History Main / DoubleSubversion

[[caption-width-right:249:[[https://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=378 VG Cats double subverts]] WelcomeToTheBigCity.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'' does this with [[spoiler:AIIsACrapshoot. Bob is hired to take out a KillerRobot called the Omnidroid which was highly intelligent and could adapt to and defeat tactics used against it. He was told that the robot had gotten "smart enough that it wondered why it had to take orders". However, it was a lie. The Omnidroid was under the control of the villain Syndrome the whole time, and the whole point of the venture was to either kill Bob or get information from Bob's defeat of the Omnidroid to improve the next version, in preparation for an ultimate version which would be part of Syndrome's plan to set himself up as a hero. The plan was that the Omnidroid would serve as a villain, and Syndrome would show up and defeat it using a remote control. However, [[DidntThinkThisThrough Syndrome neglected to consider the implications]] of the Omnidroid's extremely thorough combat programming. The Omnidroid figured out that Syndrome was using a remote control to fight it, and acted to defeat that tactic and beat Syndrome.]]

* Happens twice during the pilot episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}''. Mystery writer Richard Castle is informed that, in RealLife police investigations, fingerprint matches can take up to a week to get done, and the most likely suspect usually ''is'' the person who did it. Castle than proceeds to sweet talk the mayor into giving their fingerprint search priority, getting it done in under an hour, and proves that the most likely suspect was actually framed.

* WesternAnimation/MenInBlack: In "The Star System Syndrome", something is doing in the alien actors of Hollywood. They believe it's the Space Demon, a washed-out actor who looks like the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', but he just wants to get another movie deal. It turns out to be the Astro Tots, the cute little hosts of a children's show. And then, it turns out the Astro Tots are ''exactly'' as harmless as they appear, and that rather than killing the missing victims, they were only using a teleportation device to imprison the other actors for setting a bad example.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManSuperfightingRobot'' double subverts LogicalWeakness. Despite what you think, Coal Barrage doesn't follow the logic of "fire burns trees", hence it's not Leaf Man's weakness. However, Trash Man is vulnerable because trash is often thrown into incinerators. Instead, Leaf Man is weak to Axe Man's weapon because sharp blades are used to cut plants and trees, and axes are the favored tools of lumberjacks.

** [[http://mariokidd319.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4qhzlt These]] [[http://mariokidd319.deviantart.com/art/Potion-Motion-286450776 two]] as well, which were made shortly after "Hearts and Hooves Day". In the first part, OC Kidder, who has a crush on Twilight Sparkle, appears to be getting her to making the potion from that episode. Then in the second part, it turns out he was making a potion that is supposed to [[FreakyFridayFlip switch the bodies of two ponies]], but the second subversion comes during the hints that [[ILied Kidder lied]] in his dialog in the next panel, where Kidder says "That's weird. Says there are some different versions of the potion and I made the north-south one.". Applejack asks what that means, and he says "Something about opposites. Let's try it!", as he has a mischievous expression on his face. What happened after all this, though, is anyone's guess, as [[AbortedArc the storyline ended after that]].

** One character manages to double-subvert HandicappedBadass, but the context is pretty spoilery. [[spoiler:Roy Mustang retains his ridiculously powerful flame alchemy following his encounter with Truth late in the manga, but he's blinded. People in FMA learn to work around potentially career-ending injuries all the time - Lan Fan, for example, masters an automail arm in a ''quarter'' of the time it takes most people - but Roy gets blinded in the immediate preamble to the final battle, meaning that he's TheLoad during said battle...until [[TheGunslinger Riza Hawkeye]], who's not really healthy enough to properly participate given that she nearly died of blood loss ''maybe'' an hour previously, starts serving as his "spotter".]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea|HourOfDarkness}}: [[UpdatedRerelease Afternoon of Darkness]]'' has Pleinair, originally just the Dark Assembly guide for that game, as a recruitable character, no sidequest needed, as soon as the tutorial is completed, setting up a use of DiscOneNuke. However, she's only recruitable in a NewGamePlus, which is the subversion...until you remember that you can see one of the endings in about half an hour by losing to Mid-Boss at the end of the first chapter (and if you don't [[LevelGrinding level grind]] at least a little, it's not all that hard to lose on that level). Hence the double subversion.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' double-subverts YankTheDogsChain. At the end of Adventure Comic #5, where ''ComicBook/SuperboyPrime'' admits that he hates what he has become and just wants a happy ending. Laurie Lemmon enters the basement and comforts him, telling him that they are sorry for what they did to him and are going to leave him alone—"they" being previously mentioned as being the writers at DC Comics. As they embrace, a Black Lantern ring is shown on Laurie's hand that detects the hope within Prime's heart, implying she is really a Black Lantern and is manipulating him into feeling hope before she kills him. However, when Superboy-Prime is accidentally transported back to New Earth, a flashback shows him reconnecting with Laurie Lemmon and his parents, implying she is the real Laurie Lemmon and they are happy together. Sadly for Prime, he is separated from his loved ones again. He blames the Teen Titans and battles them. When he loses, they imprison him within the Source Wall.

** Rentarou double subverts ObliviousToLove. Rentarou is extraordinarily perceptive to his girlfriends' feelings and unspoken concerns, and even the love in outside relationships or fiction. But any time his girlfriends have an intimate moment with each other (typically [[ThreesomeSubtext Hakari and Karane]], but occasionally even with [[DepravedBisexual Hahari]]'s antics), he attributes it to their just being good friends and fails to see the romantic subtext. Perhaps a more accurate description would be Oblivious to ''Lust''.

* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': In chapter 74, Kusuri invites Rentarou to her home to meet her parents. [[spoiler:Rentarou’s harem at this point includes [[AbsurdlyYouthfulMother Hahari]] and [[KissingCousins Chiyo]], and so he expects Kusuri’s mother to be his next girlfriend... but she isn’t. Then at the end of the chapter, Kusuri’s grandmother comes home and—'''''[[LoveAtFirstSight ZING!!]]''''']]

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': It looks like the FemmeFatale Carol is giving Akira MarshmallowHell, but due to her wearing PoweredArmor, his face is just being ground against metal, so Carol lets go. Just when Akira thinks he’s safe, Carol unzips her suit and shoves his head between her bare breasts.

* WesternAnimation/MenInBlack: In "The Star System Syndrome", something is doing in the alien actors of Hollywood. They believe it's the Space Demon, a washed-out actor who looks like the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', but he just wants to get another movie deal. It turns out to be the Astro Tots, the cute little hosts of a children's show. And then, it turns out the Astro Tots are ''exactly'' as harmless as they appear and that they only trapped the other actors for setting a bad example.

** The show double subverts a joke about PrisonRape:

** The show's treatment of RememberTheNewGuy falls into this territory. The season two episode [[Recap/RickAndMortyS2E4TotalRickall Total Rickall]] [[JustifiedTrope Justifies]] it with the introduction of telepathic parasites who implant false memories of new people into the host's brains, causing scores of new characters to pop up only for the family to treat them as old friends. Eventually, Morty figures out how to tell the real memories from the fake ones, and he and his family wipe out the parasites. Unfortunately for poor Mr. Poopybutthole, he turned out to be a Double Subversion by playing the trope completely straight: he wasn't a parasite, but a new character whom the rest of the cast had apparently known the whole time.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Here Comes the Neighborhood" where many extremely rich black people were moving into South Park Mr. Garrison exclaims that "their kind" are taking over the place. When one asks what he means, he states because they are "'''rich'''". Garrison then convinces the town's whites to engage in anti-rich people protests that obliviously resemble traditional racist tropes (ie; dressing up in white sheets and hoods on the grounds that these are spooky "ghost" costumes that will scare the rich folk away). However at the end, after all the rich people are successfully driven of Town, Mr. Garrison exclaims they can now sell the empty houses and become rich. When it is pointed out to him that doing so will make them the same as the people they just drove out, Mr. Garrison replies, "at least we got rid of those damn [[CurseCutShort nig-]]''([[SmashToBlack interrupted by credits]])''".

* The 2005 film ''Film/{{Bewitched}}'' presents itself as an example of RecursiveCanon: Hollywood has decided to make a reboot of the original [[Series/{{Bewitched}} 1960's TV series]], and Isabel, the actress hired to play Samantha, just happens to be a witch in real life, with identical powers to Samantha. However, as the film continues, the boundaries between the original show, the rebooted show and reality begin to disappear: relatives of Isabel start popping in, [[{{Expy}} identical to their show-counterparts in appearance, personality]] and even their ''names''. The actress playing Endora in the Reboot turns out to ''also'' be a witch (again, with powers identical to her character's), and begins a romance with Isabel's father. The film even ends with Isabel and Jack (the actor playing Darrin) getting married and moving into a house with an actual Gladys and Abner living across the street.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'', Anya is conned into posing as the long-lost Russian princess... and it turns out she really ''is'' the long-lost Russian princess.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles The Incredibles]]'' does this with [[spoiler:AIIsACrapshoot. Bob is hired to take out a KillerRobot called the Omnidroid which was highly intelligent and could adapt to and defeat tactics used against it. He was told that the robot had gotten "smart enough that it wondered why it had to take orders". However, it was a lie. The Omnidroid was under the control of the villain Syndrome the whole time, and the whole point of the venture was to either kill Bob or get information from Bob's defeat of the Omnidroid to improve the next version, in preparation for an ultimate version which would be part of Syndrome's plan to set himself up as a hero. The plan was that the Omnidroid would serve as a villain, and Syndrome would show up and defeat it using a remote control. However, [[DidntThinkThisThrough Syndrome neglected to consider the implications]] of the Omnidroid's extremely thorough combat programming. The Omnidroid figured out that Syndrome was using a remote control to fight it, and acted to defeat that tactic and beat Syndrome.]]

** [[http://mariokidd319.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4qhzlt These]] [[http://mariokidd319.deviantart.com/art/Potion-Motion-286450776 two]] as well, which were made shortly after ''Hearts And Hooves Day''. In the first part, OC Kidder, who has a crush on Twilight Sparkle, appears to be getting her to making the potion from that episode. Then in the second part, it turns out he was making a potion that is supposed to [[FreakyFridayFlip switch the bodies of two ponies]], but the second subversion comes during the hints that [[ILied Kidder lied]] in his dialog in the next panel, where Kidder says "That's weird. Says there are some different versions of the potion and I made the north-south one.". Applejack asks what that means, and he says "Something about opposites. Let's try it!", as he has a mischievous expression on his face. What happened after all this, though, is anyone's guess, as [[AbortedArc the storyline ended after that]].

* Done with DeathIsCheap in ''WebAnimation/MysteriousObjectSuperShow''. Usually in ObjectShows like this, there would be a thing where a character can be "recovered" if they have been killed previously, whenever or not it is through the power of another character (usually the host) or through special machines known as recovery centers. The contestants in ''MOSS'' originally had such center through the Recovery Box, a crank-powered box-shaped machine that can revive the dead. However, said recovery center ends up getting crashed into by an unconscious Gray and becomes broken. Fortunately, the person in question has recovery powers to revive dead contestants.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' has one episode where Spongebob tries to throw out an old krabby patty rather then sell it because it's gone bad. Mr Krabs tries to prove that it's still edible by taking a bite. There's an AmbulanceCut just before he takes a bite, followed by him remarking, "Oh look, an ambulance." He then takes a bite, and is shown in hospital.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' has one episode where Spongebob tries to throw out an old krabby paddy rather then sell it because it's gone bad. Mr Krabs tries to prove that it's still edible by taking a bite. There's an AmbulanceCut just before he takes a bite, followed by him remarking, "Oh look, an ambulance." He then takes a bite, and is shown in hospital.