Refuge in Audacity/Fanfic


 * Shinji and Warhammer 40 K starts out rather mellow; a young Shinji Ikari finds a chest of Warhammer 40,000 miniatures and rulebooks, which leads to him having better relationships with his adopted parents and schoolmates, which leads to a self-confidence boost, which leads to many other things that help Shinji buck his numerous neuroses before Eva proper even begins. Once Gendo calls him to Tokyo-3, things start to get kinda cool. Shinji stomps a few angels, makes a few Badass Boasts, makes some new friends, and starts to have a lasting impact on his surroundings and fellow pilots. At some point, however, the author begins to slowly but surely ratchet up the degree to which the Rule of Cool factors into the plot, until suddenly the battle with Jet Alone happens and Shinji is holding a nuclear explosion in his hand and the reader is left looking around for a guy with a sword and pointy orange sunglasses and wondering if they're still even reading an Eva fic. Then things get really nuts.
 * Tiberium Wars has this happen multiple times. In fact, half of Havoc's plans involve them being so ridiculous no one sees them coming, and in Chapter Fifteen, the ruined remains of Lieutenant Wallace's Zone Trooper squad attacks hundreds of Nod soldiers, tanks, beam cannons, and Avatars.
 * By the same author, Forward is a Firefly fic that has this happen multiple times as well. For example, one scene in the "Mosaic" story arc has Jayne  and charge an enemy pirate crew. Later, int he "Silver" arc, Mal, Jayne, and Kaylee escape from a mansion full of soldiers by
 * ''An Entry with a Bang! has a part where an infantryman forces the surrender of a 'Mech pilot by strapping MREs to himself and pretending they're explosives.
 * In DC Nation, this IS the bread and butter of Travis Grey (an Original Character Green Lantern). A street kid and pickpocket, he steals Hal Jordan's wallet and spare ring. After donning the ring, he proceeds to go on a one-man cleanup spree through his rough New York neighborhood. He then tops it by making a Sarcastic Confession to Guy Gardner and Hal about his activities, chiding Hal to keep better track of his stuff, and all but daring the two veteran Lanterns to steal the ring back. Hal's ticked, but Guy's about to double over laughing.
 * Thirty Hs. Egregiously and then some.
 * New save file is a Sonic and the Black Knight fanfiction which often lapses into this. What other fanfic has a furry Saxton Hale, references to Red vs. Blue, an undead duck and Sonic dressed up as Quick Man? And only one of those things is from a dream sequence.
 * A Hero: Dalek Sec's plans tend to fall into this trope. Unfortunately, this means that his failures tend to go into Epic Fail, because of this trope. And considering his horrible luck at everything...
 * Mighty Morphin Mecha Rangers: Let's list this out and see what we get. Seto Kaiba bought his own city complete with its own Defense Force that gets randomly attacked by Powerful Monsters. So he blackmails Five Very Different Mecha Pilots to form a team to fight the monsters. Still there? It gets more audacious as it goes!