History Main / AccidentallyCorrectWriting

* ''WebAnimation/PuffinForest'': Ben once played as Sauron in a ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' villain campaign. But after he chose Sauron, he realized that he had no idea what Sauron's personality and abilities were and had to make them up based on what on what little he did know. What he came up with (a blacksmith with the personality of a micromanaging CorruptCorporateExecutive) was actually surprisingly close to canon Sauron in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', [[RuleOfFunny if a bit goofier]].

If research not available at the time of the writing proves them right, that's a case of ScienceMarchesOn meeting this trope; if the work turns out prophetic, that's DatedHistory (and possibly HilariousInHindsight or HarsherInHindsight) meeting this trope. If the thing is ''made'' true in real life, see {{Defictionalization}}. If the theory would never have been accepted by researchers working in whatever field (e.g. Professor [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Abian Alexander Abian]]'s theory that we should blow up the moon to stop Typhus), it's just the writers fertilizing some EpilepticTrees. If the writer was just showing off an obscure fact that they know, that's ShownTheirWork. Compare RightForTheWrongReasons and GeniusBonus. For the same principle applied to tactics, see StrategySchmategy. Compare: AccidentalTruth, in which an in-story lie by a character turns out to be true after all, and TheCuckoolanderWasRight, for In-Universe examples of something similar.

* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' is set InsideAComputerSystem and has characters travel between video games in an arcade through the machines' power supply cords. One may think it unrealistic to transfer data through electrical wiring, but it is in fact possible and often very practical, especially in homes that don't carry a Wi-Fi signal well and aren't wired for Ethernet. Of course, it's still not the most practical way to link arcade machines that are literally right next to each other; any meaningful data link between arcade machines would far more likely take place over network cabling.

* The ''ComicBook/AgentsOfAtlas'' are all composed of [[UsefulNotes/TheFifties '50s]] superheroes, but one conspicuous absence is 3-D Man, part of the [[ComicBook/WhatIf '50s Avengers team]] that inspired the group's creation in real life. When discussing the roster in the introduction to the book's hardcover release, Creator/JeffParker said all the other characters were pulp archetypes, and 3-D Man wasn't, so they decided to [[PutOnABus to bench him for now]] (his chance would come in the miniseries titled simply 'Atlas'). But Parker's instincts turned out to be more accurate than he might have thought: 3-D Man really ''wasn't'' a character created during the fifties. [[RetCon That was only his gimmick, and he was created in the seventies.]] So he really shouldn't be part of a tribute to Atlas Comics, which is what Agents of Atlas was. So either Jeff Parker could just feel the non-50sness of 3-D Man in his bones just by looking at him, or Marvel is really, really keen on preserving {{Kayfabe}}[=.=]

* A very dark and uncomfortable coincidence: On July 25, 2007, an anonymous editor took to Wrestling/ChrisBenoit's Website/{{Wikipedia}} page to claim that Benoit had been struggling with difficulties due to "personal issues [...] stemming from the death of his wife Nancy." This was almost immediately un-edited due to being an unsourced rumor, but four hours following the edit, police discovered the bodies of Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy, and his son Daniel, the result of what they determined to have been a MurderSuicide over the course of the last three days (and in the following postmortem, Benoit had been suffering from severe brain damage and mental instability caused from wrestling-related injuries over his long career). [[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Chris_Benoit_mystery_editor_confesses:_claims_%22terrible_coincidence%22 The police were alerted to the Wikipedia edits and tracked down the editor via his IP address]], but he was let go after it was determined he had no involvement or ill intent -- he had simply reported on a rumor without checking for evidence and that it was all [[HarsherInHindsight a "terrible coincidence."]]

* A very dark and uncomfortable coincidence: On July 25, 2007, an anonymous editor took to Wrestling/ChrisBenoit's Website/Wikipedia page to claim that he'd been struggling with difficulties due to "personal issues [...] stemming from the death of his wife Nancy." This was almost immediately un-edited due to being an unsourced rumor, but four hours following the edit, police discovered the bodies of Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy, and his son Daniel, the result of what they determined to have been a MurderSuicide over the course of the last three days. [[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Chris_Benoit_mystery_editor_confesses:_claims_%22terrible_coincidence%22 The police were alerted to the Wikipedia edits and tracked down the editor via his IP address]], but he was let go after it was determined he had no involvement or ill intent -- he had simply reported on a rumor without checking for evidence and that it was all [[HarsherInHindsight a "terrible coincidence."]]

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Shortly after the flashback about [[spoiler: Corazon, Doflamingo's brother who wears a black version of his iconic pink coat,]] scientists discovered [[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150417-black-flamingo-cyprus-birds-genetics-animals-science/ this.]]

* There is a ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip where Calvin sneezes and then looks at the tissue and says "Uh-oh. I'm leaking brain lubricant." This is most likely just Calvin being an ignorant six-year-old, but cerebrospinal fluid -- the stuff that insulates your brain -- actually does sometimes leak out of your sinuses and come out when you sneeze. And there actually have been reported medical cases of people with chronic runny noses being discovered to be leaking cerebrospinal fluid through damage to the protective layers around the brain, which can happen on rare occasions from trauma such as a car accident.

* "The Freshmen" by The Verve Pipe includes the line "His girl took a week's worth of valium and slept" - the intended meaning is that she took a deliberate overdose and died, with "slept" being a euphemism. However, "a week's worth of valium" alone isn't likely to kill you, so in real life it would have probably been a BungledSuicide attempt where she really would just end up falling asleep.

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': Fizz is implied to be a LethalChef, who jokes about even finding a way to somehow burn a liquid. However, the liquid he chooses is milk - which, while it probably wouldn't actually catch fire, can definitely burn. Ozzy and Fizz are even shown to own an espresso machine, and as any barista can tell you, overheating milk on a steam wand is a very common - and very gross-tasting - mistake.

* Rajah, in ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', is a tiger who is the pet of a Middle Eastern princess. Tigers aren't found in the Middle East today, but the filmmakers probably didn't know is that an extinct subspecies of tiger, the Caspian tiger, actually did live far west as Turkey and Iraq.

** The ''Gastornis'' from the sequels don't appear to invoke the same CarnivoreConfusion among herbivores as other carnivores in the series do. Skip ahead several years and it's discovered that ''Gastornis'' was actually an herbivore.

* One Golden Age Franchise/{{Superman}} story, published before World War 2, had the villains using "atomic weapons" that could completely vaporize people, leaving only shadow-like outlines of their bodies on the ground and walls. A similar phenomenon was [[https://www.livescience.com/nuclear-bomb-wwii-shadows.html actually observed]] after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'':

* One ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' [[https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2007/01/04 strip]] has Guard Duck at a fancy restaurant ordering "chateaubriand, cooked medium well". In the commentary for that strip, Stephan Pastis admitted that he only used chateaubriand because it sounded fancy without knowing what it was, but he hoped it really was a type of food. It is -- it's a type of steak (more specifically, a thick slice from the center of the beef tenderloin). Guard Duck also orders "a glass of your finest pinot noir", which is in no way a bad wine pairing.
** Another example came from a strip where Rat was writing an Angry Bob story where Bob meets an MMA fighter named "Dangerous Dan", due to the context of Bob unknowingly cheating on Dan's wife, Pastis was quite regretful after learning there was a real UFC Fighter who went by that name.

* [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting/WebVideo Web Videos]]

* Averted: a newspaper crossword-puzzle editor was once briefly arrested for using the words "Overlord", "Utah", "Omaha", "Mulberry", and "Neptune" in a number of puzzles in the weeks leading up to D-Day.[[note]]"Mulberry" was the codename for the portable harbors that the Allies brought over until the port cities of Cherbourg and Le Havre could be taken and repaired enough to allow supply ships to dock, while "Neptune" was the codename for the actual D-Day landings on the Norman coast that established the beach head -- "Overlord" was the umbrella name for the entire operation, which lasted from June 6 until August 25.[[/note]] The same editor, Leonard Dawe, had previously been investigated for having put "Dieppe" as an answer -- on August 18, 1942, the day before the disastrous Allied raid on Dieppe was to launch. An investigation at the time could only conclude that it was a bizarre and astonishing coincidence. Only in the 1980s did the answer come out -- the crossword-puzzle editor was a teacher, and he used his students to collect odd words. One of those students had hung around military camps and bases enough to overhear the unusual words being spoken, and promptly turned them over.