Tempting Fate/Video Games
- Near the start of Xenoblade Chronicles, Fiora tells Shulk that she's super-happy and wishes every day could be like this forever. So naturally the colony gets invaded shortly thereafter.
- Starship Titanic, the ship that cannot possibly go wrong.
- Final Fantasy IX has a fairly spectacular example in Cleyra, a Hidden Elf Village protected by a magical sandstorm: "No enemy would dare attack us when we strengthen the storm!" "I think strengthening the storm would be good for me." "Strengthening the storm is the best thing you can do right now!" The attempt causes the enchantment to break.
- In Star Control II, you can meet the Melnorme and their space ship, the Inevitably Successful in All Circumstances.
- Although, unless the player does something really silly, this will turn out to be an aversion.
- In Resident Evil 5, right after you run into a pair of Lickers, one of the characters remarks that it's a good thing there was only a couple of them, because there was no way they'd survive against a whole horde of them. Guess what happens when you have to wait for the elevator...
- Warcraft 3 has this in Arthas' dialogue
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Uther: I hope there is a special place in hell waiting for you, Arthas! |
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- We all know how that ends up.
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Yogg-Saron: NO KING RULES FOREVER! |
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- Anyone familiar with Warcraft or World of Warcraft knows how Goblin technology is prone to blowing up, whether it's supposed to or not; so would any sane person want to fly around Azeroth on a Goblin made Rocket Ride named "The Uncrashable"?
- Which is subverted because, while it does stutter and make unnerving popping sounds, it actually gets you where you're going safely.
- Anyone familiar with Warcraft or World of Warcraft knows how Goblin technology is prone to blowing up, whether it's supposed to or not; so would any sane person want to fly around Azeroth on a Goblin made Rocket Ride named "The Uncrashable"?
- This trope is given a lampshade by Urdnot Fortack in Mass Effect 2, lamenting he is researching medicine and crop genetics when he thinks could just buy that from the Salarians. Shepard notes their surprise at him willing to trust the Salarians with that, to which Fortack asks rhetorically what they could do, render the Krogan even more sterile? He quickly adds "Wait, forget I said anything.".
- Which is even more hilarious given that one of your party members is a leading salarian scientist who used to work on exactly that project (that is, upgrading the genophage to be even more effective).
- In Halo: Combat Evolved, a group of space marines board a ship owned by hostile Covenant. They look around the empty room they arrive in, note that there are no blips on their RADAR, and one of them says: "No Covenant. I guess nobodies home." Cue doors all around them opening to reveal hordes of Laser Sword - wielding Covenant (who were wearing devices that shielded them from RADAR.)
- Quickly lampshaded: "No Covenant. You had to open your mouth."
- The two drivers of the Fawful Express boss in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story have to be just asking for it from their comments before battle:
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"Was Bowser a pushover or what?" |
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- Then: "Worry not, broskis! That guy's punch is no prob! Unless he spits fire, we'll take ZERO damage!" (And for that matter, the words "punch" and "fire" are in blue.)
- Also, this dialogue from Super Mario Galaxy 2:
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(Mario/Luigi arrives at Bowser Jr's Boom Bunker, where he finds the Toad Brigade finding the remains of a destroyed robot on the first planet, it is Megahammer, the robot Bowser Jr. used during his battle against Mario/Luigi at the end of Bowser Jr's Fearsome Fleet) |
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- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption gets in on the act at the beginning of the game at the same time it references Warhammer 40K with the Horus Rebellion. That feeling it could get worse? He has no idea...
- Prior to Metroid Prime, the Chozo actually did this too. Remember their wall-hanging made of Cordite? Cordite is a kind of gunpowder for modern-day heavy-duty artillery weapons. It's not something you should make wall-hangings off.
- In Quake 4, the cowardly engineer you're escorting mentions how he hates waiting for elevators... Cue a bloody lot of Network Guardians crawling out of the woodwork. You Just Had to Say It, did you?
- Also invoked at the end of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, when while the modern-day Assassins (mainly Lucy, which makes it all the more ironic considering the fact she at the very least is badly wounded afterwards, if not killed) are exploring the Colosseum to retrieve the Apple of Eden, they repeatedly remark how "It's nearly over", "We've finally found it", "We're so close", "What will we do next" etc etc, which, to the perceptive player who picks up on this constant need to mention such things, creates a sense of foreboding. Talk about counting your chickens before they've hatched.
- Throughout the game (while playing as Ezio), you can make areas safe for travel and unlock merchants by assassinating the guard captain in charge and burning the guard tower. One such captain is busy lecturing his men about how to watch for and survive Assassins and that he has great experience with them.
- Also done at the beginning of Assassin's Creed II. It is a generally heartwarming moment, but also a bit unsettling because of this very trope.
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Frederico: It is a good life we lead, brother. |
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- Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Waelda elder Laurel mentions a machine in Belinsk (The Alchemy Dynamo) and how Matthew and his lot must never activate it. She demonstrates some genre savviness and refuses to tell the party how to turn it on when asked, but Ryu Kou already knows how, and gets pushed into it anyway. Goddamnit.
- In Dead Space 2, you're on a tram on your way to the bridge of the old Ishimura to activate the gravity tethers. Ellie tells you that the necromorphs are swarming in through a hole in the Medical Deck, but at least you won't have to go through there.
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Tram computer: Unexpected obstruction ahead. Shutting down. Welcome to the Medical Deck. |
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- In BioShock, this audio diary from one of Cohen's disciples, that you find after you have to kill him, ends thus:
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RODRIGUEZ: I'm through with the whole piñata. Let's see that old fruit [Cohen] try an' keep me here... |
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- In Dragon Age II, Sarcastic!Hawke LOVES doing this. And Varric, being the narrator and Genre Savvy, hates it when he does.
- In Saints Row 3, pedestrians may shout "You can't kill me!" at the protagonist as he/she drives by packing various shotguns, machine guns, electric grenades and a remote control for UAV-delivered smartbombs. In the prequel, drivers could occasionally be heard saying "This car ain't got a scratch".
- Warhammer 40000 Space Marine - Orks have a bad habit of shouting "It takes more than that to kill an Ork!", or worse, "Go ahead! Shoot me again!" while you are actively shooting them.
- Made even funnier when they shout "It takes more than that to kill an Ork!" when you hit them with a plasma pistol overcharge shot...
- In BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma, while its canon status may be questionable, Hazama must be asking for it during the end of Makoto's Arcade Mode. Just listen to the dialogue - he must really have been desperate for trolling ammunition, as half the things he said have, with her intellect, the potential to come back to haunt him.
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Makoto: Does screwing with peoples' lives get you off that much?! |
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- It gets much worse for him. During the events of Slight Hope, Hazama is the first opponent Makoto winds up fighting. While his plot armor protects him from the worst she has to offer, she gets right back up for another round, most likely so Jin can get out alive. He learns firsthand that she will go down fighting for the sake of the people she cares about. And this is all in the Wheel of Fortune timeline. Hazama is supposed to have Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory, and yet he comes up with the brilliant idea of sending Makoto to Ikaruga while he goes about merrily mindraping her two good friends Noel and Tsubaki. Not only does this end up triggering a Stable Time Loop, but in order to go to Wheel of Fortune, Makoto has to fall into the Cauldron at Ikaruga and jaunt through the Boundary. As a result, while she doesn't know what happened to Tsubaki, Hazama now has dead-set on ending his ass a squirrel who is smarter than she looks, highly resistant if not outright immune to the worst mindrape he has to offer, absurdly strong, nimble, and notoriously hard to kill. But fortunately for Hazama, Relius can take care of her.
- Bentley gets a case of this for "Operation Choo Choo" in Sly 2: Band of Thieves". For that, his RC copter had to fight Neyla's aircraft not once, but twice.
- In this Twitch clip featured on ✘ Top Perfectly Timed Twitch Moments 2017 #7, Valkyrae is playing Dark Souls, her character walking through a cave:
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Valkyrae: How many times do I have to mess up before I learn my lesson? I have fallen off of so many things. Like, it's not that hard, just don't fall off. |
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