Anthropic Principle: Difference between revisions

For example, ''[[Slumdog Millionaire]]'' requires a lead character able to get on a TV quiz show and do surprisingly well, to the point that the show itself becomes [[Serious Business]]. For ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' to happen, Dr. Gregory House must be able to keep his job as a genius diagnostician despite being a major [[Jerkass]]. For ''[[Snakes on a Plane]]'' to happen, there must be [[Captain Obvious|snakes on]] [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|a plane]]. For a ''[[Gundam]]'' series to happen, giant [[Mecha]] must be possible. And to the eternal enmity of all physicists, you cannot have a [[Space Opera]] without [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]] ... and the resultant [[Cool Starship|Cool Starships]]s [[We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future|must have people on them]] (even if it's just because [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|suitable machines can't be trusted]]) because [[Most Writers Are Human|it's hard to tell entertaining stories about unmanned probes.]] For an [[Adventure Game]] or [[RPG]] to happen, there must be ''someone'' who the player can guide through the [[Sorting Algorithm of Villain Threat]] and eventually beat up the [[Big Bad]] in single combat. And in all of the above cases, if Adventures of those types can be had regularly, it is an [[Adventure-Friendly World]].

This is in some ways the opposite of the [[MST3K Mantra]], which says that some details don't need to make sense because they ultimately don't matter; the [['''Anthropic Principle]]''' says that certain details of the story '''do''' matter because they are the foundations that the story itself is built upon, and accepting those details on faith is critical to the audience's enjoyment of the show, even if it doesn't make much sense from an outside viewpoint.

* This trope is surprisingly often [[Defied Trope|defied]] by critics reviewing [[Comic Book]] [[The Movie|film adaptations]] and [[Fantasy]], when they dismiss an entire genre in its opening paragraph by pointing out that the very premise of the story is realistically impossible and rests upon [[Character Archetype|childlike simplifications]] -- and—and anyone who takes such stories seriously must by definition be irresponsible and childish themselves; see [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Like]].

* Conversely, the need for the plot to work ''as an actual story'' is a problem for [[Fan Dumb|overzealous fans]] who attempt to [[Doing inIn the Wizard|explain away]] an aspect of the story that requires [[Broad Strokes]]. They may foreswear any [[Death of the Author|literary]], character-driven, or [[Epileptic Trees|other]] interpretations, placing [[All There in the Manual|rigorous consistency]] above whether or not it makes [[Rule of Drama|a good story]]; and apply [[Armed with Canon|similar standards]] when judging film adaptations, even when there'd be no film if their proposed changes were made.

* Given a [[Shout-Out]] in one ''[[BattleTech]]'' novel, where it's revealed that {{spoiler|Vladimir Ward}} firmly believes in a personal version of this -- thatthis—that is, he's earnestly convinced that the Star League fell and the Clans came into being just so that ''he'' could be born at just the right time for the invasion and go on to conquer the Inner Sphere. To him, that's actually the simplest and most logical explanation for everything in his life up to that point.

* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' uses this to [[Hand Wave]] a traditional video game trope. The plot of the game involves a man reliving the memories of an assassin ancestor using a special machine that reads genetic memories; what would be a [[Life Meter]] in most games is called a Synchronization Meter, explaining how in synch he is with the historical events. Performing actions that are badly out of character (like killing innocents) or just plain inaccurate (like dying) lower the Synch Meter. Incidentally, it was made by the same team as the ''Prince of Persia'' series, mentioned abovebelow. Logically, this implies that Altair was an ''incredible [[Badass]]'', since being hurt at all lowers synchronization- thus he never got hurt...

** In ''[[Snatcher]]'', while the Continue function works as standard, the Chief will shout at Gillian after the factory opening if he dies during the attack of the Insectors. "Do you hear me, Seed? No more Game Overs!" In ''[[Policenauts]]'', Jonathan will [[Have a Nice Death|complain]] if you get too many [[Game Over|Game Overs]]s, and then suggest hints (and if you carry on failing, simply say "I'm going to get him this time.") In the original ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', Mantis comments on how many traps Snake has fallen into - the traps are instant-death pits, suggesting Mantis is able to see Snake's Game Overs. [[Hideo Kojima]] likes this trope a lot.

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}Anthropic Principle]]