History Main / AscendedFridgeHorror

* When Marle is temporarily removed from the timestream early in ''ChronoTrigger'', she's still alive and conscious in some sort of void. ''ChronoCross'' explores the implications of changing the timestream and condemning people to that void.
* In ''TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Link goes to the future and saves the almost post-apocalyptic world, then goes back in time to prevent the world from ever needing to be saved. Some fans theorized that that future world didn't cease to exist, it just continued on. Then came Wind Waker, which confirmed that theory, and revealed that the whole world was flooded because Link doesn't exist in that timeline.

->I think it's a testament to [[{{Pixar}} them]] that they went there, and they said "what is the story of the toys?" The authentic story is "well, what happens when your owner grows up?" That's a cycle-of-life thing and it's cool that they went there and tackled it.

* In {{Dollhouse}} we're introduced to the technology to reprogram people's memories and personalities, and it's being used provide rich people with high quality midwives and fantasy lovers. Why aren't the people with this technology using it for more ambitious and nefarious purposes? Halfway through the season we find out that they are.

* Ryan Matthews, a noted ''DirtyPair'' fanfic writer back in the [=USEnet=] days, took some of the UnfortunateImplications of Adam Warren's version of the series (for DarkHorseComics) to their logical, horrifying conclusions. A few years later, "Fatal, But Not Serious" officially confirmed many elements.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' does this with some of the FridgeHorror of the series. They introduced Team Plasma, an organization based on the idea that it's morally wrong for Trainers to even have Pokémon and that the interactions between them can never turn out well. The organization has two conflicting leaders -- N, who honestly believes in the organization's mantra, and [[spoiler:Ghetsis, who only preaches this to try and convince everyone else in the world to release their Pokémon so that he'll be the most powerful Trainer around]]. Guess which one has a {{Heel Face Turn}}, and which one's [[spoiler:the final boss]].

[[quoteright:350:[[VGCats http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tomjerry_6855.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:TomAndJerry; [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=207 The Lost Episodes]].]]

* [[{{Popeye}} "It's Tuesday, Wimpy!]] ''[[RobotChicken Where's me money?!?"]]''

* In ''VideoGames/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Link goes to the future and saves the almost post-apocalyptic world, then goes back in time to prevent the world from ever needing to be saved. Some fans theorized that that future world didn't cease to exist, it just continued on. Then came Wind Waker, which confirmed that theory, and revealed that the whole world was flooded because Link doesn't exist in that timeline.

* ''PokemonSpecial'' acknowledges and occasionally shows that the eponymous creatures are indeed capable of harming or killing others outside of sanctioned matches, humans included.

* ''PokemonBlackAndWhite'' does this with some of the FridgeHorror of the ''{{Pokemon}}'' series. They introduced Team Plasma, an organization based on the idea that it's morally wrong for Trainers to even have Pokemon and that the interactions between them can never turn out well. The organization has two conflicting leaders -- N, who honestly believes in the organization's mantra, and [[spoiler:Ghetsis, who only preaches this to try and convince everyone else in the world to release their Pokemon so that he'll be the most powerful Trainer around]]. Guess which one has a {{Heel Face Turn}}, and which one's [[spoiler:the final boss]].
** On the same note as ''[[PokemonSpecial Special]]'' listed above, ''PokemonColosseum'' and ''XD'' let the [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom Donphan]] out to play with Cipher attacking trainers that try to obstruct their operations. The ''[[SaharanShipwreck S.S. Libra]]'' is the biggest case, with its human crew lost at sea after [=XD001=] takes their ship away.

* ''[[Series/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic SatAM]]'' did this with the concept of [[BigBad Robotnik]] [[UnwillingRoboticization turning innocent creatures into evil robots]]. The prior video games did not explore the process of roboticization in much depth, other than implying that the robots were more like mecha being piloted by a brainwashed animal (hence why a random critter pops out of one and runs away when a Badnik is smashed) while ''AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' -- the other animated series, broadcast at the same time as ''[=SatAM=]'' -- sidesteps the issue by having Robotnik build the robots from [[StealthPun scratch]]. ''[[Series/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic SatAM]]'', on the other hand, thoroughly explores the BodyHorror and loss of identity implicit in the robotic transformations.
** Not to mention the fact that Uncle Chuck stated that roboticized people '''''[[AndIMustScream actually know what they are doing, but cannot do anything about it]]'''''.

* The ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E10SecretOfMyExcess "Secret Of My Excess"]] applies ascended fridge horror to the implications of a dragon living in a pony community, even though most other episodes before it stepped around it.

* The ''WsternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E10SecretOfMyExcess "Secret Of My Excess"]] applies ascended fridge horror to the implications of a dragon living in a pony community, even though most other episodes before it stepped around it.

* The ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E10SecretOfMyExcess "Secret Of My Excess"]] applies ascended fridge horror to the implications of a dragon living in a pony community, even though most other episodes before it stepped around it.

* The ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E10SecretOfMyExcess Secret Of My Excess]] applies ascended fridge horror to the implications of a dragon living in a pony community, even though most other episodes before it stepped around it.

* TheVentureBrothers explore the dark idea of how messed up a boy adventurer would grow up to be and verbally expresses it through Rusty's despair of the gloomy future that awaits his boys only because with the Venture name.

* In [[Television/Dollhouse]] we're introduced to the technology to reprogram people's memories and personalities, and it's being used provide rich people with high quality midwives and fantasy lovers. Why aren't the people with this technology using it for more ambitious and nefarious purposes? Halfway through the season we find out that they are.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* The Japanese sequel of ''IllusionOfGaia'' (it's been translated), known as ''{{Terranigma}}'', starts out at a strange town in the middle of a desolate world filled with floating blue bubbles called Crystal Blue. It is said by the town chief that "Crystal Blue is the tears of the outside world." You also get a staff which absorbs these, to restore your life. But after rebuilding the outside world, it leads to the view that in fact, these "tears" are the dead of the outside world, and that staff was eating their souls. Upon returning at the end of the game, the townsfolk turn out to be spirits (except for the chief), and Crystal Blue looks a bit different.

* HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw liked to play around with some of the implications of various Hanna Barbera cartoons, the one most following this trope being that the Jetsons really do live above a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

* ''[[Series/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic SatAM]]'' did this with the concept of [[BigBad Robotnik]] [[UnwillingRoboticization turning innocent creatures into evil robots]]. The prior video games did not explore the process of roboticization in much depth, while ''AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' -- the other animated series, broadcast at the same time as ''[=SatAM=]'' -- sidesteps the issue by having Robotnik build the robots from [[StealthPun scratch]]. ''[[Series/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic SatAM]]'', on the other hand, thoroughly explores the BodyHorror and loss of identity implicit in the robotic transformations.

* ''TheBraveLittleToaster'' put a [[{{Deconstruction}} very cynical]] spin on the idea of anthropomorphic appliances and electronics: Like Toy Story 3, the plot kicked off with the main characters believing that they had been abandoned by their owner, introduces newer appliances which threaten their coveted favorite status, and delivers a truly horrific climax where, [[spoiler: like Toy Story 3's incinerator scene, the appliances (and their master) are dumped into a junkyard, thrown onto a conveyor belt by a psychopathic magnet, and almost crushed to death.]]
* ''{{Cars}} 2'', by calling attention to the darker implications of [[spoiler:Mater's]] prior ButtMonkey status, turns him into TheWoobie.

* The Japanese sequel of ''Illusion of Gaia'' (it's been translated), known as ''Terranigma'', starts out at a strange town in the middle of a desolate world filled with floating blue bubbles called Crystal Blue. It is said by the town chief that "Crystal Blue is the tears of the outside world." You also get a staff which absorbs these, to restore your life. But after rebuilding the outside world, it leads to the view that in fact, these "tears" are the dead of the outside world, and that staff was eating their souls. Upon returning at the end of the game, the townsfolk turn out to be spirits (except for the chief), and Crystal Blue looks a bit different.