History Fridge / FanWorks

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/{{Bubbles}}'': Derpy's disability being [[AmbiguousDisorder undefined]] makes sense when one realises that it's set in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' universe, in which magic exists. Perhaps, she doesn't even have a real-world disability, but rather a FictionalDisability. Another possibility is that she has [[https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=neonatal-abstinence-syndrome-90-P02387 neonatal abstinence syndrome]], since it's mentioned that her mother takes pills to stop crying. While these could be antidepressants, it could also mean that Derpy's mother is a JunkieParent.

* In a ForWantOfANail fanfic, ''A Mother's Love'' by [=lordofthelandoffire=], Kushina is enraged after awakening from a coma to find that Sarutobi publicly denied Kushina's marriage to Minato feeling it would protect Naruto, thus making her Minato's mistress/whore and making Naruto his bastard son. Some people have wondered why Kushina is so angered by this, deciding it had to do with losing the Namikaze clan compound and money. But if you look at it from a Japanese perspective, where family and heritage are very important, it makes sense. Hell, a major plot point with Chouji involved a flashback of his father telling him about how they could trace their family back 16+ generations, not to mention Sasuke's entire motivation involves avenging the Uchiha clan, including the man who murdered them after finding out he was ordered to. So what Sarutobi essentially did was steal Naruto's Namikaze heritage, which Kushina would see as being especially terrible due to the fact her own clan had been destroyed, and now Naruto was losing his by the order of a man she considered a friend.

** ''Fanfic/InYourWildestDreams'': The explanation that Jaune's Semblance is evolving at such a rapid rate because it experiences eight hours of use straight on a daily basis, causing it to overdevelop, brings up the question of why other Semblances that are likewise constantly active -- namely Qrow's -- don't rapid-evolve for the same reasons that they're in constant use. However, Qrow's Semblance is bad luck, which affects ''him'' as much as anyone in his immediate vicinity: Qrow's Semblance failing to evolve into something more useful is basically ''bad luck'' for him, causing his Semblance's effect to turn inward on itself.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/ArcRoyale'': Salem, during the scenes where she appears personally, seems more visibly angry and short-tempered than her appearances in both canon and most of Creator/CoeurAlAran[='s=] other works. Considering how she's thousands of years old with CompleteImmortality, and therefore perfectly used to playing the long game in her and Ozma's eternal war when she needs to, it's easy to imagine that with the Brother Gods having changed the game by introducing the Jaune iterations, Salem during the fic is feeling overwhelmingly stressed and pressured now that her aforementioned temporal advantage has been abruptly taken away from her and she's unexpectedly on an extremely (by her standards) narrow deadline to win or lose the war altogether by ensuring it's a Jaune on ''her'' side that's the last one standing. Getting too used to working in one's own time and having all the time in the world can be a handicap in its own right, and when one loses that freedom, they feel stressed and pressured.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/ArcRoyale'': Salem, during the scenes where she appears personally, seems more visibly angry and short-tempered than her appearances in canon, and in some of Creator/CoeurAlAran[='s=] other works. Considering how she's thousands of years old with CompleteImmortality, and therefore perfectly used to playing the long game in her and Ozma's eternal war when she needs to, it's easy to imagine that with the Brother Gods having changed the game by introducing the Jaune iterations, Salem during the fic is feeling overwhelmingly stressed and pressured now that her aforementioned temporal advantage has been abruptly taken away from her and she's on an extremely (by immortal standards) narrow deadline to win or lose the war altogether by ensuring it's a Jaune on ''her'' side that's the last one standing. Getting too used to working in one's own time and having all the time in the world can be a handicap in its own right, and when one loses that freedom, they feel stressed and pressured.

* After reading most of Peter Chimeara's works as well as ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'', I've come to realize that even horrible fiction can be deep and meaningful upon drunken nights and deep consideration. ''Fanfic/DoomRepercussionsOfEvil'', itself a parody of twist-heavy pretentious faux-deep fiction, has deep insight into the motives and drive of the human race. Don't get me started on analogues to racism. Then there's ''Batman: Nemesis Fight'', which if played straight and filmed, would be BY FAR the best Batman movie ever made. Why does Robin leave batman? Because Batman has broken his own rules after losing everything. Ergo, Robin loses the will to fight. Regarding My Immortal, Tara Gilesbie creates a fictional world so completely bizarre and surreal that it's hard to call it anything but original. Put simply, gay vampire witch goffs go to a magic school, split on ''West Side Story''-style grounds.
** One might argue that Creator/AgentMatt's works are the same way. For anybody who's read his fanfics regarding ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretShow'', you might've noticed that all of them revolve around the popular OneTruePairing of the show. Well, that's because they're supposed to be StealthParodies of fanfics that pervert the characters to fit the narrative of said pairing being soulmates forever and ever. (For example, "Anita's Birthday Gift" and "Sneaky Agent" both have plots where Alphonse has been given the RonTheDeathEater treatment to manipulate the readers into rooting for Victor, who is by and large a {{Possession|Sue}} RelationshipSue.)
* At first, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c5390IS5Po&feature=channel One Of These Dispensers Is Not Like The Others]], it's just a gag video, which it is, but then, one of the comments points out one thing:
--> [[spoiler: Engineer has a 6th sense when it comes to things he built. After all, he solves practical problems.]]

* Watching WebVideo/AMVHell 5, I was amused by the pairing of ''{{Manga/Gantz}}'' with the song Singing in the Rain, thinking it a matter of LyricalDissonance of a lighthearted song paired with violence. Then I remembered ''Film/AClockworkOrange''...
* After reading Chapter 23 of ''Kyo Kara Maoh'' fanfic ''Whispers from the Rye'', when Wolfram [[spoiler:and Yuuri finally have sex]], Yuuri remarks that Wolfram is "so quiet." At first, I didn't think anything of it, until I realized that Wolfram is afraid that Yuuri will remember he's a boy and be disgusted all over again.
* The Spike/Xander fic ''Nothing The Same'' features the premise that the change to the series occurs when Xander doesn't handle Jessie's death as well as he did in the series, and everything changes. However, when Spike comes to Sunnydale, Drucilla is already dead. At first, I thought, as the author personally claimed, that Drucilla had just been ruthlessly killed off to better arrange the pairing. Than I read the bits about Drucilla's prophecies about Spike's destiny and the "wounded kitten" he was to care for. Not to mention musings on how Drucilla and a court of other vampires never did mix well, it dawned on me that Dru probably let go of her will to continue so Spike could go be Master of the Hellmouth with Xander at his side!
* According to Nounai Kanojo's Touhou-related doujins, Cirno knows more about sex than Marisa. Cirno is over 60 years old compared to Marisa whose in her teens.
* This can occur quite a lot in ''Hetalia Axis Powers'' AU fanfiction. They'll be the obvious relations there, but sometimes you look back at a situation and realise that the author has written the entire base outline of [=WW2=] in the form of a soccer game.
* The ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' fanfic "Eyes of the Cat" is known for a few things - but two of those things are a lot of filler chapters, and having one of the only likable Original Characters in all of fanfiction - the second is because Kyo and the OC mesh well together (and, thankfully, purely in a platonic sense). Its only if you reread the fanfic from the beginning, and read it all the way through in one sitting that you realize those filler chapters are designed solely to alter Kyo's character in a believable way. Each of those chapters describes events which, on their own, are humorous but plotless; its only when read together that you realize you are actually watching Kyo's character evolve and change in a realistic fashion because of those events while still keeping the main attributes of his original character.

* A Franchise/HarryPotter[=/=]Manga/RurouniKenshin crossover fic, [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2737703/1/RuroKen_and_the_Philosophers_Stone RuroKen and the Philosophers Stone]] had Dumbledore talk to Hiko about letting his apprentice Kenshin go to Hogwarts (and that it would be dangerous if he remain untrained in regards to magic). Later, Kenshin (unaware of the 'danger' part) wonders how a headmaster has time to go out of his way to do that, figuring he has to be a busy guy. Then I remembered that not even Harry was personally seen to by Dumbledore before he went off the school, hinting at something a little more worrisome than what's being let on.
* There was a Literature/HarryPotter fanfic (sadly, now deleted) in which the main character used a Time-Turner to go back and change history, sacrificing her life so that another would live. I wasn't happy about this at the time, because in HP canon we are told that Time-Turners cannot be used that way; the version of TimeTravel they use always creates StableTimeLoop and those who tried to alter things often get themselves killed. It wasn't upon re-reading that I recognized the FridgeBrilliance: the character got herself killed when trying to change history. So, yes, it was an actually canon-compliant use of TimeTravel.
* It took me reading [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5169753/21/The_Trouble_with_Weather The Trouble with Weather]] (an [[AlternateUniverse AU]] ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'' fic) about three times before I had a moment of FridgeBrilliance. In chapter twenty-one, Ororo tells Logan that humans had put her in a cage; Logan then wonders if there was some kind of hidden meaning or test in what she'd said, since her expression to his reaction is described as "disappointment," and "her eyes had been searching" as she'd told him about being in a cage. Here's where the FridgeBrilliance kicks in: in the very next chapter, Logan has a dream/flashback of rescuing an eight-year-old Ororo from a cage, and it's revealed later in the fic that Ororo hadn't forgotten that incident. Ororo was hoping that Logan would've remembered it, too!
* In a ForWantOfANail fanfic, ''A Mother's Love'' by [=lordofthelandoffire=], Kushina is enraged after awakening from a coma to find that Sarutobi publicly denied Kushina's marriage to Minato feeling it would protect Naruto, thus making her Minato's mistress/whore and making Naruto his bastard son. Some people have wondered why Kushina is so angered by this, deciding it had to do with losing the Namikaze clan compound and money. But if you look at it from a Japanese perspective, where family and heritage are very important, it makes sense. Hell, a major plot point with Chouji involved a flashback of his father telling him about how they could trace their family back 16+ generations, not to mention Sasuke's entire motivation involves avenging the Uchiha clan, including the man who murdered them after finding out he was ordered to. So what Sarutobi essentially did was steal Naruto's Namikaze heritage, which Kushina would see as being especially terrible due to the fact her own clan had been destroyed, and now Naruto was losing his by the order of a man she considered a friend.
* In the ''Franchise/TouhouProject''/''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'' crossover, ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8862808/1/Monsters-In-Paradise Monsters in Paradise]]'', Skarmory is able to NoSell Flandre's attack. The reason: his ability is Sturdy, it negates one-hit [=KOs=].

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9129362/1/Forever-Yours Forever Yours]] Morgan is Robin's illegitimate child fathered by Chrom, who is in the fic married to Sumia. As a result this Morgan is born two years earlier. I didn't see the reason why Morgan had to be born earlier besides for the reasons of drama, when it hit me: Morgan as Chrom's son would inherit the Rightful King skill. Since Ylisse seems to follow a primogeniture line of inheritance Morgan, while illegitimate, has a more rightful claim to the throne than his half-sister and Chrom's legitimate daughter [[spoiler: Lucina.]]
** A smaller element is when Robin gives the toddler Morgan her locket, which was given to her by Chrom, to remember her by in case she doesn't come back when she rejoins the Shepherds. Morgan, unlike the other children, did not have a ring to prove his paternity and since Robin is unmarried he would need another sort of identifier of his parentage.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11157943/1/ I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For]]'', Harry Potter once listed his age on a form as "Do you mean physically, mentally, or existentially?". For several chapters, it's considered just another sign that he's a {{Troll}} (which he really is). But once his history comes to light, it's revealed that Harry stopped aging in his twenties, was born roughly 1700 years ago, and an accident with several Time Turners flung him 200 years into the future, making it a valid question. He's physically around 25, and has experienced 1,500, and was born 1,700 years ago.
* Back before I became a co-author of ''Fanfic/SomethingNew'', an earlier version of this story had a scene where Scout's mother was described as blushing despite my headcanon suggesting that she's in her late 50s. Once I came to the point where she revealed that [[spoiler: she's pregnant again]] and did some research, it hit me. She might've actually [[spoiler:conceived naturally thanks to being on hormone replacement therapy (HRT)]]; it's remarkably similar to the case of Dawn Brooke, a British woman who was 59 years old when she gave birth by way of C-section in 1997.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' fanfic, ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12521014/1/The-Who-s-On-First The Who's on First]]'', Luan is taking a nap despite usually being energetic. What's with that? Well, in the ''Listen Out Loud'' podcast, Luan [[SleepDeprivation is tired because]] Luna had been yelling, "Stage dive!" in her sleep. Maybe that happened again.
* ''Fanfic/{{Bubbles}}'': Derpy's disability being [[AmbiguousDisorder undefined]] makes sense when one realises that it's set in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' universe, in which magic exists. Perhaps, she doesn't even have a real-world disability, but rather a FictionalDisability. Another possibility is that she has [[https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=neonatal-abstinence-syndrome-90-P02387 neonatal abstinence syndrome]], since it's mentioned that her mother takes pills to stop crying. While these could be antidepressants, it could also mean that Derpy's mother is a JunkieParent.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' fanfic ''[[https://theloudhousefanon.fandom.com/wiki/Where_There%27s_a_Will Where There's a Will]]'' has a few hints early on that [[spoiler:the story is AllJustADream]]:

* ''The Edgy House'' (covered on After Dark: 4 in ''Fanfic/PeekingThroughTheFourthWall''), characters are able to have sex five times a day, Lynn Sr. somehow convinced ''Rita'' that an affair kid was hers instead of vice versa, and Lori manages to give birth to twins at age eleven. [[spoiler:These make more sense after the reveal, that this was all just TheAristocrats joke and thus not real, and it was written by a preteen boy to boot.]]
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12751705/1/A-Christmas-Carol-Ghostbusters-version A Christmas Carol: Ghostbusters Version]]'' is a FusionFic that puts the cast of ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' into the cast of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol''. Some of the casting choices have fridge brilliance:
** Peter Venkman as Bob Cratchit makes sense because Bob Cratchit is married, and Peter is the only Ghostbuster with a love interest (namely Dana).
** Ray Stantz as the Ghost of Christmas Present has two things -- first off, the Ghost of Christmas Present is described as fat, and while Ray isn't fat, he's a little chubbier than the others. Secondly, the Ghost of Christmas Present is also described as cheerful, which Ray is.
** Egon Spengler as the Ghost of Christmas Future/Yet to Come -- both of them are the most serious of their group, and both speak the least (though, unlike the Ghost of Christmas Future, Egon actually ''does'' speak).

** I've noticed that a lot of Doctor Who fanfics seem to employ this trope in order to deal with the... Inconsistencies in canon. A good example is [[http://trolllogicfics.livejournal.com/25602.html Light Bending Backwards]] in which they theorise that [[spoiler: Jack is the thirteenth, and final, incarnation of the Doctor]]. Seems improbable, but they use this trope to make it work.

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon''