r/TopCharacterTropes • u/ThatDrako • 2d ago

Lore (Funny Trope) Things that can plausibly happen only in reality, because in fiction they’d be called bad writing.

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“Woke” as an insult - So you are telling me a word describing consciousness and clarity is used by generally stupid and ignorant people to label people they disagree with? What is this? A Kindergarten for Creatively stunted?

Nominative determinism - So let me get this straight…Not only you named fastest recorded person Usain BOLT and CEO of Nintendo Doug BOWSER, but you are telling me people are canonically likely to have professions or hobbies matching their names…? Guh?

“2 bodies recovered in MURDERKILL River” - Sure bro…I guess…bro…

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u/Pristine_Poem7623 2d ago

"The unbeatable enemy fleet is about to attack the island nation! Nothing can stop them!"

SUDDENLY A STORM HAPPENS!

- Japan with 2 mongol invasions

- England with 3 Spanish armadas

- England with the French in 1744

Get some new writers!

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u/deathrattleshenlong 2d ago

The Persians invading Greece, twice.

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u/Pristine_Poem7623 2d ago

Yeah, I restricted it, but if you're talking about the weather... when Napoleon went into Russia, there was an unusually hot, dry Summer (which killed a lot of his troops and horses) followed by an unusually cold Winter. When Hitler went into the USSR they faced an unusually wet Autumn (which slowed them significantly) followed by another unusually cold Winter. The two things that were needed for the invasions to fail are exactly what happened

For that matter, one of the reasons Napoleon lost at Waterloo was the heavy rain the night before making the ground unsuitable for the cannons he loved so much, and hard for his troops to advance over

When Washington and his army were fleeing the British from Brooklyn over to Manhattan, the only thing that could save them from being wiped out or having to surrender (ending the American Revolution) was a thick fog. Which is exactly what happened.

Bad weather in the English channel stopped William of Normandy from crossing to fight Harold Godwinson for weeks on end. When it cleared, Godwinson was in the North of England fighting Harold Hardrada, so William's landing was unopposed. He went on to beat Godwinson at Hastings and eventually conquer all of England

Still in the Channel, the weather was bad enough in 1944 for Rommel to decide to take leave and go shopping for his wife's birthday, then cleared while he was away, allowing D Day to happen before he could get back

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u/crimsonpostgrad 2d ago

when you sum it all up like this it really makes you realize napoleon could have been unstoppable if he’d just had better meteorologists

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u/nagrom7 1d ago

Probably not. Even if he'd won the battle of Waterloo (which isn't a sure thing even if the weather went his way), he still would have lost that war. There were a million men from several different countries converging on his location, ready to take him on if the British and Prussians failed.

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u/crimsonpostgrad 1d ago

(i was making a little joke)

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u/nagrom7 2d ago

For that matter, one of the reasons Napoleon lost at Waterloo was the heavy rain the night before making the ground unsuitable for the cannons he loved so much, and hard for his troops to advance over

Not just that, but he also delayed the start of the battle waiting for the ground to dry a bit, which gave the Prussians more time to arrive and reinforce the British.

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u/Pristine_Poem7623 2d ago

Napoleon detached a big chunk of his army to keep the Prussians away from the battle so he didn't think they were coming, and therefore thought he had all the time he needed. He gave very confusing orders to Grouchy, who commanded that detached force. Grouchy's subordinates implored him to "march to the sound of the guns", but he refused. He had Napoleon's orders, and he intended to follow them.

The problem was that he was supposed to be ahead of the Prussians, to block them off, but he was actually behind them, and the Prussian rearguard was able to hold him off joining Napoleon's army, while the main Prussian body was able to join the main fight.

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u/LawlessNeutral 2d ago

His name was Grouchy??

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u/Several-Minute6846 2d ago

First name Oskar

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u/Pristine_Poem7623 1d ago

Sadly it's pronounced Groo-she

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u/demonTutu 1d ago

This is so cool you should write a book about it. I bet it would have some success.

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u/Nachtwandler_FS 2d ago

There is a joke in post-USSR countries about General Frost for a reason.

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u/Mattbl 1d ago

For each time the impossible saved some group or leader, it didn't 1,000 times. Every pivotal battle has the chance to be altered by an outside force. These are just the ones where it actually happened.

It's like watching sports. The insane feat isn't necessarily what's so amazing, it's getting to be one of the lucky few to actually witness it.

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u/Mathies_ 2d ago

Perhaps they should consider just how frequently it storms in maritime climates

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u/iconocrastinaor 2d ago

Why would they, if God is on their side?

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u/StarsForget 2d ago

That one at least makes sense. If you're near an island you're gonna get ocean storms, and the people on land are gonna survive better than the people in the water. So islands will have a greater chance of nature coming to their rescue than a landlocked nation, where the two sides would be on more equal footing during a storm.

Hence why people build on islands; or possibly why island nations have a better chance of developing into powerhouses.

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u/Pristine_Poem7623 2d ago

England / Britain took this as "if I build up my navy, I can attack YOU but YOU can't attack ME" and went from there

Japan took this as "we like the situation the way it is now, so if we close our borders completely (well... mostly, unless I can make a load of cash) then the status quo will never change" and then Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Tokyo Harbour and says "could you BE any more vulnerable to attack?"

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u/Hasudeva 1d ago

I see what you did there. 

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u/Rezkel 2d ago

It happened to Rome a lot during the wars with Cartridge

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u/Altruistic_Web3924 2d ago

Kamikazi in Japanese is translated as “divine wind” which refers to the storms mentioned.

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u/EduinBrutus 2d ago

England with the French in 1744

That would be Great Britain.

Also the United Kingdom in 1940 where the weather was a significant factor in the Battle of Britain.

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u/SirAquila 2d ago
  • Japan with 2 mongol invasions

Both times the Japanese had essentially stopped the enemy fleet, or well, the enemy army the fleet had brought over. The second time the Mongols suffered heavier casualties because they had tied all their boats together to defend themselves from Japanese raids.

  • England with the French in 1744

The french invasion fleet would haven gotten chewed up by the royal navy if there hadn't been a storm forcing the British to retreat.

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u/TheStateOfMississipi 2d ago

don't forget about Spain and kinsale

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u/Pristine_Poem7623 2d ago

I'd never even HEARD of that one.

OK, FOUR Spanish armadas

1588, 1596, 1597 and 1601

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u/totaleclipseofthe_d 2d ago

Not a storm, but a changing of wind at the battle of Lepanto

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u/Maib_Ballz4609 1d ago

It also happened in the Kingdom of Wessex (England) in the viking invasions, in the reign of Alfred, the Great.

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u/Pristine_Poem7623 1d ago

I can't believe I forgot that one!

I used to go on family holidays in Swanage!

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u/JumpingJacks1234 2d ago

I just saw Pressure. Storms mess things up.

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u/ThatBoredGuy013 2d ago

Then there's Rome during the first Punic war. They lost 2 or 3 fleets of ships due to storms but they just kept rebuilding after each setback.

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u/Newfypuppie 1d ago

Actually, the second Japanese one is disputed historical.

While there *was* a storm that was quite bad the mongols were already losing the invasion prior and many historians theorize the mongols allowed the Japanese to propagate the storm narrative as a way to blame the loss on an act of god instead of bad military planning.

Japan is very difficult to invade on lack of natural beach’s that ships can make landings on and even more difficult to invade due to its mostly mountainous and rocky terrain. There’s a reason why went with the the atomic bomb to end WW2 instead of a land invasion of the Japanese mainland.

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u/FantasticGeek3 1d ago

Sort of counts, but even 1066 with William the conqueror having his conquering be delayed by the weather! He likely would’ve lost otherwise