Stewie tells a joke and the rimshot is played in reverse (since time itself was flowing backwards throughout the episode). * Rising Water, Rising Tension: "A Griffin Family History" where the Griffins hide in a panic room when burglars break in, and are trapped inside when the sprinklers go off, causing the room to slowly flood. To pass the time while they wait to drown, Peter tells the story of their ancestors (and caps it off by telling his family that he didn't like The Godfather). Luckily, they're rescued by Joe before the room is completely full. * Road-Sign Reversal: Subverted in "Chitty Chitty Death Bang". In order to get the circus parade to come to Stewie's birthday party, Peter looks as though he's going to do this, then he uses the sign to knock out the parade leader and take his place. * Room Full of Crazy: Patrick, Lois's traumatized brother, came to live with the Griffins. His room (actually Meg's) is decorated with photos of himself strangling fat people. And a dead fat guy and a half dead fat guy who then eats the dead fat guy. > Stewie: So we're just gonna look the other way on this one, huh? * Rousing Speech: + Peter gives one to Joe in "Ready, Willing, and Disabled" to build him up during the Special People's Games. Typically of Peter, though, he quickly gets off-track. > Joe: If I couldn't catch a two-bit criminal, how am I supposed to win a race? > Peter: Hey, what kind of talk is that? It's un-American! Did George W. Bush quit even after losing the popular vote? No! Did he quit after losing millions of dollars of his father's friends' money in failed oil companies? No! Did he quit after knocking that girl up? No! Did he quit after he got that DUI? No! Did he quit gettin' arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct at a football game? No! Did he quit... > Joe: I get the message, Peter. + When Peter finds out he is an illegal immigrant in "Padre de Familia." > Peter: This country used to welcome our kind with open arms. But men like Carter Pewterschmidt use us for cheap labor, and then-and then try to punish us when we demand to be treated like human beings. Well, no more! Immigrants built this country, and I say it's time for us to take it back! Who's with me?! > Immigrant: Could you say whole speech again in Spanish? * Rule 34: Reversed with Quagmire in "Family Goy," where he – the sexual deviant who always tries to corral a woman into bed with him, especially if they are older teenage girls – has no concept of Internet pornography, and is teased because of it. By mid-episode, it is played straight, as he gets a huge muscular left arm from masturbating for a few weeks straight. * Rule of Three: + In "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci High", the teachers introduce the various classes at the school. For each class, Peter says, "Ah I love dodgeball/bundt cakes/trombone!" The first two times, he picks up the object in question, shouts "Heads up!", and throws it at a random person, knocking them down. The third time, he grabs the trombone, the guy he kept hitting earlier flinches, but then Peter actually plays the trombone and gets applause... only to then shout "Heads up!", throw the trombone and hit that guy again after finishing. + In the Black Eye Griffin segment of "Untitled Griffin Family History", three of Black Eye Griffin's short films end the same way: With the character getting hit in the eye and shrugging at the camera while smiling widely, while "wah wah wah waaaaaaaahh" music plays. * Running Gag: + Cleveland: Peter frequently destroys Cleveland's house while the latter is taking a bath. The neighbour then slowly slides from the upper floor while saying "No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO!", before he crashes on his garden. + Someone saying "What the hell?" to someone else happens Once per Episode. + Peter occasionally gets into a long, complex fist fight with his rival Ernie. The scuffle always ends with the protagonist apparently killing his opponent, though the scene then cuts to the giant chicken regaining conscience to the sound of a Scare Chord. + Starting in "I Dream of Jesus", Peter develops an obsession with the song "Surfin' Bird", which he sings repeatedly, much to the others' annoyance. + In the earlier seasons, every time Chris did something creepy or questionable Peter or Lois would flatly say "Go to your room." + The idea of Quagmire getting his own spin-off is usually brought up only to be immediately shot down. + Nearly every episode, a character (most likely Peter) would waste an entire minute or two doing something mundane repeatedly (like making 'Dad noises') while any other character nearby would just watch with an unamused looking expression on their face. + Stewie trying to kill Lois. He would have succeeded once, if Death wasn't on vacation. + Brian inadvertently offending Quagmire via some misunderstanding, leading to a drawn out rage attack from the latter. + Someone (usually Stewie) will recount something shocking happening, but nobody pays attention. + As a cop, Joe Swanson shows a pretty arrogant disdain towards firefighters, from speaking about firemen in a disgusted tone, to actually pulling up to a fire station just to taunt the Fire Chief and shoot out the tires on one of the fire trucks. + Peter complaining about Robot Chicken being a crappy cheap show that shouldn't be so popular while Chris defends and praises it (which his voice actor is the actual creator of) to Peter's chagrin. * Running Gagged: + The evil monkey gag ended in Season 8 when he decided his time in Chris' closet has been enough, and leaves to live in Jake Tucker's closet. + Vern and Johnny get killed about a season after they were introduced. They come back as a Continuity Nod in ghost form. * Sadist Show: When the show was uncanceled, cheerful bullying of mentally ill, disabled, or terminally ill constitutes an awful amount of the jokes in the series. If someone is in intense pain to the point of suicidal it will almost invariably be mocked and worsened to the extreme. * Samus Is a Girl: In the fourth episode of the series Peter punches out a "guy" who badmouths his son once too often, not knowing "he's" a pregnant woman. Justified as she looks like this◊. > Boy: Hey, you hit my mom! > Peter: No, I hit your dad. > Bystander: Whoa, stand back! Give her some air! > Peter: Y-you mean, give him some air. > Bystander #2: Call an ambulance, she's going into labor! > Peter: (clearly confused) You mean he's going into labor! (baby crying) ...Whoops. * Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: In "Into Harmony's Way," Peter and Quagmire start a two-man band, but Quagmire's frustration with Peter comes to a head during a live performance on The Conan O'Brien Show, when Peter drops his pick into his guitar's sound hole and spends nearly a minute trying to get it out. Quagmire promptly grabs the guitar out of his hands and smashes it before storming off with "I quit!" * Seadog Peg Leg: Parodied with the character of Seamus. He's a fisherman with a typical pirate getup who has pegs replacing all his limbs, including his arms. A cutaway in one episode reveals his entire torso is a peg as well, causing Peter to question how exactly he's still alive. * Second American Civil War: In "Back To The Pilot", Brian warns his past self about 9/11 during a time travel adventure to the first episode of the series, leading to him preventing the destruction of the World Trade Center. As a consequence, George W Bush loses his re-election campaign and instead ends up leading several southern states into forming a second Confederacy and seceding from the U.S. This spirals into a second Civil War and eventually reduces the East Coast to an irradiated wasteland. * Second-Person Attack: In "Stuck Together, Torn Apart", the singer on stage who says the next song is for all the ladies out there is given a punch by Peter, seen from the singer's viewpoint. * Second Prize: In "Let's Go to the Hop", after reminiscing about a girl he used to crush on in high school, Peter refers to his wife Lois as his "silver medal." Ouch. * Self-Deprecation: + In the second half of the two-part season 3 premiere, "Brian Does Hollywood", we get to see the nominees for best score at the Adult Movie Awards. Some of the recipients for this particular Woody include John Williams and long-time Family Guy composer Walter Murphy. + One episode centered around Brian's attempts to befriend Quagmire. When he asks why he dislikes him so much, Quagmire goes off on an incredible tangent, obviously voicing the reaction some fans had toward Brian's Author Avatar status, including his religious and political biases. + Combining this with when Quagmire thought he was getting the spinoff and when he was trying to make an improv show, it seems that Seth MacFarlane is using Quagmire as a Self-Deprecation avatar as much as he uses Brian as an Author Avatar. + In the 100th episode special, Seth MacFarlane interviews several people about Family Guy (who don't know who he is). They all say that the show is terrible. + In the 150th episode special, when Brian and Stewie are talking about "Peter's Two Dads" where Peter visited Ireland: > Stewie: Did we explore the effects of the difficult political and agricultural dynamics that have rent Ireland for centuries? > Brian: No, we just made them a country of drunken redheads. > Stewie: Ah! Groundbreaking. + In "He's Bla-ack!", the Brown family moves back to Quahog. Many insults are made about the fact The Cleveland Show failed. + A meta example is that one of the writers is Jewish, and in the commentaries he admits most of the Jewish jokes are his. + Joyce Kinney's real last name is revealed to be Chevapravatdumrong in "And I'm Joyce Kinney". She mentions that her real last name would never be allowed on TV, so she changed it to 'Kinney'. A Co-executive producer/writer of the show is actually named Cherry Chevapravatdumrong. * Self-Serving Memory: When Peter recalls his prostate exam, it is incredibly sinister, and totally wrong. * Self-Soothing Song: During Brian's Mushroom Samba in "Seahorse Seashell Party", he finds Peter being roasted alive over a fire rotisserie style by demons while singing "Wheels On The Bus." * Sensational Staircase Sequence: The opening sequence to each show parodies Old Hollywood films by having the Griffins dress up in sparkly outfits and dance on top of a giant staircase, and deconstructs it in one instance when Peter falls and crushes one of the backup dancers beneath his girth. * Separated by a Common Language: One cutaway gag features Peter struggling to understand a Southern American accent: > Peter: Wait a second. You're telling me I flew all the way to Kentucky to get some of your fried chicken, and the colonel isn't even working today?! > KFC employee: [in a thick southern accent] He ain't real. He dead. > Peter: ... what? > Employee: I say he dead! > [beat] > Peter: [annoyed] ... is Mr. Sanders in?! > Employee: What wrong with you? I say you he dead! > [longer beat] > Peter: THE COLONEL! * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Stewie spoke long sentences with unusual words during the show's earlier seasons. This gets lampshaded when he and Brian travel back in time to the first episode, and the dog asks if Stewie used to carry a Thesaurus with him back in the days. * Set Wrong What Was Once Made Right: In "Back to the Pilot", Brian uses Stewie's time machine to \|\|prevent the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As a result, because that the Iraq War never happened, George W. Bush loses the 2004 election and starts a second Confederacy, leading to a nuclear Civil War with a death toll of 30 million. The two go back to stop Past!Brian from using the time machine... except Prime!Brian then uses it to make himself the author of the Harry Potter books\|\|. > Stewie: We did it, Brian! We \|\|made 9/11 happen\|\|! > (they jump in the air and high-five, then realize that they've just done) > Stewie: That probably wouldn't look good out of context. * Sex for Services: In an early episode, Death comes for Peter, but twists his ankle and the Griffins nurse him back to health in the hopes that he'll spare Peter out of gratitude. At one point Death tells Lois that he might consider it if she does something for him. Lois sighs and starts unbuttoning her blouse; Death quickly interrupts, saying he just wanted more food. * Sex for Solace: When Peter caught Loretta, Cleveland's wife, having an affair, he found Cleveland's lack of anger to be surprising. Lois suggested getting him to confront his emotions, but Peter instead insisted that Cleveland just needed a "Revenge Lay" in order to deal with the situation. Of course, they never quite got that far... * Sex Mirror: Quagmire has a mirror on his bedroom ceiling. In "Bri-da", he turns to face the mirror and congratulate himself for his latest conquest. * Sex Sells: In "Baking Bad" this trope is the advice that Glen Quagmire gives to Peter when Peter and Lois open a up a cookie bakery that has trouble attracting more customers — it works when Peter hires six female strippers with cookie-themed names, but, Peter being Peter, he ends up taking it to the extreme when he turns his and Lois's cookie bakery into a full-on strip club that merely distributes free cookies. * Sexual Extortion: Angela with Peter. * Sexual Karma: Peter and Lois had a healthy sex life in early seasons, but as the series progressed and the family got less and less heroic, Lois is shown to be less attracted to him, with ideas ranging from Peter's "size", duration, lack of skill and dwindling interest in her. As such she is shown to have multiple affairs, and it's stated that Meg and Chris aren't Peter's biological children. Lois has also raped Peter, and encouraged him to break into a woman's house so Lois can watch him rape the woman twice. * Sexy Surfacing Shot: Parodied in "The Kiss Seen Around the World", with Meg fantasizing about newsreader Tom Tucker coming out of a swimming pool in Slow Motion a recreation of the Fast Times at Ridgemont High scene. * Sexy Whatever Outfit: In the Halloween Episode "Halloween On Spooner Street", Meg wears a slutty cat costume. Lampshaded by Lois that gripes about how Halloween is nothing but this: "I'm a slutty nurse, I'm a slutty pirate, I'm a slutty cancer survivor." Followed by a cut-away with the last example (this scene is deleted in the Tv version). * "Shaggy Dog" Story: + "The Juice Is Loose", where Peter meets OJ Simpson, and, at first, attempts to prove that he murdered his wife and Ron Brown. But then, when he finds out, he despairs that he is innocent and can never get away from the accusations. So Peter lets him stay at his house, but the family is suspicious of him. The entire episode is set up as a twist on the normal narrative about OJ, with him actually being innocent. At the end, the town comes in an angry mob to kick him out, but then O.J. makes an emotional speech about how nobody is perfect, and we shouldn't judge people for making a few mistakes. It works, and the whole town is on his side. But then, he stabs and kills three people for absolutely no reason, and runs off. After which, Peter just nonchalantly says "Oh, I guess he did do it.", and the episode just ends. + In "The Simpsons Guy", Pawtucket Patriots gets sued when it's discovered that the beer is just a rip-off of Duff. \|\|Pawtucket ends up losing the case, a big deal because the company is a huge source of income to Quahog's economy, but at the end despite losing Pawtucket stays in business because, as Lois says, "What are they gonna do, come here?"\|\| * Shoot the Dog: Literally done by the Board of Directors of the El Dorado Cigarette Company in the episode "Mr. Griffin Goes To Washington". * Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In "420", Brian manages to convince everybody in Quahog to legalize pot, but Carter doesn't like it because his business starts losing money, and bribes Brian by publishing his horrible novel if he convinces everybody to re-illegalize pot. Brian does, but in the end his novel doesn't sell a single copy. * The Show Goes Hollywood: "Brian Does Hollywood", in which Brian moves to Los Angeles to become a writer but ends up becoming a porn director. * Shower of Angst: Stewie, after learning Rupert has "cheated" him, along with Sanity Slippage. * Showgirl Skirt: The showgirl outfit in the opening, and in scenes with showgirls, all have the same design of a leotard and a headdress and skirt of feathers. * Sideboob: Ptv's The Sideboob Hour. * Silly Animal Sound: In a Cutaway Gag, Stewie plays with a European See-and-Say, getting baffled by the various unconventional sounds the animals make according to it. > See-and-Say: The pig goes "Wank"! The cow goes "Shazoo"! > Stewie: It most certainly does not! > See-and-Say: The rooster goes "Dickeridee"! > Stewie: Where? Where does the rooster say that? > See-and-Say: The monkey goes "Macack"! > Stewie: No, no, no! It does not! > See-and-Say: The elephant goes "Thwoamp"! > Stewie: Yeah, kinda. * Single-Season Country: When Stewie crashes Brian's Prius, he worries about Brian shipping him off to Russia. In a cutaway gag, Stewie is shown freezing while a Russian woman tells him to drink wolf milk and watch Russian cartoons. * Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Peter vs Ernie the Giant Chicken. Brian also seems to be gaining a more mutual hatred for Quagmire as episodes progress. * Singing Telegram: This trope shows up in a few episodes: + There's a Cutaway Gag about Peter being part of a barbershop quartet that's used to inform a patient that they have AIDS via song. + In "Sibling Rivalry", a group of barbershop singers arrives to explain to the Griffins how a vasectomy works. * Single-Target Law: Played for Laughs in "Lois Kills Stewie" where one of the ridiculous new laws Stewie makes is that whoever sees Peter Griffin must throw apples at him. > Peter: That's okay, Chris. You're a good boy, following the law. But you, Meg, you're going to jail... * Sizable Semitic Nose: Frequent in the show, especially in season 8, for some reason. + In "Road to the Multiverse," Brian and Stewie briefly end up in a Disneyesque universe. When Mort walks in the house, he's shown to be the only character in the Disney universe with a hooked nose. The other characters shout "JEW!" and promptly beat him into a bloody pulp.(A reference to Walt Disney's alleged antisemitism) Ironically, Mort's nose in the normal show is drawn very similarly to many of the other characters' noses. + In "Family Goy," it's revealed that the distinct shape of Lois's nose is because her mother's family are Jews who fled the Holocaust. Apparently, Lois never figured that Grandma Hebrewberg might be Jewish. + In "Jerome Is the New Black," Peter sees an ad on TV for a Time-Life Music compilation of "the Rat Pack's most bigoted songs," including one by Frank Sinatra called "Jewish Nose": > She's got a big, beautiful Jewish nose > And it's there two minutes early, wherever she goes + Subverted in "Brian Griffin's House of Payne." Brian meets with two CBS executives, makes an ill-timed Hitler joke, and asks "Nobody here's Jewish, right?" Cue the revelation that both executives have massive hooked noses when they turn to look at each other in annoyance. However, they start laughing and tell Brian they're actually Italian. * Slapstick: All examples of physical comedy, from random abuse, to violent murder, and even rape, are Played for Laughs regardless of the age or gender of the perpetrator or the victim. * Sleeping with the Boss's Wife: Joked about when Peter is doing a job interview. > Boss: So, where do you see yourself in 5 years? > Peter: (thinking) Don't say "Doin' your wife"! Don't say "Doin' your wife"! > Peter: Doing your... \looks at the family photo on the desk\ son...? * Slow Clap: Subverted in "Brian: Portrait of a Dog." After Brian wins his freedom, one man claps slowly to tempt the rest of the audience to join... They are unswayed. * Smart Animal, Average Human: Brian Griffin, the Deadpan Snarker and Only Sane Man who happens to be the family pet dog of the Griffin family. He is far more intelligent than the others in the family and the only one who competes with his intelligence is Stewie, the youngest boy in the family. But, Brian and Stewie leave this as a Zig-Zagging Trope. While Brian and Stewie are very intelligent for their age (and species for that matter), there are some differences between when they are paired up. Stewie is highly intellectual and can build many scientific inventions like time machines while Brian is a cynical but wise atheist who just loves to talk about what is wrong with the world to anybody. However, because Stewie is only a baby, he has a lot to learn about the world around him while Brian has lived much longer and has much more experience with the world than Stewie does and helps Stewie grow. In layman's terms, Stewie is smarter but more naive than Brian, however, Brian is dumber but wiser than Stewie. At best, their duo is "Wise Animal, Smart Human". * Smuggling with Dolls: Mentioned in one episode where Brian becomes a drug sniffing dog. Although not seen directly, one day when he comes home from work and is asked how his day went, he is furious about the fact that he caught a man hiding drugs in his daughter's doll. > Lois: How was your day? > Brian: My day? Un-freakin-believable. First we nail this bastard who had the gall to hide his stuff in his daughter's doll— her doll, for God's sake! * Sock It to Them: After Meg gets out of prison, Connie D'Amico and her friends are teasing her in the school cafeteria. Meg ignores them and buys a bunch of soda cans from a vending machine. She loads them into a bag, and uses the bag on the group Batter Up! style. * So Hideous, It's Terrifying: Meg is treated by her family, and even random people around her, as if she is some hideously deformed freak, even though her appearance could be described as merely plain-looking at the least. In one episode, when Lois takes her clothes shopping, Meg comes out of the dressing room wearing clothes not too dissimilar looking from her regular outfit, and it so horrifies the saleswoman that she douses herself in gasoline and sets herself on fire, right before jumping through a glass window. This is further reinforced in the episode "Road to the Multiverse", where her Disney-esque form bears an uncanny resemblance to Ursula the Sea Witch (tentacles included), unlike the much more friendly-looking versions of her family members. * Sold His Soul for a Donut: In "A Picture's Worth a Thousand Bucks", Peter says that he'd sell his soul to be famous. The Devil hears him and is eager to buy, but his assistant tells him that Peter already sold his soul in 1976 for Bee Gees tickets, and again in 1981 for half a Mallomar. * Solemn Ending Theme: In "Wasted Talent", Stewie asks Peter to play the sad walking away music from The Incredible Hulk (1977). During the credits, that music plays while Stewie is walking away. * Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond: Quagmire with Brian in "Jerome is the New Black" (though granted the latter is a valid Butt-Monkey outside of this too). * Sophisticated as Hell: In "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater": > Peter: That [vase] would look simply smashing in Lois' crapper — I mean, crappiér. > Kitty: You're so right, Peter. Any woman would love to have that in her crappiér. * Soulful Plant Story: Parodied in a cutaway gag where Peter is an apple in an idyllic orchard. He talks about how great life is, but then a maggot eats at him. * Sound-Effect Bleep: Used occasionally in the pre-cancellation seasons to bleep out stronger swearing; used frequently when the show was revived in 2005. * Soundtrack Dissonance: + The classy, somewhat 50's-esque, Frank Sinatra-ish BGM playing during many scenes (mostly shots showing the Griffins' house from the outside, anyway) just doesn't fit what this show is about. For starters, it's a Fox show. Do the math. + Lampshaded in "Dog Bites Bear". An early cutaway depicts Peter as Deadpool from the 2016 film. Just as in the movie, (Peter-as-)Deadpool guns down a bunch of mooks on a highway while a slow, peaceful song punctuates the carnage. This time, however, the lyrics to the song are parodied: > Singer: Just call me anus of the morning (anus) / Just touch my cheek before you leave me (anus) / This violence juxtaposed to music (anus) / Decapitation in slow-motion (anus) * Space Whale Aesop: Don't get too greedy around Christmas time. If you do, Santa Claus will die. * Speaking Simlish: In "McStroke," Peter believes he can speak Italian because he has grown a mustache. However, he only produces a series of "beepity boppity"s. * Speaking Up for Another: Peter insultingly refers to Kenneth, the mail clerk at Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory, as a "Badass" after Kenneth is short with him. He's informed by a co-worker that "That 'Badass' donates half his paycheck to orphans. Orphans with diseases!". Peter decides that Kenneth is a Badass with a heart of gold. * Sperm as People: Before his conception, Stewie used to fight with other sperm. * Spin-Off: The Cleveland Show follows secondary character Cleveland Brown as he leaves Quahog to have his own adventures in Stoolbend, Virginia. * Spit Take: In "Peter's Got Woods", Peter does this twice on Meg at the dinner table when Brian tells the family that he's dating Shauna, a teacher he met at the PTA. * Spiritual Antithesis: For all the comparisons the show got to The Simpsons, the two shows are very different in terms of humour and tone. Even in its early days, Family Guy featured cruder and slightly more edgy humour than The Simpsons. It also manages to somehow be darker, as well as more mean-spirited as time went on. * Spiritual Successor: Wilfred, adapted by Family Guy Co-creator David Zuckerman. Though Family Guy was uncanceled six years before Wilfred premiered. * Spontaneous Human Combustion: Played for Laughs in a Cutaway Gag in the episode "A Fish Out of Water," when Stewie imagines how his family would look if they were more cultured. Cue the Griffin men sitting in the living room wearing formal clothes, drinking wine, talking with British accents... and Peter spontaneously bursting into flames. * Spontaneous Skeet Shooting: When Peter joins the NRA after finding out his son is more..."endowed" than him. He practices skeet shooting old Madonna and Janet Jackson CDs. * Spoof Aesop: Many of the early episodes ended this way with Peter or another character learning either something completely different from the events they experienced or bluntly admiring to learning jack squat like nothing ever happened. Commentary from Seth and the other writers state that this was their way of ending the episode without filling it with nonsensical bullshit with a mix of the writers not giving a damn how the story ended. * Spot the Imposter: + Done in "The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair" when Brian has to differentiate Stewie and Evil Stewie. > Brian: Oh, come on, not this thing, really?! + In "German Guy", Chris turns the tables on an elderly Nazi who was holding him and Peter at gunpoint. Chris, however, can't tell them apart and doesn't know who to shoot. Peter remarks that they don't look anything alike, but it doesn't help. Chris shoots Peter when the old Nazi knows Chris' birthday, but Peter doesn't. * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Stewie and Brian. * Spraying Drink from Nose: Peter doing this and hitting Brian and Brooke provides the page picture. * Springtime for Hitler: In-Universe. Brian's second book, Wish It, Want It, Do It. * Stable Time Loop: Stewie ends up outside of the space-time continuum and has to overload the return pad to his time machine in order to return to existence. This event turns out to have been the cause of the Big Bang. * Stalker Shrine: Quagmire has a secret shrine dedicated to Lois. * Status Quo Is God: A few minor changes have stuck, such as Cleveland moving away (to get his own show) and Brian's relationship status. But for the most part, this is strictly enforced. + Spoofed in "Da Boom", where things are set back to normal by recreating the infamous All Just a Dream ending from Dallas, complete with the original actors. + Another episode has Chris being chased by poachers in Africa. It's never resolved, but during the end credits Stewie says to Brian that "the Chris thing was just a gag, he'll be back next week like always." * Stealing from Thieves: In "Brian: Portrait of a Dog", Chris admits to stealing $10 from Meg's room, Meg admits to stealing $10 from her mom's purse, and Lois admits to making counterfeit $10 bills. * Stealth Hi/Bye: + In Consuela's debut episode, Peter goes to use the bathroom and closes the door behind him. Consuela then suddenly and soundlessly appears in the bathroom, asking Peter if she should clean the toilet. + Peter makes an attempt in the episode "An App a Day": > Peter: Well, I'm not about to make a Batman exit right now, but has that thing always been over there? > Joe: Over where? ... what are you doing, Peter? > Peter: [halfway out of the window] Ah, you looked back too fast. * Stealth Pun: + In "Death Lives", Carter offers Peter $1 million to stay away from Lois. Peter replies: > Peter: She may be worth a million dollars to you, but to me, she's worthless! + In "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar", we have the ultra-feminist, possibly lesbian caseworker Gloria *Ironbox. + In "Life of Brian"' the Indians chase Brian and Stewie in Cherokee Jeeps. Stock Audio Clip: Every time Cleveland falls to the ground in his bathtub after part of his house is destroyed, the exact same vocal clip plays. > Cleveland: What the hell?! No, no no no no NOOOOOOOO!!! + Lois's scream in the MUCH later seasons is the same one from the episode "Petarded", when fry oil is splashed onto her when Peter removes the fryolator from its location. * The Story That Never Was: In the episode "Back to the Pilot", Brian asks for Stewie's help in finding a lost tennis ball. Stewie agrees to take Brian back in time so he can see the location, but warns Brian about altering the past. Brian fails to listen and ends up telling his past self about the 9/11 attacks. \|\|This results in an apocalyptic Bad Future from the result of nuclear attacks. After multiple trips result in dozens of Stewies and Brians from the future arguing it out on whether or not to prevent 9/11, one of the Stewies decides to hold a vote. Upon the majority agreeing to allow 9/11 to happen, this Stewie and Brian then travel one minute back in time to the very first point they arrived via time travel, before they made any changes. Stewie then draws a gun on the past Stewie and Brian and forces them to go back to the present. By doing so, Stewie managed to erase the entire timeline created by the time travel along with this version of Brian and Stewie.\|\| * Straight Man: Brian originally existed simply as a foil to Peter's antics. * Straw Character: Christians and Conservatives, the episode with Rush Limbaugh being the one exception, and even then only Limbaugh himself (who's voicing himself) isn't a straw man. * Straw Loser: + Inverted by Derek Wilcox, Jillian's \|\|late\|\| husband, who's good looking, speak many languages, has superhuman reflexes and a huge penis, and repeatedly make Brian to look like a loser. + And of course even Peter can stand tall against Meg, who the whole universe seems designated to hate. * Stumbling in the New Form: In "Switch the Flip", Brian and Stewie swap bodies. Brian initially has trouble standing up due to Stewie's oversized, football-shaped head. * Stupid Question Bait: + Stewie goes to a Star Trek convention because he wants to see the actors from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He finds a Q&A session where all the questions are completely unrelated to show. Stewie is annoyed because the questions aren't about Star Trek. Ultimately he decides to use his time machine to kidnap the cast and force them to hang out with him. > Fan 1: Um, often times my household's sponges accumulate an awful amount of build-up. What can I do to prevent this? > Patrick Stewart: That's an excellent question. It's very important to thoroughly wring out your sponges after every usage. This will prevent the accumulation of grime and bacteria. A dry sponge is a happy sponge. > Stewie: That's not a Star Trek question! > Fan 2: I have a question for Jonathan Frakes. I have this itch on the back of my leg. And I can't figure out if it's a bug bite or dry skin? > Frakes: Do you take hot showers? > Fan 2: Yes. > Frakes: Dry skin. > Fan 2: Thanks. > Stewie: These aren't Star Trek questions, what the hell? > Fan 3: I have a question for Gates McFadden. I've got an artesian well on my property and the water pressure is lousy. Any suggestions? > McFadden: I would check the point first, before re-priming it. But remember that the summer months take a particular toll on any region's aquafer, depending on the local climate. > Stewie: This is horseshit! > Moderator: And that's the last question. + Appeared in a Cutaway Gag to one time when Peter had cow udders. He's making a presentation to a business meeting. > Peter: Any questions? > all hands go up > Peter: Not about my udders. > all hands go down > Peter: All right, looks like we have a deal! * Sub-Par Supremacist: One gag shows a scrawny Hitler in a gym struggling to lift weights, then glaring venomously at a hugely muscular rabbi being fawned over by women, implicitly launching his anti-Semitic policies. * Suck E. Cheese's: Cheesie Charlie's in "Chitty Chitty Death Bang". * Suckiness Is Painful: In-Universe, Brian's novel, "Faster Than the Speed of Love". In one episode, his book wins an award by a special organization. Emphasis on special, much to Brian's dismay. * Sudden Humility: Peter starts discriminating against Joe for being handicapped, until the feud leads to an accident that leaves him temporarily wheelchair bound. Despite his initial insistence that he will treat his problem with far more dignity than Joe, it takes 40 minutes for him to breakdown from his incapability and apologize to Joe. * Suddenly Ethnicity: \|\|Subverted\|\| in "Halloween on Spooner Street", in which \|\|Quagmire convinces Peter and Joe that he's part Japanese as a set-up for a prank\|\|. * Suicide Dare: Lois shrewdly hints to Meg doing this in an episode by leaving her a Sylvia Plath book and a bottle of pills, telling Meg, "Whatever happens, happens." * Suicide by Pills: + A subversion occurs when Stewie says that he replaced Meg's sleeping pills with AlkaSeltzers. The scene then cuts to Meg in her bedroom, attempting suicide by downing a handful of the pills, only to be unaffected other than burping loudly. + Discussed in the episode where Chris becomes the leader of the cool kids. As Chris' party rages downstairs, Lois tries to console Meg who can't go downstairs from her bedroom as she wasn't invited to a party in her own house. She eventually gets fed up and leaves Meg a Sylvia Plath book and a bottle of pills implying that Meg take them. * Super Bowl Special: The show premiered after the 1999 Super Bowl followed by a Super Bowl themed The Simpsons episode. * Suppressed History: trope quote. Brian and Stewie visit Germany, who has apparently subverted their own history, to omit Nazi action. * Sure, Let's Go with That: In "When You Wish Upon A Weinstein", Max has dinner at the Griffin's house. He says, "I can't eat this" when Lois presents her bad meal of fish and marshmallows. She asks if it's not a kosher meal, and Max clearly lying pretends that's the reason. * Surprise Incest: + Happens in the Halloween episode "Halloween On Spooner Street". Meg and her friends actually get invited to a costume party, and she goes dressed as a Slutty Cat, complete with mask covering 75% of her face. One game of spin the bottle/seven minutes of heaven later, she's escorted to the closet with someone in an all-concealing Optimus Prime costume. When they're in there too long, the door is opened to reveal it being Chris... While they're half-naked on the ground making out. They didn't take it well, and lines like "We did so much!" imply there was more than just lips involved, though they seemed to have gotten over it by the end of the episode, apparently realizing that (given who they are) they were lucky to hook up with anyone at all that night. + In "Valentine's Day in Quahog", Stewie decides to go back in time to the 60s to see what love was like. During the trip, he falls for a girl and kisses her, only to find out it is really Lois after she is picked up by Carl Pewterschmidt. Stewie ends up vomiting all the way back to the present. * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: \|\|Joyce Kinney, Diane Simmons' substitute\|\|. * Take That!: It can be argued that this area is where Family Guy remains the most consistently funny and clever; there is always something they can find to make fun of, whether it be a celebrity, work of fiction or anything else. Many cutaways consist of nothing but one of the characters telling an actor how much they suck. Some examples include Peter as Christina Aguilera's manager and Stewie trashing Matthew McConaughey, who doesn't seem to mind. > Stewie: "That's not funny!!!" + Family Guy had one at Rugrats in "Love Thy Trophy" when Stewie said he spent all of his money on a "insipid Rugrats video". Hilarious in hindsight when you think Cheryl Chase (voice of Angelica Pickles) is actually a fan of the show according to 100 Greatest Cartoons and was a person that contributed to the DVD sales. + The first thing done once Cleveland returned back to Quaghog was Peter, Quagmire and Joe giving his show a verbal thrashing and how unfunny and unpopular it was despite a very decent four season run. + Peter's vestigial twin Chip is a cheery optimist with something nice to say about everything, except ABC's The Middle. > Chip: Wow! This is just a whole buncha loud garbage! * Take That, Audience!: + Peter, in "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story": > Peter: You know what else grinds my gears? You, America. FUCK YOU! Diane? + This exchange: > Guy #1: Outrageous! How dare he say such blasphemy?! I've got to do something! > Guy #2: There's... there's nothing you can do. > Guy #1: Huh... well, I guess I'll just learn to develop a sense of humor... + Another involving Brian and Stewie after they meet Brian's son, apparently directed at those who nitpick every little detail about the show: > Stewie: How can you have a 13-year old son when you're only 7? > Brian: That's in dog years. > Stewie: I don't understand. > Brian: You know what, Stewie? If it bothers you that much then just go on the Internet and complain. + It's probable McFarlane was doing this with the increasingly-longer Conway Twitty clips. * Talk Show Appearance: + "Fifteen Minutes of Shame" has Meg tricking the family into appearing on Diane Simmons' talk show to expose their dysfunctional ways. Ultimately, this is parlayed into them getting their own reality show about their lives that ends with them being replaced by celebrity versions of themselves. + "Brian Writes a Bestseller" has Brian writing a shameless cash grab that leads to success and to treat his fans and especially Stewie like shit. However, once he appears on Real Time with Bill Maher, he and his guests criticize his book and humiliate him to the point that he wets himself. + Another episode has Peter and his friends attempting to make a six second talk show (even bringing in some big names, including then-Vice President Joe Biden). It goes as well as you think. * The Tape Knew You Would Say That: In one episode, Peter leaves a tape that tries to hold a conversation with Lois to convince her he's actually there. In a subversion, she figures it out when he starts to drift off topic. * Teacher/Student Romance: Chris gets infatuated with Mrs. Lockhart, who reciprocates the feeling, but also asks him to kill her husband for her. Her proposal freaks him out, and he stops looking up to her. * The Teaser: More common in the earlier seasons. It almost always featured a TV or movie parody that the family was watching, though there were a few exceptions. Examples: + "Death Has a Shadow": The Griffins watch The Brady Bunch. + "Brian in Love": In a dream, Stewie destroys the Neighborhood of Make-Believe before getting ready to kill Mr. Rogers himself. + "Fifteen Minutes of Shame": Peter watches The Joy of Painting and paints the family from Family Ties. + "The Story on Page 1": The Griffins watch "Sherry and the Anus". + "Fore Father": The Griffins watched Little House on the Prairie. + "Brian Does Hollywood": A fake recap of the previous episode (parodying the TV Cliffhanger) opens the show. + "North By North Quahog": Peter tells the family that they've been canceled and names off all the short-lived FOX shows that aired as replacements for Family Guy. + "Excellence in Broadcasting": The family watch the widescreen version of The Brady Bunch (this was the first standard length widescreen episode). * Teen Pregnancy: Meg exploits the trope in "Love Thy Trophy" by pretending Stewie is her son. + A more closer example is in "Peter's Daughter", where Meg falls in love with a young doctor named Michael, and has been dating him for a good while, but when the recently overly-protective Peter, who became like this after Meg nearly drowned in the flood, keeps butting in, Michael breaks up with Meg, and two weeks later, Meg believes that she's pregnant with Michael's baby, leading to a Shotgun Wedding. \|\|It turns out that Meg isn't pregnant because she had her period.\|\| * Temporal Paradox: Brian telling his past self about the terrorist attacks on 9/11 causes George W. Bush in the present time to not only lose the 2004 election, but he also throws a fit and causes the Deep South to break off with the North and basically repeats the Civil War, but with nuclear weapons. This causes Stewie and Brian to go back in time where Brian is about to screw up the timeline and tell them not to do anything in the past. This doesn't go over too well. * Temporary Scrappy: + "The Man with Two Brians": After Peter starts worrying about Brian getting old, he goes out and gets the family another dog known only as "New Brian." Guess who feels jealous of him? Brian and Stewie both dislike New Brian, but all the other characters think he's great. Near the end of the episode, New Brian admits to Stewie that he violated Stewie's teddy bear (Rupert). The next scene has Stewie giving Peter, Lois, and the other characters a quite suspicious story about how New Brian committed suicide, then cut himself up, bagged the pieces, and put the bag in the trash outside. + And then, there's Vinny, who \|\|replaces Brian after he is killed\|\|. He's quickly accepted into the Griffin household and accepted by all, even Stewie despite the incident above. Then, \|\|Stewie\|\| runs into one of his time-traveling selves and uses the opportunity to save \|\|Brian\|\|. Vinny, seeing how the latter's loss was still affecting the former, \|\|helps out with the plan even though doing so means he would have never been adopted by the Griffins in the first place.\|\| + "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air": This episode introduces Bernice who has been dating Cleveland after he and Loretta broke up. The events of this episode, where Bernice yells at Cleveland to shut up and makes an antisemetic remark towards Muriel Goldman, make it clear her presence will be short-lived. After the first act, Bernice doesn't even appear for the rest of the episode. Cleveland later reconnects with his old high school classmate Donna Tubbs. * Tempting Fate: + Seen in the short "He's Quagmire". A stuffy upper class man said: "I do hope nothing happens to spoil our fancy dinner party." Immediately after, Quagmire jumped on the table wearing a leopard G-string and said "Giggity!" over and over. + Also in "PTV", after the FCC shuts Peter's TV network down, he says that they can't censor the way people live in real life. Three guesses what happens next. + Subverted in "Stu & Stewie's Excellent Adventure" when Peter launches himself with a catapult: > "Excellent! These dominoes are set up exactly as I want them: right next to the good china. Now I'll just place this priceless faberge egg right in the center, next to my newborn, hemophiliac baby." > Peter lands right outside the window- "Hey, those yours?" > "Yes." > "Oh, those are all really nice things!" > "Thank you!" * Terrible Pick-Up Lines: In the episode "Fore Father", Quagmire teaches Chris pick-up lines but Chris delivers it poorly on a test subject. > Chris (to a girl on the street): You dropped something. My jaw. Ha ha ha ha. * Terse Talker: Ollie Williams always speaks in Beige Prose. * Thanksgiving Episode: The season 10 episode "Thanksgiving" takes place during the eponymous holiday and features the return of Kevin Swanson, who had made his last appearance in season five and was pronounced dead in season 7. The episode reaches its climax when his father, in the spirit of the festivities, forgives Kevin for abandoning his duties during the Iraq War. * That's All, Folks!: A parody of the famous Looney Tunes rings appears in "The Tan Aquatic With Steve Zissou" after Peter cuts himself shaving with a razor fan. * That's What She Said: In "Mother Tucker"; > Brian: Uh, excuse I- I got to find a lost kid. Can I use your mic? > Butt: That's what she said! > Weenie: Whoa, you got Butt-slammed! > Brian: Listen, I could really use a hand here. > Butt: That's what he said! > Weenie: BUTT-SLAMMED! * Therapy Episode: Early episodes of the series had Brian periodically see a psychiatrist named Dr. Kaplan, some of their sessions greatly factoring into the plots of said episodes. + The episode "Brian in Love" sees Brian seeking therapy after it's discovered he's chronically incontinent, seemingly due to stress. As they do their best to attempt to resolve Brian's issues, Dr. Kaplan ends up identifying the fact that Brian, against his better judgement, is in love with Lois, the Happily Married wife to his best friend, Peter. + "The Thin White Line" sees Brian continuing to see Dr. Kaplan over a lack of fulfillment in his life, with Kaplan suggesting to Brian to take up volunteer work. This leads to Brian becoming a police officer, and an initially very effective one at that, but he ends up developing a drug problem after using the cocaine he seizes, forcing the Griffins (with Dr. Kaplan's guided assistance) to stage an intervention that leads to Brian attending rehab. * They Killed Kenny Again: Numerous characters, most notably Meg, have been killed at one point or another. One such instance being when Peter tries to prepare dinner in Lois' absence, and ends up cooking the kids instead. * The Thing That Would Not Leave: Billy Fin, a talking dolphin (played by Ricky Gervais) who stays at the Griffins until his wife takes him back. * Thinks of Something Smart, Says Something Stupid: At a job interview, Peter is asked where he sees himself in five years. He thinks to himself that he "Don't say doing your wife. Don't say doing your wife." He ends up saying "Doing your" looks at the interviewer's family photo, and follows up what he said with the word "son." * Think Unsexy Thoughts: In "Blind Ambition", Peter, Cleveland, and Joe attempt to teach self-control to Quagmire by sticking a ceiling fan a few inches above his crotch. Quagmire desperately tries to avoid getting an erection by thinking of unsexy things. At first, his examples fail him (dead kittens, nuns, really old nuns), but he's finally able to keep it down by thinking of Renée Zellweger. * This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: + Specifically in "The Perfect Castaways" when Brian breaks up with Lois: > Stewie: "Ah, bitch, you got jacked, bitch." * This Loser Is You: Being a satire, that's the entire point of the show. Peter in particular is supposed to carry this message, however whenever any character is being a hypocritical (uneducated) bigoted jerkass, you can bet the writers are winking right at you, or at least at the society we live in. It only gets more hilarious - or depressing - when a lot of people who watch and enjoy the show think all the gags and jokes are not meant to be funny because of the critique and irony that lays behind them, but just because they're actually funny per se. * Three Shorts: Often, three shorter stories with a common theme are used to make up an episode. + "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1": Three stories taken from suggestions made by viewer mail. + "Three Kings": Three stories based off the works of Stephen King. + "Family Guy Viewer Mail #2": Three mores stories taken from viewer mail suggestions. + "Grimm Job": Three shorts based on Grimm's fairy tales. + "High School English": Three stories based off of literature often read in high school English class. + "Three Directors": Three stories, each "Guest directed" by three Hollywood directors. + "Family Guy Through the Years": Three Period Piece shorts imagining what the show would have been like if it were a live-action show airing in The '50s, The '60s, and The '70s. + "Tales of Former Sports Glory": Three stories showing various characters' history with sports. + "Rock Hard": Three tales of rock and roll legends. + "HBO-no": Three parodies of HBO shows. + "Oscar Guy": Three adaptations of Oscar winning movies, The Silence of the Lambs, American Beauty and Forrest Gump. + "Love Story Guy": Three stories of Peter and the guys meeting their first loves. + "Take This Job and Love It": The guys imagine what it would be like to have their dream jobs. Peter pictures himself as a James Bond-esque spy, Quagmire was an 80s areobics insttructor, and the pair of Clevland & Joe are partners in the L.A.P.D., ala Lethal Weapon. + "A Real Who's Hulu": The cast plays out spoof of several Hulu shows, Only Murders in the Building, The Dropout and The Bear (2022). * Throw the Dog a Bone: While she still is picked on, the writers have started to tone down the Meg bashing in later seasons. * Time-Traveling Jerkass: While Stewie usually uses his time machine for pragmatic purposes, at one point he uses it to troll Brian throughout different time periods so he can get the last word in all their past arguments (over Brian making one gay joke). * Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: This trope is pulled whenever Brian gets a human girlfriend. * Title Drop: + Spoofed in "420" where Peter is shown being amused by various title drops in films ("The only way I can stop this crisis is by being Superman IV: The Quest for Peace!") Then later, a walk-on character says "I'm a family guy!" and Peter is thrilled. + Brian said "Stewie loves Lois!", which is the title of that episode. + Parodied in "The Simpsons Guy." > Peter: I'm a family guy. > Homer: And I'm a The Simpsons. * Title, Please!: Exceptions being the Brian & Stewie "Road To..." episodes and "Viewer Mail #1", which had three different title cards for each segment. * Toad Licking: "Toad" becomes such a popular fad at James Woods High School, after a Colombian drug cartel's plane transporting the toads crashes near Quahog, that Peter winds up going undercover at the school as "Lando Griffin" to get the students to stop. + There was even a hilarious anti-drug PSA directly spoofing the classic Tootsie Pop commercial with Mr. Owl. > Kid: Mr. Toad, how many licks of you does it take to get to the center of a Rhode Island State Prison? > [Jail Door Closes] > Voiceover: Just one. * Toilet Paper Substitute: + In "There's Something About Paulie", while Peter is using the toilet, a member of the Mafia appears to tell him that he has to see the Don to repay his favor. When Peter realizes that he's out of toilet paper, he uses an Entertainment Weekly magazine as a substitute. > Peter: Well, at least that's one problem solved. + In "Spies Reminiscent of Us", when Peter tries to use the bathroom in Cleveland's abandoned house, he finds out there's no toilet paper. Peter runs offscreen to Joe's house and asks him if he can borrow something from him, Joe allows it, unaware of what Peter is doing. When he runs back onscreen into Cleveland's house, he's carrying the American flag. * Token Good Teammate: Brian and Lois were originally meant to be the more level-headed, sensible and well-meaning members of the family. However, starting in season 7, they both Took a Level in Jerkass.argu * Token Houseguest: The Griffin family is joined by their talking dog Brian. Due to his intelligence, he's not treated as a pet, but as a friend. He has many storylines involving Peter and Stewie, and even develops a crush on Lois at one point. * Token Minority: + Two in the main cast, Cleveland and Joe; lampshaded by Asian Reporter Trisha Takanawa and "Black-u-weather forecaster" Ollie Williams. + As well as "Hispanic Reporter Maria Hee-Ji-Jiminez?" * Toll Booth Antics: + In the episode "Screwed The Pooch", Peter hangs out with Carter and his rich friends Bill Gates and Michael Eisner. At a toll booth, Peter asks them if they have a spare quarter, to which they are unfamiliar. Peter notes they have to give the guy something and the gang resort to mooning at the booth. + Another episode has Peter wearing a Middle Eastern costume at the toll booth, with the guard checking his skin tone whether he's "Okay". * Tonight, Someone Dies: The plot for the season 9 premiere "And Then There Were Fewer" said that many characters were going to die. However, only one of them was relatively important. * Too Hot for TV: + A lot of Family Guy episodes (particularly those aired after the show was Un-Canceled in 2005) have a lot of scenes and lines that FOX censors won't air or were cut due to time constraints. Cartoon Network airings partially restore some of the scenes and lines that were edited on FOX, but the DVD has all of the scenes and lines that were rejected by censors (either in the episode proper or as part of a deleted scenes reel) + Also, two episodes were banned: "When You Wish Upon A Weinstein" (was banned out of fear that Jews and Catholics would find the show's take on religion offensive. The episode aired years later with a line change and some light trimming of one scene) and "Partial Terms of Endearment" (banned for dealing with the hot-button topic of abortion. The episode did air on a UK TV channel and was released on DVD, but FOX is never going to reverse its decision not to air the episode and Cartoon Network might not air it, either). * Took a Level in Jerkass: + One episode had Joe regain the ability to walk, which boosts his confidence level tenfold. However, he gets a little too overconfident and starts to berate his friends for not meeting his high demands to improve in whatever activity they are doing. He eventually ditches Bonnie (who is still pregnant) and his friends to hang out with athletic men who can keep up with him. It takes Joe losing his ability to walk again to bring him back down to humble levels. + Meg had become less hostile and more humble due to the entire world treating her like crap. However, in "Chris Cross", Meg witnesses Chris stealing money from Lois' purse and decides to blackmail him by forcing him to do all her chores and other tasks while she acted like a smug jerk throughout it all. After Chris had enough and decides to run away, Meg tells Chris that he's a fat loser with no friends and he has nowhere to run away to. Compared to the childish insults that the rest of the family dishes to her, Meg's comments to Chris is quite harsh. + Ross Fischman was friendly and down-to-Earth in his first appearance. When he returns in "Into Fat Air", he's a smug jerk who brags about how much better his family is than the Griffins. * Took a Level in Kindness: + In contrast to the majority of the cast's increasing sociopathic tendencies, original Token Evil Teammate Stewie has evolved more and more into Jerk with a Heart of Gold (and at worst Affably Evil) territory. + Meg, originally a Bratty Teenage Daughter that was ashamed of her family's antics, has become more docile and friendly, if only in her desperation for her family's love. * Touch of Death: When Death Takes a Holiday and Peter needs to fill in for him, simply wearing Death's shroud causes anything Peter touches to instantly die, even without intending it. He learns this the hard way. > Peter: Note to self... do NOT go to the bathroom. * Totally Radical: In "Hot-Pocket Dial" Lois tries to talk like a teenager: > Quagmire: Hey, before you two leave, let's take a photo. > Lois: Yeah! Selfie! [laughs] I just learned that word! > [after they take a group pic] > Lois: See ya tomorrow, hashtags! > Peter: You're not doing that right. * Toxic Waste Can Do Anything: Played with in a "What If" episode. When a truck carrying nuclear waste crashes in front of the Griffin household, each family member is imbued with a different superpower, which they use to cause mayhem. To combat them, mayor Adam West rolls in toxic waste... causing him to contract lymphoma. * Trade Your Passion for Glory: Happened to nearly all the main characters at least once. * Train Job: Subverted. Peter and his father-in-law, Carter, try to do this, but the ticket taker tells them that no one rides the trains anymore. * Trans Chaser: The episode "Quagmire's Dad" deals with Quagmire coping with the news that his father Dan has come out as transgender and now goes by Ida. At the end, he finally accepts Ida's identity as a woman, something reflected by his inexplicable erection. > Quagmire: Sorry, sorry! Damn thing can't tell the difference. * Trans Equals Hypersexual: In "Quagmire's Dad," Glenn's father Dan comes out as transgender and changes her name to Ida. She explicitly talks about what bottom surgery did to her genitals at a family dinner, browses porn on her phone in public, and doesn't disclose to Brian that she's trans before having sex with him. * Translation Convention: With baby pronunciations of words being translated into correct pronunciations of words, rather than foreign words being translated into English words. Stewie's pronunciation of a word is left untranslated whenever Brian is teaching him how to pronounce a word correctly. > Stewie: We could get a Yuber. > Brian: A Yuber? > Stewie: Yes, a Yuber. > Brian: It's Uber. > Stewie: That's what I'm saying. Yuber. > Brian: You're adding a “Y.” > Stewie: No, that's a “U.” > Brian: Say “underwear.” > Stewie: Yunderwear. > Brian: Why are we standing here doing this same old bit? * Tranquillizer Dart: In an early episode, Peter's boss devises a contest for the company picnic, which involves taking shots at the employees with a tranq rifle and seeing who can last the longest. Most of the employees drop like stones the moment they get shot... except for Peter, who ends up with more than a dozen tranquillizer needles stuck in him, and still manages to stay conscious long enough to win the contest. It would seem that this is either due to his relatively high body mass, which (in theory) would require longer for the chemicals to spread through his body, or due to the increased amount of fatty deposits, which would help isolate the venom from his bloodstream. * Trapped in a Sinking Car: In "The Courtship of Stewie's Father", Peter and Stewie do this to Lois as a prank. Fortunately, Lois survives, and when she gets back home, she is not happy with them at all. * Trapped In a Tanning Bed: In "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou", Stewie gets a tan and becomes addicted to the "tan" lifestyle, even getting a tanning bed to maintain it. He tells Brian to let him out after 15 minutes, but Brian falls asleep on the couch and, by the time he wakes up, Stewie is badly burned. > Brian: Uh... hey, buddy. I was just comin' to tell ya, it's time to get out. > Stewie: I'VE BEEN IN THERE FOR SIX AND A HALF HOURS, YOU SON OF A BITCH! * Trash of the Titans: When Lois went to jail for stealing, the house became a wreck. * Trial Balloon Question: In one cutaway, a toilet seat phoned a woman he dated: > Woman: You know, I had such a great time with you last night. > Toilet: Listen, there's something I have to tell you. I just got back from the doctor. I have herpes. I think you should get yourself checked out. > Woman: Oh my God! > Toilet: Will you stay? > Woman: What? > Toilet: Will you stay with me, even knowing that I have herpes. > Woman: [Beat] Yes, I will. > Toilet: ...Joanie? > Woman: Yeah? > Toilet: I don't have herpes. I just needed to know that you'd stay. * True Love Is Boring: Zig-zagged. Lois and Peter have had numerous ups and downs (including infidelity at one point), but they are still together. * Truth in Television: The way Domestic Abuse is portrayed in "Screams of Silence" is 100% realistic! * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Peter and Lois. A news report once described them as "a fat man inexplicably married to an attractive redhead", along with an artist's sketch of what they might look like - Fred and Wilma Flintstone. * Ultimate Authority Mayor: Mayor Adam West. Being Family Guy (and Adam West), he's insane, but no one seems to care. Lois defeated him in an election, but he got the job back in the end. * Unadoptable Orphan: In "Boston Stewie", Stewie finds out that he has a bratty Boston-born half-brother who can't get adopted due to being a textbook example of a crazy Boston local. * Unanthropomorphic Transformation: Happens for a short gag — as Brian and Stewie are transported through a number of universes, they briefly arrive to a live-action universe where Brian is portrayed by a regular, non-anthropomorphic dog. * Uncanny Family Resemblance: Mort and Muriel Goldman are a couple and look identical to each other. * Un-Confession: Played for Laughs; in keeping with the show's increasing reliance on shock value, it normally involves Peter being a total Jerkass when inappropriate, or Lois admitting to some past (wild) indiscretion. She learned that from her father, who also does it often. * Understatement: Lots. Chris's deaf classmate Bill who is "uhhh... kinda conservative" comes to mind. * Underwater Fart Gag: When Meg and Stewie have to take a bath together, they fart in the bath as a joke. Then, Meg queefs (i.e. air comes out of her vagina) and Stewie runs away screaming. * Undiscriminating Addict: One joke showed the Cookie Monster trying to freebase cookie dough in a bathroom stall with a spoon and a lighter, all while anxiously mumbling that it's taking too long. * Unexpected Kindness: In "Brian the Closer", Brian loses all his teeth thanks to Peter, and the family refuses to pay for new ones. When the despondent Brian encounters Quagmire (whom he has a long-running enmity with), he expects Quagmire to insult him. Instead, Quagmire writes a cheque for Brian to get new teeth. * Unexplained Recovery: + Happens quite often, given the random Cutaway Gag nature of the show, but Meg is killed for the sake of a joke more often than most, but is fine in the next scene. For example, in "Space Cadet", the whole family gets trapped in space on the space shuttle. Stewie looks on the monitor to see Meg poking around the cargo hold, and tells Brian he's going to give her a scare. Stewie hits a button, opens the cargo hold, and Meg gets blown out into the eternal depths of space. Without making another sound, a look of horror slowly creeps across both their faces as they realize just what happened, and Brian closes the cargo hold and turns off the monitor. In the next scene, she's back to normal without mention. Among other methods that she's been killed were being shot with poison darts while running from a tribe of natives, having her heart ripped out for interrupting a Jewish prayer at dinner, and being shot in the face by Peter just for casually walking past him and saying hello. + In "The Boys in the Band" it's not explained how Olivia survived the fire. They just mention that Stewie left her in a burning cardboard box and that's the last we hear about it. * The Unfair Sex: + Lois, despite often proving to be a terrible human being and a hypocrite on top of it, is generally given moral superiority over Peter in just about everything. + Brian is also depicted as a vile, terrible lover in later episodes. While this is hardly a false statement, it rarely acknowledges that half of his girlfriends are also hypocritical Jerkasses who barely deserve any better. * Unflattering ID Photo: + Peter's photo on his driver's license has him looking drunk. He claims he did this so that when he does get pulled over for drunk driving, he'll look the same as he does in the photo. + The episode "A Lot Going On Upstairs" has Stewie dreaming that he brings in Lois's driver's license for show and tell, with Stewie pointing out how her ID photo shows her being very obviously drunk. > Stewie: You could put a breathalyzer up to the photo and she'd get a DUI. * The Unishment: In "Business Guy" Peter forces Carter to throw a The Big Bang Theory Viewing Party at his house. Not a single co worker is interested, but Carter finds the show Actually Pretty Funny. * Unnecessary Time Precision: During the cutaway gag of Peter's rat farm in "Peterotica", Peter looks at his pocket watch before telling Armando that he is two months behind on paying rent. * The Unpronounceable: + Brian has trouble pronouncing "Donald Nguyen" in "Model Misbehavior". + Don LaFontaine had trouble pronouncing "Jim Caviezel" in the trailer for The Passion of the Christ 2, and finally just calls him "the guy from the first one". + "Kim... Bassenger? Basenger? Basinger?" * Unknown Rematch Conclusion: Quagmire sleeps with Cleveland's wife Loretta in "The Cleveland–Loretta Quagmire". After a violent confrontation between Cleveland and Quagmire that ends with Cleveland and Loretta separating and Cleveland forgiving Quagmire, the episode ends in a recreation of Rocky III's final scene as the two friends have a fair bout to clear the air. Just as in the movie, it's not shown who wins. * Unsettling Gender-Reveal: "You mean three filipino women!" \Beat\ "NOOOOOOOOO!" + The episode "Quagmire's Dad" where Quagmire's father gets a sex change and becomes Ida and Brian later has sex with Ida. He isn't too pleased when he finds out. + In another episode, when "the guys" are discussing their preferred woman: > Joe: Taylor Hanson's a guy. + Subverted on Diane's talk show when a man reveals he's not a man but a woman, then not a woman but a horse, and then not a horse but really a broom. * Unspoken Plan Guarantee: In "Airport '07", the plan to get Quagmire's job back is explained (with a dramatization even) before it's carried out. Guess how well the original plan went. * Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Peter of course. And when another character gets A Day in the Limelight, they are usually this as well. * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Seriously, when is someone going to find it weird that a dog can do things that normal people can do like talk, drink, smoke, and have sex with human females (and have human kids with them)... that and the baby can talk. * Uptown Girl: Lois and Peter, as shown by an early episode where Peter is at odds with her tyrannical father in order to gain his approval, which he never does. She marries him despite her father's insistence that she doesn't really love him or his covert attempts to kill Peter. * Upper Class 'Stache: Invoked and parodied. Phineas and Barnaby are a pair of turn-of-the-century strongmen with imperial mustaches. They speak sophisticatedly, and their mannerisms imply they have taken influence from the 18th century. * Victoria's Secret Compartment: Mrs. Lockhart hid everything in her boobs, including a whole class' worth of tests. She even had a machete in there. * Video Wills: + Peter's boss Mr. Weed leaves one that alerts his employees that the factory is to be destroyed "right now", a second before a wrecking ball crashes through the building. + Lois's father Carter keeps quite a few of these, for any situation that might come up...including Death by Chocolate. * Villain Song: In "Lois Kills Stewie", after successfully taking over the world, Stewie sends a broadcast out to the entire population on various (and gruesome) forms of punishment he will administer to those who irk him. The song is essentially the entirety of his Enemies List, and is put to the tune of The Mikado's The List Song. * Vinyl Shatters: In the episode "I Dream of Jesus", Brian and Stewie break Peter's Surfin' Bird record; Stewie stomps on it with his foot and Brian smashes it further with a baseball bat. * Violation of Common Sense: In "Stewie Goes for a Drive", Ryan Reynolds is very obviously attracted to Peter that he becomes insulted when Peter tells him he is gay for him...by arguing he "feels attracted to him like a guy is attracted to a woman" and "he wants his essence in him." * Vocal Evolution: Peter's voice was deeper and had more of a Boston-sounding accent until the second un-cancellation, and sounded less whiny. Stewie had a lisp with his accent, and Brian, Quagmire, and Meg all had much higher voices in the pilot episode, "Death Has A Shadow". Lois' voice was notably lower in pitch and less nasal. Also, Chris's voice constantly shifted as though he was going through puberty. Meg's voice actress changed from Lacey Chabert to Mila Kunis sometime in the second season, which explains the change in Meg's voice. * Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Used every time somebody throws up, which is not rare. + In the episode "Quagmire's Dad", Brian vomits for almost 30 seconds straight without stopping. + Used to the extreme in "8 Simple Rules For Buying My Teenage Daughter" where Peter, Chris, Brian, and Stewie drink medicine that induces vomiting and have a contest to see who can be the last guy standing before vomiting. Nearly a minute or two of this gag involves nothing but the four guys vomiting constantly all over the living room. - "Who wants chowder?" * Vulval Flora: In a cutaway with the setup of "Only the artist knows the meaning of their own work", Georgie O'Keefe is asked about what her flower paintings represent. While she thinks on it, starts smacking her lips and making wild tongue motions mimicking cunnilingus, a reference to the (largely debunked) interpretation that the flowers were meant to be a yonic symbol. * Walkie-Talkie Gag, Over: When Stewie and Brian use a walkie-talkie while installing a cable, Stewie demands Brian end every transmission with over, to Brian's chagrin. > Brian: I don't want to hang out with you anymore when this (job) is over. > Stewie: When this is what? You gotta finish your sentence. Over. > Brian: That's it. My sentence is over. > Stewie: Your sentence is what, Brian? Over. > Brian: My sentence is... wait a minute, I have to say "over" even if the sentence ends with the word "over?" > Stewie: Ends with the word what, Brian? Over. * War Memorial: Mayor West commissions a war memorial to honor Quahog soldiers who perished in the Gulf Conflict. Unfortunately he chooses a solid gold statue of Dig 'em the Sugar Smacks mascot, which is completely inappropriate and drains the town's coffers, leading to protests calling for his resignation. * Was Just Leaving: In "Patriot Games", Lois drills a hole in Stewie's bedroom wall to peep at Tom Brady in the shower. As she and Meg are shoving each other to claim the spot, Stewie enters and asks what the hell is going on. Lois evades by telling him that she and Meg were just leaving. Curious, he discovers the hole and becomes entranced too. * We Want Our Jerk Back!: + "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar": Peter is sent to a sensitivity camp to deal with his outrageous sexism. When he returns with a more sensitive and mature (albeit comically feminine) understanding of how to treat people, it makes his friends and family very uncomfortable and they try to figure out how to turn him back into a misogynist again. + "I Never Met the Dead Man": Peter is forced to cope without Cable TV throughout Quahog, and as a result becomes a happier, active person who genuinely enjoys family life and just living in general. Even though this was Lois' idea, she tries ineffectually to get him out of it. The solution appears nigh when William Shatner's car breaks down in front of the Griffin's house on his way to a conference on how television is great for people's lives...but then Peter gets Shatner to come with him to the Bavarian Folk Festival instead, where Shatner renounces the emphasis TV has had on their lives. \|\|Don't worry, Peter's still turned back to a TV-watching slob by the end of the episode.\|\| * Welcoming Song: "This House Is Freakin' Sweet", when the Griffins inherit a mansion, all the mansion's staff sings a song welcoming to their new lifestyle. The song's a parody/Suspiciously Similar Song to the welcoming song "I Think I'm Going to Like it Here" from Annie. * Well, This Is Not That Trope: Played straight in "Three Kings": > Peter: (introducing the final segment for the episode) Remember that movie with the creepy twins, and the guy running around with the axe, and that kid talking to his finger? (laughs) Can't you see Stewie doin' that?! Well, here's The Shawshank Redemption. * Wham Episode: + The premiere of season 9 kills off no less than three recurring characters, one of whom had been around since the beginning of the series. + The hurricane crossover. \|\|Meg gives most of the family a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, particularly towards Lois.\|\| This was similar in tone to "Brian and Stewie". + Season 19's "Family Cat" reveals that the reason why Quagmire is so obsessed with cats is because \|\|he is infected with toxoplasmosis, which, in the Family Guy universe, is intentionally spread by cats as a means of securing human slaves. By the end of the episode, his condition becomes irreversible and he accepts his fate as a "Crazy Cat Lady"\|\|. The episode also reveals that Meg \|\|is fully aware that Stewie is not an ordinary baby, and actually envies Brian for having many time-travelling adventures with him\|\|. * Wham Line: From "Brian and Stewie", when Stewie asks Brian \|\|why he has a gun in his safety deposit box\|\|. > Brian: \|\|I keep it in case...I ever want to commit suicide, okay?\|\| * What Happened to the Mouse?: + Neil Goldman. Okay, he was sort of Demoted to Extra at first, but the entire Griffin family got invited to James Woods's mansion...and yet only the Goldman parents were invited? A few episodes later, in "Road to the North Pole", we see Mort Goldman making some remarks related to him being Jewish in the context of a song about what the characters want for Christmas...with Neil nowhere in sight. Where the hell is he? + Quagmire's Littlest Cancer Patient niece (whom Brian mistook for a boy, and further cemented Quagmire's resentment for Brian) in "Road to the North Pole". She was hospitalized somewhere around the start of the third act and that was the last we heard of her. + The Campbells, the nudist family. They appeared in two episodes early in 2002, and then they completely disappeared except for a short cameo eight years later. + Although he was never given a name, there's the conspicuous absence of Carol's son, whom she conceived with her eighth husband. Lois and Peter were the only people present at his birth back in the early seasons (discounting an unconscious Dr. Hartman) and this event in turn inspired them to want to have more children of their own for a short while. Fast-forward a few seasons, and Carol's married and divorced her ninth husband, leading her to move in with the Griffins — and yet her son, who couldn't be that much older than a baby, is nowhere to be seen. Then she marries and moves in with Mayor West in a record amount of time and STILL her child isn't even referenced, let alone taken along. Was he adopted? Did he die? Does anyone even CARE that Lois and Peter's nephew has melted into thin air? + Given the show's love of reusing bit characters, it's a surprise that Peter's drunken Irish dad has never made another appearance. + Brian's (would be) killer is never revealed, the recklessly speeding car that runs him over in the erased continuity is never explained nor is the driver, seemingly nothing more than a Diabolus ex Machina. + It turns out Olivia survived Stewie's attempt to burn her and her friend Victor alive, but there's no mention of whether Victor survived or not. + Derek and Jillian's unborn child, brought up in a one-off joke in the uncut version of "And Then There Were Fewer". * White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: In "The Son Also Draws", Peter shows Chris a family of WASPS; not the animal, but a family of White Anglo Saxon Protestants who make passive-aggressive remarks towards each other at dinner. * Who's Laughing Now?: + "Dial Meg For Murder" has Meg Take A Level In Badass and deliver a rather violent retribution on her abusive family and classmates. + "Stewie Kills Lois"/"Lois Kills Stewie" may also count, at least in Stewie's perspective \|\|even if it was all a simulation\|\|. * Whole-Plot Reference: Back to the Future 1, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Poltergeist, Tootsie, And Then There Were None. + Family Guy Presents: Laugh It Up, Fuzzball is this to Star Wars. + Taken as well. * Wholesome Crossdresser: Stewie occasionally crossdresses and nobody has a problem with that, except of course for the straw queer-o-phobe of the week. * William Telling: In "Herpe the Love Sore", Peter tries to whip a cigarette out of Meg's mouth. The whip knocks Meg to the floor, but the cigarette stays perfectly in mid-air. * Wire Dilemma: + In the opening to "Brian Does Hollywood", Meg's trying to disarm a bomb. > Meg: What do you mean, "cut the blue wire"? They're all blue wires! + In "Start Me Up", Peter Griffin tries to disarm another bomb and sings a helpful song. > Peter: Green is good, and green is good, and red is good, and yellow is good, so clip whatever you want! * Wise Beyond Their Years: Stewie is one year old but can build multi-verse transporters, time machines, and laser weaponry. * Women Are Wiser: Initially at least, Lois was far more rational and intelligent than her husband. As the shows Comedic Sociopathy kicked in however, Lois became more hypocritical, self righteous and out and out sociopathic, though still tends to be given higher moral ground than Peter (who is usually even worse). Inverted in "Forget-Me-Not" where Peter, Brian, Joe, and Quagmire all try investigating what happened after they wake up in a deserted Quahog with no memory and only resort to violence when they find evidence saying Peter killed everyone else. Meg, Bonnie and Lois are put into the same scenario but immediately start fighting each other without saying a word. * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Meg in the episode "Dial Meg For Murder," when she returns from prison and gets revenge on everybody who bullied her by dishing two No Holds Barred Beatdowns to Peter and the popular kids at her school(by filling a bag with unopened soda cans and hitting them with it). Brian snaps her out of it by showing her an issue of Teen People Magazine and describing her as "Far sweeter and kinder than the average teenage girl." * Working on the Chain Gang: In the episode "Holy Crap," Peter has kidnapped the Pope by posing as his driver and he drives the Pope Mobile past one of these. The Pope doesn't realize anything is wrong and keeps waving at everything, including a chain gang, parodying Cool Hand Luke: > Luke: (takes his shirt off) Taking it off there, boss. > Guard: Take it off there, Luke. > Luke: (wipes sweat off his face) Wiping it off there, boss. > Guard: Wipe it off there, Luke. > Luke: (waves at the Pope) Waving at the Pope there, boss. > Guard: Wave at the Pope there, Luke. * World of Ham: Ever since the revival, out-of-control volume and behavior have become common traits of practically everyone to an excessive degree. * Worth It: Quoted by Bertram in "The Big Bang Theory". Apparently it is worth destroying the whole time space continuum if it means erasing Stewie from existence. * Would Hurt a Child and Would Hit a Girl: Bread-and-butter tropes in the series. Most often employed by Peter, who has no qualms hitting Lois and/or Meg on many occasions, and he has put Meg in extreme danger on several other occasions, such as in "Peter's Daughter," where he forced her to go into the flooded kitchen to get a can of beer from the submerged refrigerator. + Peter's assaulting children should get him arrested, convicted and a lengthy prison term. However, he is allowed on at least one occasion to beat Lucy Van Pelt (from Peanuts) to an inch of her life when he kicks her head and slaps her repeatedly ... all for the "felony" of *moving a football out of the way before Charlie Brown can kick it. Peter finally knocks her unconscious when he gives her a roundhouse kick to the back of the head for the capital crime of ... not being a licensed therapist! (Both the football and therapist gags were recurring stories in Peanuts.) Writer Behind the Times: A lot of the references on the show are to 80s-90s stuff, even though quite a bit of their fanbase are college age, meaning they grew up in the late 90s-early 2000s. Specifically: + In "Peter's Sister", Karen, a pro wrestler, is shocked when Peter addresses her by her first name. The days of wrestlers' true identities (such as real names, personal lives, etc.) being widely unknown passed after the early 90s at the latest, despite the episode airing in 2016. * Two Lines, No Waiting: Many episodes have a main plot and a "sub-plot" that happens during the main one. A notable aversion of this is the special episode "Brian & Stewie". * T-Word Euphemism: In "The Tan Aquatic With Steve Zissou", when Brian notices a dark spot on Stewie's body, and warns him about it: > Brian: [referring to a mole on Stewie] I think it could be... the c-word. > Stewie: What does that have to do with anything? > Brian: No, I mean cancer. > Stewie: Oh, oh! Cancer, oh no! * Wrong Parachute Gag: At one point in the second season, Brian is going skydiving. Right before he jumps out the instructor stops him and points out he grabbed "the one with silverware" in it. He tosses Brian another parachute... that clearly contains an anvil. > "That one's probably fine. ..." * Wunza Plot: Parodied in the cutaway with Stewie and The Rock as partners. Also parodied in a deleted song (seen on the Vol. 5 DVD set) about a fictional sitcom called "Hope and Rape", about a former model and a former rapist living together. * Yandere: + Meg in the fifth season episode "Barely Legal". Meg in general for the last couple of seasons, really. Completely justified though. + Also Quagmire's wife in the episode "I Take Thee, Quagmire". + Meg again in "The Hand That Rocks The Wheelchair", this time towards \|\|Joe\|\|, even going so far as to \|\|attempt to cripple herself for him\|\|. + Stewie, too, in the episode "Chick Cancer", where he \|\|burns his "wife" and her male friend alive in his playhouse\|\|. * Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Peter names the bar in his basement "Ye Old Pube" after mistaking which word was supposed to have the "e" at the end in Old English. * Yes-Man: Lampooned in "Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington" when Peter gets his own company suck-up. > Suck-up: Morning, nice day! > Peter: It's a little cloudy... > Suck-up: It's absolutely cloudy, one of the worst days I've seen in years! So, good news about the Yankees. > Peter: I hate the Yankees. > Suck-up: Pack of cheaters, that's what they are! I love your tie! > Peter: I hate this tie. > Suck-up: It's awful, it's gaudy, it's gotta go. > Peter: ...I hate myself. > Suck-up: I hate you too, you make me sick, you fat sack of crap! > Peter: But I'm the president. > Suck-up: The best there is! * You and What Army?: Because Peter's house wasn't in the town's map, he turned it into his own nation and named it "Petoria". Wanting respect from others at the United Nations, Peter invaded the United States. Namely, taking over a neighbor's pool. In retaliation, the United States forbade any Petorians from entering American territory. When Chris told Peter a man didn't let him go to school, Peter asked he and what army and Chris answered it was the United States' Army. Peter said it was a good army. * "You Mean Me?" Confirmation: Parodied. In the episode "Thanksgiving," Stewie is set up for a Cutaway Gag after Kevin admits to abandoning his platoon. Stewie however was unaware that he was supposed to have a follow up. > Stewie: [looks around the room] Me? Am-Am I... Am I supposed to say something? * You Monster!: + Said to Peter after he tricks Dr. Hartman into giving him a flu shot that was in short supply and needed for the elderly. He responds with a reference to "Frampton Comes Alive." + Also by Brian when Peter tricks the Make-A-Wish foundation into bringing back "Gumble to Gumble" by pretending Chris has a terminal disease. + Brian to Stewie in "Brian & Stewie" when Stewie reveals that he made Brian eat his poop for a cheap thrill. > Brian: You son of a bitch, I could KILL you for that! * You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Attempted by Lois when a gun is pointed at her to get Peter to realize that something is wrong. Peter wonders why he is trying to comprehend this when he could be listening to his tapes in the car. * You Say Tomato: Stewie pronounces 'Cool Whip' as 'cool-huwip'. Brian tries fruitlessly to explain that it sounds weird, leading to Stewie using other w-silent-h words with the same weird pronunciation, totally unaware that he's doing it. + This becomes a minor plot point in one episode when Brian gets replaced by New Brain. Stewie begs Brian to come back and uses the "cool-huwip" shenanigans to get Brain to correct him, which Stewie missed a lot since New Brian is Sickeningly Sweet and doesn't hate anything. + Meg gets into it too, with the words "awhile" and "weird". The second is lampshaded by Brian: "Oh come on, that one doesn't even have an H in it!" + "It's all been 'ruweened'." - "Oh come on, Brian! Don't be cruwell!" + Stewie's shenanigans with words that have an "H" in it could also be chalked up to him doing it on purpose to get a rise out of people since he has said words like ruined normally. + "Will HUEETon." + Another moment inverted this, with Peter making fun of Lois for pronouncing "nuclear" correctly, claiming "it's 'nukular', dummy, the S is silent". * "You!" Squared: Played for Laughs between Brian and his estranged son: > "My pot! (beat) "Your pot?" * You Will Be Spared: + Sort of. Stewie tells Peter that his death will be quick and painless when he changes the channel after Stewie got distracted by Teletubbies. + Flappy the pancake man. "Flappy, good news! I've decided not to kill you!" * Your Mime Makes It Real: "Foreign Affairs" uses this in a gag regarding "mime on mime" violence in Paris; one mime holds up another, his finger pointing like a gun. After taking his victim's wallet, he "shoots", causing a wound to appear in his chest. After the victim drops, the crooked mime "shoots" him in the head twice, blowing it to bits. * Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: What, did you really think the world would end by black hole 15 minutes into the episode? * Your Television Hates You: When Peter feels sexually violated after his prostate exam, Brian tries to console him by turning on the TV, but every channel is about fingers and fingering. * Zero-G Spot: Peter once masturbated in space. ---	FamilyGuy	null
MarvelUniverse	# Trauma Conga Line - Marvel Universe Marvel Universe --------------- Trauma Conga Line in this franchise. --- * Spider-Man. Peter Parker (Spider-Man) repeatedly loses loved ones, is hated by the city he's sworn to protect, and makes no progress whatsoever in his life. Has Spider-Man really changed for the better or worse, though? Not really. Spidey has lost, in no particular order, his robo-parents, his actress-aunt, his first true love, his marriage (talking about the brief separation that ended through the Straczinsky run), his best friend Harry, some love interests and pals (we still miss you, Captain DeWolff), has suffered by every one of them, and then he grew a few more. * Daredevil: Matt Murdock (Daredevil) is probably the only super hero who has it even worse than Spider-Man. If something good happens, you can bet it won't last and will be swiftly followed by an unexpected punch to the gut, spiritually speaking. Born Again is the most famous example, but there are many, many others. Many issues have shown him as being so emotionally damaged that he is almost incapable of feeling happiness and he feels like he can do little more than brace himself for the next trauma or humiliation. Bendis and Brubaker's consecutive runs had him go through a mental breakdown over the death of his longtime girlfriend Karen Page in Guardian Devil, his secret identity being blown, getting sent to a high-security prison (filled mostly with criminals he'd put away) for obstruction of justice, his wife being driven insane by a supervillain, getting committed to a mental hospital and his best friend seemingly killed. + It got so bad that Mark Waid made his run much Lighter and Softer because he was sick of, in his words, "needing a stiff drink" every time he read an issue. Naturally, the next writer after Waid immediately undid everything Waid set up so Matt could go back to being as utterly miserable as possible. + The Guardian Devil arc itself is hellfire for Matt. Karen gets a false diagnosis of HIV, and then dies in the crossfire of a fight between Matt and Bullseye, Foggy nearly loses his mind thanks to Mysterio making him think he killed someone, and Matt himself ruins his friendship with Black Widow, though he reconciles with her at the end. * It would take an entire page to describe the shit Cyclops has put up with, all to push him down deeper the Anti-Hero scale, and he gets blamed for each and every action and reaction, whether he's accountable or justified or not. * X-Men's Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane. To say she's had it rough is putting it lightly. When killing and eating your monster of a father is considered one of the better moments in your life (by anyone who isn't you; you were heartbroken about his death even before realising you were responsible), well... * The events of Ultimate Power through Ultimatum is one for Ultimate Reed Richards. In the former, his idea of exploring other universes is rejected by Nick Fury, and when Reed does it anyway, Fury collaborates with Doctor Doom and the Supreme Power-verse's Emil Burbank to turn one of Reed's probes into a weapon of mass destruction, with Reed getting the blame. Then, Ultimatum happens because of Doom's schemes, causing the deaths of millions, and nearly killing Sue, all of which Reed blames himself for. Then Sue breaks up with him, and he's forced to go back to living with his abusive father, at which point Reed goes mad. * Iron Man: Tony Stark's entire life consists of one traumatic event after another, mixed with a morass of personal issues covering everything from alcohol to troubled romantic relationships, an angst-and-tragedy-ridden personal and professional life that include, but is not limited to, traitorous/murderous friends and business partners who have tried to destroy him and his friends multiple times, all combined with a ridiculous amount of overwork ((running Stark Industries, churning out new inventions to keep it running, managing the Avengers' legal and financial problems, being constantly on-call to consult other superheroes on technology-related crises, being a founding Avenger and occasionally the group's leader, being a superhero on his own time, and dealing with enemies who want to kill him on both superhero and business fronts)) that is directly responsible for most of the aforementioned trauma, to the point where he has had to basically completely rebuild his life from the ground up on several different occasions. + His origin story alone is pretty terrible, but it's never addressed that, after going through that trauma conga line(Being kidnapped by terrorists, being in fear of his life every day for months while being forced to build highly destructive weapons with his own tech, watching his only ally die and then suffering severe Survivor's Guilt over that which he has not gotten past, having to kill at least fifty people while escaping, and his heart being severely damaged to the point that he was only being kept alive by his own tech.), he had to go back to the States and run a company. A company that was in severe danger of collapsing after he pulled the plug on the weapons department. He couldn't afford to show weakness, There Are No Therapists, and his only support system at the time was his secretary and his chauffeur. Let's not even get into the lack of support he gets from The Avengers, who seem to operate on the general policy of "if Tony's issues aren't affecting us, we aren't going to ask." * The Incredible Hulk: Bruce Banner's trauma conga line is more like trauma conga life. He went from a traumatic, abused, isolated childhood right into an even more traumatic, abused, isolated adulthood, and has suffered through pretty much every misfortune and tragedy that life can throw at a person. On the rare occasions he does find a measure of peace or happiness, it never lasts and gets ripped away in the most brutal manner possible. Oh, and as of Avengers: No Surrender it's confirmed not even death will bring him peace. * When John Byrne took over West Coast Avengers, his first act was to put Scarlet Witch through a seemingly endless trauma conga line: first her synthezoid husband, the Vision, was dismantled and his personality erased, effectively ending her marriage. Then she was kidnapped by a secret society trying to use her to create a race of super-mutants. Then her children were revealed to be made from pieces of the devil's soul and erased from existence. Then her memories were erased, and she was driven to catatonia and temporary insanity. Byrne managed to do all this in only a little over a year on the title. * X-23: It starts with Laura Kinney (X-23) being created to be the perfect assassin and a Living Weapon, and just goes downhill from there. She's abused and tortured physically, mentally and emotionally for thirteen years. When she finally escapes, she's forced to kill her own mother with a chemical trigger that sends her into an Unstoppable Rage. She eventually finds her way to her only other family and starts to build a happy life, until her creators come looking and she's forced to send them into hiding and never see them again to protect him. Then she spends a year or two as a Street Walker under a sadistic and violent pimp. After joining the X-Men (who could probably provide a whole page of examples themselves) she's nearly killed by Nimrod, joins X-Force and is recaptured by the Facility and tortured with a chainsaw, leading her to a mini-Heroic BSoD over how she'll never be able to escape them, is driven into an existential crisis by a demon over whether she has a soul, and just as she's starting to piece things together gets shanghai'ed by Arcade to fight other teens to the death for his amusement. And after that she's tortured by Purifiers, who reveal that the whole world has seen her in a trigger scent rage. The poor girl just can't catch a break! * Rachel Grey. Oh ye Gods, Rachel Grey. Put succinctly, dying was not the worst thing that ever happened to this poor girl. She grew up in a dystopian hellhole, has seen her loved ones killed before her very eyes more than once, been brainwashed and Made a Slave repeatedly, and almost never seems to catch more than a few seconds break before the next horrific thing comes along. * All-New X-Men: Teen Jean Grey, a 16 year old girl, has her powers blooming early, with her attempts to deal with Power Incontinence adding to her troubles. She finds out she is going to die (repeatedly) and is, as far as she knows, still dead, while her teammates survive to the current day.	TraumaCongaLine	null
EThroughF	# Box Office Bomb - E-F --- * The Eagle (2011) — Budget, $25 million. Box office, $19,490,041 (domestic), $37,983,590 (worldwide). The film adaptation of Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth drew a mixed critical reception, with its detractors citing it for the emotionless direction and Channing Tatum's performance. * Early Man (2018) — Budget, $50 million. Box office, $8,267,544 (domestic), $54,622,814 (worldwide). Despite good reviews, Aardman's stop-motion caveman comedy was utterly demolished by the same-weekend juggernaut that was Black Panther. It doesn't help either that the film suffered from Invisible Advertising after its release. As a result of its failure, Lionsgate ended their partnership with Aardman, with all future films from Aardman being released on Netflix in America as a consequence. * Earth Girls Are Easy (1989) — Budget, $10 million. Box office, $3,916,303. This sci-fi musical had a hard time finding an interested studio and it faced financial difficulties during production. It died in a limited release, but it would later become a Cult Classic, largely due to the presence of various cult actors, including Jim Carrey, Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, and Damon Wayans. * Eastern Promises (2007) — Budget, $50 million. Box office, $17,266,000 (domestic), $56,106,607 (worldwide). An Acclaimed Flop that netted Viggo Mortensen his first Oscar nomination. * Ed (1996) — Budget, $24 million. Box office, $4,422,380. This and Dunston Checks In dealt damage to the idea of having monkeys in starring roles. It also dealt strikeouts of several sorts to the top players in the film's production; producer Bill Finnegan never produced another original theatrical film, screenwriter David Mickey Evans did not get another credit for the rest of the '90s and his future writing jobs were on Direct-to-Video films, and director Bill Couturie did not work another film for five years and has only directed documentaries since. * EDtv (1999) — Budget, $80 million. Box office, $35,319,689. This was compared unfavorably to the previous year's The Truman Show despite it actually being a remake of the 1994 Canadian film Louis 19, King of the Airwaves. It's now regarded more favorably once Reality TV became prevalent. * Ed Wood (1994) — Budget, $18 million. Box office, $5,887,457. This was the first film directed by acclaimed director Tim Burton to not do well at the box office. It's also the very last film released while Jeffrey Katzenberg was still on distributor Disney's lot; he left the lot and ended his involvement with the studio the next day. The film did get great reviews and two Oscar wins (Best Supporting Actor for Martin Landau's performance as Bela Lugosi, plus Best Make-Up). * Eddie (1996) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $31,387,164. One of the films that year, along with the infamous Theodore Rex, that derailed Whoopi Goldberg's cinematic career, but she has moved on to other avenues such as The View. * Eddington (2025) — Budget, $25 million. Box office: $11.3 million. Unsurprisingly, a darkly comic neo-western set during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic wasn't an easy sell. Surprisingly, Ari Aster has ambitiously stated that a sequel is in development. We'll see. * The Edge (1997) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $27,873,386 (domestic), $43,312,294 (worldwide). Was the last leading-man role for Alec Baldwin in a major Hollywood film; he has since gravitated towards supporting roles. * Edge of Darkness (2010) — Budget, $80 million. Box office, $43,313,890 (domestic), $81,124,129 (worldwide). Mel Gibson attempted a comeback after his infamous DUI years prior, but it opened to mixed reviews. Gibson would have to wait until 2016 before he could try to get back into the top of the Hollywood pantheon with Hacksaw Ridge, but he did play a Big Bad in The Expendables 3 in the meantime. * Edison (2006) — Budget, $37 million. Box office, $4,143,414. It tested poorly and subsequently went straight to DVD in a number of territories despite its A-List cast (Morgan Freeman, LL Cool J, Justin Timberlake, and Kevin Spacey). * Eight Crazy Nights (2002) — Budget, $34 million. Box office, $23,833,131. This is the only animated film that Adam Sandler and his production company Happy Madison have made, and its terrible reception due to excessive Toilet Humor was one of the multiple blows to theatrical 2D animation that killed the tradition until The Princess and the Frog in 2009. Sandler would not get involved with another animated project until the Hotel Transylvania films in the New '10s, which were also distributed by Sony/Columbia. * Eight Legged Freaks (2002) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $17,322,606 (domestic), $45,867,333 (worldwide). This B-movie homage poisoned director Ellory Elkayem's and writer Jesse Alexander's careers, as it's the only cinematic job they've had. Elkayem and Alexander never wrote another screenplay, and Elkayem has only done TV movies and a Direct-to-Video film since and Alexander has focused on a prolific television career since. It would later find an audience on home video. * Electric Dreams (1984) — Budget, $5.5 million. Box office, $2,193,612. The film debut of music video director Steve Barron (of "Take on Me", "Money for Nothing", and "Billie Jean" fame). It opened at number 14 despite opening at 920 locations,(For comparison, fellow weekend debut The Neverending Story opened at 950 locations at number 4 and made twice what Electric Dreams would make in its entire brief run, and another new movie, Revenge of the Nerds, opened at number 11 in 364 locations in limited release, 2.5 times less than Electric Dreams, but opened at about $1.5 million compared to $1 million, respectively.) and barely lasted to the next week. It also received a mixed critical reception, but later became something of a Cult Classic, thanks in part to its soundtrack, which proved much more popular than the actual movie, especially Phil Oakey's "Together in Electric Dreams". While Barron would go on to find more success with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), the most notable thing on writer Rusty Lemorande's resume since was a screenplay credit for Disney and Michael Jackson's 3-D short film Captain EO. * Elektra (2005) — Budget, $43 million. Box office, $24,409,722 (domestic), $56,681,556 (worldwide). This, along with Catwoman, kept the superheroine genre barren for over a decade, and ended the Daredevil Marvel movie series after just two films, becoming a source of shame for Jennifer Garner in the process and impaling director Rob Bowman's cinematic career as well. Film copyright holders Fox subsequently found themselves unable to reboot the series before the rights reverted to Disney/Marvel, who rebooted it themselves as a Netflix show. * Eleni (1985) — Budget, $12 million. Box office, $305,000. This hurt star Kate Nelligan's American film career a bit, as her next high-billing role was Fatal Instinct eight years later. * Elio (2025) — Budget, $150 million-$200+ million. Box office, $72,987,454 (domestic), $154,075,778 (worldwide). The film received a fairly positive response from critics and audiences who did see it, yet it was hampered by a series of delays and uneven marketing, not to mention a summer full of stiff competition. This ultimately made Elio the lowest grossing Pixar film beyond those directly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, it did find an audience at home on digital and Disney+. * Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) — Budget, $55 million. Box office, $16,383,509 (domestic), $74,237,563 (worldwide). This sequel to 1998's Elizabeth fell short of its predecessor's critical and financial acclaim, though Cate Blanchett earned an Oscar nomination. * Elizabethtown (2005) — Budget, $45 million. Box office, $26,850,426 (domestic), $52,034,889 (worldwide). This fiasco set back Cameron Crowe's career by six years, though time has been kinder to it. It's probably most infamous now for helping spawn the term "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" in relation to Kirsten Dunst's character. * Ella Enchanted (2004) — Budget, $35 million. Box office, $22,918,387 (domestic), $27,388,767 (worldwide). Director Tommy O'Haver hasn't been able to get another one of his films theatrically released after this. However, it would later become Vindicated by Cable due to endless repeats on the Disney Channel (it's telling how out of all the Miramax Films titles they sold to Filmyard Holdings, Disney still holds the television rights to this particular film). * Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) — Budget, $7.5 million. Box office, $5,596,267. There wouldn't be another Elvira film until 2001, and it blacked out director and Saturday Night Live producer James Signorelli's film career as well. * The Emperor's New Groove (2000) — Budget, $100 million. Box office, $89,302,687 (domestic), $169,327,687 (worldwide). This Disney Animated Classic had one of the most infamous production histories in the history of the studio; it was meant to be another musical like in the Disney Renaissance, but Disney executives ordered it turned into a buddy comedy. The film met Development Hell and prompted CEO Michael Eisner to confront the filmmakers and say, "You are this close to being canceled!" Said Development Hell jettisoned all of Sting's involvement apart from two songs, which Sting and the animators were dismayed at, and the whole thing got a documentary on the film's production titled The Sweatbox. In the end, the final version underperformed a bit at the box office but got great reviews and was quickly vindicated by video/DVD sales, leading to a small franchise. This is unfortunately the last time director Mark Dindal, who was still reeling from Cats Don't Dance, could enjoy the spotlight; his next Disney film, Chicken Little (2005), was widely panned despite doing well at the box office and was the finishing blow to Dindal's career. * Empire Records (1995) — Budget, $10 million. Box office, $303,841. After forcing director Alan Moyle to cut out over 40 minutes and several characters, Warner Bros. severely slashed the number of theaters and gave it no ads after a poor test screening with a Latino audience (maybe because all the characters were white, as was the music they listened to?). It was despised by critics, but audiences loved it and it became a Cult Classic thanks to cable airings. * The Empty Man (2020) — Budget, $16 million. Box office, $4.8 million. This horror film got royally Screwed by the Network thanks to Disney, who not only had so little faith in it that they didn't even bother to change the Twentieth Century Fox logo to 20th Century Studios at the beginning, but dumped it smack dab in the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic with such Invisible Advertising that the unappealing and misleading first trailer and poster didn't appear until only a week before its premiere, and they have yet to give it a physical home media release. It was only thanks to its quiet release on VOD and showings on both HBO and HBO Max that it managed to find an audience as a Cult Classic for its mixture of '70s/J-horror and Cosmic Horror Story tropes. * Encanto (2021) - Budget, $120-150 million, Box office, $256 million. The 60th installment of the Disney Animated Canon received unanimous praise by critics and audiences alike but being released in theaters during a spike in COVID cases during a year when audiences were still wary about returning to the big screen meant that it underperformed greatly compared to what a Disney animated film would traditionally be expected to do. The film's release onto Disney+ where it would achieve massive popularity and became an immediate worldwide smash hit ultimately made the film a very fast example of Vindicated by Cable, with few who would consider the film overall to be a bomb for that reason. * The End of the Affair (1999) (1999) — Budget, $23 million. Box office, $10,827,816. Neil Jordan's version of the Graham Greene novel, and the second film version overall, was an Acclaimed Flop that never left a limited release. * The End Of Violence (1997) — Budget, $5 million. Box office, $386,673. It was derided by critics as an incoherent, dreary mess, but its cinematography was praised. Director Wim Wenders bounced back with Buena Vista Social Club. * The End We Start From (2023) — Budget, $11 million. Box office, $1,448,088. Despite positive reviews, and some big-name British actors including Jodie Comer, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Mark Strong, this adaptation of Megan Hunter's survival novel only opened at #13 at the UK box office, likely due to Invisible Advertising. The movie also only got a limited release in the United States. * Ender's Game (2013) — Budget, $110 million. Box office, $61,737,191 (domestic), $125,537,191 (worldwide). It suffered from poor marketing that couldn't really make clear if the film was targeted to kids or adults. It also had the misfortune of being the adaptation of a novel by noted Heteronormative Crusader Orson Scott Card, during a time when gay rights were a hot issue; some civil rights groups urged a boycott of the film solely on these grounds. * Endless Love (2014) — Budget, $20 million. Box office, $23,438,250 (domestic), $34,718,173 (worldwide). This very loose adaptation of Scott Spencer's novel, previously adapted in 1981, was panned by critics (though they preferred this film to the original), while Spencer hated the film even more for being less faithful to his book than the earlier film. * Enemy at the Gates (2001) — Budget, $68-85 million. Box office, $51,401,758 (domestic), $96,976,270 (worldwide). The one film writer Alain Godard attempted to executive produce. It was also heavily criticized in countries making up the former Soviet Union and Germany for how their portrayal in this WWII pic was, which led to director Jean-Jacques Annaud stating he would not present another film at Berlinale after it was booed there. * Enemy Mine (1985) (1985) — Budget, $40 million. Box office, $12,303,411. Executive Meddling over the film's title (which mandated that a slave mine subplot be added) and a Troubled Production doubled the film's budget, making this a worse loss for Fox than it should have been. Wolfgang Petersen (who stepped in after the first director Richard Loncraine was fired) did not direct another film for the rest of the '80s, and writer Ed Khmara didn't write another screenplay until 1993. On the positive side, critics praised the performances of Dennis Quaid and especially Louis Gossett Jr., and it was Vindicated by Cable thanks to HBO reruns. * Enough (2002) — Budget, $38 million. Box office, $40,007,242 (domestic), $51,801,187 (worldwide). The film version of Anna Quindlen's novel was shredded by critics for its messy script but praised for Jennifer Lopez's performance. It didn't help that it was released during the runs of Spider-Man 1 and Attack of the Clones. * Enter the Void (2009) - Budget: $15-16 million. Box office: $1.5 million. According to the producers, the film returned 1.25% of its investment. The film became a Cult Classic in the following years in part due to its surreal imagery. * Envy (2004) — Budget, $40 million. Box office, $13,562,325 (domestic), $14,581,765 (worldwide). This was shoved into The Shelf of Movie Languishment for two years due to lousy test screenings and it would have gone Direct-to-Video in the US if not for Jack Black's success in School of Rock. Part of a rotten streak for director Barry Levinson, and neither Black, Ben Stiller nor DreamWorks are proud of the film. It went straight to DVD in Europe. * Equilibrium (2002) — Budget, $20 million. Box office, $1,203,794 (domestic), $5,359,645 (worldwide). Audiences were much kinder than critics toward this sci-fi actioner, which was otherwise panned as an out-of-balance Matrix cash-in. Its limited release and minimal promotion due to the lingering social effects of the Columbine school shooting doomed its box office chances, but it would be Vindicated by History and turn a profit through home video. * Ernest Rides Again (1993) — Budget, $3 million. Box office, $1,450,029. Was the last Ernest P. Worrell film released theatrically. * Escape from L.A. (1996) — Budget, $50 million. Box office, $25,477,365. Made fifteen years after Escape from New York, this sequel was dismissed as a Lighter and Softer retread of the prior film, though it eventually found a cult following through cable showings and home video. Part of a string of bombs for John Carpenter that would end his directing career (though he loves the film and has no regrets making it, even calling it "ten times better" than Escape from New York), and it's the only film Kurt Russell has attempted to produce or write. * Escape from Tomorrow (2013) — Budget, $650,000. Box office, $171,962. This horror movie was shot covertly at Disney Theme Parks, and judging from the film's very premise, as well as the contents of its website, it seems the filmmakers were hoping to get sued by Creator/Disney in order to invoke the Streisand Effect. Unfortunately, the mouse didn't take the bait and the movie languishes in obscurity to this day. * Eskimo (1934) — Budget, $935,000. Box office, $1,312,000. Recorded loss, $236,000. This docudrama about an Alaskan whale hunter was the first film shot in a Native American language, Inupiat, though not the first film shot in Alaska. While it was an Acclaimed Flop, as well as the inaugural winner of the Best Film Editing Oscar, critics felt it was too similar to other films about the Inupiat. * Eulogy (2004) — Budget, $10 million. Box office, $75,076 (domestic), $89,781 (worldwide). It was only out in 22 theaters and was laid to rest two weeks later. * EuroTrip (2004) — Budget, $25 million. Box office, $20,796,847. This teen comedy got sent back from theaters after six weeks. Director Jeff Schaffer stuck to TV for five years after this, barring a co-writing credit on Shark Tale, until Brüno (2009). * Evan Almighty (2007) — Budget, $175 million. Box office, $100,462,298 (domestic), $173,418,781 (worldwide). Torpedoed the careers of director Tom Shadyac and writer Steve Oedekerk (Shadyac backed out of Hollywood, only sticking to writing documentaries, while Oedekerk moved to children's programming), and crushed any ideas of continuing the "Almighty" film series after two movies. * Eve of Destruction (1991) — Budget, $13 million. Box office, $5,451,119. This Terminator/Frankenstein clone was the final theatrical film for director Duncan Gibbins before his death two years later. The film didn't do Gregory Hines' career any favors, and Dutch actress Renee Soutendijk, who played the titular Eve and her creator, never made another Hollywood film. * Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (1994) — Budget, $8 million. Box office, $1,708,873. This was delayed out of 1993 thanks to a bad reception at the Toronto Film Festival and could have derailed Uma Thurman's career completely had it not been for Pulp Fiction months later. Director/writer/producer Gus Van Sant would not write another screenplay for nine years. * The Evening Star (1996) — Budget, $20 million. Box office, $12,767,815. An attempt at a sequel to Terms of Endearment, which instead contracted a bad case of Sequelitis. This sickness struck the careers of director/writer Robert Harling, producer Polly Platt, and co-writer Larry McMurtry; the latter would somewhat recover with Brokeback Mountain in 2005, but the others did not, as Harling only wrote one more critically panned film before effectively disappearing from Hollywood, and Platt never took another non-executive producer role for another film in her life. This was also one of the last times co-producer and Paramount/Disney vet and former co-worker to Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Kirkpatrick, dealt with Paramount; a fight he had with one of their executives ultimately derailed his mainstream career. * Event Horizon (1997) — Budget, $60 million. Box office, $26,673,242 (domestic; international grosses were never officially released, but estimated $42 million worldwide). Director Paul W. S. Anderson withdrew from Mortal Kombat: Annihilation to do this movie (although both films were critically panned anyway). Both Event Horizon and Soldier led to Anderson entering a hiatus in cinematic directing until the first Resident Evil movie in 2002. This movie also sucked co-writer Philip Eisner's cinematic career into a black hole right as it started. He didn't write another movie for five years and didn't write another theatrical movie for 11 (said theatrical film is his only other full-length film credit). On the other hand, the film was Vindicated by Cable and earned a cult following. * An Everlasting Piece (2000) — Budget, $14 million. Box office, *$75,228. It's an understandable gross considering the film topped out at eight theaters. Producer Jerome O'Connor filed a lawsuit against DreamWorks SKG for its poor distribution, which was dropped a decade later. Part of a string of financial duds for director Barry Levinson that began with Sphere* two years prior (with Man of the Year being the sole holdout to date). * Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) — Budget, $10 million. Box office, $3,400,278. Despite near-universal acclaim and a big-name director, the film failed to expand outside limited release due to poor performance. It also kicked off a Trauma Conga Line for Paramount that year, culminating in Viacom president Philippe Dauman getting the boot after a decade with the company. * Everybody Wins (1990) — Budget, $16 million. Box office, $1,372,350. It would turn out to be the final film Karel Reisz ever directed. * Everybodys All American (1988) — Budget, $22 million. Box office, $12,638,294. Taylor Hackford didn't direct another film until 1993's Blood In Blood Out. This is also Tom Rickman's penultimate feature film screenplay to date, the last being 2000's Bless the Child. * Everybody's Fine (2009) — Budget, $21 million. Box office, $16,443,609. It wasn't fine for this remake of the 1990 Italian film: it closed after three weeks and went straight to DVD in Brazil, Russia, and Japan. Director Kirk Jones waited three years to make his next film. * Everyone Says I Love You (1996) — Budget, $20 million. Box office, $9,759,200. One of Woody Allen's more critically successful flops, with Roger Ebert considering it one of his best. Natalie Portman however, considers this to be her worst performance, as she wasn't allowed to improvise. And Drew Barrymore later regretted working with Woody Allen in the wake of renewed controversy surrounding child molestation accusations made against him. * Everyone's Hero (2006) — Budget, $40 million. Box office, $16,627,188. The one theatrical film that visual effects artist Colin Brady and Superman actor Christopher Reeve attempted to direct together (it's also the last film from Reeve and wife Dana, who both died during production), with the other director, Dan St. Pierre, managing to go on, but barely (his next major directing job for a movie that was a wide-release was Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return in 2014). Everyone's Hero also struck out the cinematic writing careers of writers Robert Kurtz, Jeff Hand, and Howard Jonas. * Evil Angels(aka A Cry in the Dark) (1988) — Budget, $15 million. Box office, $6.9 million. This was a critical smash which added to Meryl Streep's tally of Oscar nominations. It never expanded beyond 334 theaters. * Evolution (2001) — Budget, $80 million. Box office, $38,345,494 (domestic), $98,376,292 (worldwide). The Rotten Tomatoes consensus accused director Ivan Reitman of attempting to remake Ghostbusters, and several critics panned it for its liberal usage of Toilet Humour and Squick regarding the enemy aliens. It got an animated continuation that same year but said show ran for only one season. Reitman would not direct his next cinematic movie for five years. * Excess Baggage (1997) — Budget, $20 million. Box office, $14.5 million. Was supposed to be the first in a line of movies produced by Alicia Silverstone, but the movie's poor box office made it her only production credit. Both this film and the infamous Batman & Robin led to a quick end to Silverstone's stardom. This also grounded the career of Demolition Man director Marco Brambilla, as the only movie he's worked on since was a segment in the obscure 2006 pornographic anthology film Destricted. * Excessive Force (1993) — Budget, $13 million. Box office, $1,152,117. This got a Direct-to-Video sequel despite its financial and critical takedown. * eXistenZ (1999) — Budget, $31 million Canadian Dollars/$15 million U.S. Dollars. Box office, $2,856,712. An Acclaimed Flop that had the unfortunate timing to come out after The Matrix, which dealt with similar themes but with far greater mainstream appeal. Its limited release of only 256 theaters didn't help. David Cronenberg would back off from Body Horror-themed films until Crimes of the Future (2022). * Exit to Eden (1994) — Budget, $25-30 million. Box office, $6,841,570. This film version of Anne Rice's novel was lambasted by critics for its clumsily inserted subplot with a pair of Canon Foreigner cops played by Dan Aykroyd and Rosie O'Donnell (who both regretted making it) and for being an unfunny, unsexy sex comedy. * Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) — Budget, $50 million. Box office, $41 million (domestic), $78 million (worldwide). This prequel to The Exorcist was born out of Executive Meddling where Paul Schrader's Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist was scrapped after filming was completed and Renny Harlin was brought in to remake it for mainstream horror tastes, which backfired when the end result was eviscerated by critics and series creator William Peter Blatty for its overemphasis on gore. Due to the negative response, the studio allowed Schrader to finish Dominion and released it the following year. * Expend4bles (2023) — Budget, $100 million. Box office, $16,710,153 (domestic), $51,133,603 (worldwide). Released nearly a decade after its poorly received predecessor, the fourth (and presumably final) installment of the Expendables franchise cratered at the box office, being panned by critics for terrible effects and poor performances from its no-longer All-Star Cast. Even trailers that attempted to hide that Sylvester Stallone was barely in the movie failed to attract viewers. * Explorers (1985) — Budget, $20-25 million. Box office, $9,873,044. It was originally scheduled for late August but Paramount rushed it to early July when it wasn't even finished. Its new release date buried it under the box-office smash Back to the Future 1 and the popular Live Aid concert happening around the same time sealed its fate. It was properly edited for its home video release and it has since become a Cult Classic. * Exposed (1983) — Budget, $18 million. Box office, $1,352,083. This romantic thriller set back director James Toback's career by four years. * The Express (2008) — Budget, $40 million. Box office, $9,808,124. This sports biopic fumbled in theaters after four weeks despite pretty good reviews from critics. Director Gary Fleder's film career was benched for five years until Homefront and screenwriter Charles Leavitt wouldn't write another film until Seventh Son. It also marked Chadwick Boseman's film debut. * Extraordinary Measures (2010) — Budget, $31 million. Box office, $15,134,293. This is the first film produced by CBS Films. One of two 2010 bombs that (along with health issues) caused Brendan Fraser's career to outright flatline for the next decade. Director Tom Vaughan's career found itself plummeting to Development Hell after this movie, writer Robert Nelson Jacobs has not created another screenplay, and this, along with Cowboys & Aliens, was a major blow to Harrison Ford's career, though he eventually bounced back when he returned to Star Wars for The Force Awakens. * Extreme Measures (1996) — Budget, $38 million. Box office, $17,380,126. It debuted in second place behind second-week champ The First Wives Club but flat-lined soon after. * Extreme Ops (2002) — Budget, $40 million. Box office, $10,959,475. This sent director Christian Duguay to TV work for five years. * Extreme Prejudice (1987) — Budget, $22 million. Box office, $11,307,844. John Milius conceived this western drama in 1976 but it wasn't until the mid-'80s that production began with Walter Hill directing. Tri-Star tried to rush the film to a Christmas 1986 release, but the filmmakers resisted. The end result was liked a lot by critics, but it fell flat after opening at number two behind The Secret of My Success. * Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) — Budget, $40 million. Box office, $31,847,881 (domestic), $55,247,881 (worldwide). Its story of an autistic boy dealing with his father's death in 9/11 was derided by critics as heavy-handed Oscar Bait and a major case of being too insensitive because of the topic it covered. That didn't stop it from getting an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.(Which led to rumors that the nomination was paid for by the studio.) * Eye Of The Beholder (1999) — Budget, $35 million. Box office, $17,589,705. It was the first film to ever receive an "F" on Cinemascore. Director Stephan Elliot wouldn't direct again for eight years. * Eyewitness (1981) — Budget, $8.5 million. Box office, $6.4 million. * The Fabelmans (2022) - Budget, $40 million. Box office, $45.6 million. Like West Side Story the year prior, Steven Spielberg again saw audiences indifferent to his movie in spite of incredibly positive reviews, turning it into the lowest-grossing film of his career since The Sugarland Express. May be part of a trend of audiences rejecting "movies about making movies". * Factory Girl (2006) — Budget, $7 million. Box office, $3,572,632. This film put a major dent in director George Hickenlooper's career and was the beginning of Hayden Christensen's drought in roles after the George Lucas-produced Star Wars movies had come to an end. * Fair Game (1995) — Budget, $50 million. Box office, $11,534,477. This loose adaptation of the Paula Gosling novel (Which was filmed nine years earlier as Cobra.) was shot to pieces by critics for its cliché script and the lack of chemistry between stars William Baldwin and Cindy Crawford, the latter of whom was singled out for a generally weak performance. Any hopes that Crawford would leap from modeling to acting went up in flames, and it put a sizable dent in Baldwin's own acting career (having previously starred in the commercially successful but critically reviled Sliver). The box office woes were not helped by late reshoots due to poor test screenings, inflating the budget. The film would be nominated for three Razzies, and director Andrew Sipes never worked on another film. * Fair Game (2010) — Budget, $22 million. Box office, $9,540,691 (domestic), $24,188,922 (worldwide). This drama based on the Plame Affair was rated favorably by critics but its widest release was in 436 theaters. * Faithful (1996) — Budget, $13 million. Box office, $2,101,580. Ended up being director Paul Mazursky's final theatrical film, as he continued on to do TV movies and documentaries until his passing in 2014. Was one of several films in that period that put a dent into co-star Chazz Palminteri's career as well, as he mostly did independent movies and small roles afterwards, rarely appearing in the top billing of theatrical releases again. * The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) — Budget, $12 million. Box office, $17 million. The film version of the Robert Lindsey novel was the first film written by Steven Zaillian. Its January release likely killed its theatrical prospects despite glowing reviews. Zaillian's next film screenplay came five years later with Awakenings. * The Fall Guy (2024) — Budget, $125-150 million. Box office, $92,900,355 (domestic), $179,569,355 (worldwide). Despite mostly positive reviews and having the opening weekend of summer 2024 all to itself, this very loose adaptation of a relatively obscure '80s action TV series failed to attract a wide enough audience to match its fairly high budget. * The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) — Budget, $19 million. Box office, $4.75 million. Comparisons with contemporary Ancient Rome Sword and Sandal epic Cleopatra are inevitable, although Fall had a substantially less Troubled Production and was much more well-received by critics. Audiences, however, had lost interest in such epics following Cleopatra — and, unlike Cleopatra, which was the #1 film of the year despite its costly production, very few people actually saw the now-obscure Fall. Producer Samuel Bronston and his studio went broke when this film failed. It was also among a series of flops for Paramount Pictures that ended Barney Balaban's 28-year run as studio president. Fall is the oldest movie on The Other Wiki's list of the 100 biggest box office bombs adjusted for inflation. * The Fan (1981) — Budget, $9 million. Box office, $3,082,096. Director Ed Bianchi didn't direct another theatrical film for another decade. * The Fan (1996) — Budget, $55 million. Box office, $18,626,419. The first film produced by Mandalay Entertainment was the second and final film written by Robert "Phoef" Sutton, who works in TV now. * Fanboys (2009) — Budget, $3.9 million. Box office, $960,828. This sat on The Shelf of Movie Languishment for nearly three years as The Weinstein Company grew cold feet over the cancer subplot. Despite the best efforts by the filmmakers to promote it (up to and including showing a rough cut to George Lucas, who gave Approval of God) and positive reception within the Star Wars fandom, it was ultimately given a very limited release where it died a quiet death and faded into bargain bins across the nation. * Fandango (1985) — Budget, $7 million. Box office, $91,666. This was Kevin Reynolds's directorial debut, the film debut of Suzy Amis, and Kevin Costner's lead acting debut. It was also the first film by Amblin Entertainment to not credit Steven Spielberg. It died in a limited release but was Vindicated by History. * Fantasia (1940) — Budget, $2,280,000. Box office, $361,800 (original theatrical release tally only). The outbreak of World War II (most of the European market being under Nazi occupation by that point) plus the cost of movie theaters having to install Disney's new "Fantasound" technology to properly show Fantasia hurt this film badly, and, along with Pinocchio (1940) and Bambi's initial disappointing releases and a bitter strike from animators, defeated the dream of turning Fantasia into a concert/animation film series for decades and resulted in Walt Disney having to make package films for the remainder of the 40s until Cinderella (1950) brought animation back to the mainstream. It's also one of a handful of RKO Pictures-distributed flops in the early '40s that dealt damage to the studio. Fantasia has since been considered one of Walt's best, along with Pinocchio and Bambi. * Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) — Budget, $40 million. Box office, $21,002,919 (domestic), $46,471,023 (worldwide). Part of a string of box office flops based off of the library of Roald Dahl (all of these movies are acclaimed flops). This was Wes Anderson's animated debut, and he waited nine years for his next one, Isle of Dogs. * The Fantasticks (2000) — Budget, $10 million. Box office, $49,666. This film adaptation of the classic musical was completed in 1995 but withheld until 2000 when it became a critical and commercial bomb. This is the last theatrical movie with Michael Ritchie's name on it to be released before his death in 2001. * Far Cry (2008) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $700,000. This Uwe Boll film was actually distributed by two major Hollywood studios instead of being a small project (Touchstone Pictures distributed it in North America while Fox distributed it in Boll's home country of Germany, where it was heavily edited). This case of Video Game Movies Suck is one of the last truly mature projects Disney agreed to distribute before studio chief Dick Cook was asked to leave by CEO Bob Iger when they bought Marvel the next year and changed their film strategy. All of Uwe Boll's films past this point were small-scale productions, and gaming companies—for good reason—didn't want to let Boll anywhere near their properties; all the video game movies he did inflicted heavy damage on the franchises they came from (Boll attempted to land a role as director for WarCraft, but Blizzard, expecting an Uwe Boll-helmed Warcraft movie to be a Franchise Killer for Warcraft itself, laid into him for applying. Boll also wanted to do a Metal Gear Solid film, which got an equally negative reception from creator Hideo Kojima). * Farewell to the King (1989) — Budget, $16 million. Box office, $2,420,917. One of two films during this time, the other being Flight of the Intruder, that grounded the directing career of John Milius. * Faster (2010) — Budget, $24 million. Box office, $23,240,020 (domestic), $35,626,958 (worldwide). This one caused co-producer Tony Gayton's cinematic career to skid right off the highway; he moved to television and created Hell on Wheels. * Fat Albert (2004) — Budget, $45 million. Box office, $48.1 million (US), $48.6 million (worldwide). This Live-Action Adaptation of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids suffered from an Audience-Alienating Premise (having characters from a down-to-earth Slice of Life show exit the show and enter the real world). And it wasn't well received by critics either. This movie proved to be a Creator Killer for its director Joel Zwick, who has since gone back to the small screen. * Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $3,563,162. This dramatization of the development of the atomic bomb got a mixed reception for its historical liberties and its casting of Paul Newman and Dwight Schultz. This started the gradual downfall of director Roland Joffe. * Fat Slags (2004) — Budget, approx. £2.5 million. Box office, about £45,000–£50,000. This adaptation of the Viz comic strip got ripped to shreds by critics and audiences alike, and was disowned by both the Slags' original creator Graham Dury and Viz itself (who had no control over the film whatsoever). Practically everyone involved with the film (as well as the British film industry at large) considers it to be an Old Shame, including Dolph Lundgren, with most of them seeing serious setbacks to their careers, including both Slags' actors Fiona Allen and Sophie Thompson,(Emma Thompson's little sister) director Ed Bye and especially writer William Osborne, who hasn't been involved with anything since. * Father Figures (2017) — Budget, $25 million. Box office, $17,501,244 (domestic), $25,601,244 (worldwide). This critically reviled comedy was placed on The Shelf of Movie Languishment for over a year, retitled the film from the more provocative Bastards, and was sent to die in a packed holiday season. * Fathers' Day (1997) — Budget, $85 million. Box office, $35,681,080. This was one of three major flops (Batman & Robin and The Postman being the other two) in a disastrous year for Warner Bros., with Robin Williams regretting being part of it. Outside of a voiceover role in Pixar's A Bug's Life, Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus wouldn't return to the big screen until The New '10s. * The Favor (1994) — Budget, $13 million. Box office, $3 million. Originally set for a 1991 release by Orion, but after they went bankrupt that year it sat on a shelf before getting a sudden release in 1994. It had a decent opening week but fizzled out due to poor promotion, and dropped off the charts later that month. * Faust (1926) - Budget: 2,000,000 reichsmarks. Box office: 1 million reichsmarks. F. W. Murnau's version of the famous myth was shredded by critics for its liberties and Gösta Ekman's performance as the title character. This would also be Murnau's last German film before he moved to Hollywood. Nowadays, the film is Vindicated by History as a classic of German Expressionism. * Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) — Budget, $18.5 million. Box office, $10.6 million. This movie put Monty Python alumnus Terry Gilliam's cinematic career in the hole until 2005, and was one of two 1998 films that derailed co-writer Tod Davies's cinematic screenwriting career indefinitely. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, however, became a Cult Classic when it was released on DVD. * FeardotCom (2002) — Budget, $40 million. Box office, $18,902,905. Disconnected director William Malone's cinematic career until 2008, and after that movie, his Hollywood career remained offline. * Fear X: (2004) - Budget: $6.6 million. The box office is not known, but it bombed so badly that it led to the failure of Nicolas Winding Refn's production company. * Feast of July (1995) - Budget, $7.5 million. Box office, $293,274. Director Christopher Menaul waited 15 years to helm another movie. The film couldn't really survive a limited release, and according to Box Office Mojo, the film topped out at 47 theaters. This film's failure, along with that of Jefferson in Paris that same year, caused Disney to cancel their planned three-film deal with Merchant Ivory after only two films, with a planned third film either being cancelled or sent elsewhere. * Felicias Journey (1999) — Budget, $15 million. Box office, $824,295. Atom Egoyan's follow-up to The Sweet Hereafter was an Acclaimed Flop which won four Genie Awards. * Felix the Cat: The Movie (1989) - Budget, $9 million. Box office, $1,964,253. The film was completed in time for a November 1988 release. Distribution issues with New World Pictures resulted in a release year of 1991 after it had already hit theaters in foreign markets. It faced stiff competition with Beauty and the Beast and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, getting curb-stomped by both. Even Don Bluth's Rock-A-Doodle managed a better gross. Negative reaction forced a planned TV series to be cancelled, at least until Twisted Tales in 1995. The soundtrack was even worse off, not being released until 2014 on digital formats. * Femme Fatale (2002) — Budget, $35 million. Box office, $16.8 million. It had mixed reviews in large part due to its bizarre twist ending, though prominent critics like Roger Ebert praised it highly. This was a Star-Derailing Role (along with the remake of Rollerball the same year) for Rebecca Romijn, and continued a post-Mission Impossible slump for director Brian De Palma. Became a Cult Classic thanks to good home video sales. * Ferrari (2023) — Budget, $95 million. Box office, $42,285,029. After struggling for eight years to get this film made after Blackhat bombed, director Michael Mann purportedly wound up funding much of the film out of his own pocket as main financier STX Entertainment shrank back from film production and passed off distribution duties to Neon. Despite decent reviews, Neon's limited marketing budget capped the film's commercial ceiling. * Fever Pitch (1985) — Budget, $7 million. Box office, $618,847. This was the last movie that Richard Brooks directed before he died in 1992. * Fierce Creatures (1997) — Budget, $25 million. Box office, $9,381,260. This is the last story that Monty Python alumnus John Cleese would write until The Croods in 2013. Co-writer Iain Johnstone, on the other hand, didn't write another fictional movie at all. * The Fifth Estate (2013) — Budget, $28 million. Box office, $8,555,008. This had the worst opening for a wide release that year. The critics cited the film for its slow script and direction, while the controversial nature of its subject (the founding of Wikileaks) drove quite a few moviegoers away. It was also the last R-rated film released through Disney until the acquired-from-Fox Stuber six years later. * Fight Club (1999) — Budget, $63 million. Box office, $37,030,102 (domestic), $100,853,753 (worldwide). At the time of its release, the film was ravaged by critics for its messages, dark humor, and violence, and was K.O'ed at the box office. Fox owner Rupert Murdoch never forgave executive Bill Mechanic for greenlighting this film and was rumored to be one of the reasons why Mechanic was fired from the studio. Thankfully, the film managed to become a huge Cult Classic, being voted as one of the greatest movies of all time in multiple magazine polls, and one of David Fincher's best films. * Fighting Back (1982) - Budget, $9 million. Box office, $6.4 million. This Death Wish clone executive produced by the first film's EP, Dino De Laurentiis, was eviscerated by critics and was overshadowed on opening weekend by Rocky III and Laurentiis's own Conan the Barbarian. * The Fighting Temptations (2003) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $32,750,821. This eventually knocked out the career of director Jonathan Lynn along with the careers of the movie's producers and was one of a handful of bad steps for Cuba Gooding Jr.. * Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool (2017) - Budget, $10 million. Box office, $4 million. This Biopic of actress Gloria Grahame garnered positive reviews from critics, particularly for the lead performance of Annette Bening, but failed to garner further attention from audiences. Director Paul McGuigan returned his focus to television. * Final Analysis (1992) — Budget, $32 million. Box office, $28,590,665. One of a few flops in the early '90s that melted the A-list career of Kim Basinger. * Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) — Budget, $135-167 million. Box office, $32,131,830 (domestic), $85,131,830 (worldwide). This film aimed to be the first computer-animated feature with a "photoreal" art style, and its price tag was further ballooned by the cost of Squaresoft taking the dive into film production and building its new animation studio in Hawaii. While no one could deny the film looked good, every other element received middling reviews, and fans responded negatively to it barely having anything to do with the polygon-renderingly popular Final Fantasy series (especially glaring since it came out around the same time as Final Fantasy X). Its complete failure led to the collapse of Square Pictures after only one film, only producing the "Final Flight of the Osiris" segment of The Animatrix before shutting down, and delayed the merger of Squaresoft with Enix. The film's director and the series creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, resigned from the firm after its failure and ended his involvement with the franchise, moving to Hawaii and starting the development studio Mistwalker. This is one of at least two instances on this list where the main brain behind a game series directed a film of the series to dismal results; the other is Origin Systems' Chris Roberts and the Wing Commander movie. It also ended the career of Animated Actress character Aki Ross (who was voiced by Ming-Na Wen) after one film. Square and the Final Fantasy series have since mostly recovered, though they haven't enjoyed the level of dominance it once had prior to this film's release, and the next two Final Fantasy movies fared somewhat better by virtue of being directly tied to the games and having more modest budgets. * Find Me Guilty (2006) — Budget, $13 million. Box office, $2,636,637. The penultimate film of Sidney Lumet's career was based on the story of mobster Jackie DiNorscio. It was an Acclaimed Flop, with much of the praise going to Vin Diesel's performance as DiNorscio. * A Fine Mess (1986) — Budget, $15 million. Box office, $6,029,826. What started as a highly-improvised remake of The Music Box was meddled into a scripted chase comedy that director Blake Edwards begged people not to see. * The Finest Hours (2016) — Budget, $70-80 million. Box office, $52,099,090. This was originally meant to open the previous October, but Disney ended up dumping the film on the same day as Kung Fu Panda 3, which got considerably better reviews overall to the mixed ones The Finest Hours got (this was also the day Fifty Shades of Black opened and The Force Awakens was still playing). It was subsequently scuttled at the box office and cost Disney $75 million for the error (though they would rebound with Zootopia in time). * Fire Birds (1990) — Budget, $22 million. Box office, $14,760,451. This movie caused director David Green's directing career to go down in flames for ten years. * Fire Down Below (1997) — Budget, $60 million. Box office, $16,228,448. Steven Seagal's contract with Warner Bros. went up in smoke when this movie did. Director Félix Enríquez Alcalá went back to television where he's had steady work since. * Fire with Fire (2012) — Budget: $10.4 million. Box office: $2.4 million. This action thriller starring 50 Cent was dumped Direct-to-Video in the States and was in only a handful of countries theatrically. * Fired Up! (2009) — Budget, $20 million. Box office, $18,599,102. The directorial debut of Will Gluck was kicked out of theaters after seven weeks. Gluck found better luck the next year with Easy A. * Firestarter (2022) - Budget, $12 million. Box office, $9.7 million (domestically), $15 million (worldwide). Even with the low budgets of Blumhouse Productions, and getting a drive-in double feature with Jurassic World Dominion a month after release, this critically reviled new adaptation of the Stephen King novel could not prevent itself from being shot down in flames. * Firestorm (1998) — Budget, $19 million. Box office, $8,165,212. This firefighting drama starring NFL star Howie Long was the only new release on opening week and it was curbstomped by a slew of longstanding holdovers. Between this and the same year's The Patriot, veteran cinematographer Dean Semler never got into the director's chair again. * Firewall (2006) — Budget, $50 million. Box office, $48,751,189 (domestic), $82,751,189 (worldwide). One of several consecutive busts that decade for Harrison Ford, though he broke his unlucky streak a few years later with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. * The First 20 Million Is Always The Hardest (2002) — Budget, $17 million. Box office, $5,491. Confirmed Volcano's liquidation of Mick Jackson's cinematic career; he didn't take another directing job on a movie released in the cinema circuit for 14 years. This is one of the biggest bombs in history percentage-wise, alongside Don Bluth's A Troll in Central Park; it was only released in two theaters, and the writer of the book it's based on, Po Bronson, never dealt with Hollywood again, though he became a columnist for Time online. Thankfully for co-writer Jon Favreau, his career only went up from here. * First Daughter (2004) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $10,592,180. This was released the same year as Chasing Liberty, both romantic comedies about the rebellious daughter of the US President. It promptly flopped in theaters but did slightly better on home video. * First Knight (1995) — Budget, $75 million. Box office, $37,600,435 (domestic), $127,600,435 (worldwide). This interpretation of King Arthur is the second film directed solo by Jerry Zucker. It received mixed reviews, with many critics citing the film for miscasting Richard Gere as Sir Lancelot. Zucker directed one more film, Rat Race, before he stuck to producing. * First Man (2018) — Budget, $59 million. Box office, $44,936,545 (domestic), $100,546,153 (worldwide). Damien Chazelle's biopic of Neil Armstrong was loved by critics but stranded in space as audiences preferred holdovers Venom and A Star Is Born. It also ran into mild controversy with some Americans for not depicting Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin raising the U.S. flag on the Moon. * Five Corners (1987) — Budget, $5.5 million. Box office, $969,205. This was John Patrick Shanley's first screenplay, but it was released after his Oscar-winning smash Moonstruck. Critics still liked it. * Five Days One Summer (1982) — Budget, $15 million. Box office, $199,078. This was the last film Fred Zinnemann ever directed before his death in 1997. This was also the only theatrical film produced by Cable and Wireless Finance. * The Five-Year Engagement (2012) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $28,835,528 (domestic), $53,909,751 (worldwide). This Judd Apatow-produced comedy debuted at number five and fell flat once TheAvengers opened the following weekend. This did no favors for Jason Segel's career, and aside from a critically-acclaimed performance in The End Of The Tour, his career was limited to little-seen independent films until the series Shrinking a decade later. * Flags of Our Fathers (2006) — Budget, $90 million. Box office, $65,900,249. This was released a few months ahead of a companion film, Letters from Iwo Jima. While this film faltered at the box office, Iwo Jima did not. That wasn't enough to save co-writer William Broyles's career, but the other major players in both movies stayed alive. * Flakes (2007) — Box office, $778. No, that's not a typo. Flakes was only open in one theater, and closed after nine days. Unsurprisingly, this is director Michael Lehmann's final theatrical work. * Flash Gordon (1980) — Budget, $35 million. Box office, $27,107,960 (domestic), at least $50 million (worldwide). It was a hit internationally and fared very well with critics, but plans for a film trilogy never went through after performing just OK at the United States box office. Became a Cult Classic and future film villains, including Aladdin's Jafar, were based on this movie's Big Bad. A remake is on the Hollywood docket. * Flash of Genius (2008) — Budget, $20 million. Box office, $4,802,953. This biopic of Robert Kearns, the inventor of the windshield wiper, was ran off the road after three weeks in theaters. Marc Abraham, who made his directorial debut here, stuck to producing until he returned to the director's chair for I Saw the Light. * Flawless (1999) — Budget, $27 million. Box office, $4,485,485. Critics gave this dramedy mixed reviews, though they singled out Philip Seymour Hoffman for praise. * Fled (1996) — Budget, $25 million. Box office, $17,193,231. Writer Preston A. Whitmore II didn't write for another film for four years. It didn't help that it was released during the smash success of Independence Day. * Flesh+Blood (1985) — Budget, $6.5 million. Box office, $100,000 (domestic). This was the last time screenwriter Gerard Soeteman worked with director Paul Verhoeven for 20 years; while Verhoeven moved on to Hollywood and did RoboCop (1987), Soeteman stayed low-key. * Flight of the Intruder (1991) — Budget, $35 million. Box office, $14,587,732. One of two films during this time, the other being Farewell to the King, that grounded the directing career of John Milius, but he's still a major Hollywood player. * The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) — Budget, $3.8-5.3 million. Box office, $3 million (rentals). This first adaptation of the Elleston Trevor novel flopped at the box office despite respectful reviews. It's since become a Cult Classic. * The Flight of the Phoenix (2004) — Budget, $45 million. Box office, $34,586,264. Unlike the original, this was a financial and critical flop. * The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) — Budget, $83 million. Box office, $59,468,275. Had the misfortune of going through Development Hell which resulted in the original film's cast leaving and the crew having to restart from scratch. Releasing it at a time when Hanna-Barbera cartoons had long lost the public's interest didn't help anything. The only theatrical film based on a Hanna-Barbera property released since then (excepting Scooby-Doo (2002) and its sequel, the franchise itself being perhaps the sole Hanna-Barbera franchise that hasn't gone out of mainstream vogue) is the Live-Action Adaptation of Yogi Bear. This would, unfortunately, be the final film for writer Jim Cash, being released a month after his death, while his writing partner, Jack Epps Jr., never wrote again, and it and Josie and the Pussycats wounded the careers of the other two writers, Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. * Flipped (2010) — Budget, $13.5 million. Box office, $1,755,212. Its poor showing in limited release made Warner Bros. abruptly cancel plans to go wider. It only topped out at 442 theaters. * The Flock (2007) — Budget, $35 million. Box office, $7,119,846. This film was sent straight to video in North America. Did some pretty severe damage to the careers of co-producer Elie Samaha and director Andrew Lau, the latter of whom has virtually stuck to Chinese movies since. * The Flowers Of War (2012) — Budget, $94 million. Box office, $311,434 (domestic), $97,311,434 (worldwide). This was given a limited release in the US so it could qualify for the Oscars (which left it with no nominations). It was far more successful in its native China, grossing $95 million there. * Flushed Away (2006) — Budget, $149 million. Box office, $64,488,856 (domestic), $176,319,242. This movie flushed $109 million of DreamWorks Animation's money down the toilet and permanently drowned their partnership with Aardman Animations, who were becoming displeased with DWA by this point. * Fly Me to the Moon (2008) — Budget, $25 million. Box office, $13,816,982 (domestic), $41,721,414 (worldwide). This debuted as a 4-D attraction in various theme parks the previous year. Critics and audiences found it So Okay, It's Average while its poor character designs may have turned off others. * Fly Me to the Moon (2024) — Budget, $100 million. Box office, $42,150,423. This big-budget historical rom-com set during The Space Race was a Troubled Production due to last minute changes in director and lead and even changed its name from Project Artemis barely three months before its release. The film's relatively minimal advertising likely struggled to communicate its somewhat convoluted premise and may have implied to wary audiences that the movie was about how the moon landing was faked (not only is that only a subplot rather than the main plot, but the moon landing actually does happen in the movie, while the faked landing was just a back-up plan in case it failed). The latest in a string of big-budget box office bombs from Apple TV+, the movie's failure helped convince Apple to not even bother with wide theatrical releases for its future projects, dramatically cutting down the planned release of Wolfs a few months later. * Flyboys (2006) — Budget, $60 million. Box office, $17,834,865. Director Tony Bill and co-screenwriter David S. Ward have not been involved with another theatrical film since. Producer Dean Devlin would also have no film credits until 2013. * Foodfight! (2012) (2012) — Budget, $45 million (others say $65 million). Box office, $73,706. Its decade-long Development Hell (which included someone stealing the discs with completed animation and footage), and controversies over its rampant product placements doomed the film from the beginning; it was mostly released Direct-to-Video, and one of the production companies behind it, Threshold Entertainment, who mostly does theme park attractions, has yet to announce another cinematic project (it also more or less spoiled the theatrical careers of producer/director Lawrence Kasanoff and writer Sean Catherine Derek, the former of whom hadn't really worked since producing Mortal Kombat: Annihilation). * For Love of the Game (1999) — Budget, $50 million. Box office, $46.1 million. This film version of Michael Shaara's final novel was given a mixed reception from critics, many of whom accused the film of being more interested in baseball than telling a believable love story.(Its Rotten Tomatoes consensus being: "Baseball wins, romance loses.") It opened at number two at the box office before it fell flat in later weeks. It also became notorious for Kevin Costner's public feud with Universal and director Sam Raimi over the final cut. * For Love or Money (1993) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $11,146,270. This was evicted from theaters after four weeks. Director Barry Sonnenfeld rebounded a month later with Addams Family Values. * For Queen And Country (1988) — Budget, $3.5 million. Box office, $191,051. * For Richer or Poorer (1997) — Budget, $35 million. Box office, $32,748,995. One of two 1997 films that smashed the cinematic directing career of Bryan Spicer; McHale's Navy is the other. * For The Boys (1991) — Budget, $40 million. Box office, $23,202,444. It didn't help that the whole world was waiting in line to see Beauty and the Beast that same day. * The Forbidden Dance (1990) — Budget, $10 million. Box office, $1.8 million. Came out on the same week as another dance film, Lambada, which completely took this one's attention. The failure killed off plans for a franchise based on this movie, and it ended up being the only theatrical film that Sawmill Productions worked on. * Forces of Nature (1999) — Budget, $75 million. Box office, $52,888,180 (domestic), $93,888,180 (worldwide). This romantic comedy spent its first two weeks at number one before it was quickly swept away. It was released three days before the suicide of co-star David Strickland. * The Formula (1980) — Budget, $13.2 million. Box office, $8,894,289. * The Founder (2017) — Budget, $25 million. Box office, $24,036,928. This biopic of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc received great reviews from critics, especially for Michael Keaton's performance as Kroc, but suffered from a glut of competitors on its wide opening weekend.(It had an Oscar-qualifying run at the Arclight Hollywood Theater in Los Angeles a month before its wide release.) * The Fountain (2006) — Budget, $35 million. Box office, $15,978,422. This surreal existential drama from Darren Aronofsky divided critics and audiences upon its release but became a Cult Classic down the line. * The Four Feathers (2002) — Budget, $35 million. Box office, $29,882,645. This adaptation of A.E.W. Mason's classic novel got a mixed reception from critics, many of whom called out the film for its lack of energy. Director Shekhar Kapur didn't direct again for five years. * Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (1962) — Budget, $7.1 million. Box office, $4.1 million. This film's failure was part of what caused MGM's financial issues in the early '60s and eventually led to an overhaul in staff, including then-president Joseph Vogel getting replaced by Robert O'Brien. * The Fourth War (1990) — Budget, $14.5 million. Box office, $1,305,887. The last screenplay by Kenneth Ross and one of the last films by Cannon. This was shipped out of theaters after two weeks. * Frances (1982) - Budget, $8 million. Box office, $5 million. This biopic of troubled actress Frances Farmer received mixed reviews for its script but was praised for Jessica Lange's Oscar-nominated performance in the title role. It came out a week before Lange's other major release, Tootsie, which won her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (defeating her co-star in this film, Kim Stanley). * Francis Of Assisi (1961) - Budget, $2,015,000. Box office, $1.8 million. Michael Curtiz's biopic of the Patron Saint of Italy was the last film he completed; his next and final film, The Comancheros. was completed by John Wayne after he stepped down due to illness. Critics generally agreed that it lacked any dramatic tension. * Frankenstein Unbound (1990) — Budget, $11.5 million. Box office, $334,748. This is the final film Roger Corman directed; he stuck to producing for the rest of his life. * Freaked (1993) — Budget, $12 million. Box office, $29,296. Alex Winter and Tom Stern's directorial debuts was this absurdist sci-fi comedy. A regime change at Fox occurred during post-production and the new executives slashed the budget, then pulled the film from national release after poor test screenings and slashed the advertising budget. The end result debuted in two theaters and vanished pretty quickly. * Freaks (1932) — Budget, $316,000-$350,000. Box office, Unknown. This controversial pre-Hays Code horror film recorded a loss of $164,000, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The film's plot and then-notorious characters, who were deformed and led by a character who's intent on murder, caused audiences to storm out of screenings and got this film banned from theaters before it could complete its cinematic run; this is the only MGM film to be ripped out of theaters; the studio disowned the film shortly thereafter, selling the rights to exploitation producer Dwain Esper, though MGM bought back the film in the early 1960s. This mess disemboweled the career of director Tod Browning, became a source of shame to one of its actors, Angelo Rossitto, led to the original cut of the film being presumably missing, and got MGM sued by a woman who claimed the movie made her miscarry. Eventually became a Cult Classic and the current edited version now sports a 93 on Rotten Tomatoes. * Freaks of Nature (2015) — Budget, $33 million. Box office, $70,958. This vampire/zombie/alien mashup horror comedy was originally supposed to come out in January 2015 under the Genius Bonus title of Kitchen Sink, but then was delayed to September and didn't get a trailer under its new name until two weeks before being dumped in a mere 107 theaters with Invisible Advertising and disappearing another two weeks later. * Fred Claus (2007) — Budget, $100 million. Box office, $97,838,349. Co-writer Jessie Nelson had to wait ten years for another one of her scripts to be made into a film. Ironically, that script is the sequel to Enchanted, which came out during the same holiday season as Fred Claus and ultimately trounced the latter film at the box office. * Freddy Got Fingered (2001) — Budget, $14 million. Box office, $14,254,993 (domestic), $14,333,252 (worldwide). This infamous film was ruthlessly panned by critics for its comedy sensibilities. The film itself was edited down to get an R rating, and Ebert & Roeper's comments basically said that it STILL should have received an NC-17 despite the edits (Ebert accused the MPAA of being "morally adrift" and later added the movie to his most hated film list). Freddy Got Fingered murdered Tom Green and Derek Harvie's theatrical careers before they could get started. The film ''did'' sell well on DVD, however. * Free State of Jones (2016) — Budget, $50 million. Box office, $25,035,950. One of the victims of what Roger Friedman's Showbiz 411 website called the "Summer Bomb Buster", being released in the wake of a multitude of failed high-budget tentpoles; this one was overshadowed by Finding Dory, The Conjuring 2, Independence Day: Resurgence, The BFG, and The Legend of Tarzan (the latter three of which also underperformed). * Freedomland (2006) — Budget, $37.7 million. Box office, $14,655,626. This movie's failure imprisoned mega-producer Joe Roth's directing career; he's stuck to being a producer since and has not directed another theatrical film. * Freejack (1992) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $17,129,026. This Cyberpunk thriller was hit with Executive Meddling and extensive reshoots which led to a product that was trashed by critics and ignored by audiences. * Freelance (2023) — Budget, $40 million. Box office, $9,111,004. This action comedy directed by Taken director Pierre Morel and starring John Cena was panned by critics to the point that it got a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for its first few weeks(two mid-November 2023 published reviews would bump that rating to 6%) and debuted at a poor seventh place on its pre-Halloween opening weekend, the same weekend that the highly-anticipated and successful Five Nights at Freddy's saw release. Although there were some Critical Dissonance among audiences who saw it (its verified audience rating is 77%), its initial 0% rating and Invisible Advertising kept moviegoers away. * Freeway (1996) — Budget, $3 million. Box office, $295,493. This dark comedy was adored by critics but it died with Invisible Advertising in a limited release spanning nine theaters. It's since become a Cult Classic which spawned a Direct-to-Video sequel. * Fresh Horses (1988) — Budget, $14 million. Box office, $6,640,346. One of a handful of 1988/1989 films that caused the Weintraub Entertainment Group to implode right out of the gates, and one of the movies that ended Coca-Cola's control over Columbia Pictures and caused their merger with Tristar and Sony. It was also part of a string of critical and commercial failures (Betsy's Wedding, For Keeps, and The Pick-Up Artist) that terminated Molly Ringwald's credibility as a leading lady. * Friend Request (2017) — Budget, $10 million. Box office, $10.9 million. This was released well over a year after it debuted in Germany, was eviscerated by critics, and had the worst debut ever for a film playing at 2,500+ theaters. Even its low budget wasn't enough to bump it into profitability. * Fright Night (2011) — Budget, $30 million. Box office, $18,302,607 (domestic), $41,002,607 (worldwide). The critics liked this remake of the 1985 horror film, even if not to the extent of the original. Its late-August release, Invisible Advertising, and being Not Screened for Critics screwed it over significantly. * The Frighteners (1996) — Budget, $26 million. Box office, $16,759,216 (domestic), $29,359,216 (worldwide). Executive Meddling rushed this film to a July release date, which got it vaporized by Independence Day and the Summer Olympics. This was Michael J. Fox's last leading role in a live-action film before he semi-retired due to Parkinson's Disease. Peter Jackson rebounded with The Lord of the Rings beginning in 2001. * From Beyond (1986) - Budget: $4,500,000. Box Office: $1,261,000. * From Justin to Kelly (2003) — Budget, $12 million. Box office, $4.9 million. Aside from just about killing Justin Guarini's reputation (Kelly Clarkson survived but is blunt in how the film was a Contractual Obligation Project), the film's failure ensured the impossibility of future American Idol movies. * From Paris with Love (2010) — Budget, $52 million. Box office, $24,077,427 (domestic), $52,826,594 (worldwide). Director Pierre Morrel waited five years before his next film, The Gunman. * From The Hip (1987) — Budget, $14 million. Box office, $9,518,342. The first film written by David E. Kelley, who waited nine years to write another. Bob Clark waited another three years before his next film, the similarly ill-fated Loose Cannons. This was one of several busts that broke distributor DEG. * Frozen Assets (1992) — Budget, $5 million. Box office, $376,008 (domestic). This comedy about a man who gets tricked into running a sperm bank was universally despised by critics, including Siskel & Ebert, and it was a major embarrassment for distributor RKO Pictures. They stuck around as a production company and only tried distributing a film ten years later. * Full Of It (2007) — Budget, $15 million. Box office, $486,722. It only got to 15 theaters and was expelled after one week. It was shown later that year on ABC Family as Big Liar on Campus. * Fun Size (2012) — Budget, $14 million. Box office, $10.9 million. The lowest-grossing movie released by Nickelodeon so far; a PG-13 rating may have had something to do with that. * The Funeral (1996) — Budget, $12.5 million. Box office, $1,306,233. It never went past 70 theaters, but the critics liked it quite a bit. * Funny Games (2008) — Budget, $15 million. Box office, $7,938,872. An English Shot-for-Shot Remake of Michael Haneke's own Austrian thriller. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus summed up the film as "a sadistic exercise in chastising the audience" and it was viewed less favorably by critics than the first film. * Funny People (2009) — Budget, $75 million. Box office, $71,585,235. Critics generally liked the film but they called it out for its excessive length. This cemented Adam Sandler's typecasting as a comedic actor and the only serious roles he would take after this were in independent films, and it would be a decade before he had mainstream success as a dramatic actor with Uncut Gems. Universal chairman Marc Smuger would be out of a job a few months later due to this and other flops under his watch. * Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) — Budget, $16.8 million. Box office, $2,505,841. Director Steven Shainberg's career faded to black until 2016's Rupture. Its extremely limited release and its critical drubbing didn't help either. * Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) - Budget, $168 million. Box office, $67,475,791 (domestic), $173,775,791 (worldwide). Simultaneously a spin-off and prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa didn't even reach half of that movie's box office numbers and was currently projected to lose Warner Bros. $75-95 million. The film's opening weekend turned it into the lowest-grossing film to finish first in Memorial Day weekend since Casper back in 1995. The failure of the film was attributed to the limited and niche appeal of the franchise and prequels in general, the near-decade-long gap between it and Fury Road, and neck-and-neck competition from the likes of The Garfield Movie, which opened the same weekend and didn't make gigantic numbers, but did turn a profit thanks to its much smaller budget, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. The film has since made up some money by topping the charts for purchase on VOD, but it still likely won't be enough to make up the gap. * Furry Vengeance (2010) — Budget, $35 million. Box office, $17,630,465 (domestic), $36,236,710 (worldwide). This is one of two 2010 bombs that (along with health issues) caused Brendan Fraser's career to outright flatline; he wouldn't have another lead role in a major motion picture until The Whale twelve years later (for which he'd win an Oscar). It also turned director Roger Kumble's career into roadkill and proved to be a major setback for producer Robert Simonds. ---	BoxOfficeBomb	null
LiveActionTV	# Shadow Archetype - Live-Action TV The following have their own pages: ----------------------------------- * The DCU * Marvel Universe --- * 24: Tony Almeida to Jack Bauer. Like Jack, Tony would do anything to protect his loved ones, but unlike Jack, who always manages to balance this with respect for The Needs of the Many, Tony takes this to morally indefensible extremes. In Season 3, Tony helps Stephen Saunders to escape when CTU is closing in on him after Saunders captures and threatens Tony's wife Michelle, prolonging a terrorist threat and risking innocent lives, for which he is fired from CTU. In Season 7, like Jack, Tony sees \|\|the death of his wife\|\| as a major Cynicism Catalyst, but he takes Jack's rage, bitterness against the world and "ends justify the means" attitude to extremes that even Jack is horrified by, \|\|causing a terrorist attack with a bioweapon in Washington D.C. and planning to kill Jack with a bomb\|\| as a means to get close enough to \|\|Michelle's killer\|\| to have his revenge. The parallels are made all the more obvious when Jack has a similar Face–Heel Turn in Season 8 after \|\|Renee is killed\|\|, and is only barely prevented from crossing the line as badly as Tony did when Chloe manages to talk him down before he starts World War III. * Babylon 5 + The Vorlon race and its shadow counterpart, the, er, Shadows. The series starts off with the standard depiction of the Shadows as evil, but then shows that in a different way Vorlons are evil too. \|\|Both the Vorlons and Shadows are ancient races who remained in this galaxy to guide and help younger races develop. The problem is the Vorlons believe development from strict order and control. The Shadows believe in development from the chaos found in survival of the fittest. They were supposed to work together, but they got into a pissing contest about who was right, and forgot why they were left in the galaxy in the first place; they leave in shame when the younger races remind them of this fact and tell them to get lost.\|\| + Garibaldi \|\|faces his own darker side, in a way, in season 4. He was captured by a telepath named Bester who wanted him to find an anti-telepath conspiracy. He didn't have Garibaldi's personality wiped, but enhanced Garibaldi's paranoia and dislike of authority to the point Garibaldi left his job, his friends, and betrayed one all for the sake of this mission\|\|. + Then there is Londo Mollari and Lord Refa. Refa initiates Londo`s darker side extremely well. Only after his heel realization does Londo consciously try to get rid of him. + Londo and G'Kar as well. G'Kar starts as a Machiavellian instigator who is reasonably well-connected within his government, while Londo is a sympathetic powerless has-been reliving old glories. Over the next several seasons, Londo rises greatly while being responsible for widespread destruction, G'Kar is forced into exile and becomes a major resistance leader, and finally, G'Kar is offered and refuses the chance to rule Narn, while Londo ascends to the throne as Emperor \|\|and lives out the rest of his life at the mercy of a Puppeteer Parasite before welcoming death at G'Kar's hands\|\|. + Londo (yet again) and his protege, Vir Cotto, who acts as Londo's conscience (as best as he can). Londo is entirely aware that he is the darker side of this coin, and does what he can to protect Vir and keep him on the path of good. * Played for Laughs on black•ish, Dre and Bow's least preferred child each reflects their character flaws. Bow can be just as prideful and flighty as Zoey is and Dre does have quite a lot in common with Junior; namely, both being huge Momma's Boys with No Social Skills (though Dre is better in that regard). Also, it's indicated that as a kid, Dre was as awkward as Junior. * Breaking Bad: + Inverted with Gustavo Fring. He's what Heisenberg aspires to be. Rich, powerful, feared, and possessing state of the art infrastructure, making him the most powerful drug lord this side up north. Problem is, Heisenberg's effectiveness is crippled by his ego and bad decisions, a fact pointed out by Fring himself and later on, Mike in "The Reason You Suck" Speech. When Heisenberg kills Fring and tries to forge his own drug empire, things start to go downhill. + Played completely straight with Jack Welker. In many ways, he's the ultimate personification of the kind of person Walt would be if he had allowed his Heisenberg persona to take complete control of his personality — a ruthless, merciless, sociopathic man ready to retire with a multi-million dollar profit. * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Many characters in the series represent who other characters could have been if they'd gone wrong. + Buffy has three shadows over the course of the series: - In Seasons 1-3, Cordelia is Buffy's shadow. She's the exact kind of shallow, self-obsessed cheerleader stereotype that Buffy was pre-Character Development in the movie, and represents who Buffy could be if she chose to neglect her Slayer duties and live a normal life. - In Season 2, Kendra becomes Buffy's shadow. She represents the "traditional" Slayer that Buffy could have become without family and friends: a living weapon whose only purpose is to slay demons and serve the Powers That Be. - In Season 3, Faith becomes Buffy's new shadow. She represents the exact opposite path, a Buffy who decides that being the Slayer makes her better than ordinary people and uses her powers for selfish goals. + Giles has Ethan Rayne, his Evil Former Friend who reminds him of his rebellious days as "Ripper", before he chose to accept his responsibility as a Watcher. + Adam to Riley, as a being created and controlled by the Initiative who rebelled against his former masters. But while Riley struggles to find a new identity outside of the Initiative where he can do good without blindly following orders, Adam concludes that he is nothing more than a monster whose purpose is to kill innocents and create more beings like himself. + The season 4 finale makes Forrest another Riley shadow. Raised as a Frankenstein's Monster under Adam's control, he represents what Riley would become if he failed to overcome the influence of Adam's Mind Control chip. + Riley is an inversion for Xander, being everything Xander wishes he could be. He's the Scoobies' Badass Normal, a role that Xander often aspires to but generally falls short of, has actual military training in contrast to Xander's Fake Memories of being in the military that he gained from being turned into his Halloween soldier costume, and is in a relationship with Buffy, whom Xander has had an unrequited crush on since the start of the series. It's implied that this is why Xander is such a strong Shipper on Deck for Buffy/Riley, and he often tries to copy Riley's actions to comedic effect. + Jonathan is what Xander might have become if he'd made a few wrong turns and didn't have Willow, then Buffy, in his life. + Several characters manage to be their own shadows. In particular, vampires are a hollow reflection of the person they were before they died, having all of their memories and personality traits but none of their morals or self-control, due to lacking a soul. - Pre-siring Angel, or Liam, was a lazy drunken hedonist. After becoming a vampire, Angelus twists these traits into pure sadism. After regaining his soul, Angel is left with the constant struggle to suppress Angelus's personality lest he become a monster again. - In life, William the Bloody (Awful Poet) was a pure romantic. As a vampire, Spike is mostly only capable of expressing love as a deep, unhealthy obsession. But he's always monogamously devoted to one deep, unhealthy romantic obsession at a time. - Willow has two shadow selves, Vampire Willow from the Wish Dimension and Dark Willow. Vampire Willow, in addition to being dangerous and creepy, shows signs of Willow's latent sexuality. Dark Willow shows what Willow is capable of when unleashing her full unrestrained power without her friends to reel in her destructive side. - Oz has his werewolf side, which he claims is present within him even when he is in human form. "Fear Itself" implies that the wolf represents Oz's greatest fear: that he may become a danger to his loved ones. * Cobra Kai: + It's clear that Johnny and Daniel both see each other as this. Johnny sees Daniel as the embodiment of his failure in the 1984 All Valley, which caused Kreese to turn on him and started the chain of events that led him to become a broken mess of an adult, while Daniel sees Johnny as a reminder of the bullying he suffered at his hands in high school, and of his own seduction by Cobra Kai in The Karate Kid Part III. With both men associating each other with so many painful memories, it's almost impossible for them to admit how similar they really are. > Ali: And the truth is, you guys are more alike than you want to admit. Maybe you recognize parts of yourselves in each other, and maybe you don't always like what you see. + Kreese represents all of Johnny's worst traits taken to the extreme, and the flawed Cobra Kai philosophy from which Johnny is trying to escape. While Johnny's Politically Incorrect Hero status is the result of ignorance rather than malice, Kreese revels in his openly racist attitudes. While Johnny, despite his Disco Dan tendencies, learns to be more in touch with modern society and adapts the lessons he learned in The '80s to better fit the present day, Kreese shows no signs of wanting to change, and commits fully to living in the past, acting as if he's still in the midst of the Vietnam War and despising the modern world in which he lives. Johnny sees both the merits and flaws of Cobra Kai's teachings and only inadvertently passes bad lessons on to his students, while Kreese refuses to acknowledge any problems with the "no mercy" mentality and actively encourages his students to become Ax-Crazy psychopaths. + Likewise, Terry Silver to Daniel: both are successful businessmen, both tend to resort to convoluted plots to take down an opponent (Daniel tries pricing out Johnny when he reinstalls Cobra Kai, Silver engages in gaslighting and manipulation and frames Kreese for an assault he committed). It also takes very little despite their outward zen attitudes to plunge back into their karate rivalries to the point of obsession. The main difference is that Daniel immediately listens to various characters calling him out and is a fundamentally Nice Guy for all his faults while Silver is a Corrupt Corporate Executive who actually relishes manipulating and inflicting violence on people. As Daniel's former Evil Mentor, Silver also represents Daniel's greatest regret, the fact that he was once seduced by Cobra Kai's teachings, which is why Silver is capable of getting under Daniel's skin in a way nobody else can. + Tory Nichols to Robby Keene. Both are troubled youths from broken homes who engage in petty crime and find direction in life through karate. Except while Robby is able to turn away from his life of delinquency due to Daniel's guidance, Cobra Kai (or rather Kreese) galvanizes Tory's worst traits and she eventually goes from a borderline Jerk with a Heart of Gold to a full-on Jerk with the Heart of a Jerk. Both also deal with feelings of jealousy, Robby with Miguel and Tory with Sam, as Miguel and Sam still have lingering feelings for one another. Robby is eventually willing to confess to Sam that he feared "losing points" with her, while Tory reacts with almost homicidal rage after seeing Sam and Miguel kiss at Moon's party. Tory in many ways represents what Robby could have become if Daniel hadn't taken him under his tutelage, and she's ultimately the one \|\|who convinces him to embrace his dark side and join Cobra Kai.\|\| Tory even calls Robby out on suppressing the Tory side of his personality when they meet at the probation office in Season 3. > Tory: At least I know who I am. You're still pretending to be something you're not. + Hawk grows to view Demetri as one, seeing his more pacifistic and meek tendencies as an embodiment of all the "nerd shit" he wants to reject. Demetri doesn't seem to realize this at first, viewing it as his friend just acting like a jerk until Hawk goes so far as to try and violently assault him for a Yelp review and the two grow to be enemies. + In Season 1, Yasmine represents the kind of shallow, bullying Alpha Bitch that Sam could become if she decides to value popularity over doing the right thing, and is a Toxic Friend Influence who tries to push her down that path. + Aisha represents the old, nerdy interests that Sam is rejecting in her attempts to join the popular crowd. Although Sam ultimately realizes her mistake in associating with the likes of Yasmine and apologizes to Aisha for pushing her away, the two never fully reconcile, indicating that Sam will never quite be the same person she was. + Hawk to Johnny. Both took up studying under Cobra Kai to build up their self-confidence, only to become bullies thanks to Kreese's influence. While Johnny finally sees the true flaws of the Cobra Kai mentality in Season 2 and becomes an Internal Reformist, Hawk rejects his influence in favor of Kreese. Johnny overcomes his past abuse at Kreese's hands by symbolically confronting Hawk after the school brawl to warn him against going down the same path and telling him that Kreese doesn't care about him. It's clear that Johnny's words are as much directed at his own younger self as they are at Hawk. > Johnny: [Kreese] doesn't give a shit about you! About any of you. So, if you wanna keep whining about the past like a bunch of pussies, fine. We could play that game. Wanna stick with Kreese? Go ahead. Don't say I didn't warn you when your life ends up in the shitter. + Hawk to Miguel. While Miguel struggles throughout seasons 2 and 3 with his loyalty to Johnny and Cobra Kai, Hawk represents who Miguel could become if he makes the wrong decision by completely going off the deep end and fully embracing Kreese's toxic teachings. Miguel reaffirms his sense of honor by defeating Hawk and Coyote Creek and returning the Medal of Honor he stole to Miyagi-Do, and later breaks off their friendship entirely after Hawk breaks Demetri's arm, symbolizing his rejection of this path. + Stingray represents the side of Johnny that is still clinging to the past. He's just as much of a Disco Dan as Johnny, similarly obsessed with The '80s, and his Manchild tendencies and decision to take karate lessons with teenagers show an inability to grow up that contrasts with Johnny becoming a sensei in the hope of teaching his students not to make the same mistakes he did. While Johnny shows some signs of growing out of his Politically Incorrect Hero behaviour, such as by correcting Kreese on Miguel's country of origin and accepting female students in his dojo (even becoming a father figure to Devon), Stingray, even at his most sympathetic, still blames "PC crap" for all of his problems. \|\|In Season 6, Stingray offers Johnny the chance to reclaim Cobra Kai now that Kreese and Silver are out of the picture, but Johnny rejects him and finally moves on from Kreese's legacy, fully committing himself to Miyagi-Do.\|\| * The Miniature Killer (and her presumably-incestuous foster father Ernie Dell) are shadows of Sara and Grissom on CSI. The Miniature Killer represents everything that Sara and Grissom are unwilling to face about Sara's past and her consequent incompleteness as a person. * Dexter's whole shtick is that he kills people who represent what he would be if he didn't have a code. So, in effect, he has killed hundreds of manifestations of his Shadow Archetype. On top of that, every season introduces a new mentor-type figure who presents a more personal version of the archetype. * Doctor Who + The Master is this to the Doctor, with all of his arrogance, superiority and passion for meddling augmented with megalomania. The new series at several points makes it explicit that it would be very easy for one to become the other. + The new series frequently contrasts the Doctor with himself and what he could become. Especially in "Amy's Choice", with the darker self showing the Doctor's wishes for control, power, and interestingly, his own self-hatred. + The Valeyard is a more literal example, as he's explicitly stated to be the Doctor's inner evil and darkest qualities personified. * Forever: Dr. Henry Morgan is a relatively young immortal who has spent the last thirty years, since his wife Abigail disappeared, keeping the world at arm's length, working with corpses instead of patients, and "avoiding messy emotional entanglements." Adam is immortal like Henry, but has been around so long and cut himself off from humanity so thoroughly he's become a sociopath who believes he's Above Good and Evil. Henry spends the series learning how to open up and let people in again. * Frasier: Niles Crane, the original trope namer for Replacement Flat Character, is what older brother Frasier would have been like without the character development he experienced on Cheers. While Frasier's experiences in Boston made him into a more rounded person, Niles remains a stuffy perfectionist who's obsessed with fitting into high society. * A less serious example on Friends is Mr. Heckles and Chandler. They both started out as witty jokesters, but avoided getting close to anyone. The difference was Mr. Heckles never overcame his issues and died alone, while Chandler learned from his example and thanks to his friends, built meaningful relationships, and eventually fell in love. * Fringe has a series of complex and interesting examples revolving around Walter Bishop. Beware Spoiler: + In the early season, Walternate was meant to be Walter's shadow should he lost his son and still retain his intelligence: a brilliant, ruthless scientist who's also at the height of power. + Even earlier, William Bell was made out to be Walter's shadow: they're are equally brilliant but one became a billionaire and one was locked up in a mental institution. Walter (and everyone else) even lampshaded this. + However, come season 4, it turned out that Walter, had he met all the required conditions: brain intact, loss his son, and with William Bell encouraging his brilliance and egomania was much much worse than either of them. This was represented by \|\|changed timeline Williams Bells who had a massive god complex that led him to destroy two universes to create his own ideal utopia with his own will imposed as the law of physics\|\|. He also implied that this is what Walter would've done had he not been so afraid of his own power. * Game of Thrones: Cersei is the picture of what could have gone wrong with several other female characters who shared some characteristics with her: + To Sansa. They were both sheltered daddy's girls from noble families, living a fantasy of marrying a Prince Charming, which in both cases has gone horribly wrong, leaving them both disillusioned. Sansa's kinder nature and not actually spending years in a horrible marriage have left her in a better mental shape than Cersei, for now at least. + Tywin notes a similarity between a young Cersei and Arya in their spirited and rebellious natures. However, Cersei was forced by Tywin to conform to the standard submissive role for a Westerosi woman, and put her energy into becoming an evil queen. + Both Tyrell women, Margaery and Olenna, share many traits with Cersei — they're manipulative, willing to use seduction (in Olenna's case, in the past) to further their goals and were "blessed" with not particularly politically competent husbands. Olenna and Cersei also share ruthlessness and and similarities in their acts go as far as committing a regicide and letting an innocent man take the fall. However, by growing (at least in Margaery's case) in a household where the female role was valued and taught — instead of being reduced to a property of a man and a piece to haggle — and being sane, they get out of their roles everything Cersei couldn't: Margaery is a popular queen and gets to manipulate even Joffrey, and Olenna is the real head of her family who has raised a capable heiress and is the closest thing the series has to a female Tywin. * Heroes + Elle Bishop and Claire Bennett — it's explicitly mentioned by the resident Magnificent Bastard that he protected Claire from the company because he didn't want her to become Elle. + Sylar and Peter Petrelli have been explicitly described by Word of God and the actors, as two sides of the same coin, with similar powers and desires to be special. Sylar's method just involves a lot more blood and crazy. * House: In one episode, a man became his own shadow when he had a neurological problem that caused him to spout whatever came into his head. * Jackman and Hyde in Jekyll, just like the source material. * Killing Eve: + Villanelle and Eve are this to each other. Villanelle might be enjoying her life as a sensation-seeking assassin all too much but she's drawn to Eve's life of stability and a legitimate job with friends and co-workers who like her. Eve has a good job, a good husband, has good friends in Bill and Elena, and has enough time to do her hobbies, but she's drawn to female assassins and dreams of a life - like Villanelle's - where she gets to live out her desires and impulses without any compunction or self-consciousness. + The Ghost is this to Eve. Both are older Asian women who are generally viewed as being Beneath Suspicion despite being highly intelligent and competent, and both use their skills for violence, about which they don't take particular pleasure. * The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: + Sauron serves as a darker archetype to different characters: - In a sense, Sauron is what Galadriel could become if she would give in her darkest impulses. She is already revengeful, ambitious, not exactly above using people for her own ends, and is hell-bend on committing genocide against the Orcs. Galadriel is capable to recognize she would turn into a tyrant next to Sauron, though he merely wants her to be his Queen. - To his very future nemesis, Aragorn. His human identity is built of the same mold Aragorn was built as Strider, appealing to the fantasies of a young elven maiden growing up with the myths of Beren and Tuor fresh in mind. A "lost king" stripped of his royal upbringing and rightful throne from an evil impostor, humble in his looks and gruff in his ways but ultimately noble and good willed, ready to lead his people to salvation. But while Aragorn was the real deal, \|\|Halbrand was the impostor all along\|\|. And while Aragorn was eager to accept his destiny, \|\|Halbrand kept refusing it until Galadriel snapped him out of his bad mental state\|\|. + Adar to Gil-galad, which is reflected in their breastplates having the same design, with Adar's being black instead of gold. Both view other races as a means towards preserving their own, though Gil-galad will try to maintain at least a veneer of diplomacy while Adar turns to slavery and murder. * In one episode of Malcolm in the Middle, Malcolm meets a middle-aged man (played by Jason Alexander) who exemplifies his Insufferable Genius traits and is thus alone and friendless, representing Malcolm's potential future. * \|\|Morgana\|\| is this to Merlin post-Face–Heel Turn. She's done a lot of the immoral things he's done (killing innocents, betraying friends, choosing loyalties) but while he avoids them until he has no choice, she does them with an almost sadistic relish. Her Freudian Excuse is also one of the key parts of his Conflicting Loyalty (they are magical in a kingdom that fears magic). * Once Upon a Time: Lilith is Emma's mirror image in almost every way, and explicitly calls herself the "anti-Saviour". Whereas Emma is the child of two fairytale heroes; Lilith is the daughter of Maleficent, an iconic villain. They were both raised in the real world, but while Emma spent her childhood bouncing around the system, Lilith was adopted by a wealthy family. Emma initially refuses to believe in magic or that the people of Storybrooke are fairytale characters, meanwhile Lilith knows exactly what Storybrooke is and spends years trying to get into it. It's eventually revealed that their destinies are linked as Snow and Charming performed a ritual before Emma was born that exorcised the darkness from her soul and put it in Lilith. * In the BBC's Sherlock, Jim Moriarty, the "consulting criminal", is an even more direct Shadow Archetype to Sherlock Holmes than the original literary character was. Like Sherlock, Jim is phenomenally clever, unfettered and easily bored with everyday life. But unlike Sherlock, who solves crimes and puzzles, Jim staves off boredom and puts his brain to the test by masterminding perfect crimes on behalf of wannabe criminals. He represents what Sherlock could become someday, and shows just how important Sherlock and John's friendship is in pushing Sherlock towards being heroic and doing the right thing. * Tony's second series episode of Skins is a study in Jungian psychology; Sean Pertwee's character(s), the crazy dude on the train and the admissions counselor at the university, together form Tony's shadow (Tony explicitly describes himself as "<the counselor>'s bad dream, him before he was destroyed by the system") * The Sopranos: Phil Leotardo represents the darkest aspects of Tony Soprano's personality cranked up — whereas Tony is a deeply flawed Jerkass but is still sympathetic, Phil is unlikable, unpleasant, depraved, and a massive Hate Sink. * Star Trek + A classic shadow pair is the good-yet-indecisive Kirk and his evil-yet-effective twin in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Enemy Within": "I have to take him back... inside myself. I can't survive without him. I don't want him back. He's like an animal, a thoughtless, brutal animal — and yet it's me. Me." Really though, both the good and evil Kirk are Shadow Archetypes to the real Kirk; he wouldn't want to be either one of them. - In the Star Trek: Voyager episode Star Trek Voyager S 3 E 17 "Darkling" The Doctor undergoes a similar type of split, and he even describess himself as the Shadow in explicit terms, but, unlike in the above episode his existence is a fluke, and he isn't an integral part of the character's core makeup. \|\|In the end, he is deleted with no ill effects to the original personality.\|\| + Romulans are the shadows of the Vulcans, and on dimensional level, the Mirror Universe is the shadow of the Star Trek 'verse. + The Borg are shadows to humanity, being uniform and collectivist versus human individualism and self-determination. They also share several traits with humans, such as adaptability and desire for self-improvement, all of which they can do MUCH faster. They explore space searching for other forms of life, but while the humans of Star Trek wish to meet with other species peacefully to learn about them, the Borg learn by conquering and assimilating other life. Another parallel is mentioned by Eddington in Deep Space Nine, pointing out how the Borg state their plans for assimilation, while humans slowly manipulate races into joining the Federation. + The Dominion are shadows to the Federation — they are a large galactic alliance that professes the ideals of peace, co-operation, freedom and self-determination, yet do not truly practice them and are extremely aggressive in war. The Dominion is what the Federation would become if humanity became hypocritical to the point where they only paid lip service to those ideals. + Patrick Stewart once suggested in an interview that Q was Captain Picard's shadow, representing the repressed aspects of Picard's psyche (possibly including repressed homoerotic impulses as well). * Ultraman Orb Jugglus Juggler is basically what Gai could be like if he had no one around him to serve as his moral compass. As both of them lost someone close to them according Orb novel — with Gai nearly to the point of Roaring Rampage of Revenge after losing Shorty as much as Juggler lost Micott. Luckily, Gai regained his senses instead of going off the deep end. + Ultraman Z: Celebro is basically a second Juggler and has all of his worst traits ratcheted up — from his lack of shame, inability to process positive emotions such as kindness and compassion, poor impulse control and need for stimulation. The similarities end given Juggler has already changed and already has a moral compass in STORAGE's crew members, but retains his amoral and obnoxious personality from his home series, while fighting off aliens trying to threaten Earth and his crew just to relieve his stress. * Ultraman Geed: Like the aforementioned Ultraman Zero above, Belial is also one to his own son, Riku, the titular Ultraman Geed himself, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance with. If people like Laiha, or even Zero himself weren't around in Riku's life to guide or support him, he would essentially become a second Belial. * The Wild Wild West: Why is a Diabolical Mastermind like Depraved Dwarf Miguelito Quixote Loveless is so obsessed with a lowly paid Secret Service Agent like Jim West, to the point of purposely adding him to all his world conquest schemes (and ensuring Failure Is the Only Option)? Both of them are intelligent (but Loveless is a scientific genius), handsome, and have a lot of success with the Girl of the Week. Loveless will never accept that succeeding at world conquest would result for him in a ''But then what?'' situation; he'll still be the same bitter man (James West once sadly and respectfully eulogizes him as That little man with a giant rage against the whole universe). Trying to destroy West, the man who reminds Loveless that being shorter than anyone else is not obstacle to happiness, is his true dream. This is also why James West, who is usually quite willing to kill a malefactor, tries nearly every episode to rehabilitate Loveless, pointing out how much good his genius could accomplish. + In many ways, Loveless is also Artemus Gordon's shadow: both are geniuses who often come up with technology decades ahead of their time. In many episodes, Artemus seems to be genuinely jealous of Jim West's respect for Loveless' intelligence! ---	ShadowArchetype	null
Film	# Visual Effects Of Awesome - Live-Action Films(aka: Film) Film series with their own pages -------------------------------- * The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy * Marvel Cinematic Universe * Star Wars --- * Avatar: + The holographic maps Parker uses and all the other screens in the base. + And the forest, particularly at night in a world full of bioluminescence, and the flying machines and creatures, and Sam Worthington's convincingly atrophied legs. + One of the most impressive things about the effects was the way the CG characters interacted with the live action ones. In particular the sequence between Jake and Neytiri when she sees Jake's human body for the first time. Jake touches Neytiri's Face and Neytiri holds Jake's hand, and it looks perfectly seamless. + The 3D was simply revolutionary. Easily the biggest leap forward in Visual Effects (and, arguably, film-making in general) since 1977, if not 1939. + If that wasn't enough, the sequel goes even further by showcasing even better effects, with the underwater sequences showcasing all sorts of spectacular visuals that are a step-up from the original in nearly every way, earning a rightfully-deserved Oscar for Best Visual Effects in the 95th Academy Awards ceremony as a result. * Harry and the Hendersons garnered Rick Baker his second Academy Award for his animatronic Bigfoot. He still claims it as one of his finest works. * The Muppet Movie is wall-to-wall special effects derring-do, used in the name of making the Muppets seem like real people that can move around freely. By far, the most famous example is a brief shot of Kermit the Frog riding a bicycle, but the movie tops it with scenes of Fozzie Bear driving cars, Gonzo floating away on balloons, and \|\|a giant animatronic Animal scaring away Doc Hopper and his posse\|\|. It goes without saying that Jim Henson, Frank Oz and the other Muppet performers went through hell to make these scenes work. + Not that subsequent Muppet movies are slouches. The Great Muppet Caper features a whole slew of Muppets on bicycles, and Follow That Bird has Ernie and Bert flying upside down in a biplane. * The Fall - How did the director pull this movie off with NO CGI WHATSOEVER? Just about any scene in the film could be framed and put in an art museum. It's THAT beautiful. Then you take into account that shooting took 4 years, and over 20 countries, and the fact that the film is great is a miracle. The level of dedication to shooting live is astounding. There's a brief montage sequence in the movie that features the Great Wall of China and the Great Pyramids of Egypt for maybe two seconds each, and both of those clips were shot on location. And the film's use of match-cuts, holy shit. There's one beautiful shot of a pinned-butterfly dissolving into an identically-shaped island and coral reef, and another of a priest's face and collar melting into a desert landscape so perfectly that it provides the page image for Match Cut. * Ditto for Bram Stoker's Dracula, released in 1992, when computer effects were beginning to make their big boom in the film industry. * Some Buster Keaton films contain astonishing sequences created by the simplest means. + In one of his films with Fatty Arbuckle, "Moonshine," 50 policemen emerge from a single car. This was accomplished by masking out part of the frame to hide the fact that the cops were entering the car on one side and exiting from the other. Once they had footage of the police leaving the car, they rewound the reel, masked the exposed section and filmed the empty vehicle with the unexposed film. Result: clowns exiting a car taken up to eleven. Here's the really clever part: Buster used jacks to lift the entire car off the ground so it wouldn't bounce on its shocks as the actors climbed through. + At the start of his short "The Playhouse," masking and multiple exposures are used so Buster can play everyone in a theater: the performers, the orchestra, and the entire audience. At one point, nine Busters are onstage simultaneously performing a minstrel routine. This required the camera operator to crank the film through the camera at exactly the same speed for every take. + In Sherlock, Jr., Buster appears to walk right into a movie screen (actually a carefully lit stage), and then contends with a series of jump cuts that takes him from a garden, to a busy city street, to a cliff's edge, to a glade filled with lions, to a desert, to an ocean, to a snowfield, and back to the garden. To make the transitions seamless, when setting up a new shot Buster had to replicate his pose in the previous shot at precisely the same distance from the camera. + And then there's the trope-defining By Wall That Is Holey in Steamboat Bill, Jr.. * Jacob's Ladder. None of the visual effects are CGI. None. It's entirely "real" and done in-camera. * People still have to remind themselves that the Xenomorph in Alien (1979) isn't a real creature. The dripping saliva makes it difficult. + Hell, most of Aliens still looks incredible today, with virtually no special effect failure at all. Even the fact that it's now 80s Zeerust hasn't dampened how awesome it is. It's absolutely no surprise that it won Stan Winston his first Visual Effects Oscar. - It should be noted that in the climactic fight, half of it consists of miniature models of the powerloader and Alien Queen parrying back and forth. The editing is so good that it's nigh-impossible to tell which are miniature shots and which are the full-size props. - The loader-units were so well done that the film-makers were contacted by companies hoping to procure some for heavy cargo lifting. Alas. - And in the red corner, the Alien Queen puppet remains, to this day, the most amazing animatronic ever created. That thing is mind-blowing and scary as shit! + The Nightmare Fuel monstrosity, the Alien Newborn. * For all the stunning visual effects in Titanic (1997), the best has to be the engine room. Anyone who saw those churning, thumping steam turbines would've sworn they filmed a real steam engine room. Which they did. That was the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, fitted with undersized railing and walkways to make the machinery look bigger. * It's been said that the special effects in Apollo 13 were so awesome, NASA asked the producers if they could use it. These guys really showed their work. The production crew brought in old mission controllers to see the reproduction of mission control, and there are various quotes to the effect of "someone would ask where I lived and I would point in the direction of my house — if I were in mission control in Houston" and "I would leave the set at the end of the day and look for the elevator, because the real mission control was on the third floor." * The titular robots in Transformers (2007) are Technology Porn incarnate. The sheer jaw-dropping complexity of the robots and their millions of moving parts makes it hard to believe that a human being actually designed that thing. And then you realize the visual effects designers had to invent entirely new technology to get it done, a leap that hadn't been made since Jurassic Park. + Ironhide's cannons alone contain more parts than some of the other robots. + Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is apparently to take this up to eleven. Devastator's CG model is apparently so bloody complicated that it melted an animator's computer. - From IMDB: "A single IMAX shot in the movie would have taken almost 3 years to render on a top of the line home PC running nonstop. If you rendered the entire movie on a modern home PC, you would have had to start the renders 16,000 years ago (when cave paintings like the Hall of Bulls were being made) to finish for this year's premiere." - Transformers: Dark of the Moon takes it one step further with an all out alien invasion and the appearance of Driller, a machine that is not only bigger than Devastator (in both size and piece count), but the scene in which it destroys a building towards the end took ILM's top performance computers close to an hour to load. (Also, it took up the entire ILM render farm to be finished!) * Max Schreck's Nosferatu makeup. Best thing? His name literally translates from German into "Max Scare". * The various effects of The Last Mimzy, except for the rather cheap-CG "space bridge" in one scene, must set some kind of record for integration into the scene—they seem so tangible that one has to regret not having the wonderful toys that cause them in-story... * Star Trek + Say what you will about Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but the glorious shots of the various starships (especially the Enterprise) definitely belong here. + Very true, but they pale in comparison to the shootouts in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Especially the Mutara Nebula battle. Hell, the Mutara Nebula itself, which has been re-used in dozens of shows and movies since. + Star Trek: First Contact is considered the best of The Next Generation films, if only because of the insanity of the Borg battle above Earth near the beginning. The Borg ship alone is about the size of the entire Starfleet armada sent to destroy it. And then there's Borg Queen. Both her entrance-in-two-parts and her death. + The whales in Star Trek IV. They were realistic enough to fool U.S. fishing officials, who upon seeing the film actually criticized the producers for letting people get too close to the whales. + The 2009 film has an absolutely jaw-dropping sequence where the Enterprise rises out of Titan's atmosphere like a submarine breaching the surface of the ocean. Yes, atmospheres do not work that way, but this is perfectly all right. - Also, the shot near the beginning, with the crippled Narada listing off into the distance, and the little fleet of shuttlecraft getting away, all silhouetted against an enormous sun... breathtaking. - That's one of the few movies where the CREDITS are as pretty as the film itself. + Star Trek III. Trekkies, say hello to Spacedock. + For such a lacking movie, the destruction of the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: Generations was a thing of beauty. You know you're doing something right when your ship crashing is so cool it becomes a Moment of Awesome. It's particularly awesome because it was done with practical effects, not CGI or animation. And it looks absolutely AMAZING. - And the best part is, they thought of the physics! The saucer is so massive, it seems to slide on forever, probably a couple miles. + Star Trek Into Darkness: - The Enterprise hiding in the alien ocean during the opening away mission - particularly when it leaves said ocean. - A starship crashing into the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco. - The Reveal of the U.S.S Vengeance. + Star Trek Beyond: - The Yorktown Station introduction is really quite marvelous. * The flying on fire/stretching/invisible/clobbrin' scenes in Fantastic Four (2005). Say what you want about various members of the cast, but the crew definitely knew what they were doing. * The Hobbit has special effects on par with LotR. One specific example comes to mind in Desolation of Smaug with the titular dragon. You'd be seriously hard pressed to find a better computer generated dragon than the all powerful Smaug. The tales are true. * Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005) was a box office disappointment considering the success of The Lord of the Rings, but had if anything even more sophisticated FX. Re-creating midtown Manhattan from a tiny blue-screened backlot in New Zealand works unbelievably well, and the dinosaur is stunning. + The scene where the crew gets trapped in a pit filled with giant centipedes and flesh-eating "barnacles", apparently a recreation of a scene that either wasn't filmed or cut for the original because it was too complicated. The cut scene from 1933 was also re-created for a sepecial edition DVD by Peter Jackson's team using the original FX techniques. You'd swear it was actually lost footage from the original. + The \|\|three T-Rexs versus Kong with our little damsel in distress tossed in the middle\|\| was simply flawless. + The stop-motion FX of the original 1933 version still holds up amazingly well and can even stump modern FX artists due to their complexity and detail, made all the more over-the-top because each one was done in a single take. - An example of awesome by accident: the original was praised for the detail of actually having Kong's fur move in the wind. This was unintended, merely the effect of the stop motion animators moving him. * In the early scenes of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a typical viewer stares and tries to figure out how they made the Toons look so real. By the end, they're not doing so any more — simply because they've forgotten they're looking at special effects. + Made all the more awesome when you actually sit and consider that the animated characters and objects are hand-drawn. CGI was only used for lighting and to add depth to the animation. + Not only is the animation stunning, but the physical effects behind it as well. They never once skimped on showing a toon holding a real object or grabbing a real person. Roger can even jump on a bed, and the bed compresses and expels dust in a totally convincing manner. The DVD shows that if you remove the animation, you are left with probably the most elaborate "Invisible Man" movie ever made. * Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man is a badly written, badly plotted piece of dreck with mediocre performances and a lot of bad taste. Some people have seen it repeatedly, if only just to look at those amazing, gorgeous special effects. + Kevin Bacon's body was so detailed that medical schools used it as instructional material. + Bacon also requested, only somewhat jokingly, that if any of the high resolution scans of his naked body are ever released into the wild that people do him the courtesy of \ahem\ "enhancing" certain body parts. * The effects in any Indiana Jones movie, particularly Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, are incredible to watch. That mine cart sequence model was made out of tin foil painted brown. + And the miniature sets were so claustrophobic they couldn't fit a full-sized movie camera into them, so they filmed the scene using a specially-modified SLR still camera with a big film magazine. + The melting faces from Raiders of the Lost Ark truly feel like the wrath of God. * Pirates of the Caribbean + Remember that part in the first film where Jack Sparrow entered Port Royal with his ship sinking just enough to get him to step onto the dock? Know how they did that? They had a huge tank of water, put a green screen behind it, stuck a movable dock in it and kept the ship in one place. They then slowly let the water out and moved the dock away while filming, then they reversed the film. End result? Complex shot achieved by use of one of the easiest effects to do, ever. - Not to mention the awesome skeleton pirates. - Those skeleton pirates debuted as WETA was working on the equally spooky Army of the Dead, which prompted a collective "Oh Goddammit!" and grudging admiration. + Davy Jones. The head was so well animated that even critics thought it was a headpiece of sorts. + Davy Jones, amazingly enough, is played by a real guy, Bill Nighy, who did all of his work in a blue suit with motion trackers on it. He is more famously one of the big bad vampires in the Underworld films. - It doesn't hurt that Davy Jones is computer generated genius and had some good lines. - "Bootstrap" Bill Turner is the only one of Jones' crew who is not motion capture; he's five hours' worth of makeup with a little CGI in closeups. The makeup is so good he's often mistaken for an entirely CGI character. + They immediately had Davy and his crew walking around in bright sunlight and they still looked good. WETA found to be Gollum to be insanely difficult and that's just one character, who's naked and dry most of the time! + Based on the trailers, the villain from the fifth movie, Captain Salazar, seems to be upping the ante even further: his hair averts No Flow in CGI hard, and is constantly flowing as if he were perpetually underwater. * The Matrix Reloaded: + The Neb docking at Zion, and the car chase to end all car chases. + The shot where the Agent leaps from a police car to a luxury car and then onto the vehicle Trinity's driving. How did they make the car explode and flip over like that? Not CGI. Not digital composition. They designed a car to implode like that and then drove it down the freeway. * While the latter two Back to the Future films aren't as beloved as the original, they do exhibit Acting for Two scenes of incredible complexity for their time, such as Michael J. Fox playing most of the members of the McFly family circa 2015, and the elderly Biff Tannen giving his teenaged self Gray's Sports Almanac. + In that above scene, the arm Old Biff uses to pass the Almanac to Young Biff after they hear the football game? A mechanical one. You'd never freaking tell. + And of course, when you talk about Back to the Future and awesome visual effects, you have to mention the DeLorean \|\|and the time train\|\|. * Johnny 5. Just... Johnny 5. Of course, considering how it's been said the robot itself was the most expensive piece in the entire movie... + ...which meant the directors had to use some simple gimmicks to create some awesome effects. Ever wondered how they perfectly created Johnny flipping through the books he read? Compressed air blowing the book pages while a rotor whipped a robotic hand back and fourth. That's it. Doesn't quite look that simple, does it? + Not to mention a team of talented puppeteers who managed to get so much life out of a few moving parts and head positioning, along with the model makers who gave them that freedom. * Batman (1989) has several incredible visual effects for its time (that still look pretty damn good today), made all the more amazing when you realize that there's no CGI involved whatsoever. In particular, every sequence with the Batmobile, the Batwing sequence, and the shootout in the Axis Chemicals Plant just look incredible and feel like they were ripped out of a comic book. * Many say that the best visual effects are those you don't notice, and that's so true for The Dark Knight Trilogy. + Batman Begins: - The climatic train sequence was done mostly with miniatures, and also the fear toxin hallucination sequences were genuine Nightmare Fuel. The League Of Assassins' dojo being blown up was nice miniature model work too, and a lot of the Tumbler chase is pretty good game for this trope. + The Dark Knight: - There's so much high-grade win that some things go unmentioned. Like Two-Face. How the hell DID they do that?? - It wasn't extremely realistic, though - that badly burned face would largely fall apart in a very short time. They apparently did initially experiment with a far more realistic face with more skin and realistic burns, but it looked so horrifying they feared they would get R-rating for it. - They couldn't do the jump off the Two-ifc in Hong Kong for real, so that's really a green screen effect. The helicopter crash is some realistic CGI too. Then there's the Batpod's emergence from the Tumbler. And some of the big car chase is made using miniature models. Same with blowing up said Tumbler, using three different shots in three different locations. One really subtle instance is that the windows on the top floor of the hospital that blows up? Those were CGI because the real windows were stolen. And then the hospital explodes. Really spectacularly. Also, Batman's sonar vision is some trippy and very beautiful stuff. - Some of the most impressive visual effects might be described in this context as "cheating", since there is no effect — they actually did what they showed on screen. Examples: flipping (not rolling) a full-sized semi, blowing up & collapsing a building. + The Dark Knight Rises, being the end of The Dark Knight Trilogy, was set up from the beginning to outdo its predecessors with even more awesome visual effects: - It opens with the destruction of a plane in midair. They actually destroyed a real plane for that scene and it looks stunning. - The Bat isn't CGI. It's an actual sized purpose-built vehicle suspended in midair by wires from helicopters and cranes with hydraulic controls to make it look like its maneuvering. * The Fifth Element. The car chase scene between Korbin Dallas and the police. It's hard not to jerk and sway with the awesome camera and great special effects. * Watchmen has a bajillion of these, include the one of Dr. Manhattan on Mars when the crystalline castle rises out of the ground. It is jaw-dropping if seen in IMAX theaters. + Several more are subtle improvements to inconsistencies from the book: instead of blasting the tank with some sort of never-used-again hand beam, Jon, well, takes it to pieces. * In the final segment of Invitation to the Dance, Gene Kelly and a young genie are transported to an animated Arabian Nights-inspired scene with a seamless blend of live action and animation. * Sin City. Outside of the beautiful spot coloring, worth noting is the fact that Mickey Rourke never met Elijah Wood, who he had a fucking fight scene with. That is just brilliant. And the fact that out of the whole movie there were only three sets? Very deceptive. The movie boasts both flashy and subtle CG to great effect. * The scene in Master and Commander where the Surprise is tossed and turned in the typhoon off of Cape Horn. * Anything that Stan Winston has ever worked on. The dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (1993), Terminator, the Alien, the Predator, Edward Scissorhands, Iron Man 1. The man was a special effects god! Proof, if it's needed, watch Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, then The Terminator. The original's effects have held up better. For added awesome, combine Winston with Industrial Light and Magic. The "go-motion" blurred effects aren't particularly good, but that's not Winston's work (the huge Terminator puppet is). But then look at the 2nd one. First the skeletons at the beginning, that is 100% Stan Winston. See the scene where they made an animatronic Arnold? As in a torso of him? You do, but you don't see it. Where he walks down the hallway with a grenade launcher firing tear-gas, it's not Arnold. That's one of Winston's effects. May he rest in peace. * TRON. Sure, the effects might be hokey for some now, but this was from 1982. TRON: Legacy does not disappoint in this department either. It is the shiniest, shiniest movie ever, including Star Trek (2009). * The opening credits for Superman Returns are enough to bring some people to tears, just through the sheer amount of intergalactic Scenery Porn. + Say what you want about the plot, but the flying sequences are some of the best Scenery Porn in a superhero movie. + The aircraft rescue at the start, beginning when he dives down after the spinning airliner, is simply one of the most awe-inspiring and downright beautiful super-power sequences ever put on film. * 2001: A Space Odyssey. Despite being made in 1968 (!!!) its space scenes are still amongst the best (and most beautiful) ever made. It's almost hard to believe that it wasn't made using CGI. Heck, it's hard to believe the footage isn't entirely authentic! + If you're still in any doubt, consider that at the time the Earth had not yet been photographed from anything higher than a low orbit - that is, we had no photos of it that took in the whole Earth in one go. The famous Blue Marble photo was still four years away when the film was released! Remember that next time you see the shot of the Earth rotating in the window of the space station as it spins to simulate gravity. + Douglas Trumbull. A lot of his work has been mentioned here... he's the undisputed master of space travel: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Silent Running, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner. Also note that HAL's readouts were made long before CGI was practical— those "computer" screens are all hand-drawn animation. The wireframe diagnostic readout when identifying the wiring fault is incredible. + Also, though Douglas Trumbull's film Brainstorm faced major problems during production, the ending has probably one of the most spectacular depictions of a Near-Death Experience put on film. * Labyrinth has high production values throughout, but it's telling that the Signature Scene is the climax in the "Escher room", which impressively brings together practical effects, camera tricks, compositing work, and excellent editing. * Terminator: + The original The Terminator was a fairly cheap movie for its day, with a budget of only 6.5 million dollars; which is why the producers of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles managed to convince studio heads that they could make a good Terminator show on a TV show budget. This does, however, really highlight Stan Winston's genius, since the T:SCC people are following his creation of the damaged Terminator makeup. Oh, and let's not forget his amazing puppet T-1000. Thought the T-1000 was completely CGI? Only six of the fifteen minutes of screen time the T-1000 takes up for its transformations are CGI. That's not even counting his Predator and Alien Queen designs. Stan Winston was amazing; he created the most iconic monsters and machines outside Star Wars, firing up an entire generation's imagination - and terror. And awe. + Terminator 2: Judgment Day. - The T-1000. Nearly twenty years later, and that liquid metal literal killing machine remains as impressive as ever, from the moment it heals its first wounds all the way to its Shapeshifter Swan Song. Also noted for being the first time a completely CGI character spoke on film. - And the T-1000 is so impressive, most people forget where a REAL helicopter flies under a freeway overpass. That helicopter shot alone could have been the money shot of another full feature. + The T-800 in Terminator Salvation. They used a mold of Arnold's face from 1984 to digitally recreate him over the face of a body double. + The younger T-800 in Terminator Genisys. They didn't just replace the face this time — that's a complete digital double. * Spider-Man 3: + Sandman. + The incredibly kick-ass climactic fight scene at the end. + Lack of screen time aside, the Symbiote was particularly well done. They turn the symbiote into a creepy, tentacle like thing. It doesn't just bond with Spider-Man, it latches onto him. The best moment is during the bonding scene. You see the Symbiote's shadow first looking a little like Venom's head, complete with jaw and tongue. Then it morphs into a monstrous hand that grabs onto Spidey's arm. * Spider-Man 2: + The train sequence from part II. Damn. + Doc Ock's four tentacles. They had a full puppet rig for a lot of the close-ups, and CGI for action shots. And it. Is. AWESOME. * The Martian war-machines in both the 1953 and the 2005 versions of The War of the Worlds. * Cloverfield was shot on a budget of twenty-five million dollars. It looks like it cost six times that. * James Bond films: + The SPECTRE Volcano Lair for You Only Live Twice. The set was five stories tall, had a working monorail and helipad, a massive armature to move the Bird 1 rocket, and cost more than Dr. No in its entirety. + The supertanker model built for The Spy Who Loved Me was so convincing that Exxon executives asked the producers where they got a real one for the film! + Moonraker: - The opening sky-diving scene. Keep in mind that this was pre-CGI. It took some 70 jumps to accomplish, and it still looks great nearly forty years later. - Now that is a space station. Incidentally, it was the last set built for the Bond films by Ken Adam, who was production designer since Dr. No, and boy, did he leave on a high note. - All the shots of the astronauts floating in zero-g. This film is the record holder for the largest number of invisible hanging wires to be used in a single scene. - The laser battle aboard the space station. Not quite up there with Star Wars but it still makes for an impressive climax. - The space assault was done in-camera, meaning after an element was filmed, the canister was rewound and the next element was filmed over the same length of film. They did this dozens of times, not knowing if the film was getting damaged inside the camera or if any elements overlapped with one another because if any of that happened, they'd have to start all over again. Luckily, once the film was finally developed, the sequence turned out to be perfect. + In For Your Eyes Only, dry-for-wet effects (special lighting, slow motion, wind and visually composited bubbles) were used to simulate underwater close up shots of Roger Moore and Carole Bouquet, as Bouquet had a medical condition that meant she could not film underwater scenes. The effect is so convincing that, even today, most viewers would never guess unless they were told that they weren't really underwater. + The shot of the truck going off the cliff in the pre-titles sequence for The Living Daylights was acheived with a miniature model and an air cannon. + The amazing shot of a burning car going off a cliff and just barely missing Pam's plane in Licence to Kill. You would never guess that it was all done with miniatures. + Daniel Kleinman's opening titles for the modern Bond films are this, plus Awesome Music, plus a metric ton of Fetish Fuel. And sometimes, he doesn't even need the Fetish Fuel. + Silva bringing down the Underground train in Skyfall? They actually dropped a train for real. * Moon consistently maintains a feel of a moon base, complete with exterior shots, and a robot assistant. The kicker? It did it for five million, utter pocket change by any movie making standards. * Then there is the great transformation scene with Rick Baker's effects in An American Werewolf in London, that holds up amazingly well nearly thirty years later. * There's the single enormous shot in Children of Men, with the camera seemingly fixed to Clive Owen's shoulder as he runs around a war zone. The movie is full of awesome scenes like these, like \|\|the scene that leads up to and includes the assassination of Julian\|\|. * Blade Runner. The movie's legendary vision of a near-future LA dystopia is breathtakingly incredible, even to this day. In many cases, its miniature effect cityscapes look better than what can be done with modern CGI. It cannot be overstated how influential this movie was on basically any semi-realistic science fiction movie to date. Edgar Wright hit it right on the money when he said that half of all sci-fi movies made since its release were just trying to do better than Blade Runner. So far, none have quite succeeded. + Its eventual sequel may have been massively belated but definitely worth the wait. The visual effects team and legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins both won extremely well-deserved Oscars for their work. + Crucially, the FX Team was smart enough not to fix what ain't broke, building on 30 years of technological advancement without ever forgetting how much the original team had done with Practical Effects - as shown in the backstage videos. To the delight of many fans, they even resurrected the almost-extinct art of Miniature Effects to build its cities, just like the original team. The LAPD building, Wallace Corp headquarters, the deserted hellhole of San Diego, and the epic, Spinner-POV passthroughs of the cityscape? 80% handcrafted miniatures. + The "hologram love scene" with Joi, Mariette, and K. It's very hard to remember that Ana de Armas is not actually a hologram while watching this movie. + The CGI on \|\|Wallace's version of Rachel\|\| is one of the best examples of a photorealistic human face recreated through CGI ever, and it completely blows the already-impressive effects from Rogue One completely out of the water. They even spliced in stock footage of \|\|Sean Young\|\| from the first movie, and it's still hard to tell the difference. Any of the small imperfections you might see arguably work to the scene's advantage. * When viewing District 9, there are parts where you'll swear you notice the switch between CGI and puppets/make-up. There are no switches—the aliens are entirely CGI. You'll also believe that there is an honest-to-God spaceship hovering above Johannesburg. + Neill Blomkamp has a long association with Crazy Awesome CGI, such as his early short Tetra Vaal, his Transforming Mecha break-dancing Citroen commercial, and his Halo 3 short film. + Bonus Points for having a low budget (30 million) * Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning: Would you believe this movie's special effects shots were done in people's homes and their rendering farm was in a kitchen? * The sequence in Bride of Frankenstein with miniature humans (created by Dr. Praetorius) in glass bottles is pretty astonishing for 1935! Watch it here. * The entire "battle in the sky" sequence in Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys. It's just beautifully stunning to look at and you really start to believe that a giant turtle as well as a giant tentacled....thing are duking it out above the clouds near Kyoto, Japan. + Heck, the whole film qualifies. The effects used to bring the title Kaiju to life (Via a mixture of CGI, puppetry, and good old-fashioned "suitimation") are nothing short of incredible. The suitmation in particular is hands down some of the absolute greatest suitmation work ever put into a kaiju film, looking so good that it could easily be mistaken for high quality CG or an incredibly detailed animatronic. + Kaneko's Gamera series generally feature fantastic visuals, and keep improving through the series. One standout is Legion (although her Toho 'counterpart', Biollante, is even more stunning). * The monster fights (as well as any battles in which the JSDF are involved) in the film Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! are so well-done that you almost forget that it's mostly done with People in Rubber Suits and highly detailed tiny model sets. + Likewise, the effects used for \|\|Godzilla's death\|\| in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah are quite good. 'Course, you'll most likely be too busy crying during such a tragic moment to truly appreciate the technical aspects of the scene. + The miniature sets in The Return of Godzilla are pretty spectacular, especially during the faceoff between the Super-X and Godzilla. + Heisei Godzilla films are considered the pinnacle of the Toho monster films. With each film, Godzilla's suit improved more and more, becoming more lifelike and the sets become more elaborate. Minus the asteroid scene in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, the final battle and Space Godzilla's arrival on Earth rivals even the best CGI of today in terms of scope, with practical effects galore. And M.O.U.G.E.R.A is a highly impressive animatronic instead of a suit. + King Ghidorah's introduction is still an amazing piece of artistry. + And also Biollante. Just Biollante. Holy Crap. Suitmation at its finest. In fact, the whole final battle is a thing of beauty (and horror). + As is the shot of Rose Biollante in the lake. + The original Godzilla still looks great despite age and budget due to the amazing shadowy cinematography, especially in the scenes of city destruction. + The flooding of the Osaka subway in Godzilla Raids Again is still jaw-droppingly convincing...and horrifying. + It's hard to believe that the Mt. Fuji used in Destroy All Monsters was actually a matte painting. * Godzilla (2014): + Although there is debate, a lot of people would agree that the King of the Monsters himself looks fantastic. + The shot of the soldiers HALO jumping from a plane down to the burning city below is something to behold. The part where it cuts to Ford Brody's POV perfectly captures the feel of jumping off of a plane. + The Visual Effects director (Jim Rygiel) did The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. That alone is proof. + All this is made more impressive by the fact that the film had a $160,000,000 budget, which is four-fifths of what most American Summer blockbusters cost to produce at the least, and what's even better is that the effects look better than titles with bigger budgets behind them. + \|\|The effects of Godzilla himself and the MUTO's are awe inspiring. You truly see the scale of how big these creatures are, and Godzilla himself is highly detailed and has very convincing facial features.\|\| * Have to give a shout out to Escape from New York, with the "computer graphics" used in the navigation system in Snake's plane. The production crew created them by painting a physical model built for the landing scene entirely black, covering it with lines of reflective tape, and filming the result; it still looks good today. + Those effects were designed and directed by James Cameron, as in that James Cameron. * The Vogons in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Forget CG: when it comes to beautifully-realized monsters, you just can't beat the Jim Henson's Creature Shop. + The Magarathean factory floor was also very impressive. + Humma Kavula‎'s thousands of tiny little robotic legs were extremely impressive, as was the Earth being blown up. But it all pales in comparison to the awesomeness of seeing the Earth being rebuilt, bit by bit, with massive hoses to fill the oceans and paints and chisels for the mountains. - Whh-opoof! * Lon. Chaney. Senior. Even after eighty years of advances in makeup and visual effects, his portrayals of Quasimodo and The Phantom of the Opera still rank among the most effective physical transformations ever created for film. * The Mask (1994)'s "turning a guy into a Looney Tune" effects still hold up pretty well today. As the people who worked on it would say, it helps that Jim Carrey's face is so rubbery to begin with. * The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It's hard to guess how much is CGI and how much is make-up. + It's so good, it made it onto TED. * RENT's special effects were done by Industrial Lights And Magic, so it goes without saying that it's got a lot of these, but the "Without You" sequence takes the cake. It's a montage of the character's lives, from roughly late January to right around Halloween. There's a little support group for people with AIDS called Life Support. The camera pans around the room at a few points, and people fade away... how they made that look so smooth is just amazing. The camera doesn't jump at all, and everyone who didn't fade is still right where they were and it's just amazing. Even with the Tear Jerker of that scene... wow. * The title characters of Where the Wild Things Are react to the world very realistically; not surprising considering that most of the time when you see them, they're actually right on camera. Most of the time CGI was only used for the facial animation, and even that is incredibly lifelike. * This Is My Song from the Tom Thumb movie. Especially when he dances with a paper cutout of himself. * Say what you will of 2012, but this sure looks like its entire purpose. And on this point at least, it delivered in spades; Monumental Damage has never looked so good. The sequence of driving and flying through Los Angeles as it crumbles into the sea, with our heroes driving under collapsing overpasses, though falling offices and flying under subway trains is astounding. * Hellboy II: The Golden Army's graphics were utterly superb, from the nature elemental to the vicious swarm of tooth pixies to the titular Golden Army. Hellboy and Abe sure looked real, and Kraus's spirit-steam effects were fun to watch. + It helps they have Ron Perlman in the red suit. As someone once put it, "Ron Perlman is Hellboy. You don't need makeup, just paint him red." + And they did it on the cheap. How? By minimising use of CGI. + The Angel of Death. Most, if not all of the Angel's look, was done with practical effects, and she's probably the best damn incarnation of the Reaper that's ever been put to film, at least visually. * Planet of the Apes. The original film. Did we mention that it's 100% practical effects? + Its prequels, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and especially Dawn of the Planet of the Apes show off arguably some of the finest use of CGI ever, making the motion-captured apes near seamless. Dawn in particular has been praised as having some of the best use of CGI to enhance storytelling, working with excellent motion-capture performances to infuse real humanity into the apes. + The new Apes films are widely considered to be the best Serkis Folk characters since Avatar. There are people who didn't know that the apes, monkeys, orangutans, and gorillas are all CGI - they were legitimately good enough to be mistaken for practical effects. Then there's the fact that they avert the infamous Unintentional Uncanny Valley completely, to the point where some people claimed that the apes are more emotive and convincing than the (very talented) human actors. + The special effects in Planet of the Apes (2001) are considered to be the best aspect of the film. The suits and make-up are incredibly well-detailed and resemble real apes better than ever before. Even more then a decade later, the practical effects apes can offer serious competition to the digital apes in the reboot series. * Dragonheart has the dragon Draco, which even if in the daytime scenes is a victim of the issues 90s computers had with providing realistic lighting for CG creatures (there's a reason most were used in night or rainy scenes), still holds up as a very well-detailed and well-animated model (the facial expressions in particular make him very much voice actor Sean Connery as a dragon). * Sunshine: The ending scene where Capa is looking at the sun is particularly beautiful, but there's a whole bunch of stunning visuals in this movie. * The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). The suits and puppets used in the film were as complex and top-of-the-line as animatronics got back then. Jim Henson did the creatures of the film not not for money (it was an independent film), or fame, but simply because he knew it would change how his company would have to do these things. Even today the Turtles and Splinter look totally real even to eyes that have been spoiled by CG effects. As soon as you see the Turtles turn that corner in the opening titles you completely buy into that these things are alive, they show any and every emotion conceivable throughout the action of the movie, and all four of them have a wholly unique face and body structure (not many people notice this, but Raphael has a small scar under his left eye, that's dedication). The system that governed the facial movements went on to become the Henson Control System, widely regarded as the best in animatronics, and is still in use today. This is to say nothing of the darkly beautiful underground sets that comprise the fictional New York sewers and the Turtles' home. + Speaking of the Turtles, say what you will of TMNT, but that contains some of the most beautiful CGI in a Weinstein Brothers movie yet. The buildings, lighting, the way the clothes move in the wind, and even how the rain trickles off the turtles' shells is *PHENOMENAL.* * Jurassic Park. Tell yourself those dinosaurs are fake. It's been said that an effects supervisor broke down crying when watching the dailies of the scene where the first Brachiosaurus is revealed to us. Even today, watching that scene almost 30 years later, it's damn near impossible not to get a lump in the throat watching that scene - today's CGI creatures may be better in terms of detail and realism, but they will never match the sheer beauty and majesty of that very first scene. + "They've got some pretty well trained dinosaurs..." - a friend's comment on the film. + In the third movie, Velociraptors were depicted by both CGI and full-sized animatronic puppets. Visually it's virtually impossible to distinguish between the two, and both look outright hyper-realistic. This is an awesome achievement in both CGI and animatronics. + Speaking of the third film, we also get to see an excellent and convincing image of a Pteranodon snatching up a human, as well as a really well shot scene of said Pteranodon carrying the boy on a reluctant flight around the territory. Accurate or not, that scene was really well done. + The dinosaur models in The Lost World: Jurassic Park are so good, they even look real in the "making of" featurette when they're shown in the workshop with plain fluorescent overhead lighting and no camera tricks. + Jurassic World: Par for the course of a good Jurassic Park movie. Special mention goes to the Gyrospheres, the Mosasaurus Feeding Show, the pterosaur attack, the dying Apatosaurus, and the Innovation Center holograms. * Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brian as its originator. + The climactic skeleton fight in Jason and the Argonauts is stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen's CMoA. Although every monster in that film was cool; Talos was voted the second greatest movie monster by Empire readers for a reason, guys. + Harryhausen's greatest scene to be the fight with the 6-armed statue of Kali in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. You will never see a cooler swordfight. + The Valley of Gwangi - Cowboys versus Dinosaurs using LASSOS! There is nothing about that one scene that isn't awesome. Knowing how it was done and the complexity of the shot make it even more awesome. + Clash of the Titans - Ray's Medusa changed how we view that mythological character and can still scare people today—not to mention the horrible complexity of the shot itself. * The movie may be crap, but Michael Jackson's One-Winged Angel into a killer robot in Moonwalker is quite simply unbelievable for the time period. Remember, the movie was made a full three years before Terminator 2: Judgment Day. * The Audrey II. At first it looks like an obvious puppet, but once that thing starts talking, you forget that pretty quickly. * A very old example: one of the actors in Seven Samurai had never handled a sword in his life. With some clever camera tricks, he looked like the best swordsman in the film. Considering that this is long before digital editing, that's pretty impressive. * The 2010 Alice in Wonderland (2010) has absolutely AMAZING CGI and 3D work. + Likewise, the sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass features a lot of stunning CGI environments. Particular standouts include Time's clockwork palace, Alice piloting the Chronosphere over the Ocean of Time, and the climax where \|\|all of Underland is rusting over.\|\| * Mary Poppins is another classic example whose effects still hold up very well today. * While the original is mentioned in the Harryhausen section above, the remake of Clash of the Titans deserves to be mentioned too. Specifically, the Kraken itself was jaw-droppingly awesome in every way, from its alien design, to all of its limbs twisting and moving around, to the sheer volume of water pouring off the thing as it moves, the effects guys did an incredible job making that thing look huge. Also worthy of mention, Pegasus. * The Mummy! From the opening shot of Thebes, to Imhotep's walking, talking corpse, the plagues, the sand wall, and the soldier mummies were just pure epic. * In Dr. Strangelove, the filmmakers asked the army if they could take pictures of the then state of the art B-52 cockpit for the on plane scenes. The Air Force denied their request citing national security reasons. What do the filmmakers do? Go look at old B-29 cockpit and base the design off that and exterior shots of the B-52 nose section. When they invited the military to view the result, they were told that "it was absolutely correct, even to the little black box which was the CRM." Director Stanley Kubrick was afraid of an FBI investigation after that. * Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was by no means photo-realistic, but it sure hell looked exactly like the comic books and serials it was emulating, brought brilliantly to life. * Speed, Fucking, Racer. Yes, within the first, like, 5 minutes of the film you will be very much able to tell this is all CGI. But keep in mind that it is trying to be essentially a live action Anime, on crack, and damnit, it looks pretty. * Species has well-made creature effects, and while the computer effects are mostly underwhelming there are some which work - creature designer H. R. Giger, who criticized most of the CG, particularly liked one morphing scene where Sil's face changes from human to alien. + The exploding head, and its subsequent regeneration, in Species II. * When Frank escapes The Labyrinth in Hellraiser, and slowly grows from a puddle to a vaguely humanoid form. * Serenity The entire movie is full of brilliant effects \|\|, but that one scene near the end, when the Reavers come out of that nebula and just engage the Alliance fleet waiting there head-on!\|\| That scene was also quite definitely a Moment of Awesome. * Inception: + Everything in zero-g, particularly the first fight scene where they run around all three dimensions of that hallway to beat the crap out of each other. - What's particularly cool is that the hallway scene was actually filmed in real life—they actually built a rotating hallway to film the scene in! Not that that makes it any less of an amazing effect! + The streets of Paris exploding around (a very calm) Cobb and Ariadne. + The streets of Paris folding in half. + The decrepit city in \|\|the fourth dream layer\|\|. * V for Vendetta. Made on a considerably lower budget than many successful comic book film adaptations, the film boasts various cool action setpieces. The domino scene was done for real by Weijers Domino Productions from the Netherlands. And they had to do the elaborate setup twice because of problems with the camera angles the first time around. And when the houses of parliament get blown up at the end? Minuature effects. Boo yeah! * The CG animals in The Golden Compass. * The "London Walk" in 28 Days Later, where Jim roams the city looking for anyone else, passing by several landmarks and giving the completely convincing impression that one of the world's major capitals is devoid of human life. All achieved by filming early in the morning, stopping traffic for a few minutes, and blanking out anything else in post-production. * Voldemort's face in the Harry Potter movies. The really impressive part, of course, is the nose. Many viewers have wondered what they could have done to make Ralph Fiennes' nose look like that short of facial surgery. The answer is that they erased his nose with CGI. And it's worth noting they had to not effect Ralph Fiennes' performance while they were digitally altering his face in every shot in which he appears, whether it's a close-up of his face or a wide shot in which he can only be seen from a distance. + Buckbeak in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. + The Dementors, especially in the third. + The scene where Luna and Harry watch the Thestrals. + Anything Dumbledore does with his wand is guaranteed 100% unadulterated awesome, though special mention should go to his fight with Voldemort at the end of the fifth and his EPIC ring of fire in the sixth. + The Harry Potter film series managed to utilize and *IMPROVE UPON* this trope since Philosopher's Stone. Just try to say you didn't gasp in awe at the Wizard Chess, the Anaconda escaping from the London Zoo scenes, the brick wall of Diagon Alley opening, as well as the final duel between Harry and \|\|Quirrell\|\| in the first film. * The three main X-Men Film Series movies all feature incredible visual effects, especially since the first was released in 2000: + X-Men 1: - Particularly impressive is the scene where Magneto confronts the cops, takes control of their firearms and floats them in midair, aiming at each of them. Also, the various closeup shots of Wolverine's claws emerging, Senator Kelly's Nightmare Fuel mutation, Mystique's transformations (that got progressively better as the films went on) and so on. Also in the first film sees Wolverine fights Mystique (the latter disguised as Wolverine) and one seriously cannot tell which is the real Logan with Hugh Jackman playing both characters. + X2: X-Men United: - Some higlights include the X-Jet tornado sequence, Nightcrawler's teleportations and the ending scene where Jean Grey telekinetically holds back the water from the dam. + X-Men: The Last Stand: - Some highlights include Angel's wings, Quill's spikes and of course the Golden Gate bridge uprooted and plonked on Alcatraz Island. One moment that is slight more subtle is the "digital skin grafting" that made Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen look two decades younger. - Not forgetting the practical makeup effects, such as the muscle suit Vinnie Jones wore as the Juggernaut, Angel's wings in their folded position and of course the full-body makeup applied to Beast, Mystique and Nightcrawler. + X-Men: Days of Future Past: - Magneto lifting an entire baseball stadium, among other things. + Deadpool: - Colossus looks absolutely incredible, his metal skin appearing almost photorealistic. - In a more subtle manner, the animated eyes of Deadpool's mask. Just cartooney enough to make his mask-covered face more expressive and humorous like the comics, but not attention-grabbing enough to be distracting. - Also, the special effects used to simulate Deadpool's tissue regeneration. * The 2006 remake of Poseidon. Beautifully shot capsizing scene or the wonderful opening sequence just goes to show you what computers and animators are capable of.The Capsizing scene and the opening scene * The makeup effects in Beetlejuice. Especially near the end of the movie. * The Fountain. Now consider it's not CG, they used actual deep-sea microorganisms to get their effects because they felt CG would look outdated in a decade or two. * Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Watch the scenes on the Magic Railroad itself. And then there's the scene of Lady steaming up for the first time in decades. They did it perfectly, you'd never be able to tell that engine was only a prop. The model work is good too. * Dragon Slayer, made in 1981, had Vermithrax, who is the most realistic stop-motion animated creature ever, thanks to Industrial Light & Magic's new "Go Motion", which added subtle blur to the movement, removing the jerkiness most stop-motion animated visual effects had. * Galaxy Quest is interesting in that it is a comedy with a big budget, but the money spent actually helps instead of hurting the film. The film uses Stylistic Suck when showing how cheaply-made the in-universe Galaxy Quest television show was, but pulls out the big guns with CGI and scale models that were fairly realistic for the time (I daresay the wormhole was as good as the one in Star Trek), building the starship bridge set on an actual gimbal that would shake and tilt, and especially the animatronic and prosthetic effects provided by Stan Winston and his studio. * In Eragon, Saphira was a scene-stealer and the lone bright point it had. The magnificent blue-scaled dragoness invoked Just Here for Godzilla in just about everyone who bothered to watch that tripe. * The climax of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. \|\|Percy using his I'm-the-son-of-the-sea-god powers to control the water in the nearby water tanks like a Waterbender to kick Luke's ass with. Then he forms a trident out of water. That is all.\|\| * Here's one that's a bit different: The Social Network. Armie Hammer provides the face of both of the Winklevoss twins. They edited his face onto the other guy's body. Why is this Visual Effects of Awesome? Because they did it so perfectly that there is absolutely no trace of it in the film. It is utterly seamless. * The Thing's transformation in the kennel. While there are some brief moments of slightly dodgy special effects, that first transformation is golden and still terrifying today. * Ultra Series: + Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial. The entire movie is gorgeous and visually amazing, probably the best in Tokusatsu history. + Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends, is absolutely gorgeous, from the Land of Light to the Monster Graveyard. The standouts are Belial vs the Land of Light and the stunning Zaragas vs Gomora battle. Bonus points for the fact that this movie was one of the very few Toku works at the time done largely in greenscreen instead of the traditional miniatures, and one of Tsuburaya Productions first forays into it. * Garo: Soukoku no Maryu is a visual feast throughout the movie. Easily rivals Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial as one of the most visually amazing Tokusatsu movie in history. * Any Guillermo del Toro movie involving prosthetics will end up like this. The man has designed some of the most fantastical (and bizarre) creatures in movie history, and since one of his first ever jobs in film was as a makeup artist, he knows exactly how to get the look he wants. Screw CGI: look at Abe Sapien's smooth, damp skin, or the Faun's ridged, curling goat-horns. Don't you just want to reach out and touch them? Well, if you'd been on set that day, you could have. That's a magic that no computer can ever give you. * The Animated Armor scene in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. It beats CGI forever! * The Chariot Race in Ben-Hur (1959). Sweet mother of mercy, the Chariot Race. And the sea battle isn't too shabby, either. + The chariot race for the most part was real and not effects. There were matte paintings for the long shots showing the area surrounding the track of but those were real extras, real sets and real horses. It's movr "Stuntwork of Awesome". * The Creepy Awesome titles for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). * For its time, The Ten Commandments was a special effects masterpiece, particularly the parting of the Red Sea. * While the later Tremors movies used obvious CG, the original used EXTREMELY GOOD animatronics for the Graboids. Watch the original Tremors and tell me those worms are fake. * The entirety of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the fight scenes in particular, seriously looked like a live-action video game, with both subtle and not-so-subtle awesome effects: a subtle example is when Scott and Ramona are on a bus discussing the Evil Exes, where the lights behind Scott are shaped like hearts and the ones behind Ramona are shaped like X's at first but then change to hearts as well, and a not-so-subtle example being the holographic Dragons vs. Yeti battle. Other special mentions go to Todd's Vegan Powers, the Exes bursting into coins, and the various weapons, especially Gideon's Pixel Katana. (Notice how anything behind the sword trail looks pixellated!) * Peeta's camouflage in the film of The Hunger Games makes him entirely indistinguishable from the environment and still looks like a plausible, realistic makeup job. No CGI here. + That and the fire. Not just during the chariot rides—all the fire in the movie. + The sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire had a bigger budget and better CGI. The best effect is when the Cornucopia in the middle of the arena is spinning. * Hugo. Dear Lord, Hugo. It's a dreamy, romantic, somewhat whimsical but still restrained depiction of Paris in the 30s, and features some truly magical visuals, achieved with a mix of CGI and gorgeous period sets. It's also a loving tribute to the great grandaddy of special effects, Georges Melies. * How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)'s Grinchy makeup effects on Jim Carrey is absolutely incredible. It helps that Jim Carrey has already played a smirking, green-faced cartoon character before. * Part of what makes The Adventures of Captain Marvel one of the greatest examples of the classic Film Serial are the excellent visual effects, especially when Captain Marvel flew using a very well designed and dressed mannequin on a wire and careful filming to make a very convincing sight in long shots for 1941. * Corpse Bride. The only computer effects were the removing of wires for flying creatures, and the fire. The facial expressions are extremely subtle, by use of clockwork mechanics in the puppet's heads. It's a beautiful film. * The film adaptation of Life of Pi has some amazing CGI. Most notably is the model for Richard Parker. Who's CGI for almost the entire film, but looks incredibly realistic. * As reviled as it is, Super Mario Bros. (1993) did an outstanding job on its visual effects. The first digitally-edited film in the world, it featured CGI back when it was still in its infancy but has aged remarkably well, even if the film itself has not. While most of the film used practical effects, the editors' access to emerging software allowed them to go above and beyond by compositing them into over 700 shots, with the de-evolution guns' effects being owed entirely to CG. * While the digital giants in Jack the Giant Slayer are quite good, the effects that brought the beanstalk sequences to life are pretty darn impressive. * Pacific Rim: Industrial Light & Magic created the special effects and the 3D. As for the animation itself, it's absolutely gorgeous work, almost painting like. + The Jaeger cockpits are dominantly Practical Effects and were filmed in rigs that would jostle to corresponding movements in the film. + A \|\|nuclear weapon\|\| is detonated at \|\|the bottom of the Pacific\|\| with enough force to push back all the water in a 360 arc before quickly rushing back. + \|\|Beyond the Rift. Pure eye-candy.\|\| + The end title sequence? * Although all of G-Force looks pretty good, the bit the takes the cake has to be the car/hamster ball chase scene. The FBI guys get to the hideout, and the team have to do a runner in a motorized vehicle that is made out of three hamster wheels and a miniature supercharged engine. They break out the window... the whole scene gets more and more "holy crap this is cool" until the finale of the scene where the FBI jeep accidentally sets off a ground fireworks display, so that the rest of the scene is G-Force fleeing from the FBI while fireworks are exploding all around making it look like they're out driving a fireball. * The Invisible Man (1933): The optical effects utilized for this film still largely hold up today. * Gravity. It's very tempting to say just "the entire film" and leave it at that, but in particular, this is probably the most realistic depiction of space in film to date, to the point where it's difficult to believe the entire thing wasn't actually filmed in space. * In Maleficent: + The filmmakers have nailed Maleficent's look. + The Plant People army and especially the dragon. + The various fairies seen throughout. + The Moors, which shows what happens when the filmmakers get the people who worked on James Cameron's Avatar and have them design a Celtic, faerie wonderland. * The transformation sequences in The Wolfman (2010) are pretty awesome, just as Rick Baker's incredible makeup effects. No wonder they won an Oscar for Best Makeup. * Chronicle ... the rest of the movie clearly doesn't stint on its (relatively low) budget. * DC Extended Universe: + Man of Steel: - A Zack Snyder staple. Special mention has to go to Zod's armor. It looks so real you would never guess that it's CGI. - A major highlight are the action scenes, which are a live-action adaptation of how Superman's fights are drawn in the comic books. Man of Steel properly adapts the speed and power the Kryptonians display in the comic books, and their fights are powerful brawls, whereas prior depictions relied a lot more on Coconut Superpowers and some degree of obvious Wire Fu. + Suicide Squad (2016): - The make-up and prosthetic work for Killer Croc is spectacular. It's rare for such things to look just as good in behind-the-scenes photos as it does on camera. * Lucy: ILM helped create a majority of the digital effects work and their work particularly shines during Lucy's \|\|time jump sequence\|\| at the end of the film. Another effects highlight is Lucy the Australopithecus afarensis, who features in two scenes. * While the overall quality of Interstellar is debated, the visual effects are almost universally praised, and for very good reason. Simply put, this movie has some of the best visual effects ever, and combines real-world props and stunning CGI to a degree that's scarcely been done this well since The Lord of the Rings movies. + Unlike with every film of the last 15 years, almost every scene in this film was done with real, physical props and sets, with CGI limited to space backgrounds and a few other scenes. (Of course, this is a defining trait of Christopher Nolan. He often opts for physical props over CGI, and Interstellar is no exception.) + Nolan opted for a highly documentary-like style of filmmaking for the movie, emphasizing realism in cinematography and using various effects to that end. The film's starring spacecraft are full-size models in shots including actors and highly detailed miniatures in space scenes. The miniatures in particular were shot with very long exposure times, emulating the deep-contrast shadows of a vacuum, and almost all the exterior shots are from cameras mounted onto the ships, emulating footage from real-life engineering cameras. Plus, the way light plays on the surface of these miniatures results in an incredibly realistic look unachievable with CGI. The interiors of sets are lit not with studio lights, but with "in-universe" light fixtures, instrument panels, and the like. Even the view through the windows of the ships wasn't added in post-production - instead, the views were rendered beforehand, then rear-projected through the windows. The projected images are also bright enough to light the scene as if the ships were really in space - something that simply can't be done with post-production. + The docking sequence. Never has two spaceships docking with \|\|a broken airlock\|\| been so nail-biting, and awesome. + Those folding, transforming, robots that look like a cross between the Monolith from 2001 and a Transformer, with geometric transformations that border on Alien Geometries? Practical Effects. + But by far, the most visually striking element of the film is, ironically, a CGI element - specifically, the film's black hole. Generated with real physics-based models of black holes, the film's black hole is the most realistic ever depicted on film. It is simultaneously terrifying, and absolutely beautiful. Shout-out to the directors for managing to make an accurate depiction of wormhole where they cross from standard reality to the inside of a sphere-shaped hole in reality filled with stars and still have it be comprehensible. It has a terrifying beauty not seen in any other cinema depictions of black holes, perhaps because of its realism. Word of God has stated that the black hole renderings resulted in two published papers - one for the computer graphics community, and one for the scientific community. + The temporal "handshake" where space-time bends itself into the form of a hand to shake hands with a character. - And to to add the astonishing Mind Screw cherry on top of the sundae, the climax of the film where Cooper finds himself \|\|in the Tesseract where he sees multiple versions of his past unfolding simultaneously\|\|. Most of his surroundings throughout that part was a set that they really dangled Matthew McConaughey in. * Monsters. Considering the tiny budget, anything resembling special effects would have been commendable but its visuals would actually shame some movies 100 times its cost. And Gareth Edwards did it all himself. Special mention goes to the \|\|ending, when two of the creatures meet whilst Samantha and Andrew look on in awe\|\|. * Mad Max: Fury Road: Furiosa's robot arm is utterly seamless. + The sheer amount of stuntwork and other practical effects that were used to bring the post-apocalyptic world to life, and all done in vivid colors instead of washed-out so that you could fully appreciate all of it. Over a year after the film's release, a new reel of raw stunt footage was released that still left critics and fans in awe. And on the CG side of things, that sandstorm. * Pixels: Generally agreed to be one of the lone bright spots of the film. And it's not hard to see why. Special mention goes to the Centipede and Pac-Man sequences. * Jupiter Ascending: + In an interview after production wrapped up, Lana Wachowski mentioned that the effects were much more complex than the stuff that was in Cloud Atlas. They spent a lot of time and energy creating a unique feel for every set, from the claustrophobic and crowded Orous to the ostentatiousness of Titus' ship. + The hunters chasing Caine and Jupiter around Chicago has some truly stunning cinematography. Some of the shots were pulled off by having helicopters fly around the city, catching as many possible angles as they could. * WarCraft: + The actors and actresses playing Orcs hardly look recognizable under CGI - and in a very good way. This image in particular◊ look like something you could see in the real world. + The dedication that went into making the Orcs look realistic through motion-capture is just incredible to see unfold. + In general the entire first trailer is absolutely breathtaking. + It's only seen for a brief moment, but Stormwind◊ looks incredible. + There's a reason that many people have called the first trailer alone better than most video game movies. * Dredd: For an independent production with a budget of $45 million, most of the special effects and slow motion sequences are pretty impressive. * The Revenant: The Bear is the most obvious one but some of the CG used for other animals is quite good and naturalist photography is nothing short of stunning. * Spaceballs: Given how the effects were done by Industrial Light & Magic, who also created the special effects of Star Wars... + Spaceball One, the prop looks just as good the ships in Star Wars. + The obvious track aside, the dancing Xenomorph is actually a pretty decent puppet for a comedy. * The Jungle Book (2016). Everything except Mowgli is computer-generated. Think about that for a second. Now go back and look at the film again. The animals, the jungle, the water, the fire - all of this was done with blue screen and computer graphics. And it all looks entirely real. The mere fact that they managed to make realistic-looking talking animals without descending into the Unintentional Uncanny Valley is an impressive enough accomplishment on its own. The fact that it all looks this good is an almost unparalleled artistic accomplishment. This is quite possibly the most impressive example of this trope since Avatar (and not coincidentally, many of the same VFX people worked on both films). * The Martian has some very impressive effects, especially the sand storm at the start of the film. The scenes in space also rival the ones in Interstellar and Gravity for how realistic-looking they are. But perhaps the most impressive factor is that the Martian scenes actually look like they really were filmed on Mars. * Ex Machina won an upset Oscar victory for Best Visual Effects over favourites for the award like The Force Awakens and Mad Max: Fury Road. The android characters provide one of the finest examples of the Unintentional Uncanny Valley in recent cinematic history, and it's difficult to believe they're not actual androids. Making the accomplishment even more impressive, the entire film was made on a shoestring budget and the effects were all done in post-production. There are a couple of minor flaws with the effects (mostly in \|\|the scene in which Ava takes skin from another robot character, due to the changing size of her breasts\|\|), but for the most part the whole thing is seamless, and it all looks like it was a lot more expensive to produce than it actually was. * Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie: Most of the practical effects hold up well. The CGI...doesn't. * The rendering of David's building in The Divergent Series: Allegiant is beautiful to look at - especially the colours and lights. Even the elevator looks impressive. The entire design for the barren future is also quite impressive. * Kingdom of Heaven doesn't seem like the kind of movie for that, but then you watch this. * Let's just say there's a reason why Independence Day won the Oscar for visual effects. The destruction of the White House alone was enough to hang a whole advertising campaign on. * Black Narcissus is a film featuring stunning Scenery Porn of India. Except it was shot entirely on soundstages at Pinewood Studios. Matte paintings, hanging miniatures and glass effects were used to simulate Himalayan scenery. The result is a film that looks as if it was at least partially shot on location. * Assassin's Creed (2016): The awesomeness is in the foregoing of visual effects, with Aguilar's Leaps of Faith performed by Michael Fassbender's stunt double, Damien Walters, rather than using CGI. The film crew also made functional Hidden Blades. * The live-action Fat Albert movie: The effects used to show the characters transform from cartoons to real people by jumping out of the TV screen hold up pretty well. To say nothing of the gorgeous traditional animation. * Many horror movies have spectacularly upsetting transformation sequences, but they usually take a few minutes at most for the audience and the afflicted characters. They were so common in the early 1980s, with varying levels of quality in the execution, that by mid-decade it seemed nothing new could be done with the conceit of a man becoming a monster. And then David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) went with a Metamorphosis which unfolds over the course of a month-plus in-story, like a disease. Seven stages of transformation are depicted (an additional midpoint stage didn't make the final cut but DVD bonus features contain the sequence in question) — five via increasingly repulsive yet realistic makeup effects, and the final completely inhuman-looking ones via puppetry. Stage 5 becomes 6 right before the audience and characters' eyes as the Doomed Protagonist's body literally sheds its human form! Chris Walas and company's work deservedly won the Academy Award for Makeup, while Jeff Goldblum's amazing performance as poor Seth Brundle not receiving similar recognition for making the transformation fully come alive was regarded then and now as a serious Award Snub. Suffice to say that this Slow Transformation will likely stick around as the trope's page image and codifier for a while to come. * They Shall Not Grow Old: The work Peter Jackson, Stereo D, and Park Road Post put into the film, you'd think they had talkies, color film, and 3D back in the days of World War I. * Pokémon Detective Pikachu: + While the designs themselves fall somewhat under Unintentional Uncanny Valley, the integration of the Pokémon into live action itself works pretty damn well, often to the point where you might not notice them in some shots. + Special mention goes to the shot of Charizard using flamethrower and the herd of Bulbasaur walking along with Morelull floating around them. + The Fantastic Noir aesthetic for Ryme City that blends a family friendly Film Noir look crossed with Pokémon was well received as well. + The surprise Mewtwo bursting out of the flames looks amazing. + The Torterra◊ in the 'Casting Detective Pikachu' video has lots of detail such as scales and marks over its body. \|\|Seeing a bunch of them artificially enlarged to the size of islands is like something out of Jurassic Park.\|\| + Another mention go to the Pangoro's fur and incredible detail with the photorealism. It looks like what an actual scary Panda while also being a bear would look like. + The Bulbasaurs in the lake scene are especially detailed, with glimming eyes. * The Prehysteria trilogy, started in 1993, is all about kids who adopt four baby dinosaurs and a pterosaur. You'd assume, based on that premise alone, that it's full of 90s caliber CGI that looks super lame now, right? Wrong. All of the dinosaur scenes are done with practical effects, specifically animatronics, stop motion and a few puppets, including a flying Pteranodon on a string. The effects look really natural and indeed, a good portion of the films' behind-the-scenes featurettes tend to be the actors marvelling at how convincing they truly are. * How convincing are the gore effects in Cannibal Holocaust? So convincing that director Ruggero Deodato had to demonstrate them in Italian court to prove he didn't make a Snuff Film. * Spawn (1997) was directed by an effects artist, and his former employers at Industrial Light & Magic deliver the best-regarded computer animation of the movie (because the many other effects houses delivered quite underwhelming work) in Spawn's cape and the Violator, whose Transformation Sequence is very detailed. Even better are the practical effects, as John Leguizamo and Michael Jai White basically become the comic characters through make-up and costumes (to the point that they only met out of costume once shooting wrapped and had to be told who the other man was). * Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) looks very much like one of the video games in live action, specially with Sonic himself - which had the extra caveat that after overwhelmingly negative reaction to the hedgehog's look in the trailer, the scenes were reanimated with a different design in a short amount of time, and it still ended up very well integrated. * Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves proves that practical fantasy effects are still very much alive and well in The New '20s. While CGI is used for things that simply cannot be pulled off physically, a vast majority of the more fantastical elements shown on-screen are made to be as real as possible. All of the non-human races (including the aarakocra, dragonborn, tabaxi, and of course, the dragons) are pulled off through impressive animatronics, puppetry, and makeup, and even the magic effects are done as practically as possible, making it almost impossible to tell if there were any embellishments in post. * The 1993 Attack of the 50 Foot Woman remake has the scene of a giant Nancy bathing in a swimming pool, which is surpisingy seamless for a low-budget TV movie. * The 1937 film Sh! The Octopus is an otherwise quite forgettable Old, Dark House flick, but it features a scene where the villain transforms to her true face on-camera using makeup and colored filters. It still looks flawless today. * The Substance: Almost all of the Body Horror effects in the film are practical costumes and prosthetics, including \|\|the monstrous form of Monstro Elisasue\|\|. The results are as impressive as they are horrifying and are worthy of the Best Makeup Oscar the makeup crew won. The few effects that are digital are also so well done that they blend in seamlessly. ---	VisualEffectsOfAwesome	null
DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition	# Obvious Rule Patch - Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition * A rule introduced in this edition states that bonuses of the same types don't stack — only the largest one takes effect (with the exception of dodge bonuses to AC). This led to much more rule-patching to give previously-untyped bonuses types so they couldn't be so easily stacked any more. * 3.0 spellcasters had a bad habit of summoning heavy creatures in midair, causing them to deal obscene amounts of blunt damage as falling objects when they hit opponents. This is an eminently logical thing to do with a summoning spell, and the kind of Outside-the-Box Tactic that D&D often encourages. However, it's not only Not the Intended Use of the summoning spell, but it's also a Game-Breaker. Wizards of the Coast amended the summon spells in 3.5 to prevent creatures from being summoned into an environment that can't support them (i.e., you can summon a whale into the ocean, but you can't summon it in midair over a grassy field). The spell was later patched even further to say that all summoned creatures appear on the ground. * 3.0 bards only looked at how many ranks you had in Perform to determine what bardic performances you could use. Notably, this meant that all you unlocked from extra bard levels was more spells. As a result, the best bard was actually a Bard 1/Rogue 19, because you got all the same performances plus the abilities of a level 19 rogue. In 3.5, this was changed to also require levels of bard to unlock performances. * You can't sunder armor in 3.5. You can break weapons, shields, even items they're wearing like pendants. Just not armor. It would be easier to just break the fallen paladin's armor and then stab him, leading to silly situations such as the above. * In previous editions, dimension door created a pair of portals through which caster could travel great distances. But PCs and/or DMsoften created horizontal or diagonal doors to bisect creatures for an instant kill. There are even reports of giant portals used to bisect buildings, fortifications, and castles. Another tactic was to open a portal into a volcano or the sea, then use the exit portal to flood an enemy base with lava or water. It was changed here so that dimension door is just a teleport spell for the caster and one other person at max. Also, attempting to Tele-Frag someone with dimension door in 3.5e not only prevents the teleport from working but makes the caster take damage while leaving the would-be target untouched. All of this was done to prevent players from using dimension door in a way that was not only Not the Intended Use, but also a total Game-Breaker. * When a player turns into an animal (such as the Wild Shape ability of a Druid), they can no longer speak any languages they know; all they can do is make that animal's natural vocalizations. Third Edition rules inform you that this doesn't mean you can still talk if you turn into a parrot, since a parrot's natural call is squawking. * Any monster that has the ability to swallow enemies whole has text in its description noting that a victim can cut their way out of the stomach, but "muscular action" forces the hole closed behind it. It's clear this was done to patch two issues: 1) the monster simply bleeding to death after a giant hole is cut in its belly, and 2) the swallow ability being rendered completely useless after the first time someone escapes. * The confusion spell can cause a character to attack the nearest target, friend or foe. However, for the purposes of the spell, a familiar is considered part of a character, so it's exempt from being attacked when a character is confused. This patch is to prevent characters from killing their own familiars due to a fourth-level spell. * In 3.0/3.5, creatures with the innate ability to summon other creatures cannot use said ability when they themselves are under a summoning effect. This is mainly because high-level monsters (such as the balor) can summon others of their kind with a 100 percent chance of success. Without the rule, it would allow them to summon a balor, which could summon its own balor, which could summon its own balor, ad infinitum. * Touch AC, which lets spells ignore armor. Coming from 2e, they consolidated ray spells and weapon attacks into the same attack resolution system, which led to a catch-22. If you make wizards good at hitting with spells, they'll also be able to hit with weapons, while if you make them bad at hitting with weapons, they'll also have trouble landing spells. The solution? Armor was still the main factor in Armor Class, so just let spells bypass it. ---	ObviousRulePatch	null
WebAnimation	# Missing Episode - Web Animation * The Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse episode "New Girl in Town", which introduced Black and Nerdy Grace, was marked Unlisted on Barbie's YouTube channel for a few months. The Life in the Dreamhouse Wiki attributes "bad comments" as the cause. Grace's next episode, "Malibu's Empirical Emporium", didn't even receive an English release, until April 2015 — four months after Mattel shared and took away some dubbed versions of it. * Battle for Dream Island: + The original upload for the 12th episode, "A Leg Up in the Race", featured Golf Ball with Another Name, even though she was eliminated in Lofty, along with Rocky, who switched teams in Lofty. This upload was deleted, and it's unknown if anyone has the original version. + The original upload for "Gardening Hero" had an error, which caused the rejoin auditions and voting screen to not appear. This one was also deleted, replaced with a complete cut. It's also unknown if anyone has the original cut for this episode either. * Web cartoon Bonus Stage never had an Episode 4 - Ep 4 being a number of previews for the artist's other works that was eventually removed. But one day, a "Lost Episode" was hidden behind a fake Internet Explorer 404 page. But the episode was clearly new as could be: references to later episodes and the series' oft-obnoxious fan community were animated half in full, early-series lazy animation, half with frame-by-frame animation. The episode was later re-re-lost in a site redesign. Which might have been because of Phil erasing the series from history in the 87th episode. * Production images of a Deadpool animated web short. The animation was cancelled and remains unfinished. * Floops: Only a small portion of this early 3D webtoon's many episodes have been found in their entirety; some are missing their audio, while many others can't be found anywhere! * G's Paragate: GHXYK2 privated the entire series from his YouTube channel on an unknown date in 2024, with the reasons not disclosed. It is unknown if the series was ever archived by any users besides the creator. * Several Happy Tree Friends episodes have not been uploaded to Mondo Media's YouTube channel. Among them are a "Smoochie" episode with Cuddles, an entire episode of the TV series, one brief Christmas sketch, and two shorts starring Cro-Marmot (one of which is a pastiche of 1930s black and white cartoons, the other being an "interview" with him). * Helluva Boss had the eighth and final episode of its first season, "Queen Bee", delayed for two years, with the show going forward to begin its second season in the interim. The stated reason for it being withheld was "unspecified legal reasons", but due to the episode having an original song co-written by Kesha (who also voiced the episode's titular character), it's assumed that said song trapped the episode in limbo until Kesha was able to settle the years-long lawsuit she had against her record label at the time. * The Homestar Runner Strong Bad Email series played with this. Sbemail 22 was a "missing episode" for five months, but not because it had been suppressed or anything; the creators, in the process of creating the emails, had inadvertently skipped over that number. Between emails 40 and 41, they went back and created "sbemail 22" and jokingly promoted it as a missing episode. + Two cartoons, "Marshmallow's Last Stand" and "A Jumping Jack Contest" are absent from the site, but were both released on the "Everything Else, Vol. 2" DVD. + The unedited Strong Bad Email #69, "personal favorites", lacks an archived copy. * A Howard the Duck animated short was available on Marvel's website, but no archived copies have surfaced. * I'm Anton!: The original Japanese version of the "I hated my life, but then one day..." video was missing for unknown reasons. * In 2002, Sony Entertainment optioned Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl for a possible animated movie release, but they couldn't come to artistic terms with creator Roman Dirge, so eventually they let the rights go back to him. In the interim, however, they produced a series of twenty-six Flash animated shorts based on the Lenore comics and hosted them on their Screenblast service. They took them down around 2008 or so, and have so far refused to release or re-host them, with fansites or YouTube as the only place to see them. * My Story Animated: Several episodes have been removed from and/or made private on their YouTube channel. * One episode of Neurotically Yours has Foamy going on a rant over the current state of Halloween. At the end of the episode, Germaine gets electrocuted by a monkey, causing her breasts to swell up until they explode in blood and gore. Some time later, the breast explosion scene was cut out. * Nyan~ Neko Sugar Girls: Episode 1.5 was presumably planned to be after Episode 1. It was initially unaired due to an alleged feud with Dolce-chan's voice actress. According to SoapOpera46, many parts of the episode had to be cut from the final release because certain scenes were unfinished and "didn't work". The episode was uploaded to SoapOpera46's YouTube channel three years after Nyan~ Neko Sugar Girls ended. * Episodes 41 and 42 of Paramount Logo Bloopers (a series inspired by Looney Tunes Intro Bloopers) were uploaded to a different YouTube channel than the rest of the series. They were removed when the owner of said channel decided to distance himself from the "logo bloopers" community. Episode 41 eventually resurfaced on the Internet Archive (and it was reuploaded to YouTube shortly after), but Episode 42 is only available cropped from a reaction video. * SHARE MY STORY: Several videos of their have been removed from (or at least made private on) their channel. * The TVTome Adventures movie is gone. The site which originally hosted the entire series has been dead for a long time, and the only person known to have recovered The Movie, Tails Clock, has experienced some...er...problems with his site as of late. The only place left to host the series at all at this point is Chris Niosi's Newgrounds page, and if anything were to happen to that... The credits, bloopers, and other material not uploaded to Newgrounds is gone as well. * The Vietnamese web animation Wolfoo has *all* the missing official uploads of a few episodes, like "The Trial of Wolfoo"(where the titular main character has a dream in which he was judged by his sister Lucy and was sued by the animated talking heart for his bad habits, such as being lazy while exercising, being a picky eater who doesn't eat vegetables, watching storybooks and dancing at night (and when Lucy catches him, pinning the blame on her for playing radio late at night)) * All of Yoontoons' videos that prominently featured But Tru have been privated shortly after the two of them broke up. ---	MissingEpisode	null
OnePiece	# Spanner In The Works - One Piece * The Straw Hat Pirates in general: + Luffy and his crew have a tendency to do this wherever they go. Captain Kuro, Crocodile, Eneru, CP9, Shiki (from Strong World), and Z (from Film Z) all had very elaborate plans that were a stone's throw away from fruition, but then along came Luffy and crew. All of the above made the mistake of underestimating them, and paid dearly for it. + They also (unsurprisingly) stumbled upon the villainous plot for Fishman Island on their way to the New World, and thwarted that one as well. It helped that Arc Villain Hody Jones, in spite of knowing everything that the Straw Hats had done before their hiatus, dismissed the nine of them as no threat and used Evil Gloating to outright provoke them. With exactly one ally joining the nine Straw Hats to fight, Hody and his army of 100,000 found themselves on the receiving end of what may be the most devastating Curb-Stomp Battle in the series as a result. Luffy alone cut down the army by half with a Conqueror Haki's burst. * Monkey D. Luffy in particular: + Luffy honestly doesn't care about the World Government's rule, or for that matter any of the Arc Villains he faces. He just won't let anyone he cares about get hurt and will go to any lengths to protect his True Companions, hence his victories over three of the Seven Warlords of the Sea (and earning the respect or allegiance of the other four, and allying with yet another who proved to be The Mole after more were added to the roster), the destruction of Enies Lobby, and the assault upon the most powerful jerkasses in the world. Soon afterwards, we add the first successful mass-jail break from Impel Down and his assault upon the Marine HQ, just to save his big brother from being executed. The surrounding politics and larger conflict don't enter his mind at all. + Luffy's proficiency on this trope has been lampshaded during the Impel Down arc, when the jailers have to deal with two simultaneous riots on top of Blackbeard's invasion, both as a result of Luffy sneaking in. > Magellan: Nothing is going our way! How could one intruder spark so much mayhem?! * Sanji: + Luffy may be the biggest spanner among the Straw Hat Pirates, but Sanji Deserves special mention as well; his skills as a tactician often prove to be the linchpin to the Straw Hats' success. Enies Lobby shows his shrewdness in this twice. First, he lures a bunch of Marines and Agents into the back of the train Puffing Tom, then slips past them while they're distracted and detaches their cars behind him, stranding them and dealing with almost all of the remaining Mooks and a One-Man Army without having to fight them. Then, when the Buster Call arrives at Enies Lobby, he disappears for a while. When he returns, it's revealed he'd been looking for the controls to the Gates of Justice so he can close them, throwing the Buster Call ships into disarray by changing the pattern of the currents they were sailing on. + Much earlier, he shows off his skills in the Alabasta saga. First, all the way back in Little Garden, he happens to intercept a call from Mr. 0 and, pretending to be Mr. 3, tricks Baroque Works into thinking Vivi and the Straw Hats are all dead, meaning they don't have to worry about constant pursuit for a while; plus, he intercepts an Eternal Pose to Alabasta, meaning the Straw Hats could leave right away rather than wait a year for the Log Pose to reset. Later, in Alabasta itself, all of the other Straw Hats except Chopper have been captured by Crocodile and trapped in a room that will soon be submerged. He uses a bit of trickery to lure Crocodile and his Dragon out of the building and lure them far enough away to give him time to sneak in and set all of them free. He even taunts Crocodile with a note saying "Mr. Prince was here" for when he comes back and discovers that he's been outsmarted. + In Skypiea, the first time Eneru shows any real shock was when he discovers Luffy's rubber body is shockproof. The second time, though, was after he KO's Sanji, but his Parting-from-Consciousness Words hint he's still ruined Eneru's day... by sabotaging the Ark Maxim! + As of 862, Sanji might have performed his biggest spanner act ever... \|\|simply by calling his bride Pudding's Third Eye "beautiful". Up until then, the Ax-Crazy Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Pudding was fully willing to shoot him dead with a Hand Cannon... but since she had been bullied all of her life for that same Third Eye, Sanji's kind phrase shook her to the core and sent her in a sobbing Villainous Breakdown. This meant: she couldn't bring herself to kill him, Sanji managed to perceive and dodge additional threats in their surroundings (like an attack from Pudding's very badass Cold Sniper older brother Katakuri)... and then Luffy (and some clones of his) got the perfect opening to begin crashing the wedding, undo Big Mom's plans regarding Sanji's family, and put the plan to assassinate Big Mom herself in movement.\|\| * In the Battle of Marineford: + Little Oars, Jr. caused the Marines strategy for fighting Whitebeard to backfire when his body blocked a piece of a huge siege wall they were trying to activate from rising. + Buggy the Clown also qualifies. His desire to grandstand and show off to a world audience led him to capture a video Transponder Snail, meaning that the World Government didn't have total control over what information was getting out of Marineford when they started slaughtering the pirates mercilessly with the Pacifistas, or when Blackbeard betrayed the World Government, indelibly humiliating them in the process. * Fishman Island: + The Minister of the Right, Hody (indirectly) and Luffy prove to be spanners for Big Mom in her arc. As Hody stole the Energy Steroids in his plans to take over the Fishman Island, the minister fitted the treasure box with bombs in order to prevent further steps, which get accidentally sent to Big Mom herself when Luffy tries to bribe her into sparing Fishman Island. During the farce of a wedding in Whole Cake Island, \|\|hadn't Big Mom planned to open the Treasure Box after massacring the Straw Hats and the Vinsmokes, as well as Du Feld attempting to steal the box, the Big Mom Pirates would have won for good.\|\| + Otohime sparing Mjosgard saved her family in the long run. Hadn't Otohime spared him despite her subjects' request to kill him for revenge against part of the World Nobles, \|\|Charlos would have bought Shirahoshi, causing Neptune to attack him and trigger a war between the Ryuugu Kingdom and the World Government, as the citizens are immensely loyal to him and would have surely participated in the war, causing a lot of deaths and the Fishmen being permanently barred from the surface. Mjosgard getting his Character Development is what foiled Charlos's attempts to provoke an international incident, as he could intervene without incurring the wrath of the Admirals.\|\| * Punk Hazard: + At the beginning of their journey into the New World, the Straw Hats evade Smoker this way. They were originally planning to go to Raijin island, and Smoker knew they were going there because it was the most dangerous of the New World's first three islands, fitting Luffy's adventurous personality and reckless tendencies. However, due to a timely distress call and pure happenstance, they end up going to an island the Log Pose didn't even register. Thus, began the Punk Hazard arc, where the crew accidentally stumbled upon another long term villainous plot and Government Conspiracy that they inevitably wreck. Again. And this time, they have a live audience to witness it all over the New World. + Going to Punk Hazard destroyed many villains' ongoing plans. This not only derailed Doflamingo's 10-year rule, but also devastated Big Mom's, Shogun Orochi's and Kaido's plans as well: - Big Mom could never have \|\|laid her hands on Sanji\|\| if not for the trip to Dressrosa, which in turn \|\|bolstered Luffy's own reputation as a prospective Emperor\|\| when Luffy went charging in to the rescue. - Orochi and Kaido's enemies were there in Punk Hazard itself. As they rescued Kin'emon and Momonosuke, they also \|\|revitalized Wano's resistance movement against the tyrannical Orochi, and Momo himself is revealed to be the son of Oden, the transcriptor of the Roger Pirates\|\|. Also, they accidentally saved Zou from being destroyed by Jack only because Kin'emon and Momo stated it as their destination. The red Poneglyph in Zou in turn provided the most important clue to the route to Laugh Tale. It's safe enough to say both Wano's resistance and Luffy's quest would have failed completely by accident if Luffy didn't decide to step on the most dangerous island to report on the distress call. + Smoker's obsession with catching Luffy has made him into a spanner for a quite number of villains as well. The moment where the Straw Hats evaded him upon entry into the New World led to Smoker following them to Punk Hazard. The presence of both him and Tashigi later proved to be pivotal to the Straw Hats and Law taking down Caesar Clown, as it was Smoker who got Law his heart back from \|\|Vergo\|\|, while his own heart was used to trick Caesar into accidentally killing his subordinate Monet, right before she was about to blow up the island to kill everyone except for Caesar, who, being a Gas Logia, would've been the only survivor. \|\|He also proved to be a spanner for the World Government's propaganda practices. He was absolutely disgusted by the Medal of Dishonor situation issued to him and Tashigi at Alabasta, and confessed as much to the newly conscripted Admiral Fujitora, whose goal/dream is to one day end the Warlord system, admitting the only reason he didn't reveal the truth is because he lacked the power and influence to make people believe him. This inspired Fujitora to delay his report after Doflamingo's defeat and expose to the surrounding islands both Dressrosa's current state and their true saviors, the Straw Hat Pirates and Law, preventing his superiors from trying to cover it up\|\|. And that \|\|led to the abolishment of the Seven Warlords System.\|\| * Dressrosa: + In this arc, Donquixote Doflamingo hatches what looks like the perfect trap to destroy the Straw Hats with. See, this guy isn't your average villain; not only is he an extremely skilled and powerful Chessmaster and Manipulative Bastard, he's also smart enough to know that underestimating Luffy's crew would be a fatal mistake. However, outside factor after outside factor helps the Straw Hat Pirates out, rendering it all moot. - The Tontattas, whose people were enslaved by the Donquixote Family, provide intel on the location of the SMILE Factory and the identity of the power-user maintaining control over the country's Living Toys. - A familiar face from the past shows up at the colosseum, and he probably wouldn't have without the tournament Doflamingo created to trap Luffy, to switch places with Luffy, allowing him to attack Doflamingo's castle undetected. Doflamingo couldn't possibly have anticipated this, because \|\|the number of people who were even aware that Luffy had a second brother could be counted on one hand, and and all of them thought that Sabo had died years ago\|\|. - But the biggest spanners came from Doffy's own crew: his officer Violet, who maintained a façade of loyalty since the time she was blackmailed into joining, falls for Sanji's chivalry and switches sides. - Giolla, on the tail-end of her capture of the Thousand Sunny, lets her guard down long enough for Brook to pull a You Are Already Dead. - Bellamy helps Luffy escape the colosseum because Doffy decided to have him killed. - And most of all, there's Sugar, the one turning people into toys. Knocking her unconscious is the only way for the guise over Dressrosa to be lifted, but no one can get near her due to her being heavily guarded and being able to defeat opponents simply by touching them. Usopp is captured, but instead of turning him into a toy like the others, she feeds him a grape she believed to be poisoned... which was actually hellishly spicy, and the resulting Jump Scare / Nightmare Face causes her to faint in shock. + Consequently, Doflamingo's precious Masquerade is shattered, the country sees him for the evil person he truly is, and he's forced to take the most drastic measures that he can. + There's also the fact that in the resulting battle, five of the eleven remaining One Man Armies in his crew are taken down thanks to pirates that came to the colosseum due to the tournament. + It turned out that Sugar herself commited quite the mistake regarding her plan... Due to how her powers work, once she makes somone into a member of the Living Toys group, she must manually create a contract with the victims, forcing them to follow every order given at that point, against their will. She did not do that with her first victim... who turned out to be the son-in-law of the former King, the extremely badass gladiator Kyros. As a result Kyros, now the toy Thunder Soldier, managed to retain his free will and do what he could to raise his not-turned daughter Rebecca, became the leader of an underground movement of rebels against Doflamingo's rule, and helped out the Straw Hats to overthrow Doflamingo. * Trafalgar Law: + In a non-Straw Hat example, there's Trafalgar Law. The Dressrosa arc, which escalated to involve nearly every major power in the world in some form — the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Four Emperors, the Marines, the World Government, and the Revolutionary Army — wouldn't have even happened if it weren't for him in the first place. His alliance with Luffy really did "shake the world" as the papers said, as it put the Straw Hats in the path of the Donquixote Family, leading to all of the above, and the gradual destruction of Donquixote Doflamingo's criminal empire. The thing is, Law, much like Luffy in that regard, doesn't care about any of it. The ultimate purpose of all his actions, including continuing to live to this very day, for the last thirteen years, has been to kill Donquixote Doflamingo. If the world has to spiral into chaos just so he can kill the man who murdered the most important person in his life, then so be it... though it's revealed in some chapters that he also seems to want the aftershock he knows will follow Doffy's defeat. Luffy grants his wish for the most part: Doffy's not dead, but he's clearly ruined. So when the government kicks him out of the Warlords and puts him and Luffy on equal footing, he shrugs it all off as if to say, "So Long, Suckers!". * Lola from the Thriller Bark arc. During said arc, she supplies Luffy with the shadows that allow him to pummel the giant zombie Oars, and though that doesn't destroy Oars, it does weaken him enough for the Straw Hats to finish him off. Then, before they depart, she gives Nami a Vivre Card that apparently belongs to her mother. \|\|In Whole Cake Island, it's shown that Big Mom is Lola's mother, and that card is full of Big Mom's Soul Power, allowing Nami to control the Animate Inanimate Objects also created by Big Mom. In fact, by leaving Big Mom's territory, Lola disrupted an Arranged Marriage that would have allowed Big Mom to become Pirate Queen!\|\| * In a larger scale, there's a woman named Sora. She foiled the plans of \|\|her husband Judge\|\| to \|\|experiment with their quadruplet sons, who she was still pregnant with\|\| by taking a dangerous drug that \|\|undid gene modifications\|\|. While \|\|only one of the boys was spared being modified\|\| and \|\|her health was damaged beyond repair and she died afterwards\|\|, it turns out \|\|the son that she did manage to save eventually escaped from his Big, Screwed-Up Family and grew into... none other than Vinsmoke Sanji, one of Luffy's True Companions, who's been helping Luffy become a bonafide example of this trope.\|\| * The Darkest Hour in the Wano arc comes when Shogun Orochi manages to head off the heroes' attempts to covertly build up a rebellion and raid Kaido's island base, Onigashima, by sinking all the ships they had planned to use to travel by water and the bridges they would have used to go by land the night before they were all set to gather. This happened due to the actions of a traitor in the good guys' midst passing along every scrap of information they could, including a last minute change of plans orchestrated by an ally just before his execution. What results is the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance arriving at their planned rendezvous, finding no one there, and the traitor revealing themselves in order to \|\|abduct Momonosuke\|\|. However, it's then revealed that \|\|the message that brought the main allies to this place meant something completely different. The meeting place was different than indicated and, because of the differences in distance between where they were and where everyone else was, everyone else was already in position long before the ships and bridges were demolished\|\|. Kin'emon, the leader of the samurai, is praised for such a brilliant piece of tactical misdirection, which exposed the traitor, prevented their actions from derailing their plans, and guaranteed the raid on Onigashima could proceed. The thing is, \|\|the only reason the allies were in the wrong place was because Kin'emon misinterpreted the message that changed their plans while everyone else didn't. Upon realizing this, Kin'emon can only stand there stone-faced as he realizes basically "Oh, that's what that meant..."\|\| * Kaido's crew, the Animal Kingdom Pirates, is particularly fearsome for one big reason: the artificially produced SMILE fruits grant them the biggest Zoan army in the whole world with over five hundred devil fruits user among them. It's gotta be hard to defeat such a force, right? Well, that would be the case if not for Tama, whose Kibi-Kibi no Mi allows her to take control of any beast that eats her Kibi Dango, and unfortunately for Kaido, the nature of the SMILE fruits makes his underlings sensible to this very specific power. * A crewmember of the Buggy's Delivery indirectly causes this to Buggy. \|\|After Crocodile comes to save Buggy to collect his debt, he takes note of how Buggy was fleeing from the Delivery to avoid paying him, after which Buggy obliges to work for Crocodile's Cross Guild for free. He then assigns his crewmate to advertise about the Cross Guild, who, enamored with Buggy's sheer charisma, makes him the leader of Cross Guild. While this results in Buggy getting catapulted to one of the Four Emperors, this also makes him the brunt of fury from both Crocodile and Mihawk, who brutally torture him before agreeing that Buggy as the "leader" would be better for their long-term survival.\|\| + Buggy, in turn, becomes this to \|\|Crocodile and Mihawk. While the two planned to build a Pirate Nation and use the wealth and prestige to retire, Buggy, inspired by Shanks going after the One Piece, rekindles his desire to get the One Piece. Proposing this to both of them and getting beaten up, Buggy tells the entire Cross Guild they are going after the One Piece, which the two can't do anything to undo, as both of them are still technically subordinates to Buggy.\|\| * During Cobra's fateful meeting with the Five Elders, \|\|Imu willingly reveals themself to him, before attempting to assassinate Cobra after he reveals that the Nefertari Family is secretly a carrier of the Will of D.\|\|. Things don't go quite as expected when \|\|Sabo breaks into the room and tries to save Cobra by attacking Imu and the Five Elders; after Sabo is injured, Cobra gives him a message to pass on to Luffy and Vivi before sacrificing himself to allow Sabo to escape\|\|. Then, to make matters worse, \|\|Wapol bore witness to the whole thing through a peeping hole; aware that he has discovered the mother of all closet skeletons, he immediately runs for his life by eating his way through the walls of Pangaea Castle, unwittingly rescuing Vivi after she was captured by CP0\|\|. Now the World Government has at least two people who know their darkest secret on the run, meaning it's only a matter of time before it spreads. And last time they were seen in the present time, \|\|Wapol and Vivi were over at Morgans; Sabo, meanwhile, returns to the Kamabakka Kingdom after the destruction of Lulusia (which the Five Elders believe he was unable to escape) and retells his discovery to Ivankov and Dragon, the leadership of the Revolutionary Army, creating one of the worst-case scenarios for the World Government\|\|. * As the Egghead arc reaches its climax, the Straw Hats and their allies find themselves about to be assailed by \|\|the Five Elders in their monster forms\|\|, with little hope of escape. Just then, \|\|Emet\|\| uses the ace up its sleeve: \|\|a knot containing Joy Boy's Haki, which is strong enough to forcefully undo the Elders' transformations and send most of them sans Saturn all the way back to Mary Geoise\|\|. For the record, it wouldn't have been able to do that at all if \|\|Saturn hadn't secretly gone against Imu's orders 200 years ago and kept Emet for study instead of destroying it\|\|. Let's just say \|\|Imu\|\| is not too happy when they find out. * In Elbaph, just as \|\|Gaban\|\| charges at Gunko, Colon unwittingly gives her leverage to use against him by addressing him as his father. Gunko wastes no time moving towards Colon and threatening to kill him unless \|\|Gaban\|\| surrenders on the spot, which the latter does upon seeing into the future and realizing he would not be able to neutralize Gunko in time. ---	SpannerInTheWorks	null

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